I had a lot on my mind yesterday, so I didn't get much done, including mowing the lawn. I'll have to get to that sometime soon. But I did notice something odd while I was eating lunch: woodpeckers at my bird feeder!

( It's always a bit weird to post my photos when so many of my friends are MUCH better photgraphers, but oh well... )

Yesterday was the family get-together day. ( Click here to read more )

I've always loved and appreciated living in my house, but I've grown even more attached to it lately. I do believe that if a future girlfriend or wife-to-be deemed my house too small or not fancy enough, I would have to kick her to the curb. Immediately. No amount of thought required.

Even on a rainy day, I still get to see a cardinal, two robins, and the freaking house sparrows. The more I learn about those, the less I like them. In fact, I consider their call annoying as of today. I'd like to find a way of driving them away, if that's possible, so that my back yard can be a haven for purple martins, tree sparrows, and bluebirds instead. Any suggestions?

[Edit: I bought an oriole nectar feeder later this morning and hung it up after spilling a bunch of it on my kitchen floor. Now I might be able to attract something new without attracting more house sparrows, and my kitchen floor is now sparkling clean, too. And I really need to focus on MT stuff the rest of the day now...]

Today I bought a (cheap) cedar bluebird house and a (cheap) plastic lantern-style bird feeder. (I really hadn't planned to buy both items today, but when I got such a good deal on the birdhouse at Planter's and found a feeder cheaper than the birdseed at Petsmart, I was all too happy to whip out my wallet a second time.) I mounted the birdhouse aboug 5' off the ground facing north, and I filled the feeder with the no-mess (shelled) seeds advertised as having the widest appeal. I had read that cardinals like oats, so I dumped out the last of my old-fashioned oats by the patio.

Then I stood by and watched. A couple of blue jays hung out in my yard for a bit, but they didn't seem to notice or care about the birdhouse or feeder. Some sort of pigeon or dove flew over by the patio, perhaps for the oats, and looked at the birdhouse and feeder before flying off the other way. A couple of cardinals flew around the trees dividing the property lines, but they didn't seem to care or notice any of the good stuff, either.

Am I overthinking this, or have I installed something incorrectly? Both are only a few feet from my house, and I suppose that could be part of the problem. I was hoping for bluebirds or barn swallows or tree swallows (they all like the same size house, apparently) most of all, since I've never seen those on my property. Based on what I'd read, the swallow varieties don't seem to mind close proximity to humans, so maybe I'm just being impatient. Or maybe it's unrealistic to expect such a wide variety of species here in the city limits, and important to consider that food is becoming more plentiful every day. I don't know.

I usually don't have this much time to gaze out my window and enjoy nature, but it has been nice to see that some of my favorite birds (blue jays and cardinals, especially) probably stop by most days, even if I'm not always lucky enough to be there to see them at that time.

I need at least one bird icon...

My taxes are done, a friend of the family's wedding present has been shipped, and my car is washed, but not yet vacuumed. As anyone can see, accomplishment wasn't my forte on this Friday.

I'm going to the Royals-Twins game next Saturday. It's Billy Butler powder blue jersey day, which is also the first day that the powder blue jerseys will be worn by the players in over a decade. I can't believe the Royals raised ticket prices by $5.00 per seat! There are new fees tacked onto online orders, too. They had BETTER be a winning team for that much more!

This weekend, I plan to chill and work on MT studies. Maybe I'll have a chance to get out. That would be nice, but with next weekend's plans in place, I'll be content to stay home if nothing comes up.

This is my second day in a row of sticking to a max of 100 dark chocolate calories. Moving the bag away from the sofa and into a cupboard has made all of the difference.

I had the pleasure of watching three different blue jays at various times in my back yard today. There were several other unusual birds today, but I generally did not get a very good look at them, as they hung out in the higher branches of my trees. I certainly heard a few calls today that I'd not heard before, and at that moment I couldn't even find the bird(s) making said calls. They were pretty, though.
( Click for a pic )
I need to do more research, but I'm probably going to get some sort of bird house or bird feeder and maybe a bird bath for my back yard. I'd like to attact bluebirds or cardinals or something a bit more exotic. Like I said, I haven't done the research yet since I just made up my mind to probably do this yesterday, and any recommendations or suggestions are welcome.

I saw a house finch trying to nest where the patio cover meets the house today. I'm fairly certain it was a house finch since I got several good looks at it.



Immediately before, there was a similar looking bird with light orange instead of rose highlights -- not orange enough to be an oriole of any sort.