Bluebirds brighten the day

When I started birding as a kid in New Jersey in the 1940's, Eastern Bluebirds were generally absent from the northeastern US during the winter, although some did persist all year in coastal areas. They have since expanded their year-round range northward and inland, to include southern New England. The provision of artificial nest boxes as well as other factors such as climate change and feeders probably played a role. Indeed, bluebirds may make use of bird houses during cold weather.

I was rather surprised to see a flock of over a dozen bluebirds descend on our small holly bushes to glean the berries left over by the robins. They also inspected our back yard bird houses. Possibly, some may have been raised in one of them:

Some lingered by the feeders:

This female bluebird foraged under the feeder in the shadow of the picket fence:

She looked up, hoping that the Red-bellied Woodpecker might drop some more suet crumbs:

A Black-capped Chickadee perched nearby:

A European Starling made a brief appearance:

A Song Sparrow searched for scattered seeds:

A White-tailed Doe looked out from behind the shrubs in the side yard:

Warm rain melted all the snow, and this week we got to take our first walk along the lake in over a month. The ice was starting to break up, and the weather forecast was for cold but clear skies:

To our surprise, light snow fell that evening, but melted in the morning under bright sun:

There was a colorful sunset on February 4:

View from the porthole window:

This week's header: Sunset February 4

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Linking to:

Nature Thursday

Skywatch Friday

Weekend Reflections

Saturday's Critters

Garden Affair

All Seasons

Image-in-ing

Nature Notes

Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday)

Wild Bird Wednesday

My Corner of the World
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Please visit the links to all these posts to see some excellent photos on display
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