Bird Watching

(Click to enlarge the collage)

Today was a great day for backyard birdwatching here at Robin's Nesting Place. It was a beautiful, crisp fall day and the birds flocked to my feeders. I've had birds this week that I've never seen before here. We live in a fairly new subdivision that was once a corn field, and there were very few mature trees in the area. When we first moved here from Alabama, I didn't think Indiana had any pretty birds because all I ever saw were geese, sparrows and blackbirds.

Anyway, I was delighted to finally see a chickadee, dark-eyed junco and a wren in the last two days. Today I saw the largest variety I've ever seen in one day here. There were blue jays, goldfinches, purple finches, wren, dark-eyed junco, chickadee, Canada geese, robin, sparrows by the hundreds, and one bird that I didn't even notice until I was photo editing. I have looked through several bird books and I can't figure out what it is.

My back neighbor is actually the one responsible for the wonderful bird population here today, he planted so many trees and shrubs when he first moved in that he barely has a lawn. I feed the birds and provide water but they take refuge in his yard. I've also planted a lot in my yard in the last two or three years, but things are still so small that they don't provide shelter for the birds yet. His plants grew pretty fast, hopefully mine will too.