It seems spring is happening early in Illinois for this #featheredfriday
Normally the bluebirds arrive late march but they are already here mid February. The reason is the La Nina effect causing a much warmer winter here.
Bluebirds normally eat insects but they haven't arrived yet. So instead they are eating dried up crab apples.
Birds don't really mind the cold so long as they have food to eat. There are plenty of wild fruit trees around here to keep them fed. Soon the cicadas will be hatching in swarms this year and these birds will be fat.
I think the bright blue ones are males and the lighter one is possibly a female. They are probably already filling up the bluebird boxes in the prairies.
I noticed a huge flock of starlings in the trees. These guys stay around all winter here.
They like to sit around making weird noises and if you catch one they can be trained to mimic words.
They look like a bunch of punk rockers from the 80s.
Quite a few robins were hanging around the starlings too. These guys arrived quite early this year.
Why robin why are you here so early? I suppose the ground isn't fully frozen so they can probably pull worms out and they also like to eat rose hips and crab apples too.
Perhaps they sense the 16 year cicadas under the ground and are here early for the great feasting. Multiple swarms are supposed to hatch this year and it will be apocalyptic cicada piles everywhere. Every critter will be bloated on them. I'll be taking many pictures of the swarms.
That's all for now, thanks for looking :-)