Thursday, March 27, 2008

Red Maples

Temperatures climbed quickly this morning into the 70s. With sunny skies, the day was perfect for going to the back of our land.


In the pasture, several red maple trees were blooming.


This close-up view shows the male flower.

When I came back to the house, I noticed a sparrow I hadn't seen before at the feeder. He looked similar to the White-Throated Sparrow I have seen all winter but smaller with a bright rust-color chestnut cap.


The suet feeder is 5 inches tall so you can see how small this bird is. It is the same bird that probably made the "Mystery Nest" I had asked about in an earlier post (thanks to Owlman and Mon@rch for the tip). It's a Chipping Sparrow and its call is quite different than the other birds--thought it sounded like some kind of electronic device. There were two of them there in the late afternoon.

6 comments:

  1. Love your Red Maples and your spring flowers in your previous post! Congrats on your chipping sparrow returning!

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  2. I haven't seen the chipping sparrows yet! They are the cutest sparrows. Nice photos of SPRING.

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  3. mon@rch--thanks for the visit. The chipping sparrow is nice. Now, I am seeing them all the time.

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  4. Mary--I had seen chipping sparrows before in our back pastures but not at the feeder. I wonder if I just hadn't noticed them until this year?

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  5. Joan, I have a print for you! I finished the painting of the 4 birds. Please email me with a place I can mail it to, so you receive it! I'll post it later, maybe tomorrow!
    Thank you for allowing me to paint your picture!
    PS Great red maple pics!
    Chris

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  6. Chris--thanks for the print. Wish I could paint the beautiful watercolors like you do! Joan

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