Week in Pictures: April 25 to May 3

What a week!  We've had some beautiful weather and I've spent a lot of time outside.  Lots of things have been happening.  Here's a quick wrap-up of events.

First of all, it's time to put your hummingbird feeders out if you haven't already... we had the first male Ruby-throat at our feeder today!

In nesting news, this pair of Tree Swallows outdid our Bluebirds in the competition for this house:

But, no problem, said the Bluebirds... they just moved to the house next door.

Mama has already started moving in, while Papa stands guard.

A pair of White-breasted Nuthatches is also working on their home in the cavity of this tree:

They have been busily bringing pieces of bark and dropping them in... must be the hole is deeper than they'd like.  Maybe once they need some softer nest lining, they will take advantage of the dog hair I put out for that purpose, like this Chickadee.

We've had quite a few birds arrive back this week.  Our property list has grown by 17 from April 25th to May 3rd (including a White-crowned Sparrow that just appeared in the lawn under the feeders while I've been sitting on our deck working on this post!).

Other exciting arrivals this week are a male Baltimore Oriole (I've only seen one so far).

He seems to be enjoying the orange halves, banana pieces, and grape jelly I put out; without having to complete with a crowd (we had up to 7 Orioles at a time last summer).

I've seen several warblers this week, including a Palm Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Black-throated Blue Warbler.   The earliest arrival was a Yellow Warbler on April 30th.

The next photo isn't the greatest, but I like it anyway... a male Yellow Warbler in flight.

Warblers are difficult to get photos of, but they sure are beautiful to watch thru the binoculars!

Just this afternoon I looked out the window and there was a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak looking for sunflower seeds.

He kind of gave me the 'evil eye' because I had the cage over the feeder.  It's supposed to keep the squirrels and larger birds out. 

Since it doesn't actually completely do the job (at least not for the red squirrels - it does keep the grey squirrels out!) I immediately went out and took it off, so the Grosbeak could eat.

Besides birds arriving, there are some wildflowers blooming.

Coltsfoot has been blooming for awhile but is still going strong.

Hepatica is almost done flowering and has put out leaves.  

It was so warm and sunny today that they were actually wilting a little.

Marsh Marigolds don't have a problem with being dry, as they are growing right in a small stream.

They are just starting to open, so watch for them in wet places this coming week.

Yellow seems to be the popular color for flowers now (my daffodils are also in their prime).  The next flower has several common names, among them: Dog-tooth Violet, Adder's Tongue, Trout Lily, and Fawn Lily.

As I child, I learned their name as Dog-tooth Violet, but they aren't a violet -- they are in the Lily family.  For that reason, I'd prefer to call them Fawn Lily, and also it seems more appropriate to name them after fawns, since they have spotted leaves.  Their leaves typically outnumber the flowers many times over.  It's unusual, at least in our woods, to find two together in bloom.

So that's it for this week... although, when I mentioned to my husband that the Rose-breasted Grosbeak was back, he said, "So you got a new one for the list today".  I replied, "Yes, and it's still early, maybe we'll have a hummy today, too".  We looked out the window and at that moment saw our first hummer at the feeder!  
Then the White-crowned Sparrow appeared... wonder who will be next?