Winter birds

After a frustratingly slow fall bird-wise (we even only had one lowly little white-crowned sparrow pass through, and it was a juvenile that I saw once), things seem to be picking up. Yay!

This week we had our first American Tree Sparrow of the winter at our hopper feeder, the Hairy Woodpecker made a reappearance for the first time in a couple of months, and we had Yard Bird Species #52 - White-breasted Nuthatch!

We also have a Cooper's Hawk back stalking our yard. Last year I came home several times to carnage in the snow, but only a couple of times did I catch the culprits in the act - one was a Sharp-shinned Hawk happily munching away on a sparrow, and the other was a Red-Tail that took out a Mourning Dove right under our back window.

I didn't even know the Cooper's was back until the other morning. I was outside with the pup before leaving for work on Tuesday, and I was standing near the driveway, by my hubby's SUV. All of a sudden a sparrow comes screaming past the front of the barn/storage shed, followed by a Cooper's Hawk in full hunting mode. The sparrow just barely made it under Dave's truck and the Cooper's veered off just in time to avoid smacking into the bumper. I was maybe... 10 feet away from the action, and it was SO cool to be that close to a hawk on the hunt.

I saw the Cooper's again yesterday morning, as it dove after some birds at the side of our house. I just happened to look out the front door in time to see him fly up and off (talons empty and no carnage to be found in its wake).

So yes! Fun times are coming. I'm also getting a new camera soon, so I hope I'll be able to put it to good use this winter. And I'm REALLY hoping the snowy owls make it this far south again - I missed them last year!

"27 October 2011" by home page | RedBubble

Hey, check it out! My favorite screech owl picture made the Oct 27 Redbubble home page. Apparently only 3 out of every thousand pictures ever make it there. Very cool! :)

"27 October 2011" by home page | RedBubble:

Holy harriers, Batman...

We’ve had a fair number of Northern Harriers hanging around lately. In fact, yesterday afternoon we saw a pair of them in a mid-air battle with a red-tailed hawk. But just now, there were FIVE Harriers flying over the field adjacent to our yard. FIVE! I wonder if they live in family groups, or if they group together for migration…? But I think we had Harriers around all winter last year, so I don’t know if the ones around here actually migrate.

I really, really need to try to get some good pictures of these guys. They’re usually juuuust far enough from the house that they’re too far away to get a good shot with my 300mm lens. I need to keep trying, though, because they’re such beautiful birds. I just love them.

Screechy good fun

For the past three nights, my hubby's been hearing an eastern screech owl calling from the woods adjacent to our property. (Dave, the hubs, does astrophotography, so he's been outside in his observatory the past few nights because the sky's been nice and clear - and apparently that means good hunting for the little screech owls.) We need to search these little guys out in the daytime!

Early winter bird

Our first Dark-eyed Junco showed up under our feeders this morning. That seems awfully early in the fall for them to be making an appearance. Clearly, winter's on the way!

Girls gone wild... hummingbird style

Girls gone wild... hummingbird style, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

This is one of the craziest shots I've gotten of our hummers. Two females were fighting for a feeder, and the one pinned the other to the ground. Never seen anything like this!

Ruby-throated hummingbird at zebra mallow 6

Ruby-throated hummingbird at zebra mallow 6, a photo by Jen St. Louis on Flickr.

Summer's winding down, and I figure our hummers will stick around for MAYBE another week or two, at most. They disappeared sometime during the week of Sept 20 last year, so we'll see if that holds true this year.