Yard Bird Drama

June 10, 2016 2 By Audrey

I’ve waited so long to post about my yard birds, I’m afraid most of those sightings have expired. Remember that time it snowed? Yeah, well, we had Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Dark-eyed Junco, Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Townsend’s Warbler, Anna’s Hummingbird…and a first for the yard, a Varied Thrush!

Varied Thrush

Varied Thrush doesn’t care, he’s long gone by now.

Since winter, I’ve upgraded the suet and bird feeder to Squirrel Buster designs saving me a ton of money on seed.

Squirrelbuster

And disappointing the hairy seed snatchers.

Squirrel

While making the birds and I very happy.

Goldfinch and Siskin

Lesser Goldfinch and Pine Siskin

Bushtits

Red-breasted Nuthatch and Bushtits

Nuthatch

See the chew marks on the cage? And the smiling Red-breasted Nuthatch? Squirrel Busters FTW.

And tonight! – I was rewarded for taking the compost outside, because I opened the front door to this!

Sharp-shinned

Woah! The birds were calling, “alarm! alarm!” I quickly set down the compost bin and grabbed my camera that was thankfully nearby, locked and loaded.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk

I got a sense from the size and thinner legs that it’s an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk. Here’s a better picture to get a sense of the size of the bird.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

I’d say smaller than a crow, slightly larger than a robin. But as we all know, size lies, so I’m open to interpretation. Anyways, the bird hopped down on the fence and continued the hunt.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Sharp-shinned Hawk

I sat on the floor at my front door admiring its ferocity (with just a hint of guilt knowing that it’s probably there because of the bird feeders). Fortunately, a group of brave chickadees chased it away before anyone got hurt. In my yard at least. Whew, exciting! Glad I forced myself out of the hammock to do a little cleaning. Totally worth it.

In less dramatic news, here are cute Bushtits!

Bushtit

Bushtit

Yard birds are the best.

Tweets and chirps,

Audrey