Return to Raccoon

On Saturday, we returned to the wetland trail at Raccoon Creek park. It was quiet this time and we only encountered catbird fledglings, one warbler, two bluebirds and numerous Canada geese. The sound of bullfrogs frequently interrupted the silence. I had taken my camera along, but did not take many photos. The hot and humid weather (not to mention insects) soon diminished any idea of staking out birds.
At home, we are busy planting and watering flowers in our new native garden. It doesn't look like much right now, but we're hoping that the recent rain will spur on our seedlings to grow. We are still feeding birds and they are beginning to bring their fledglings to our feeder. They are as big as their parents and it is quite amusing to see such big birds begging for food. We are still seeing a male rose-breasted grosbeak and I hope it will stick around. If we could find a bird fountain, then we would be able to see our birds taking a refreshing bath on a hot summer's day. Oh well, we'll keep looking. Something will come up eventually.

A Trip to Raccoon Creek

For the first time this year, we headed to Raccoon Creek State Park yesterday. The weather was less than stellar - it was cool and very windy. I therefore left my camera at home and brought my binoculars instead. With such winds I would have been hard-pressed to find a branch that was still long enough to take a decent photo.
Because we're also interested in wildflowers, our first stop involved trilliums and other spring bloomers. On the wetland trail, we saw a Catbird, several warblers (one was probably a yellow warbler, the others were harder to identify), two Baltimore Orioles, countless robins, and a couple of bluebirds.
At home, I had some rarer sightings lately: a Northern Flicker and a White-crowned Sparrow. The Rose-breasted Grosbeaks are still around, too, and I've taken lots of photos of them. To provide some natural food for the birds this summer, we started another wildflower garden. May seems to be the busiest month of the year.

Cowbirds, oh my!

One of the problems with hanging up bird feeders is that you're also attracting less desirable creatures. At the moment, that would be cowbirds. For weeks now, they have descended on our feeders, eating everything in sight. Of course, the obvious solution would be to stop feeding birds. But then I wouldn't be able to see the rose-breasted grosbeaks that are hanging around lately. They are big eaters too, but at least they don't lay their eggs in other birds' nests. We are on our last bag of birdseed now and when that's gone, they're on their own for the summer.
We are planning on adding another small native garden where birds and insects will be able to find natural food sources. And we're trying to find a bird bath with flowing water, which is more difficult than we expected.
Last Saturday, we went to Sewickley Heights park hoping to see some warblers. We saw a few towhees and I commented that we had not seen any at home lately. Shortly after we returned home we looked out the window and there was a towhee. Ask and you shall receive.