Who's been here this week?

The Harris's Sparrows appear to migrate one bird at a time, as we've had one or two every few days for the last 2 or 3 weeks. This one was here for about a day and then it was gone.

A surprise visitor to our patio on Thursday was this Tree Swallow. Presumably he flew up from the dam to check out the neighbourhood, as we've never seen any in our yard before.I've seen a male Yellow Warbler around a few times, but he never stays in one spot long enough for more than one photo. The first photo, as you can see here, is always fuzzy. The blooms on the Thunderchild Crabapple are looking good, however.We have a lot of Mourning Doves. Their sad song is the first birdsong I remember noticing when I moved to this yard back in the 70's. At that time, there were a few apple trees in the yard, with caraganas on the south, west and north, and a couple of maples on the north. Since then we have surrounded the yard with spruces and have planted hundreds of other trees including fruit trees, lilacs, and poplars. As the trees grow, the number of birds in the yard has multiplied.The main group of Goldfinches appears to have moved on, but there are at least six still here. I hope they've decided our yard suits them for the summer. They can make me happy just by swooping across the lawn. For other welcome visitors to our yard, check out the post below.

Not all our visitors are welcome, however. The most persistent of the unwelcome visitors are the Common Grackles and the Brown-headed Cowbirds. We probably have 25 or 30 of each of them, just hanging around the edge of the yard. A few have discovered my feeders and have appropriated the patio. I am reluctant to refill the feeders if they are going to be the main diners. One of my daughters only buys sunflower seeds for her feeders. Not sure if that would detract these two birds, but its worth a try. The mix I have now is about 3/4 sunflower seeds, 1/4 small seeds, with nijer in the finch feeders. Haven't seen either the grackles or cowbirds at them.

The Grackles are noisy, pesky and far too numerous.

I particularly resent the female Cowbirds who, I feel sure, are scoping out possible places to lay their eggs.

And the males are helping.