Amateur birder

I am not a "birder", nor do I ever anticipate being one. However, I did grow up in (basically) Small Town, U.S.A., appreciate the outdoors, and know a fair amount of bird species. I loved living in a city, don't get me wrong, but I also stopped taking advantage of the fact that I lived in a city. So I have rather enjoyed the quiet of the Midwest. Although I work in a (small) city, I live a half hour drive out of the city (going 70+ mph so you do the math), and it is quiet. CF gave me a bird feeder for Christmas. The ground thawed, the feeder is up, and the birds have found it. I will have to resort to cheap birdseed at the rate they are eating it.

A mere 11 days ago, when there was still snow on the ground, I could have sworn the same four birds stopped by every morning. Maybe a week ago, I started seeing a mourning dove come around. Now we have all SORTS of birds. So thanks to my country upbringing, I have been able to tell what they are. I missed photographing the four red-winged blackbirds that were on the feeder earlier. I have seen red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, wrens,a female cardinal,a male cardinal (who showed up after the female tipped him off surely) who was joined by a house finch and wren,Ooooo...then the amazing set of pictures that I linked to throughout this post taught me that this is a dark-eyed junco. I tried to figure it out one day to no avail. I can sleep easy tonight now.Also, the squirrels around here are not normal. There are fox squirrels and black squirrels. What ever happened to red squirrels? I liked those more than gray ones even. There are probably hybrids too.

While I am on a wildlife kick, I should also mention the road kill around here. I mean, if I was into road kill stew or something, this would be heaven - deer galore, raccoons, beaver, a coyote once, possums, skunks, a weasely shaped thing that may have been an American marten, and other small unidentifiable rodents (well, at least when you are speeding down the highway).

Okay. I'm done now.