Yardbird #26 - Rose-breasted Grosbeak

It's kind of funny to be posting one of these birds today, after seeing SO many last week in Texas.  However, this fine male is the first of the year in our yard, so is being added to my 2018 Yardbird Photographic list.  It was a tough choice as four season-first birds showed up today:  Baltimore Orioles, Gray Catbirds and a House Wren.  I will have plenty of chances to blip the latter two, and hopefully I'll catch an Oriole in the next day or so.

I had hoped to blip something for TinyTuesday today, and even had a great candidate, a tiny Spring Azure (Extra), but I had to go with the Grosbeak.

The weather was gorgeous so I spent most of the morning outside.  Several hours in the hide, photographing the bluebirds as they put the finishing touches on the nest.  (See Madame hard at work HERE, entering nest box)  I narrowly missed photographing them in a "private moment" but just wasn't quick enough.  Bird sex tends to be pretty fast.  

The first thing I heard this morning was the cheery song of a House Wren.  Hopefully, he will leave the Bluebird and Chickadee nests alone - he's got 5 nest boxes to pick from as well as various cavities left by woodpeckers, so that should be sufficient.  House Wren males will claim a number of cavities, fill them with sticks, and then tour the lady wren around to make a final selection.  Usually, the lady wren proceeds to remove about half the sticks and then re-build the nest properly.  Women everywhere will relate to this, I'm sure.

Hubs and I enjoyed dinner on the deck tonight, the first of the year.  Shrimp with linquine and a nice chilled glass of savignon blanc.  

And, in breaking news, the patio chipmunk (who I shall name Flossie) has two rather adorable kids (click HERE) who are finally allowed out of the burrow.  I suspected that Scoobie had been replaced by a female chippie ... and I was right!

Thank you so much for sending my scissor-tail flycatcher and hummer to the front page of Pops!  Very chuffed, as my friends across the pond would say.

cheers,
Debbi