Spring!

My mother-in-law gave me this little birdhouse for Christmas in 2008. I hung it in the yard last year where it remained birdless. You can't imagine how happy I was to see a pair of chickadees going in and out of it the other day. There was also a pair of redpolls that seemed interested.


Every year we have a pair of mallards do a layover in our yard. I noticed they were eating birdseed that had fallen to the ground from my feeders so I bought some cracked corn and set out a dish of water. They come by at least once a day and hang around until I have to let the dogs out. Yesterday evening only the hen made an appearance which caused great consternation on my part. My husband had noticed one of the young men who live behind us running around with a paintball gun yesterday. I bet a paintball could be lethal to a duck. So I fretted about that for a couple of hours. I was so relieved to see both of them when I looked outside at 10:30 - yes, this is the land of the midnight sun and it is just twilight at that hour this time of year.

Here is a picture of my two guys that I took while waiting for a chickadee to cooperate yesterday. They are so happy that we took the jolly balls out of the shed.