Thursday, May 27, 2010

Western Tanagers

They're back. I saw one last Monday and thought, "Maybe . . . " Today about a dozen flew right above my car, crossing the street from one old tree to another.

I don't see them every year. In fact, this year marks the third time in twenty years that I have seen them in numbers I would call significant. But no matter. This year, any year, I welcome their flash of cheery yellow as they fly from here to there.

I'm sure they nest in the very large old pine around the corner, and I have seen them running their errands of a late afternoon. They usually go together, a dozen or more at a time. I don't know where they go beyond that other tree. Food and a daily bath, I suppose. That should be easy enough with all the rain we're having.

But, really, I don't care where they go each day. I'm just glad to have them in the neighborhood again.

3 comments:

queenann said...

Yes, we have oodles of tanagers over here. One afternoon last week, Jeremy called me into his office where he was watching about 8 of them flying back and forth between a couple of the trees out there and the gutter full of rain water.

And there have been a few in our backyard as well.

Cheery. Brightens my day to see them and wonder when they will appear next.

Jacobson 'Ohana said...

The tanagers have been a bright contrast with all the gray skies our area has seen lately. I've seen them around my yard and neighborhood; but I usually see them flitting about the bushes on median strip just past the Southshore Shopping Center. I wonder if they have a nest there?

Linda said...

Just got back from Utah County and the tanagers are there in great numbers, along with Northern Orioles.