Spring Birds in the U.P.!!

Enough of the Florida photos!!

On to finally seeing the Spring unfold in the Upper Peninsula (U.P.)

of 

Michigan.

As usual, we get Spring much later than the entire rest of the nation,

due to the fact that we are very far north and on the chilly shores

of

Lake Superior.

The photos below were taken the end of April.

We had a snowstorm then (our last one!)

and it seemed that every type of bird within 100 miles

started flying into our area.

I don't have photos of every kind of bird we saw within a few days, but we had so many different

migrating birds coming in..it was amazing.

Some of these birds stay all year round but some we only see for a little while

and they go even farther north.

The Flickers are still here, but we hadn't seen any until April this year:

We  had pretty Juncos this winter, but now in June they are all gone.

This little sparrow was hiding from the storm:

The grackles showed up late April and even more came in May:

We had a family of 13 blue jays that stayed with us all winter.  Then, they started nesting in late April and disappeared for a while..Now, in June we have seen 4 back:

We have several of these little chipping sparrows to keep us company:

I am amazed by the colors in the European Starlings...they showed back up in May:

Our 11 doves stayed here all winter!:

This fuzzy European Starling did NOT like the snowstorm either!:

We weren't sure what kind of bird this was...we thought a female finch, as it loved the thistle!:

We heard the distinct call of the Red Winged Blackbird before we actually saw one!  Now, in June, we haven't seen them come to the feeders much...but are still seeing them out in fields:

A Flicker and a European Starling sharing the suet!:

Two doves snuggling on the branch during the last snow storm of the season!:

We have been enjoying many more birds coming our way this spring....goldfinches, purple finches, hummingbirds, robins, house wrens, catbirds, and our biggest thrill at our feeders: Baltimore Orioles....

but

THAT is a story for a different day.......