Thanks Glen and Ann. And yes, the bratty little owl was looking right at me giving me "the look"!

The little ones are always the feistiest!

That little guy is so cute! How lucky for you to have the up close and personal experience with him!

Becky, this is the second time that I have gotten to hold a Pygmy owl in my hands, same thing in 2011, little guy flew into the window I picked him up with similar results, he flew into a shrub and was a little dazed for a few minutes, then he sat upright. I kept and eye on him until he flew up into the spruce tree.

It is amazing these little cuties don't freeze to an ice block with such a large surface area to volume ratio.

That's a neat little bird.

Margaret, LOVE that little Pygmy Owl, sooo cute ... especially the photo of the snow on it's face! That pretty Northern Shrike looks a lot like the Loggerhead Shrike that we see here sometimes.

A few years ago we had most of the windows and glass doors in our house tinted because of the sun and heat. The tinting made the outside of the doors and windows like mirrors and birds were flying into them; they'd be stunned for a few minutes and then fly off but it was happening all the time! Finally after a tiny Warbler smacked into one of the sliding doors and died, I bought some decals for the windows. At first I thought they probably wouldn't make a difference but it really did ... no bird strikes since! I placed them on the outside of the doors and windows and they are barely visible to the human eye but apparently birds see the images and thankfully do not fly into the mirrored doors or windows anymore! http://www.duncraft.com/Window...

Thanks everyone, he sure is a cutie.

Lin, thanks for that link, I will have to order some of those decals, I will have to put them on the inside, hope that will work.

Saw what I think was a Red Bellied Woodpecker [Confirmed] on my suet feeder this AM. Went to get wife and he vanished. I seldom see these. Most prevalent are: Downy and Hairy.

The Red Bellied just came back and a Downy drove him off. Curious since the Downy is about half the size.

But found him again on a regular bird feeder eating seeds.

This is one of the few things I do enjoy during winter - observing all the different birds at my feeders.

I love observing the birds too but I get so many English sparrows that they chase all the other birds away. The chickadees do manage to grab a seed once in awhile as do the Goldfinches and Purple Finches. I have a hawk that keeps hanging around. Easy picking for them. When the hawk is around I don't have any birds on my feeders. There is a very large blue spruce tree in my yard and the hawk hangs out in it.

I haven't seen a hawk in awhile, but the Shrikes sure make the birds scatter.

Lin, we have the Loggerhead Shrike here too.

I haven't seen a shrike in a very long time.

I sympathize with all those dealing with house sparrows. They are here 365 days a year. I reduced my bird feeding a lot because they get most of it. The native birds are better at foraging from seed heads, and don't need as much additional food most of the year.

There is a reason there are so many house sparrows though. They are smart little buggers. I look out the window and see four chickadees, a pair of cardinals, a downy woodpecker, and a group of juncos all checking out the empty feeder and surrounding area. I look around and see no sign of the house sparrows. So I go out and fill up the feeder with black oilers and walk back to the house. The second I reach the house I turn around and look...20 house sparrows at the feeder chowing down! The other birds are nowhere to be seen! Shifty little buggers!

Sometimes all of a sudden the house sparrows disappear, but some of the "good birds" are still out and about. Nine times out of ten I look around and there is a hawk or a cat nearby. The sparrows know to stay alive and get the hell out of there! Plus they go at it like bunnies all season long. :)

My relatives who live in the country have never had a single house sparrow. Their feeders are dripping with chickadees, rose-breasted grosbeaks, nuthatches, red-head woodpeckers, titmice, indigo buntings, etc., etc. The sparrows have adapted very well to city and suburban life, but are not as present in the country it seems. I don't really like them, but am not quite willing to actively kill them or remove their nests like some people do. I did make all the openings on the bird houses a little smaller by adding metal bushing washers to the front which seems to have stopped them from nesting there so far at least.

You are so right Morgan. Those sparrows are certainly smart and they have adapted way too well to city and suburban life. I used to feed with a mixed seed blend then for the past 3 years have used only oilers thinking that they would not like that seed as well but it hasn't worked. They eat just about anything you put in the feeders. I can no long put suet out because they will clean up a suet cake in one day. That can get quite expensive.

I don't have House Sparrows on the island which is surprising because the introduced pests are common on the mainland. Interestingly, native populations of Tree Sparrows have declined. There are good introduced populations of it in Australia.

Strange about the suet, I have never seen them at any of the 3 cakes I have out, and not in the seed feeder too often, I throw some seeds under the spruce tree and they prefer to eat there.

What is this bird? A warbler of some kind? A female Pine Warbler?

Becky, that is a cutie! I'm not sure which Warbler it is but it looks identical to the one in this photo I took on Dec. 11th. At first I thought mine was the Yellow-rumped (a/k/a Myrtle) Warbler but after looking at lots of pictures I don't think it's that one.

I spotted this lone White Ibis feeding in the lawn behind the deck a few minutes ago:

Wonderful photos, Becky and Lin At first I had a little fantasy that the same bird had visited both of you, but then I noticed that Lin's does seem to have a patch of yellow above his tail, some little dark spots on his wings and perhaps a slightly longer tail? I'm sure one of you experts will identify them both, and look forward to discovering what they are.