Do NOT complain about my birds. I am so thrilled to have my feeders up. When I ramble into my kitchen for morning coffee, there the rails and feeders are all aflutter.

Carolina Wren and a Rose-Breasted Titmouse.

What’s really a bit strange — I’m sure this has something to do with climate change — is we are getting different birds than last year. We have last year’s birds too, but many fewer Goldfinch who were the stars of last winter’s bird population.

Carolina Wren and the white bird I don’t recognize.

We have the same woodpeckers — Downy, Hairy, and Red-Bellied. But we have wrens this year. A flock of Carolina Wrens who normally only arrive in early spring has settled into the feeders.

Carolina Wren and Titmouse

You know you have Carolina Wrens because they have the loudest voice in the woods. Very small birds, but what a voicebox!

There are also Titmice, Chickadees, and Nuthatches (two types): White-Breasted and Red-Breasted.

Carolina Wren

As for the Carolina Wrens, they’ve been bouncing around the woods for several years, but they never came to the feeders. This year we have them and a couple of others I’m not sure I’ve properly identified. All of the small brown wrens look very much alike. Is that offensive to wrens? If so, I apologize. Same rusty brown color. With speckled and barred wings and striped faces.

Incoming but unknown

We also have a big gray bird that looks like the bird you get in a coloring book. He is Standard Bird A and I can’t for the life of me find it in either of my books. I’ve got two books now. The pocket-size (for people with really BIG pockets) Peterson guide and what I got used from Amazon (free overnight shipping) that cost me $3.50, weighs about 20-pounds and describes in intimate detail every known bird in North America. The final one is coming tomorrow or Monday — the Audubon pocket guide –another book for people with super big pockets.

Rose-Breasted Nuthatch

I’ve been trying to get the most recent books because not only have we many fewer birds than we had just a few years ago (down by almost %30!), but they have moved. Migratory birds aren’t migrating.

Rose-Breasted Nuthatch

A few of them are no considered “homeless.” They don’t have an area of North America that is their breeding ground. This does not bode well for a bird species. But at least they are still alive and maybe if we can slow this changing climate down, our feathered friends will settle down too.

Flying wren

I’ve seen a few Cardinals and for the first time, a bunch of Blue Jays. Still no Robins. I hope they come back. Also, no doves this year. There’s a big white and slightly orange bird of unknown vintage.

For someone who loves taking bird pictures, I’m really not very good at identifying them, so anyone who’d like to help, please, HELP.

Categories: #Birds, #Photography, Blackstone Valley, Marilyn Armstrong, Wildlife

Tags: #Photography, birds, Carolina Wren, Marilyn Armstrong, Nuthatch, Titmouse, Woodpecker