Bird Watchers

Hot baby barn swallows in our parking shed.  I know I should revile and despise them, but seriously... 

...look at this precious, out-of-sorts little bird and try to think mean thoughts about it! 

I can't.

The next day, they were flying.
Sort of.
I think they basically half fell to the top of our car where panic ensued when we had to back it out to go to Miles City.  They all managed to flap off of it and back into the shed, but I suspect one or two were lost to the Kitty Brigade who patrol our grounds diligently.

Yesterday, we discovered that we had 5 smart baby swallows and one who may have fallen on his head while learning to fly.  They fly up into the rafters when startled, he flies down to the ground where he says all sorts of panicky things in bird-ese.  While we're out pulling weeds in the yard, I can hear them hollering for their mama, but she hasn't been seen for awhile...it's tough love, and they are NOT impressed with her parenting philosophy.

We also have two sets of house martins who built nests up in the blue spruce trees, but it's a tough neighborhood.  They spend most of their time chasing each other away from their own nest's airspace and swooping at Tessie who thinks they're her pets.

And about two weeks ago, we had goldfinches!
I get all excited when we see birds with bright plumage, because 98% of our birds are little and brown.  Goldfinches look very exotic to us, then, and I felt like a member of the avian paparazzi, sneaking around to try to get pictures before they moved on.

The daddy was a show-off, and why wouldn't he be?!

He has such a neat little cap and nifty tail feathers!

The mama was more cautious and didn't eat as much; she seemed to spend most of her time on guard, looking for cats and other predators.

She was very sweet, though, and I wish I'd gotten a better picture of her.