May Yard Birds: Week 2 (Plus Driveway Bunnies)

May is just zooming by! The second week of May brought more avian visitors to our yard, and the resident birds have been busy establishing territories and raising families.

Our Eastern Phoebe neighbors have babies in their nest now! I haven't seen the chicks myself, but I've watched the parents travel back and forth from the nest with food, so I can only assume there are hungry little creatures hiding in there:
 

One of the adult phoebes perched for several minutes near one of our windows, giving us a great chance to admire this handsome bird:

That's definitely some sort of small meal item in its beak:

Even aside from the fact that there are Eastern Phoebe babies on the back of our house, it's been such a treat to have these adults constantly flitting around and catching bugs nearby. I do love these charismatic little birds.

I've seen a male Ruby-throated Hummingbird perched on the power line along our driveway a few times now; this looks like such a strange setting for this tiny bird:
 

But I guess it's a nice vantage point from which he can survey his territory and flash around his super-bright throat feathers:
 

The Barn Swallows are back (probably nesting in a neighbor's barn) and I love watching them zoom around in the open air above the fields:

Swallows are so cool (and so hard to photograph!):

Speaking of birds in flight, this adult Bald Eagle made quite a sight wheeling over our yard:
 

At ground level, I watched an American Goldfinch nip a dandelion stem so it fell over:
 

He then proceeded to munch on the dandelion seeds; I didn't know that goldfinches made use of this extremely common and early seed source, but it's cool that they do:
 

Song Sparrows continue to sing their frilly songs:
 

And I was delighted to meet this gorgeous White-crowned Sparrow, an uncommon visitor to our yard, and presumably just passing through on the way to its northern breeding grounds:
 

Veering off the topic of birds, at least two Eastern Cottontails have become regular visitors along our driveway. I was surprised at how long this bunny stayed put while I walked by before it finally bolted:
 

The rabbit in this next picture is desperately hoping that you can't see it:
 

What a flat bunny:

I can't believe May's already more than half over! I'm very curious to see what happens in the rest of this awesome month.