Once in while we get to see an Eastern Towhee in our yard, but it doesn’t seem like it’s very often. We usually see it rummaging among the leaves or wood chips.
The Eastern Towhee is “a strikingly marked, oversized sparrow of the East, feathered in bold black and warm reddish-browns – if you can get a clear look at it. Eastern Towhees are birds of the undergrowth, where their rummaging makes far more noise than you would expect for their size.”
My Dad taught me the call of the Towhee when I was pretty little. I always remember him when I hear, “Drink your tea!” out in the woods.
You can see mom and dad Bluebird racing back and forth from our meal-worm feeder to the birdhouse to feed their little ones. They are so cute! Look at that little guy looking out the window. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
You can hear them chirping very loudly when they are hungry. This 2nd photo is of dad who just arrived with the meal worm in his beak as I tried to get a photograph. He’s definitely giving me the “evil eye.”
We drove out to Duck Harbor in Wellfleet to see if there was anything interesting going on and there, sitting on top of the tree, was a Kingbird. He was just beautiful! (Click on blog link for other photo.)
The Kingbird prefers semi-open or open areas. These birds wait on an exposed perch and then catch insects in flight. “The genus name, Tyrannus tyrannus, is the Latinword for ‘tyrant’, as these birds tend to defend their breeding territories aggressively, often chasing away much larger birds.”
We always put our jelly feeder with grape jelly out for the Baltimore Orioles and Catbirds this time of the year. But the past few days we have had this one Robin who has been eating nonstop, and the other birds were having a hard time getting their share. (Click on blog link for other photos. )
So Phil decided that we were going to declare “War on the Robins” and only put out a little bit of jelly in our smaller feeder. Then maybe everyone would get their fair share and the Robin wouldn’t be so piggy. I never knew that Robins would even eat jelly.
And then he looked up in the tree and there was this little baby Robin looking down at him waiting for mom to bring him some jelly. Well, that was the end of that war and the big feeder full of jelly is back out and they can eat what they want.
Such a cute little thing!
Cape Cod daily articles on the wonderful Cape Cod places to hike, experience and photograph. A Cape Cod Outdoor Adventure Series.
