Our Feathered Friends

Watching the birds during these wintery months is a pleasant alternative to gardening.....and not nearly as much work (although I do miss the gardening)!

Since November, I've been counting birds at the feeders on Fridays and Saturdays for Project Feederwatch. You should try it. It's lots of fun! You can choose any 2 consecutive days to count.

Our front yard has been filled with very busy birds fueling themselves against the cold and snowy weather. They truly are a joy to watch, providing plenty of entertainment for the seed that we supply them with.

I probably spend far too much time photographing them ;)

The tiny chickadees are very social.....

...gathering on the line when I go out to fill the feeders.

I tried offering seed in my hand and they happily accepted.....friendly, trusting little souls that they are.

Hubby is watching from inside and has the camera ready.

The other day one was on the suet and as I slowly reached my hand up it stayed right there and let me touch it. Amazing!

They seem quite fearless.

The cardinals have been coming every day for the past week.

Not only do we have a pretty female,

we now have four males that are coming each day!

They occasionally eat at the wooden feeder, but most of the time they feed on the ground.

Quite often one will hop up onto the snowy porch to eat the seed that drops from the tray.

The bossy blue jays are constant visitors. I counted ten of them today...more than usual. We had snow flurries for most of the day, and the temperatures were cold, with a high of about 17ºF (-8C).
There's also a red-bellied woodpecker on the suet to the left of the photo.

(All the photos may be enlarged by clicking)

The blue jays are so funny the way they boss each other around :)

I put some pieces of stale hot dog buns on the tray the other day, and the blue jays gobbled them up very quickly. But this fellow interrupted Mr. Cardinal while he was eating.....

...and received a royal tongue-lashing.....

......a little taste of his own medicine :)
"OK, OK, I'm going!"

This poor male hairy woodpecker whacked himself soundly when he flew into the sliding glass door recently. Hubby and I went out to check on him and found him sitting by the BBQ, rather dazed. He sat for about 10 minutes on the porch.

I offered him some water, but he didn't drink any.

After a while he flew over to the maple tree and stayed still for a while longer.

But soon he was back on the suet, seemingly no worse for wear. I wonder if birds get headaches. Poor little fellow.

A few days later I heard him hit the door again (can't be sure it was the same fella, of course)...this time not so hard, thankfully. When I looked out, there he was tucked up tight against the post (doesn't he look scared?)........and a hawk was flying away. I was very relieved to see that no small bird was clutched in the hawk's claws.
I had suspected that might be why the woody hit the door the first time, because I've seen a hawk around recently. It's amazing to see how quickly the birds disappear, or they freeze in place.

Here you can see the difference in size between the downy (on the left) and hairy woodpecker. Also notice the hairy's beak is longer. These are two females.

The female red-bellied woody has been coming almost every day as well.

Here she's sharing the suet with a downy female.

She's quite shy and doesn't stay long.

You might be interested in this event coming up very soon....

THE GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT

Count for Fun, Count for the Future

February 13-16, 2009

A joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society, this free event is an opportunity for families, students, and people of all ages to discover the wonders of nature in backyards, schoolyards, and local parks, and, at the same time, make an important contribution to conservation.

Find out more here:

www.birdcount.org

Since joining Feedwatch, I've noticed a few different birds that have probably been here before, but I just wasn't looking closely enough to realize what I was seeing. I'll show pictures of them in another post soon.

I hope you're all enjoying the weekend!