Sitting on my front porch with the Mrs. Cricket, having a sweet cigar and watching the birds and rabbits here in central Indiana. Hummingbirds are having some amazing aerial battles and an intricate mating flight pattern. Assorted common bird songs provide a wonderful sound track to the sky slowly turning from blue to gray with splashes of pink as the sun goes down. Good times...
I’m in central Indiana also, about 45 minutes to an hour west of Indy. We live at the edge of some woods, with a small creek that runs through our property beyond the woods. We’ve been here 10, almost 11 years. That’s when I began my backyard birding hobby. I am a novice, but learn more every day.
A few years ago, I began to take an interest in the Eastern Bluebirds. We are right on the border of where they will live year-round. So I’ve taken some steps to coax them along. We have several bluebird nesting boxes around, so they can choose where to have their babies. I provide dried mealworms all the time, plus peanut butter suet nuggets. For the last 5 or maybe even 6 years, I have been able to watch them go from courting, to nesting, to feeding their babies, to watching the babies fledge, and then the parents bring the young ones to the feeders to show them where the food sources are, and then the cycle begins again. Almost every season I capture parts of these events with my camera. It’s so amazing!
I think I probably have about 50 different species that regularly visit my feeders (probably a dozen different types of feeders). I am especially fond of the various woodpeckers here: Downy, Hairy, Northern Flickers, Red-bellies, Red-Headed and Pileated visit most every day. Once in a while I’ll see a Sapsucker, but they don’t come to my feeders. Plenty of food out in the woods.
I could go on, but I’ve had a particularly difficult day, so I’ll try to keep up with your thread, and maybe fill in more tomorrow if I’m able. I’ve seen lots of great comments posted already.