Red-bellied Woodpecker

A red-bellied woodpecker showed up today! 

This year, I was "complaining" that I have not seen any chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmice, or woodpeckers.  I did see a downy woodpecker last week and a nuthatch recently...and now a red-bellied woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus).  Nice.  

Tree Sparrow

I am not good with identifying sparrows...in the past, I have probably referred to this as a chipping sparrow, now, I believe it is an American tree sparrow.  To be fair, my Peterson's Guide referred to it as a "winter chipping sparrow" under the description.  Someone correct me if I'm wrong. :)

They are welcome, regular visitors to our feeders and to our property.

Goldfinches!

With mild weather at the end of 2017, I didn't start feeding the birds until November. By the time the weather had finally changed (and became brutally cold by the end of December), I was feeding regularly--mostly black oil sunflower seeds, but I also added a fruit and nut mix, some peanuts, and a nyjer seed sock.

Although, I saw bluejays, juncos, mourning doves, a white-throated sparrow or two, and a very occasional pair of cardinals, many other bird species were missing.  I hadn't seen any chickadees (normally the first to show up) since the fall...not a single tufted titmouse, no goldfinch, and until this past week, no downy woodpeckers.

This morning, brought a flock of goldfinches to our recently snow-covered ground. 

(We had 62 degrees yesterday...20 something today.)

...Oh, and I finally saw a nuthatch early this afternoon. :)

I enjoyed the new subject matter...with no further ado, I present the goldfinch:

A Colorful Spring

For a long while, I have been planning on posting about biodiversity--my plan has always been to photograph each wildflower as it comes into bloom each spring...and document the diversity of native wildflowers that I have added (or been lucky enough to find already growing on the property--these are few and far between...but they are here).  Instead, my first post about biodiversity will be reflected in a few bird species that really caught my eye this spring.

Growing up, aside from the more common feeder birds, I never had bluebirds or indigo buntings...and only a rare sighting of a Baltimore oriole (perhaps not even on our property).  Living in the country (and creating habitat) has given me the opportunity to see several species here that I was never lucky enough to see before.

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet...I've got close to a rainbow...all spotted this year:

Of course, the biodiversity doesn't end there...I have many others--many common, some never common to me.  With spring, the catbird returned, later, the Baltimore oriole--which has nested here for several years (perhaps as long as we've been here...but I've only noticed in the past few years).  I am pleased to have spotted a rose-breasted grossbeak again this year as well.

Hopefully, some day I will document all of the biodiversity of plants and animals that have visited...or even made a home here.  For now, I had to share my colorful spring birds.

Officially Back

The other day, I was thinking that the bluebirds had yet to make an appearance.  As always seems to happen this time of year, I begin to wonder if I will have a year without them nesting.  Luckily, they have nested in our yard since our first year here when I put up the nestboxes.  Not having seen them, I decided to open their favorite nestbox, half-heartedly hoping for a strand or two of grass...some sign that they might be around.  I was surprised and thrilled to see a partially built nest...at least half-way done, I'd say.

Still, I had yet to see them or get a photo.  Until today. :)

They are officially back!

Planning the Front Yard

Since moving in, I seem to have focused more of my energies and thoughts to the far reaches of the property and less near the house--I think mostly because we still need work done on the outside (soffit & fascia, gutters, paint job, and, hopefully, a covered porch one of these days).

Still, after neglecting it for far too long, I am longing to create more habitat and beauty out front.  I have added things through the years, but few and far between.  Over the years, my vision for the property has become clearer.  Lately, I am thinking about adding some small trees in front of the house--something that, originally, I was trying to avoid.  Lately, I find that I want something beautiful to look at when looking out the front windows.

Today, I began labeling what I already have added...and what I may want to add.  I will post this to Wildlife Gardeners as well...and hopefully get some suggestions for trees (small trees or large shrubs) that I wouldn't have come up with on my own.

This is an aerial shot from last year--mid-to-late summer, I would guess.

Seed Order

I finally placed my seed order with Ernst (third year in a row...as I try to establish my native meadow).

I purchased fewer species than last year--several things that I wanted were no longer in stock.  That is fine, because, as long as what I've sown over the past two or three years grows, I will have a source of more seeds to add in coming years.  Also, I purchased plugs last year (and plan to again this spring) from Archewild.

This year, I am growing my own plugs from seeds I collected from our yard and the roadside...using the leftover containers from the purchased plugs.  After this spring, I will have even more containers and more species to collect seeds from. :)  It is a slower process than I hoped (mainly because some of the sections I'd tried to smother were not ready to plant)...but, I am making headway. :)

The species I ended up ordering are little bluestem--Fort Indian Gap PA ecotype (I finally gave up on trying to grow something more local, since I have nothing to show for it (even though what I had winter sowed did germinate--I think I transplanted them too late in the season and had nothing to show for it last spring).

little bluestem Fort Indian Gap PA ecotype
autumn bentgrass PA ecotype
Baptisia australis PA ecotype
path rush  PA ecotype


Hmm...shorter list than I thought.  This was from memory--I'll now if I missed any when they arrive. ;)   I had 7 or 8 species picked out, but some of the flowers were out of stock...and I held off on one grass whose height ranged from 3-6ft.

To this, I have various seeds of my own--Penestemon digitalis, various asters, fox sedge, and who knows how many more that I can't recall.