I was working away on my Blog yesterday afternoon when something red caught my eye. I looked out into our backyard and saw this gorgeous Scarlet Tanager sitting on a branch in one of the trees. I have only seen one once before at Bushy Point in Connecticut many years ago and never here on Cape Cod.
I had my camera nearby so I clicked away. He was only here for a few moments and then he flew away.
What a wonderful treat to see in my own backyard! WOW! He’s gorgeous, don’t you think? Another one of those “was there at the right time, with camera nearby” moments!
We’ve been keeping count of how many different species of birds that we’ve seen in our backyard since we moved in a year ago… we’re up to 38 different species!
We’ve had our grape jelly out for a couple of weeks now waiting for the Baltimore Orioles to come back to Cape Cod! And here they are! What a gorgeous bird… orange and black and white. The female is a bit muted in color but still very pretty.
I love how they hang onto the wire just to get a bit of that decadent grape jelly!
Welcome Back! We hope you make another home this spring in our yard!
This Northern Flicker is drilling out a hole for his home in one of the trees in our backyard. We’ve heard a lot of drumming recently on one of the trees that came down a while back and were delighted to see a Northern Flicker working away. He’s got a pretty big hole there.
It would be so cool to see some little Northern Flickers in that tree!
This female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak has been hanging out at our home for a few days now. We had never seen a female before so we didn’t know what kind of bird it was at first. Using our trusty Sibley’s, we realized that it is a female Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. The males are quite colorful being black and white with a very rose-colored breast. The females are a lot more drab in color.
And I always wondered why they are called Grosbeaks. Their beak is very different and very distinctive. It is French for “gros” meaning thick and “bek” meaning beak. And, as you can see, they have a very thick beak which they use for opening the seeds.
Pretty cool, huh? Have you ever seen a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak? We named her “Rosie!” I wonder if she has a male nearby…
