Visitors

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Now, I'm not saying the fountain had anything to do with this, but I do have to wonder if the sound of water brought these guys in for a visit. Yesterday afternoon, we saw 2 new species of birds in our yard. Aaron, of course has seen them before, but we just hadn't caught a glimpse of them until yesterday. I noticed the female Grosbeak, seeing first the bold eye stripes. I knew immediately it wasn't one of the usual birds I see out in the front yard. It had a seed beak like cardinals, but what struck me was the large size of the eyes. After Monty got a good look, and checking our bird guide, we were sure. It pretty much hung out the rest of the afternoon, flying in and out at the sunflower feeders.


American Redstart

Right after seeing the Grosbeak, I began to see a small warbler like bird flitting quickly about in the top of the birch tree. I could tell it was eating insects by the way it was moving about from limb to limb, barely staying still long enough for us to get a good glance. We were patient and pretty soon both of us got a really nice view of it as it sat for a few seconds on a branch. A very pretty bird, the American Redstart showed off the beautiful yellow stripes on his tail along with his soft gray head. At one time, we had two out flying from birch tree to birch tree.



Our Ranch

And lastly, Trev cut the lower limbs off the bottom of the birch trees yesterday and boy does it look nice. You can now see through them, down the middle of the bird garden to the front porch stoop. He then cut the grass, and well, I have to say the Steed ranch looks pretty awesome.

It's beautiful today and I'm loving it!!