"Look Mom, a Red Bird"

My little bird watcher in training! Ben noticed the red bird, a Cardinal, all by himself this morning. The bird has been visiting this umbrella bird feeder for a few days, as far as I have noticed. He's very sensitive to sound, as he flies away even when the kids make louder noises (i.e. Ben dumped a bucket of blocks this morning, and the bird was GONE). I managed to get these pictures early this morning. When Ben noticed the "red bird" he was eating with 2 sparrows. Cool that the get along, since the sparrows own our yard.



I also noticed this bird this morning. It was black and white, sort of like the chickadees, but he had a bright cherry red spot on this head. His wings were very pretty; the white dots were beautiful. I'll be looking this one up as soon as I can.

Oh, and a quick garden update. Last night I created my kidney bean shaped bed around the bird bath in the front yard. I dug a 8 inch trench, and buried the garden edging. I replaced the grass outside of the garden bed, and then dug out the grass within the rim of the bed. I added three bags of topsoil. So far I have divided some of the perrenials I have, hostas and purple coneflower, and put them in there. I plan on putting in yellow dahlia, a bee balm, and my pinks and lupine that are currently growing from seed, as well as some marigold, impatiens, and petunias--the annuals I have yet to purchase... pictures to come as progress occurs. I am excited to have some of my plants up front where passersby can view them. Most of the "good stuff" is in the back of the house.