Last weekend dh headed out to the garage and would only say he was making a surprise for all of us.  What did he construct?  Two bird feeders!  They need to be a bit more stable so we'll be repositioning them, but this has been such a wonderful week to sit excitedly by the windows to see who drops by for a snack.  Ds2 alerts us by yelling "Bird!  Bird!" or "Bue Jay!  Blue Jay!" (every bird as far as his 2yo mind is concerned is a blue jay - LOL).  We have had a blue jay stopping by, but it's more interested in eating our cat's food on the porch than anything we have to offer in the feeders.  Ds1 loves the cardinals that come many times each day.  The biggest thrill for me, however, was the day that ds1 started yelling "Mom, there's a weird bird in the feeder!"  It was not a weird bird at all - it was a red-bellied woodpecker.  It was the first we've seen this year and so beautiful.

Mrs. Cardinal.......

Mr. Cardinal (ds1 says it looks like he is bowing to us and thanking us for the food).......

Red-bellied woodpecker.......

I really wish I could get wonderful up-close shots like I have seen on other blogs, but the feeders are a good distance away from our windows and zooming in any further than I did only results in a horribly blurry photo. 

Some fun online resources to go along with these birds.......

Cardinal coloring page (pdf file)

Cardinal fact page at National Geographic

Cardinal coloring page

All About Birds: Northern Cardinal

Northern Cardinal Photo Gallery

Northern Cardinal at BioKids

Northern Cardinal species overview

Red-bellied woodpecker profile

All About Birds: Red-bellied woodpecker

Printable bird coloring book/workbook (pdf file)