I was taking a pic of something else today, and looked to see if there were any birds out eating the food my Wife just brought to them? First thing there was a Bully Bird, my name for a Blue Jay. I love them, but they show up, and Lord over the feedlot like it's all theirs, thus Bully Birds.
They are way too big to eat out of the feeder, so they have to pluck it off the ground where the smaller birds shook some out when they climb inside.
He's got some fine feathering on, most are pretty showy by now, and the Males carry that into Spring to woo the Females.
As I was watching a Brother dropped in. It's funny, when it's nice out, one will not tolerate another eating his food, but at 4 degrees and with a 20 MPH wind, ahhhh, it's good.
The one was nervous. I'm standing right in the closest window, and the sun is glaring at the lens that time of day, so I imagine a lot of flashing light can be seen outside, kinda scares them off when I point the lens at them.
I had been seeing a pair of Downey Woodpeckers, but having a hard time getting a good pic. They were hanging on the SE side of the tree. That wind is dead out of the NW, so they are using it as a wind block. You can see the Female on the side of the tree, just a bit. Once in a while she would turn her head toward me, and I could see her beak, but mostly it was a, that bump is bigger now than it was before kind of thing, and that I know they do this to stay warmer.
She is on the tree with her back right up against it. He was too, but was moving more, I think he was hungry.
Finally he moved to the feeder, but on that tree you can see they are there, but there isn't much chance of a good pic from that window. When he moved to the big cake feeder I got a few shots of him. He starts away, then moves closer, and closer, but that Fing Grackle on the cake kept him away. I bet he was thinking Grrrrrrrrrrr ackle....
Finally the Grackle left, and he fed, might still be feeding. This too is funny. The Downies won't approach feed that the bigger grackles are using, BUT the Grackles will not come back to feed until the Downy is done eating. I and my Wife believe it's because the Downies, bigger Cousins the Red Bellies, just whip up on the Grackles every time they show up to eat. Now the RB's won't bother the much smaller wrens, and chickadees if they want some of the cake, but a Grackle, and it's on like Donkey Kong. I guess they dislike them like we do. :-)
On a sad note for the Grackles, we spotted our resident Coopers Hawk, and he was munching on yet another Grackle. He eats off the feeders all the time, sometimes I believe he only get's a few suicidal mice all Winter, the majority of his feed is Grackles. Seems all the others go poof when he comes around, likely just smart enough NOT to get eaten by a Hawk, at least smarter than the Grackles. Didn't that used to be a TV show, Jeff Foxworthy I believe.
I've only seen one Cardinal today, must be feed closer to the roost. Still no poop on the furniture out back, and a lot of the smaller birds are roosting there during the day, most of the time it's out of the wind, covered overhead, and would offer a bit of water close by, and those that like it, the Thistle is out back. All of them are just BROWN right now, pretty drab to look at. The Jays, Woodpeckers, and Cardinals are the ones we see that are all lit up right now. Saw a few Wood Ducks on our creek yesterday, and the Drakes were lit up VERY well. They jumped and flew back toward me when I starting crunching on the ice in the truck, and even in flight you could clearly see them being beautiful.
