The Birds in the Yard

On cool mornings, the birdsong in the yard rises above the crickets, the road noise, the radio.

The bird population on our farm has grown since we've moved to the farm. I suspect it's because we've done things that birds like -- planted trees, converted farmland to pastures and hay fields, installed a wildlife strip.

After reading the blog, "Where the Birds Are Is Not Where You'd Think," I conducted a count of the bird species in our yard and adjoining pastures.

I'm sure I'm missing a few, as I'm still learning to identify the birds. The bird species I counted include:

Starlings
Sparrows
Barn Swallows
Field Swallows
Blue Birds
Gold Finches (these camera-shy beauties love my sunflowers... but fly away whenever they see the camera)
Mockingbirds (who are keeping their song to daytime hours this year. Whew!)
Red-Tailed Hawks (They love perching in the dead tree on the pasture's edge)
Killdeer
Red-Winged Blackbirds
Great Blue Heron (okay, not in the yard, but flies overhead on the way to the pond and river)
Cardinal
Robin
House wrens
Buckeye chickens