A Pleasant Visitor

For the past few years, I've been helping my mother take care of her home when she goes to the weekend cabin up north. While I'm watching her home, interesting guests always pop on by. Whether it's pigs from a neighboring farm making a visit. A raccoon pigging out on my mother's bird feeders, dumping out the birdseed everywhere. Squirrels that think that they're bigger than what they are, chittering as they bounce forward. Even having deer that decide to dump out the bird feeder, eat the seeds off the ground, and then snort when they notice they are being watched.

Then one weekend, as I was working on an outfit for the coming Renaissance Festival, I looked outside and saw a vibrant red bird with black wings and tail. It was the first time ever seeing one, and I fell in love with it's extravagant look. Wanting to capture the moment, I grabbed my phone and took a few pictures. The first few, I had the lens zoom up, wanting to make sure that I at least got a photo of the bird. As I got closer, and lowered the zoom, the bird would slowly reach for the orange, taking a nibble, and then look straight at me. When it decided I was too close, it would fly off, but then shortly come back. Unfortunately, each time it came back, it would be gone before I manage to get another photo.

The day after, another one came around with the one from before. Each time I saw the two together, I would try for another photo, but they would fly off. Just like the day before when I tried to get a clear photo of just the one. Instead, they would end up leaving behind an empty space, or a blurred photo with two streaks of red, black, and orange. Lightly disheartened, but grateful for the few that I had from the day before.

At first, I didn't realize what kind of birds they were. So on Facebook, I shared a few photos I took of them. Luckily, a few friends I have are bird watchers and was told that the birds were Scarlet Tanagers. Though not common where we are located, but they can be sighted time to time during the migration seasons. Usually they can be found in the North Eastern parts of the US in the deciduous / deciduous-evergreen forests.

Like Orioles, which are the birds my mother was trying to have visit, the Tanagers enjoy orange halves, ripe bananas, mealworms, and suet cakes. Which explains why it enjoyed munching on the orange while I was taking the photos. Along with it bringing a friend to the yard. Another thing, they enjoy using birdbaths.

Most of the time, the Scarlet Tanager bird enjoys staying up in trees that have plenty of leaves to keep themselves hidden from predators. Whether the predator is a cat, dog, raccoon, maybe a snake, or a predator bird. In turn, the only time that it is easy to spot them, is when they are either taking a bath in a high birdbath, or munching on fruit that is far off the ground. Other than that, normally they will eat in the trees, picking off insects.

Now looking back to the map, my family is located in the western part of the Scarlet Tanager's Breeding range. Though the eastern parts of the country have a higher chance of seeing the splendid bird, and their offspring, there is still hope on seeing them in our area in the future. Whether it's in the woods during a hike, or in our own backyard.