On being watched

We have had roofers working on our house for 9 days now and I have found myself feeling constrained from working out in the garden beds with the guys up on the roof.

I like to watch birds, sure, but I don't like the idea of being watched while I garden. Silly perhaps.

In the front, realistically, working in the beds will have to wait. Several areas have been temporarily rendered into construction zones, and many plants are the worse for wear after the accidental and incidental trampling that proximity to the house carries during roofing activities.

I am optimistic though. Temperatures are easing. The roofing is nearly finished. Then we'll get new gutters. We are hoping to go this afternoon to finally pick up the first 4 of 6 rain barrels, so when the new gutters and downspouts are completed they will be ready to conserve rain water for our long suffering plants.

In the meantime, I have really enjoyed reading other local garden and birding blogs. It has been a way to sort of "keep my trowel in" while I am laying low inside the house. Some of my local favorites are Society Garlic, and The Transplantable Rose, along with the gold standards, Soul Garden, and the CTG site. All of which led me to a new favorite. More on that in a moment.

So I was reading other peoples' blogs and fussing around with some photos, and had an "aha!" moment. I decided since I am not seeing so much in the way of plant action, that I would put up a gallery of birds. This was slightly complicated by the fact that I often suck at identifying birds (bugs, snakes, frogs and some plants).

I couldn't decide what everything was. After spending fruitless hours on unguided tours of various birding sites, I eventually found myself turning to Mikael, of BirdingOnBroadmeade, a local blogger/birder who helped me save some small bit of my sanity by helping to identify a couple of the most puzzling birds spotted.

So here they are - the knowns, the educated guesses, and the "I took a stab at it" birds recently spotted in our back yard:

Carolina Chickadee

Blue Jay

Mockingbird

Female Black Crested Titmouse

Male Black Crested Titmouse

Canada Warbler (thank you Mikael!)

Gray Catbird?

Hummingbird

Lesser Goldfinch (thank you again, Mikael!)

Lesser Goldfinch (again)