Today has been an interesting bird day for us. On our way home from church we saw a Dickcissel singing. It was the funniest thing; we had never noticed how his head bobs up and down while he is singing his song.
Shortly after coming home, another Dickcissel made himself comfortable in the platform feeder. We had never saw such a thing before. (Last year, we had a curious juvenile Dickcissel check out our feeding area, but never ate anything. ) He gobbled up quite a bit before our first of the year Rose-breasted Grosbeak scared him off. It was the female. I've always thought our platform was big enough, but I guess not big enough for several House Finches, Chipping Sparrow, the Dickcissel, Grosbeak and House Sparrow all trying to get in at once. That platform feeder has been quite a source of activity lately. The current mix is safflower seeds, black oil sunflower seeds and peanuts out of the shell. We have at least one male Red-winged Blackbird who eats the peanuts we put in there. The Mourning Doves plunk themselves in the middle and don't let anyone else in, but for their mate. We enjoy watching them scare off the Grackles and House Sparrows. Brown Thrashers have also eaten from there. They also like the peanuts. Though not a first of the year, we saw an Eastern Kingbird in our yard today. A couple days ago, the Bobolinks arrived! Those with bad grass pollen allergies are going to attempt to suffer through the pollen season in hopes the Bobolinks will nest here. The last few years my husband called our neighbor to ask him to mow the hay early, usually the end of May. Finally, we saw our first of the year White-crowned Sparrow in the yard. I was beginning to wonder if we'd get them this year. The Clay-colored sparrows we had earlier this week, stayed only the one day. We wished they stayed longer; they were eating cabbage beetles. We did see this bird flitting among the trees. We think it is a Palm Warbler, but not absolutely certain. Can you tell me if we ID'ed this correctly? https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-nCjBuNjOjUo/T6bgtiezHCI/AAAAAAAACfc/pKA9k2CV-Ko/s700/palmmaybe.jpg Thank you so much. Kim Gerety Western Dallas County (rural) --- Please contribute your sightings to our list; it is only as good as members make it! --- Birding channel recommendation for FRS/GMRS radio use: Primary selection; channel 5/0 , alternate selection; channel 6/0 --- This mailing list is sponsored by the Iowa Ornithologists' Union. Membership available on-line at http://www.iowabirds.org/iou/PayDues.aspx. ----- You are currently subscribed to ia-bird as: [email protected]
