Not to Ignore the Other Birds of 2007!

We obsess over our prehistoric woodpeckers, but we obsess over all of our other birds, too. This year's group, so far:

• One pair of Titmice nested in the hole in the oak tree just outside the window by my desk, where a pair nested the year before last. The baby is out and about now, and there is at least one other family in the 'hood; the other day I heard, then saw, a little gathering of them out near the birdfeeders; there must have been six or seven of them.
• Two little gray-headed scrappy Mexican Scrub Jay babies so far, as well as the usual group of adults.
• Approximately two dozen or so hummingbirds. We have a couple of different kinds--I am not positive which ones they are.
  
• Wrens: I have yet to figure out what kind they are--we have several, and these are the smallest of the group. One is nesting in the skull hanging on the front porch; another out back in the roof where there is a little gap at the bend. Yet another keeps considering the little bag hanging beneath my bicycle seat and putting nesting bits in it, but no permanent residence yet.
  
• The Scott's Orioles are back this year! At least one pair is at our house, and I hear them all over the valley as well.
  
• We have three pairs of Cardinals that come to our feeder. I can never figure out where they nest, but one pair is perhaps out in back somewhere, and another in the tree in the meadow, I think.
  
• There are so many Zenaida doves that they are eating us out of house and home. I bang on the window frequently to make them leave the bird feeders to give the other birds a chance.
  
• Tons of chipping sparrows
• The Rufous-crowned Sparrows (alternately called the Asteroid birds), previously discussed in the tragic-yet-happy-ending baby bird post
  
• Tons of house finches, and at least one other kind of finch. They are hard for me to identify, as they change their outfits through the seasons.
  
• The mockingbirds, of course, though they've been in rather spotty attendance this year. After one wintering with us and tapping many times daily on a living room window (with me trying to teach its name when it did so--we don't know if Mocks knows who he/she is now, or not), they've been coming and going.
  
• The "weebly-wee bird" that we hear at night--some kind of quail-type bird? I've never seen it.
  
• Another bird heard and not seen was a bobwhite! Just once, only this year and never before. Finally I have heard their call!
• And lastly--for now; I'm sure there are more I'm forgetting right now--the little chickadees with their 3-note songs.