Spring Travelers

Being outside is supper exciting this time of the year. New flowers, birds and butterflies are waiting to be discovered each day. The spring migration is about to peak and each day brings new songs and exciting new birds to join the birds already sharing my garden. This winter I had some one hundred and fifty American goldfinches in their drab winter plumage. Now I only have a few goldfinches but some of the males are in their bright yellow plumage with their cute little black berets. The remaining pine siskins are strongly streaked with yellow. The resident cardinals look really bright and fresh. Titmice and chickadees are already breeding. The chipping sparrows are also wearing new bright rust hats. My one white crowned sparrow is also looking newly crisp.

A week ago, I looked out and saw brilliant blue birds in the yard. A look through the binoculars showed a pair of male indigo buntings. The next day I had eleven of them and when I looked at that flock, I saw a small gaudy bird – yellow, green, red and blue. It was the painted bunting which breeds here in the Texas Hill Country. Soon there were two males here. Now the indigos are gone but I still have at least one of the impossibly colored painted buntings. A few days ago, I spotted a large bird attempting to feed at one of the hummer feeders. A quick look through the binoculars revealed a Baltimore Oriole flashing his dazzling gold and black colors. Yesterday I was blessed with a blue-headed vireo who I caught beating a caterpillar to death in an Arizona ash tree.

Other visitors have included many clay colored sparrows, field sparrows, summer tanagers, and a Nashville warbler. The first black-chinned hummers appeared March 7 and now they are so numerous that I have 6 feeders up for them and they are consuming two quarts of sugar water a day. A few ruby-throated hummers occasionally join them for a day or two. These hummers will not stay with me in the summer; they like a place that gets much more rainfall. The black chinned hummers, on the other hand stay here in hordes all summer, guzzling sugar water and visiting all my hummer flowers.

Gotta run – I’m hearing a new bird song in the back yard. Then I need to finish digging my prairie garden and get the sunflower seeds planted among the grasses.