This photo is in one of my slideshows, but I never posted it in Cardinals. This female cardinal was perched on a snowy branch in the morning sun after a heavy snowfall the previous night.
This is in one of the slideshows, but I never posted it in Cardinals. This male cardinal was posing nicely on a snowy branch in the middle of a snow storm.
This is one of my Christmas card photos. It is in a slideshow, but I never posted it under bluebirds. A snow squall was blowing in from the west and the sun was rising in the east when I took this photo, a once in a lifetime opportunity.
This little bandit northern shrike was trying to poach a meal in our feeder area. He was not successful, but all the birds did scramble out of respect for his killer capabilities. A female downy woodpecker decided to stay and hid on the back side of a tree trunk. The shrike flew right past her as she rotated around the tree trunk very deftly, staying on the back side from him all the time. He never saw her -phew!
Since I started tossing seed into the spruce tree in our front yard, the bird activity there has increased. I frequently see 6 or more chickadees and juncos spread out among the snowy branches. This chickadee was in the top of the tree where all the cones are.
The kestrel made a run at our feeder area again this morning. A bluejay slammed into our window, but got away by staying under the holly bushes. The kestrel then peched right by the window thinking maybe the jay would reappear. He finally left without a catch.
Bluejay in Snowy Evergreen
Posted:
December 22, 2008
All the birds are trying to stay warm. This bluejay is patiently waiting for a starling to finish at the suet block. Despite their dominant behavior toward all the songbirds, the bluejays defer to the starlings.
The afternoon sun really highlighted the darker yellow coloring on the side of this male pine siskin. He landed in our crabapple tree along with the others in a small flock.
We had not seen any pine siskins for a few days, but today 24 showed up - twice as many as last time. This female has a subtle yellow tint on her sides.
As I was driving up our road yesterday, I saw about 20 redpolls less than a mile from our house. They were on the shoulder of the road right where they were last year a few days before they discovered our yard. They should find our thistle feeders soon.
Earlier in the day, 24 cedar waxwings swooped in and landed in the willow tree in our front yard. I got all set up to get shots of them eating at our crabapple tree, but they just flew off. Maybe another day they will be brave enough to come into the back yard.
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