Spring has sprung...

Spring has sprung

The grass has riz'

I wonder where

The Red Heads is?

Last Saturday marked the return of the rose-breasted grosbeaks to my feeders- a full week earlier than last year. I saw a male sitting on the deck railing early Saturday morning as Cory and I were getting ready to leave for the Columbus rally trials. I hated to leave and waste the bird watching opportunity! I did not see them again until yesterday morning.





Today is my half day, and I arrived home to find three males on my feeder. So far today they have been around all afternoon and I have had as many as five males and a female on the feeder at a time.
I think these are the coolest looking birds ever. To me they look like someone painted a heart on their chest with a red magic marker (the females are much plainer; brown streaked without the flashy black and white, and no red; doesn't it just figure? They are easily recognized though because they share that grosbeak, big bill. I guess that's where the name came from- gross, for "big", and beak!).

This is my view from my recliner in my living room. I couldn't catch all five at once, and the female took off just before I shot it.

Last year the red headed woodpeckers came back within a day or two of the grosbeaks, so surely they aren't too far behind...I saw on ebirds that someone has already reported seeing them at Boone Cliffs, so any day now they should show up demanding their banana chips!

I put up my hummingbird feeders yesterday and am anxiously waiting to see my hummers back as well...