Woody Found It!

Woody is a very smart bird. Not only did he return to the yard he nested in last year, he has discovered a hidden suet cage under a neat little bird house that Big Guy got for Big Lady at Christmas! It's been sitting full of suet most of the spring, and Big Lady changed it out with fresh suet the other day. The prinicple (if birds have principles, I'm not sure about that), is that suet-under-the-house is better for woodpeckers because, well, woodpeckers are the only birds that can get at it easily, rather than having to fight off grackles and starlings on the normal hanging suet.

Well, we weren't sure how Woody would discover this. Big Lady hung it a little closer to Woody's suet the other day with the bottom sort of tipped up, and voila! This morning, Woody found it.

Then Big Lady found the camera, and the rest is history!

Bunny's Back Too!

Well okay, it isn't the SAME bunny, but son-of-bunny 2008! He's so cute! At least, I would like to think he is cute, but I can't get at him! Big Guy and Big Lady have this chicken-wire fence that they've put around the shed, and I have smelled critters under there for about a week. Today, baby bunny shows up at the back of the shed by the apple mint, and just suns himself and watches me through the chickenwire!

He even let Big Lady and Big Guy shoot photos of him! Big Lady told me tonight she would be very, very disappointed if I ever caught bunny, so for now, I have to watch him through the chickenwire. I wonder if Big Lady and Big Guy realized when they blocked our chase-around-the-shed path with the chickenwire frame that they were actually framing in a bunny hutch!

I'm Back - It's Spring!

We knew it was spring, Patrick and I, when Woody showed back up. Big Guy and Big Lady have been keeping the bird feeders well stocked. We have cardinals, juncos, sparrows, even an occasional bluebird, although he has eluded Big Lady's camera. This weekend, Woody came back, and we are all so happy.

Woody, as you will remember from last spring, was a wee lad who came to the garden with his mum and clutched so precariously the rose trellis to get near the suet cages. He's all "growed up" now, and sporting his colors proudly!

We've also had an unexpected visitor in the cold and wet this weekend, right before a severe freeze on Saturday night. Big Lady supposes that perhaps he was blown off course, so she immediately put out some hummingbird juice to bolster his spirits. After resting overnight in one of our flower barrels nestled in some grass, he has taken off for parts unknown. He was definitely the first butterfly of the season, and reminded Big Lady to hop-tu-it and get all the hummingbird feeders out now that warm weather is upon us.

Finchley Station

I've never been to the real Finchley Station, but Big Guy tells me it is a little like what happened in our rose garden this morning. We had so many finches scrambling for thistle seed that it looked like rush hour. We counted at least 15 total that Big Lady could actually get into a single photo, although this one shows closer to 13, I think.

We like the finches. They are very yellow, even the females sometimes. Contrast this finch, taken this winter --

... with one taken this past week...

Anyhow, we like the finches. Patrick and I enjoy watching them from the front room window.