Easter Sunday Brings Chipping Sparrow and Spring!

White-throated sparrow (left) has yellow markings on its face that make this bird stand out. I think bird on right is a female house sparrow.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Photographing this moth at my porch light tonight starts my moth-hunting season, to see how many more moths I can add to the listing for Knox County, Ohio, on www.butterfliesandmoths.org.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Today, Easter Sunday, was spring to me.  I brought out the outdoor furniture and had my lunch outside with a glass of wine and was treated to many sights and sounds.  Most exciting for me was finally seeing the chipping sparrow return from the south.

I also saw my first cabbage white butterfly and my first big flock of bees and wasps of the season.  The bees and wasps were eating nectar from the flowers of an ornamental tree in my neighbor's yard.

I also saw a small bird, maybe a bluebird, check out a pileated woodpecker birdhouse, and a blackbird, probably a grackle or starling, seeming to have settled in a red-headed woodpecker birdhouse.

By nightfall, I was treated to the sight of the first moth of the season near our porch light.  Not as exciting, I saw my first house fly buzzing nearby.

Red-Winged Blackbirds Have Their Songs Down, But Not All Have Their Colors

The red-winged blackbird has the right colors to get the girls.  I photographed him, along with a starling (middle) and a blackbird I can't identify from the photo, on March 21, 2013 in the same maple tree where I saw a similar male today, next to a weaker colored male red-winged blackbird.  (Photo by Don Comis)

Well, the red-winged blackbirds are not only serenading me from a maple tree in my yard, above a platform feeder, but one of them has developed the deep red and strong yellow on his wing patch that assures him of getting the girls' attention.  The girls should all be here by March 9.

One of the two birds had no red and only a thin line of weak yellow.  I could identify with the fellow, remembering my high school days and how I felt comparing myself with the Big Men on Campus who had all the masculine qualities to attract the girls, down to five-o'clock shadow on their faces!

I bought a platform feeder that I placed on the ground near my robin's favorite feeding grounds and he's been using it, until some culprit--probably a raccoon--tipped it upside down.  I had placed it on concrete blocks, so tonight I placed it directly on the ground and will re-fill it tomorrow, when the raccoons are sleeping.

My neighbor's son, Steven, and I just about finished a red-headed woodpecker house for my yard tonight.  Now I just have to figure how to get it 12 feet off the ground--a little easier than the 20 feet goal for the pileated woodpecker house we built earlier and placed in a tree in his yard, temporarily only about 10 feet off the ground.

I'm looking forward to building bluebird houses--at 4 to 6 feet high, these feeders can easily be mounted on fence anchor posts, with no harm to me or trees!

If I can get us registered on time, Steven and I will go to Lowe's free birdhouse building workshop birdhouse building this Saturday and come away with a free Lowe's apron, a certificate and badge for birdhouse building, maybe some more skills--and definitely another birdhouse.

Maybe we'll even build legs for my robin's ground feeder!