Hello, Cory here with another guest post.
In our lives, a common topic of conversation is pets. I’ve found that in almost all situations with all people, it’s good to talk about the animals we care about. Today I had a question from a work associate: “Do you and your wife have any furry friends?”
Unfortunately no. As much as we love dogs (and appreciate cats), it hasn’t made sense for us to have a pup of our own. So I responded, “no furry friends, but we do have feathered friends.” Really, we take care of (and pay attention to) our backyard birds. Since my job has transitioned to primarily working from my home office, I’ve only continued to grow the time I spend with our birds. I thought it would be fun to share some of the late-winter visitors to our neighborhood. This isn’t an exhaustive list, gotta have something to shoot for in the future!!
Varied thrush in the tree, gotta wonder what it thinks of the giant fish?
Oregon Junco, one of our most common bird visitors. often in loose groups of a dozen or so.
One of the woodpeckers we get. I’m not sure exactly what variety this is, but i think it’s a “hairy.” Gotta work on a more focused image.
Anna’s Hummingbird, male of the species - such a vibrant color.
Varied thrush up in the trees. We’ve seen as many as five in our yard at any time.
I still need to identify this guy, it’s got a pretty striking yellow head.
We’ve been feeding the birds for years, and I’ve finally started putting them to work. I’ve been working on growing good soil and have a hunch that the occasional scratching around is good for the soil ecology.
Oregon juncos are pretty widespread across our state. This one is hanging out in our honey locust. I think he looks nice against the neighbor’s bamboo. We see a ton of these birds up at one of our favorite trails on Mt Hood
Winter has been nearing its conclusion for this season. Seems possible that we won’t be getting any more freezing temperatures and many of our plants are budding new growth. Roses, lilacs, maple, and the blueberry to name a few. Thanks for reading, so I guess here’s my plug to pay attention to the feathered friends in your neighborhood!