The Tree was full of Baby Chickadees

Lousy photos, taken before the light got good.

There is a dead box elder behind the kitchen.

No big loss; box elders are weed trees and we have hundreds...maybe thousands. The dog tie out killed this one, slow strangulation, noticed too late to move the chain, long after the dog was gone. It will make firewood later.

This morning, in another fog, yesterday's brood of baby birds....definitively identified as Chickadees when the parents brought them into the feeders last night...were cheeping up a storm up there.

There were lots of other birds too, using the tree as a staging stop before they hit the mulberries.

More than twenty at any time, Grackles, Robins, House Sparrows, Grey Catbirds, Cedar Waxwings, Gold Finches and more...all in that one tree

If there are twenty birds in each tree, how many are there in the yard and the fields around the house?

We are so lucky.

Birds before 7:30 AM this day from house and yard:

American Robin
European Starling
Common Grackle
White-breasted Nuthatch
House Sparrow
Killdeer
American Goldfinch
Wood Thrush
Carolina Wren
Cedar Waxwing
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow
Grey Catbird
Chipping Sparrow
Great Crested Flycatcher
Common Yellowthroat
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Willow Flycatcher
Black-capped Chickadee

Bringing in fledglings :

House Sparrow
American Robin
Grey Catbird
Black Capped Chickadee
Downy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
European Starling
Song Sparrow