Birds in Springtime

I just love springtime in North Texas.   In addition to the beautiful flowers everywhere, the birds catch my eye and make me laugh with their antics.

  I have a couple of feeders right outside my office window and it is a pleasant distraction to watch the various breeds. Last year I  installed a motion-sensitive bird-cam near the feeders.   It’s a lot of fun to download the photos every day and see what’s up with my feathered friends. It’s always entertaining  to see Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal enjoying a lunch date together.

I also get a kick out of the acrobatic squirrels that raid our feeders regularly.   A persistent squirrel can empty a feeder in no time at all.   Fortunately, my dog considers it his job to be Guardsman of the Feeder and he does a pretty good job of convincing them to find their food elsewhere.

But one day, I was downloading files from the BirdCam and was completely flabbergasted.   In amongst the photos of wrens, chickadees, titmouses, cardinals and the occasional squirrell  was this:

I.   Was.   Speechless.   I had no idea such a bird existed around here.   A little research revealed that it is a male painted bunting.   They spend the spring here and have their babies before continuing on to Mexico for the summer.   Down there, they are often captured and sold as cage birds.   There are only a handful of confirmed sightings of this amazing guy in north Texas each year. His mate is a gorgeous leaf-green and peach  beauty.  

I am happy to report that Mr. and Mrs. Bunting have returned to our property this spring and we are enjoying regular sightings.     They also get along well with their neighbors, the Cardinals.

I hope you take some time this spring to stop and smell the flowers, listen to the birds and soak in all the beauty and wonder around you! When she's not chauffeuring over-scheduled children or procrastinating about the housework, Pam can be found scratching her head in her garden, making a giant mess in her kitchen, channeling her inner redneck, or sneaking off for a bubble bath with a fat novel.   Her monotonous adventures are chronicled in painful detail here.