Backyard birders December 27, 2006
Whether it's feeding birds, studying birds, preparing wild birdseed mixtures or participating in the annual Audubon Christmas bird count, area residents have birds on their minds.
At the rural Tonganoxie home of Dorothy Tolman, American goldfinches nibble on thistle seeds in a mesh feeder. Tolman is one of several area residents who dotes on birds during winter months.
Dorothy Tolman fills a bird feeder in her front yard in rural Tonganoxie.
Birds flitter to various feeders that hang on a wire in front of Dorothy Tolman's home in rural Tonganoxie. This is the first year Tolman has hung her feeders together. She said the numerous feeders seemed to be popular with the birds in her neighborhood.
Roger Boyd fills one of the many bird feeders in his back yard in Baldwin City.
The birds that visit the bird feeder and bath in the yard of Myrtle and Leon Coker are a window to the past for Myrtle. The birds remind of her childhood home on a farm razed for the construction of the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant.
Lela Morley gazes at her pet parakeet Sunshine. She and her husband have owned birds since before moving to Eudora 35 years ago.
Living in western Shawnee has given former city girl Dawn Bayless a chance to watch more birds that she never knew existed. Now, everyday she looks for and records a number of bird varieties and shares the information online through Project Feeder Watch. Some of her backyard feeders have wire frames that accommodate smaller birds like her favorite, the bluebird.
Bluebirds are one of many varieties of birds that are common to Dawn Bayliss's Shawnee backyard.
