A couple of photos from yesterday.

Grackles are aplenty and love raiding the feeders for peanuts. They chase each other away one after the other to get to the peanuts in one feeder:


Red-bellied Woodpecker, female; she was heading to the feeder when the grackles scared her off:

LOL......... love the Grackles with peanuts!

They seem to love peanuts almost as much as the Blue Jays do. I've seen a single Jay cramming his crop so full with peanuts that I'm shocked he doesn't choke on them.

Thank you Linda, sure was a beauty.

Great shots Lin!

We saw (& heard) a whole slew of Sandhill Cranes gathering into formation over our house this morning and they were heading NW. Silly me, I was out there yelling to the sky, "NOOOOOOO, it's not time yet! You guys can't head back yet, it's not spring & they have a monster cold front moving in up north. You need to stay put for a while longer!"

So I'm not the only person who yells at birds in the sky?

greene said:So I'm not the only person who yells at birds in the sky?

No. You aren't.

We should be seeing them fly over any day now. I always look and listen for the Sandhill Cranes. We have huge flocks of Canada Geese show up here at the lake in just the last week or so. Making lots of noise!

Man, just had a HUGE flock of Robins come thru! Had a few Starlings mixed in with them. They filled the trees and had several on the ground.


Blue Bird....They have been around a lot.


This hawk is from the 18th of this month....I am getting very rusty in the ID area. It is true, use it or lose it!

Claudia, how nice to see the Robins, I hope a few of them fly south for awhile ... I always love seeing Robins!
Beautiful shot of that hawk; with that long tail I'd say Cooper's Hawk.

I was thinking a Cooper's but it has been such long time since we have had one. Used to always see them & the Sharp-shinned. I can't even remember the last time I saw a either one.

Beautiful pics all. Can someone tell me, is this a sharp-shinned hawk? He frequents our feeder area and terrorizes our birds. I do realize they need to eat too.

I'm going to say juvenile Cooper's Hawk. This site gives some very good ways to differentiate.
http://feederwatch.org/learn/t...

I do believe you are right, Thanks.

You had a pretty good photo to go by. We could tell the eye color which let us know it is a juvie. We could see the entire breast & going down to the underparts. We could see the Cooper barrel shape as opposed to the narrow hipped Sharp Shinned.

A few snapshots from the yard around the feeders.

Brown-headed Nuthatches. Not seen often here but they surely love the suet.



White-breasted Nuthatch. Our yard is loaded with these. Don't know if he is taking a nap or just savoring the morsel he was feeding on.


Tufted Titmouse and Chickadee sharing the feeder


Mr. Cardinal


Finally fixed

Dave, lovely photos but for some reason I can't view the first photo of the Brown-headed Nuthatches. It only shows up as a white box with a question mark. I especially like the picture of the White-breasted Nuthatch; it indeed looks like he's asleep but I wonder if he's hammering a nut or seed into the bark of the tree for later consumption and perhaps closing his eyes for protection? I've seen Blue Jays and Woodpeckers hammering nuts on tree branches and they sometimes seem to close their eyes when doing so ... I've always wondered about that.

Since today is February 1st I hope someone has a photo or two and can start a new thread for the month. I haven't had a chance to take any bird photos lately.

plantladylin said:Dave, lovely photos but for some reason I can't view the first photo of the Brown-headed Nuthatches. It only shows up as a white box with a question mark. I especially like the picture of the White-breasted Nuthatch; it indeed looks like he's asleep but I wonder if he's hammering a nut or seed into the bark of the tree for later consumption and perhaps closing his eyes for protection? I've seen Blue Jays and Woodpeckers hammering nuts on tree branches and they sometimes seem to close their eyes when doing so ... I've always wondered about that.

I fixed it Ithink.

Oh yes, I can see those pretty Brown-headed Nuthatches now! I love seeing photos of birds that don't visit my area.