Saturday Afternoon Backyard Birdwatching

We started around 4:00 PM and spent about an hour and a half this afternoon watching birds and other small animals in our back yard. Here is what we saw:

1. White-winged Dove
2. Great-tailed Grackle
3. Rock Dove
4. Northern Mockingbird
5. Northern Cardinal
6. Turkey Vulture
7. Possibly a Wren. Either a Carolina Wren or a Bewick's Wren. This bird was sitting in the shadow of the purple martin house and we may have misidentified it. (After several hours of contemplation Marilyn doesn't believe it was a wren. We are not sure what it was.)
   
8. Red Squirrel
9. Domestic Cat - answered to the name of Billy-Bob. Seemed to take an interest in birdwatching with us.
   
10. Numerous other small birds that we could not identify.
    

Today we purchased some art supplies to make journals of what we see. Marilyn started drawing several of the birds that were sitting still long enough to draw. I am not real sure how successful she was. For me it is going to take a lot of practice to get where it even looks like bird. (We may end up with a camera and a powerful scope if I need to draw any birds and have them recognized.)

Conditions this afternoon were chilly, in the 50's with a brisk wind from the northwest.