July 12, 2020 - Yard Birds

Here are a few of the birds we’ve seen in our northern Minnesota yard this year. Blue Jays are seen every day at our feeders. We’ve had as many as six of them at one time.

JayBlueDunningLakeItascaCounty20200701

Baltimore Orioles usually show up in our yard for a couple of weeks in the spring. Then they are off in the woods during the summer raising their young. The whole family often shows up again in the fall. But this male Oriole is still showing up several times a day to grab a mouthful of grape jelly. We haven’t seen a female this year, so maybe this guy didn’t find a mate.

OrioleBaltimoreDunningLakeItascaCounty20200513

Eastern Phoebes again built a nest on the battery box for our boat lift. It’s a good thing I don’t have to look in the battery box during the season. That way I don’t have to disturb them.

PhoebeEasternnest20200514SamsungGalaxie

The Phoebes have already fledged their first brood of five babies and are working on their second brood. Usually there are only four eggs the second time around, but this year both broods had five.

PhoebeEasternnest20200519SamsungGalaxie

Earlier this spring we had a White-crowned Sparrow stopping in our yard for a few days. It was only passing through, however. Its nesting territory is in far northern Canada.

SparrowWhitecrownedDunningLakeItascaCounty202005114

White-throated Sparrows do nest near us. We still hear them calling but they are not visiting our yard because they are busy feeding insects to their babies. After the young ones have fledged, we’ll see them again under our feeders.

SparrowWhitethroatedDunningLakeItascaCounty20200512

Here’s a male Hairy Woodpecker taking sunflower seed from the feeder and giving it to one of its youngsters. The task of teaching this young bird to take the seed itself from the feeder is not quick and easy. I have photos like this from June 14 through June 29. Eventually the parent will stop doing this and that will hasten the learning process.

WoodpeckerHairyadultmalefeedingjuvenileDunningLakeItascaCounty20200616

We know that Pileated Woodpeckers are around, but they seldom come into our yard until winter. So, when this male landed on our railing, I grabbed my camera and shot this photo right through the window.

WoodpeckerPileatedmaleDunningLakeItascaCounty20200522