And Some Brand New Goslings

Our pond is approximately 1/2 acre and although we have seen up to seven or eight geese on it at a time, there is a breeding pair who try their very best to keep the pond to themselves by honking, attacking and generally being territorial. In the six years we've been here, they've learned to nest more discreetly and managed to produce offspring in 2012. Last night while we were taking pictures of the birdfeeders, Ken got out the bigger lenses and was getting the shots from the last post when he noticed that the geese had brought out five little goslings. We walked out to the pond and got these shots - the best we've ever gotten.

We don't know what relation the extra goose is, only that it seems to want to be part of the family. Papa goose was busy trying to chase it away, but it seems to be fairly thick-skinned and stayed around keeping its distance.

It's For The Birds

Last week we set up the arbor we had gotten to hang some birdfeeders on. In addition to the ones hanging on the arbor, there is another multipurpose feeder and a thistle sock in nearby trees and a birdhouse we've had for years, also in a tree. Most of these are quite visible from the deck but the sock feeder will probably get moved as it hides some of the others from several viewing spots.

The top shot shows a goldfinch on the long feeder and what we think is a white breasted nuthatch on the house-like one. That's the same bird as in the third shot, just below here. The goldfinches showed up as soon as the first feeder was out and only moved when we got too close. The other bird has been flitting by for two days but only stopped long enough to be photographed last night.

In the leaves of the maple which is right beside the deck is a house wren singing away to his partner who found the bird house right away and gave us quite a show stuffing it full of twigs. She could only sit on the edge of the hole but managed to twist the twigs that were longer than the hole so that they went in one end at a time. If we're wrong in assuming that the female builds the nest, I'm sure we'll hear about it.

Although male and female downy woodpeckers have been showing up regularly, last night was the first time we saw this red-bellied woodpecker at our feeders. It is a fairly frequent visitor at our neighbor's feeders.

We have been on several bird walks and seen birds we never knew existed, but these feeders are just plain fun and we're so inexperienced that they are teaching us lots about the birds who visit them.