November 21, 2008
The purple finches returned to the backyard along with the colder temperatures this week. While the purple finch is not exactly purple as the name implies, it is similar to a house finch, but is slightly fatter and has more red in its feathers. The purple finch can be found in mixed woods, coniferous forests, lower mountain slopes, and suburban yards.Backyard tip of the week:
Take a closer look at the birds in your backyard. Sometimes a rare species of bird will camouflage itself by traveling with a group of similar looking birds thereby increasing its odds of survival. You never know what's really out there until you look. Try it, you're sure to love it!
Backyard sightings for last week:
Including northern cardinals, dark-eyed juncos, blue-birds, and white-throated sparrows. Carolina wrens, eastern goldfinches, house finches, purple finches. Red-bellied and downy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, the tufted titmice, black-capped chickadees, blue-jays, mourning doves, American crows, grey squirrels, a couple of different skunks and some deer, too.
Cool sightings of the week:
On Monday of this week, I walked down the driveway and set down some muddy items in the alley to be washed off later. As I set the items down I saw something move in the corner of my eye and when I glanced up I saw a small yet stocky red fox jump from the leaves next to the garage door. The fox stood staring up at me and I thought for a moment that it looked like a dog ready to play. My next thought was to protect the birds so I scared the fox away. It was a few moments after I prompted the fox to leave the yard that it struck me that I might want to take a picture of it. Oh well, it was too late now. Either way, having a friendly close encounter with a red fox pup this week was very cool!
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