Bird Frenzy

This morning I glanced out the window on the orchard side of the house.  The apple trees, as well as the sour cherry, still stood naked.  The sweet cherry tree had just a hint of green from recently expanded buds.  The raspberry canes not yet growing.

But, there was a definite bird frenzy going on.

There were the usual morning birds of Blue Jays, Robins, Mockingbirds, Mourning Doves and Red-bellied Woodpeckers flying from tree to tree, from tree to ground, from ground to tree.

Brown Thrasher...could be male or could be female

Suddenly, my eye caught a reddish-brown glimpse.  On closer inspection, I determined I was watching a Brown Thrasher. Seeing this bird is a rarity for me.  At first, he pecked around the grass.  Soon he wandered into a small bed which is filled with crape myrtle shrubs.  A friend was supposed to come over and dig those out two years ago to use to line her driveway.  She didn’t.  The ground was covered with a thick layer of browned leaves under these bare-branched shrubs.  And, that brown thrasher had the best time flicking up the dry leaves, even so much as flipping the leaves out from the bed onto the lawn. I assume he was looking for food and having fun to boot.

male Eastern Towhee

Soon, another rare species for me, an Eastern Towhee, joined in the leaf-flipping game.

male Northern Flicker

Then, two huge Northern Flickers joined the party.  One f licker had a small tiff with a woodpecker.  Both birds hovered about six inches above the ground verbally abusing and threatening the other with outstretched wings.  The red of the woodpecker’s head and the bright yellow of the underside of the flicker’s tail feathers were radiant.

male American Kestrel

I could not have watched a better show than the one I witnessed just outside my window.

I am coming back tomorrow, same time, just in case there is an encore.

And, for the proverbial ‘cherry on top’…an American Kestrel and Belted Kingfisher were part of today’s bird sightings. 

A bird frenzy, indeed!