Snow...Round 2

Well, it snowed again here in Portland. About 2 inches fell last night, and boy, did it bring the birds in! We woke up this morning to a yard overflowing with birdies. The Lincoln's Sparrow was back (he hasn't been here since the last snow) and the Warblers were back in force. It's over half melted now but it was sure pretty while it lasted. Here are some photos from the yard. Hope you enjoy.

For the last week or so, we have only been seeing about 5-10 Juncos in the yard. Today, we easily had 40. We just need to snow to come in and fill the yard back up.


2 of the 5 or 6 Yellow-Rumped Warblers that are in the yard full time.


A Ruby-Crowned Kinglet was nice enough to pose for a close-up.


We are now getting 4-5 Townsend's Warblers in the yard during the day, too.


Such gorgeous birds.


The Yellow-Rumped Warblers feed more on the ground than they do on the suet.


The House Finches seem to be getting their breeding plumage.


A Chestnut-Backed Chickadee and a Red-Breasted Nuthatch sharing some suet.


We have been seeing more of the Bushtits recently. They weren't coming around very much in the last month or so.


This morning, there were dozens and dozens of Pine Siskins and Lesser and American Goldfinches on the thistle feeders. I know the thistle sacks look dirty, but I assure you that they are washed regularly.


A Song Sparrow, 2 House Sparrows, Golden-Crowned Sparrow and a White-Crowned Sparrow.


This morning, Michelle heard a loud crash against our living room window. A Pine Siskin had struck the window pretty hard. When I went out to get him, we were both sure that he wasn't going to make it. He was on his side and his legs looked mangled. We picked him up, put him in a box and gave him some food and water. After about 20 minutes, I opened the box to see if he was still alive and, WHOOSH, he flew out of it and into the garage. It took us about 10 minutes to catch him and release him in the backyard. He flew off and seemed to be completely recovered.


A Towhee, Golden-Crowned Sparrow and a House Sparrow.


As we were in the office watching birds through the window, we heard another crash against the window, but this time, the crash came from the inside. Apparently, our cat Gem didn't like the idea of a squirrel on our window ledge. So she threw herself against the window got tangled in the blinds and made one heck of a racket while doing it.


Then, one of our dogs, Black Top, got in on the action. At first, he didn't seem to know what it was or what to do.

Then, he threw himself against the window. The squirrel shot of the ledge and ran into a nearby tree, thankful to have made it out alive!

Sunday Bloody Sunday

Well, I think we have succeeded in making a refuge for Sharp-Shinned Hawks. We have had over 40 (known) visits in the last 5 days from the pair (and 2 visits from the Cooper's). Our bird counts went from the hundreds to a dozen or two in the matter of less than a week. Yesterday, The hawks had a very fruitful day, taking at least 3 Pine Siskins from the yard. It's a spectacular sight to watch, but it is awful to see.

It seems our next course of action is to take down all of the feeders for a couple of weeks and let the hawks disperse. We know that they are attracted to all of the activity going on in the yard. That being said, we are in a moral/birding quandary. Do we take down all of the feeders in hopes that the hawks will stop coming around (although, it's truly something to behold)? Or, do we leave the feeders up and let "nature" take it's course? I put "nature" in quotes because we would not normally have the high concentration of birds in the yard if it weren't for all of our feeders/baths/shelters. On one hand, the hawks need to eat, too. On the other, we understand that because we have so many feeders, we are creating a hotbed of activity that might be drawing more hawks into the yard. We don't know what the right answer is.

Anyway, here are some photos from the yard. The very last photo is one that I took of a Sharp-Shinned when she was in the yard. I didn't realize until after I downloaded the photos, that she had a Pine Siskin in her grips. If you don't want to see it, please avoid the bottom pic in this post. Other than that, please enjoy these photos from the yard.



The Red-Breasted Nuthatches (sitta canadensis) always a treat!


A Black-Capped Chickadee (poecile atricapillus) looking for his next snack.


Chestnut-Backed Chickadee (poecile rufescens) preening itself.


One of our regular visiting Anna's Hummingbirds (calypte anna). They always let us know that their food is getting low by sitting near the porch and "buzzing". The only time they make this noise is when their food source is low or getting old.


The Bewick's Wren (thyomanes bewickii) has been coming around the yard a lot more the last couple of weeks. Such a treat.


This Pine Siskin (carduelis pinus) seemed to overshoot his landing. The colors on some of these guys is just awesome.



The Pine Siskins are pretty good at defending their food source. We constantly hear the chatter of the Siskins, telling each other to "move over" or "that's my spot".


A lone Pine Siskin just sunning itself on a feeder.


This Sharp-Shinned is not deterred by my presence at all. She sat there very patiently waiting for her next meal.


She was watching everything in the yard, including the dogs and squirrels.


Then, she flew to the shepherds hook again to see what she could flush out.

She then took off after a Pine Siskin and, unbeknownst to me, nabbed it in mid-air and then landed in this tree with it. I actually thought the Siskin got away, but I then realized that it had not.