Final Count, Outpost #1211

I'll miss many things about West Lafayette, Indiana, but none more than the house we occupied for nearly 5 years.  Though McBone Outpost #1211 at times seemed a mysterious, uncanny sort of place, a vast hall filled with shadows and unexplained refrigerator pins, mostly we'll remember it as a comfortable, messy, happy pink domicile where we worked hard, ate well and watched the McBonerito take his first steps.  That house is also where I started to really get interested in birding, and a combination of black oil seed, thistle, suet and nectar kept our yard singing and chirping throughout the year.  There was the occasional mishap, of course, and one very memorable near miss, and that host of flea-ridden miscreants to contend with, but the avian element was an overwhelmingly positive one.

Hackish amateur though I remain, I was able to identify 55 of the species that took up occupancy on the grounds or merely swooped in for a bite.  

Birds sighted at McBone Outpost #1211:

House finch
House sparrow
Cardinal
Grackle*
Black-capped chickadee
Red-bellied woodpecker
Chipping sparrow
Mourning dove
Robin
Gray catbird
American goldfinch
Tufted titmouse
Ruby-throated hummingbird
Starling*
White-breasted nuthatch
Blue jay
Crow*
Red-tailed hawk
Turkey vulture*
Brown creeper
Hairy woodpecker
Dark-eyed junco
White-throated sparrow
Downy woodpecker
Cedar waxwing
Common flicker
Hermit thrush
Brown-headed cowbird*
Cooper's hawk
Carolina wren
American tree sparrow
Rufous-sided towhee
Chimney swift
Purple finch
Rose-breasted grosbeak
Indigo bunting
Mallard duck
House wren
Ovenbird
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Red-breasted nuthatch
Pileated woodpecker
Great blue heron
White-crowned sparrow
Veery
Magnolia warbler
Swainson's thrush
Scarlet tanager
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Eastern bluebird
Pine siskin
Yellow-rumped warbler
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Yellow warbler
Bald eagle

As for Outpost #1353?  Considering we will only be feeding the hummingbirds, our new residence is working at a disadvantage.

But what the hell.

Birds sighted at McBone Outpost #1353:

Ruby-throated hummingbird
House sparrow

It's a start.

nwb

*Indicates a villain bird