Great shots Lin!!

Thanks Margaret!

Really enjoyed all the pictures.
This is a terrible pic but the Sharp Shined Hawk that has been lurking around our bird feeder is quite entertaining. All the small birds just disappear in a flash, then the Hawk comes in landing on the bird bath or bird feeder. After a short perusal of the area he flies over to the Holly Hedge and lands on the ground in front of it. Then spends a few minutes walking along the edge and peering into the hedge looking for all those little birds that disappeared into the hedge.

Amazing!!! I have never known an Accipiter try to flush birds while on the ground.

Glen, I have seen them do it in my yard, here they are on the ground looking around the garden and under the bushes for the birds.

Cooper's......... Sharp-shinned and a young Cooper's

Margaret, what cheek for an accipiter. Love it.

Holly: Very cool photo of the Sharp-shinned in the snow looking for a treat; I'm glad that the small birds have that row of cover in the background. I guess the Hawks get hungry too; they are pretty smart to hang out around yards with feeders where they can find a quick and easy meal. I see hawks around here all the time and it's interesting to watch all of the songbirds take cover. The Blue Jays loudly screech and screech, the Northern Cardinal's take cover and make a constant chattering sound while other birds just perch in the heavy foliage of shrubs or trees hiding in silence.

Margaret: I love seeing your bird photo's and those of the hawks are no exception, great shots!

I never knew that hawks would flush small prey from ground level, I've only seen them fly in from on high to catch their prey. A couple of years ago I was out in my backyard and a hawk flew so fast right past my head that it scared the beejeebies out of me. It got a dove and landed in a tree for a few seconds before taking off with it's prey.

These are two old photo's from 2011 or 2012. Someone identified the first one for me as a juvenile Cooper's Hawk; it caught a dove for lunch and it was really interesting that it let me walk up to within @ 5 or 6 feet before flying away. The second one was ID'd as a Coopers also.

Glen, they are indeed cheeky.

One thing I learned was not to try and chase the hawk away by going outside near the area where the birds are hiding, it flushes them giving it a chance to grab one, I go out on the deck and sometimes that doesn't faze a hawk that's looking for a meal..

Lin, your birds shots are great too!

It's dreary and rainy here today ahead of a cold front that's supposed to pass through (hopefully the last of the season!) Between the raindrops I was able to take a few photo's of some of the backyard birds.

Blue Jay ............................................... Brown Thrasher ..................................... Northern Mockingbird

Mourning Dove ......................................... Red-winged Blackbird, male ............... Red-bellied Woodpecker, female

It may be a dreary, cloudy looking day but the bright color of the red bird always brightens things up.
Northern Cardinal

Lin

Thanks Glen!

Those are lovely pictures Lin.

Thanks Holly!

I was out in the yard with the dog just before 6 O'clock this evening and noticed a bunch of Cedar Waxwings perched in a tree. We only see the Waxwings for a very short time in the winter ... I have a feeling they are on their way back north!

I just love Cedar Waxwings, they are in our area but I rarely ever seen them. Once years ago we had a huge flock of them come in for just one day. They spent the whole day in the Juniper bushes eating the berries and moved on the next day.

They are such gorgeous birds! In the neighborhood where our rental house is located there are many Sugarberry (Celtis laevigata) trees and during winter we'd get large flocks of Cedar Waxwings that would devour the berries.

Oops, I misspoke ... I'm not sure it was the sugarberries they were eating but they did perch in those trees as well as the Black Cherry trees. These photo's from a few years ago show waxwings in a black cherry tree in the backyard at our other house:

Waxwings look neat and well-dressed.

They are very beautiful, I see mostly the Bohemian in large flocks.

I've seen photo's of Bohemian Waxwings ... real beauties indeed! I wish we had waxwings here year round but I also wish we could see Robins and a few others year round too but I know that's being selfish of me because we have tons of year round birds in these parts ... I just love them all! These are from today ... wish I had a more powerful lens so that I could zoom in on some of those far away like the Hawk and Osprey.

Myrtle Warbler:


Red-bellied Woodpecker, female:


Red-shouldered Hawk ............................. Red-shouldered Hawk ............................. Osprey:


Palm Warbler .......................................... Mourning Dove ................................................ Northern Mockingbird:


Northern Mockingbird .......................... Chipping Sparrow .................................... Pied-billed Grebe: