Birdscapes - A New Year

I did a survey of all the flowers and shrubs I planted last summer to see which survived and which seemed to have perished. Maybe a few are still dormant?

First, I have to say I love flowers and birds and nature, but can you also say "Geek" in the same sentence? My analytical mind controls ...... I need the statistics. Survival rate of the 130 I planted ...... 67%. I was hoping for a larger ratio, but I'll take two-thirds.

The biggest disappointments were the coneflowers. My greatest victory was seeing flowers I thought that the squirrels had demolished rise again. Granted, most demonized by the furry little critters were the coneflowers, but a few others have shown their ability to withstand their playful nature.

Sorry the above is of such bad quality, but I am having trouble inserting a table into blogger. I also took photographs of some of the plants. The first is the Celandine Poppy which is starting to bloom today. They others are still a ways off, but hopefully there will be some action to be enjoyed soon.

Celandine Poppy

Columbine

Ohio Horsemint

Pussy Toes

Wild Sweet William

Sedum

Purple Finch Finally

Finally a Purple Finch (PUFI) to go along with the Pine Siskins. I was hoping to see one before they moved on to their breeding grounds and I was lucky enough to see a pair. The male didn't stick around for photographs, but I did see him very clearly, and it was apparent that he was indeed a Purple Finch. The past couple of years I have looked at brightly colored male House Finches and so wanted them to be Purple Finches. But now that I have had a good view, I know without a doubt that you could never confuse Purple and House Finches. It is true that the male PUFI looks (1) like a house finch on steroids and (2) as if he was dipped in raspberry juice.