Happy Sunday!
I hope you are doing exactly what you want this weekend - the first proper weekend of summer!
One of my favorite things to do is to go birding, or even just to watch the antics of my feathery backyard neighbors. I will definitely be doing some of that today.
Since moving to Tennessee, a little over a year ago, I have not had a lot of time to go ‘proper birding’, but I have started keeping a list of birds that I have seen in the yard and flying over the neighborhood.
We are not quite in the woods here - it’s old farmland - but we’re near the woods, so I think we have a good spot for birds that like both kinds of habitats. Without really trying, I have seen over 50 species of birds over the last year, and I know I have missed a boatload of warblers (because they are hard to spot, and I am not very good at remembering their different songs!)
When I was living in a rental house in Western North Carolina, I found a hand-written list in the back of a kitchen cupboard where someone had noted the birds they saw out the window. It was a very old piece of paper - decades old I would guess - and it was lovely to share that connection with a previous resident.
So, you may or not be interested in the birds also, but I thought I would simply share my list here today.
My favorite ‘find’ so far has been a brown-headed nuthatch. We are just about at the northern end of their range here (in fact, most maps don’t even have Tennessee in the range at all….climate change?), so I hadn’t seen one before and was surprised to see them here. And we have a pair! They’re very cute and quite social. I don’t seem to bother them much when I’m out in the garden.
Hope you get to enjoy a little time outside today as well.
Here’s the list!
American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Bald Eagle
Barn Swallow
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay
Brown Creeper
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
Brown Thrasher
Canada Goose
Carolina Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Chimney Swift
Chipping Sparrow
Common Grackle
Cooper's Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
Downy Woodpecker
Eastern Bluebird
Eastern Meadowlark
Eastern Phoebe
Eastern Screech-Owl (we had one hanging out in the shed!)
Eastern Towhee
European Starling
Great Blue Heron
Hairy Woodpecker
House Finch
House Sparrow
House Wren
Mourning Dove
Northern Cardinal
Northern Flicker
Northern Mockingbird
Palm Warbler
Pileated Woodpecker
Purple Finch
Purple Martin
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Red-eyed Vireo
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-winged Blackbird
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Scarlet Tanager
Song Sparrow
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
White-throated Sparrow
Wild Turkey
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
I'm still learning all the names - We have so many beautiful birds here on the river - Maybe I should make a list! Then I get distracted by the wild mink, bobcats, possums, raccoons, muskrats, coyotes, deer and bear! :)