Pairings

Since I have had several days this week of being home during the daylight hours which enjoy the most activity at the bird feeders, I have, as you can well imagine, taken several photos. How many... oh, let's see... hundreds. I shit you not. Over 500, counting all those I deleted coz they were no good, and I still have some in my camera I haven't downloaded yet.

During all my viewing hours, I'm getting to know the patterns of the birds' behaviors. For instance, the goldfinches all come to the feeder early in the morning, before the sun is well and truly up. Once the jays come in, that's their signal to skedaddle.

There is a small group of mourning doves that arrive before mid-morning, and one of them in the bunch is the bossy one. Always going after the other 4.

There is a pair of cardinals, but there's another male around once in a while. He always gets chased off by the other male, and then he doesn't show up at the feeder again for a time. I think he needs the time to gird up his loins for another encounter with the bigger male.

There are 2 red-bellied woodpeckers, but only 1 is a frequent visitor. He always comes from the same maple tree nearby, and returns to it each time he visits the feeder. And I think he's destroying that tree, because the bark is being chipped and chewed on all the way up the tree. There are also 2 male downy woodpeckers, and again, only 1 of them is a frequent visitor. There is also a female, but she's not around often. The 1 male likes to go from the smoke bush to the feeder and back, often right near the base of one of the large trunks... the one that's dead. We had part of the bush die last year, and I wouldn't let Kev cut it out of there because I'm hoping it will miraculously come back to life. Pretty squirrelly silly of me, I know.

I have noticed pairings. And of course, I have photographed them.