Ohhhh Glen
The prep is the awful part.

Ten days on and the Wood duck parents still have their 6 young. An achievement!

That is wonderful news!

Goldfinchs
Some long shots

on Purple Coneflower seed heads

on 'Kong' Sunflowers

The Gold Finch are so Pretty!

I finally got some of the Blue-Jay. Been trying for a while!

Way up in the top of this tree, he called all day. Never did see what was bothering him, lol.



Finally some close ups!

To me a blue jay presents a regal appearance but he sure can get mad and I've heard isn't above appropriating other bird's nests.

jmorth, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did. I wouldn't want one after me, lol. This is one of the pair (I'm pretty sure) that had/have a nest in or back lot. I was out there one day and they were tearing a crow up (must have gotten to close). I mean it was a serious fight!

Crows will steal baby birds out of their nests & eat them. We once had to chase some off from a mockingbird nest in our back yard. They were attacking en masse, it was a horrible sight.

Blue jays can be absolute clowns & they are highly intelligent.

Blue Jays are very common here and although I've heard some reports that they are bully birds, I've never noticed that in my area. There are tons of Jays and other birds that visit the feeders at the same time. Today there must have been six or eight Jays as well as quite a few Mourning Doves all feeding on the ground together, while others were in the feeders. There were large flocks of Crows here until just a few weeks ago; I think they got a few baby Mockingbirds the past couple of years.

Northern Cardinal, female ..................... Mourning Dove ........................................ Juvenile Red-winged Blackbirds:


Great Egret:

A couple more pic's from a few minutes ago ...

Mourning Dove


Red-winged Blackbird, juvenile male and .......... adult male and juvenile male

Wow Lin, Great Photos!

Thanks Cat!

Goldfinch

jmorth, I love all the Sunflowers too!

Sunflowers are self-seeders originally planted 8 yrs ago, aptly named 'Kong'. usually attain 10 to 12 ft., are multi-branching, and have numerous flowers for a, relatively speaking, good length of time. Goldfinch numbers really increase as flower starts setting new seed.
Cardinals also get involved w/ this plant. Monarchs and Sulphur butterflies seem attracted to them.
looking west


looking east.

J: Beautiful garden and wow those sunflowers are amazing!! I sowed seeds of Sunflower (Helianthus annuus 'Mammoth Grey Stripe') but I made the mistake of leaving the containers out on the deck where the squirrels promptly got them! I direct sowed some seeds in the yard that germinated and the plants made it to @ 2 feet in height but then something crushed them ... probably our big dog who loves traipsing around and destroying plants by sitting on them.

Just Beautiful! I am going to have to get some of those, especially if they self seed!!

I think they were available through Burpee, but that was years ago. I could possibly send you some this fall if you can't find them online.

That would be Great! I'll check at Burpee and let you know. Thanks!

I was coming back into the yard from taking the dog for a short walk a few minutes ago and I heard a hawk calling loudly. The Blue Jays were raising a ruckus so I got the dog inside and grabbed my camera. I didn't see the hawk when I went back outside but got a couple of photo's of the Jays and noticed an Egret perched in the Cypress tree in the backyard.

Blue Jays


Great Egret