Birds at the feeders.

[jaycee]

Lots of them at the feeders;
Cardinals , Blue Jays, Chipping and Tree Sparrows along with too many Barn[English[ Sparrows, Common House Finch's[red] Gold Finch's, Slate Coloured Junco's, Tuffted TitMouse, Red Bellied Wood Pecker,Nut Hatches, Brown Creeper, Mourning Doves and my favourite , Chickadee's, a flock of Robins and Starlings cleaning up the old small crab apples,and also a Coopers Hawk that is very bold , swoops in and sits on our Weeping Mulberry tree which is only 4 feet from our kitchen window, he tries to get at the sparrows that hide in the tangle of branches beneath him.

Bold! is he ever, my wife and I have watched him for up to 7 or 8 minutes as he tries to figure our how to get at those sparrows, and all that time he also looks up and sees us there and doesn't worry about us at all, and to top it all off, we watch him so intently that we forget to get our cammeras out to get any pictures.
My wife finally remembered the other day and got a few pictures with her phone , but when she went back to see how they turned out, nothing, she either inadvertently wiped them out or forgot to save them , bummer.
However we do get quite a show of birds here every day .

[Sharon]

Isn't that great. We have lots of birds too, but nothing like you have. There a red breasted nuthatch that will sit on your shoulder waiting for you to fill the feeder - no fear at all.
No squirrels emptying the feeders as the Jack Russell takes care of them .

[Roper]

Yes, I get great pleasure out of my bird feeding. I don't get the variety you have Jaycee. My favorites are the red bellied and downy woodpeckers. Strongly dislike the large flocks of starlings that come in great numbers to ravish. That stuff is expensive and I don't like to waste it on those non-indiginous uglies. I also have a medium sized hawk that will dive bomb the group but I never see if he is successfull. He comes and goes so quick.

[jaycee]

Yes, I get great pleasure out of my bird feeding. I don't get the variety you have Jaycee. My favorites are the red bellied and downy woodpeckers. Strongly dislike the large flocks of starlings that come in great numbers to ravish. That stuff is expensive and I don't like to waste it on those non-indiginous uglies. I also have a medium sized hawk that will dive bomb the group but I never see if he is successfull. He comes and goes so quick.

We/I quit buying the expensive stuff, I buy my feed at Costco, and only the Black Oil Sunflower Seed, and we get as many birds of different varieties as before without any waste.
At Costco an 18 kilo bag of the black oil sunflower seed is only $16.99 it is half the price of the same stuff elsewhere. At TSC the same is $17.99 for only 9 kilo, a big difference.
As for starlings they are great practice for wing shooting.
We also have a couple of hawks around, a Sharp-Shinned , the smallest of the Accipiters, and the next larger which is the Cooper's Hawk , which this year is around more often.
The noticeable difference between the two is the rounded tail of the Coopers Hawk, and it's slightly bigger in size.
I don't mind when they take a sparrow, but I get upset when they happen to kill one of the colourful birds, but that is nature , they have to eat .

By the way , last week we saw a mature Bald Eagle kill and eat a squirrel out in the field behind our place, not more than 150 yards away, we watched it for several minutes on the ground , then it flew into a tree at the edge of the bush where it proceeded to finish eating it's kill.

[Roper]

Jaycee - I'm going to hit Costco. Thanks.
I have heard of Bald Eagle sightings. I thought they migrated south during winter. With all the open water they may have made an early return. I have also heard of robins being in the area - but have not see one myself.

[werner.reiche]

We had a hawk raiding our bird feeder a few years back. He was fussy - only mourning doves. He wiped out our flock of 8 or so, then disappeared.

Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "bird feeder".

[mosquito]

This winter we have had the usual down, hairy and red-bellied wood peckers come for the dollar store suet, then there is the cardinals, sparrows, mourning doves, juncos and chickadees. The hawks haven't been hunting like usual this year, the sharp shinned used to come in hard and fast from the neighbour's yard reach the tree at the back of our yard and make a hard 90 at the house flushing all the mourning doves that then crashed into the windows and were stunned on the ground for him to snag. The smaller hawks have used the same tactic on woodpeckers and junkos
The starlings I wish I could pick off but I think the police and neighbours would get upset so I'm hoping some in the country can make up for it. I often try to scare the blackbirds and bluejays as they dump on the ground more than they eat. I saw about 7 or so Robins this week but not at the feeder.

Not the best pictures but you get the idea.
https://www.oodmag.com/community/att...9&d=1487514189

dirty window, trying to take the picture without looking out and scaring it.
https://www.oodmag.com/community/att...8&d=1487514136

[patvetzal]

This winter we have had the usual down, hairy and red-bellied wood peckers come for the dollar store suet, then there is the cardinals, sparrows, mourning doves, juncos and chickadees. The hawks haven't been hunting like usual this year, the sharp shinned used to come in hard and fast from the neighbour's yard reach the tree at the back of our yard and make a hard 90 at the house flushing all the mourning doves that then crashed into the windows and were stunned on the ground for him to snag. The smaller hawks have used the same tactic on woodpeckers and junkos
The starlings I wish I could pick off but I think the police and neighbours would get upset so I'm hoping some in the country can make up for it. I often try to scare the blackbirds and bluejays as they dump on the ground more than they eat. I saw about 7 or so Robins this week but not at the feeder.

Not the best pictures but you get the idea.
https://www.oodmag.com/community/att...9&d=1487514189

dirty window, trying to take the picture without looking out and scaring it.
https://www.oodmag.com/community/att...8&d=1487514136

We will get a few grackles later on in the summer but we very seldom see starlings. Did see a feral pheasant yesterday....

Well, just lost a large chunk of snow off the roof....took out the bird feeder on its way past..

[mosquito]

My cat and this guy had quite the staring contest ..... but he didn't come back. Rabbits, raccoons and opossum (another non-indigenous shoot on sight) we see lots but it is the only the second turkey we have had in the yard.
https://www.oodmag.com/community/att...1&d=1487515585

[Roper]

Werner - I wouldn't mind a hawk dining on a few of the doves that hang around my feeding station. I find them to be bullys.