Miss Pudge

We have a new bird at our feeder.

I think that she is a first year House Finch whose parents did an exceptionally good job of feeding her, but unless we could net her and hold her in our hands, there isn't any way to know for sure (and it's illegal to do that without a permit, FYI).

I believe Nathan got some pictures of her yesterday and I will post once they are downloaded on the computer.

For your reference, here is a female House Finch:

image from allaboutbirds.com

And here is a male:

image from allaboutbirds.com

Miss Pudge looks like she's about to lay something like four eggs.  If she had cheeks, which birds don't have, I think her eyes might be squeezed almost shut with fat.  She's so cute!  I'd love it if she stayed the winter at our feeders.  I think we could keep her chubby.

Also, while I'm reporting about birds, I found a Brown Creeper yesterday in our Hackberry tree.  Nathan and Elijah (maybe May too) have already seen a Brown Creeper in our yard this fall, but it's always fun for me to be the bird spotter since it happens so rarely.  Brown Creepers are adorable little birds that run around on the bark of the tree looking for treats in the crevices of the bark.  We keep them around by keeping the chickadees and nuthatches well fed because those birds tend to cache food all over the in the bark of trees.  If you are lucky enough to hear a Brown Creeper sing, I promise you will be enchanted.

Brown Creeper:

image from allaboutbirds.com

You can learn a new word today.  The word of the day is "decurved."  Use it in a sentence: The Brown Creeper has a very thin, black decurved bill.

These:

image from allaboutbirds.com

have been showing up to eat our ants.  They have yellow underwings (unless you are out west and then they may be red) and a white butt.  If you are driving along and a bird flies away from the egde of the road and you catch a white butt, chances are that you have just seen a Northern Flicker.

They are gorgeous from the front:

image from allaboutbirds.com

And, finally, like so many others in our area, we are having these visitors:

image from allaboutbirds.com

This is the Red-breasted Nuthatch.  The data are in.  The Red-breasted Nuthatch is on the move in all 48 of the contiguous states.  This is a cute, tiny bird with a stripey head.  They climb around on the bark  of trees like the Brown Creeper I mentioned above.  It would be fun to keep these through the winter.