Starlings En Masse

Today has been one of those days when I wonder why I even bother feeding the birds. Yesterday I made the Zick dough that birds are supposed to love. Well, guess what birds came for the dough? Starlings, hundreds of starlings, all fighting over the dough and the store bought suet.


Literally, hundreds of starlings descended on Robin's Nesting Place today and I spent a large portion of the day going outside to shoo them away from my feeders. Starlings are so loud and obnoxious when they are fighting over food and with so many of them attempting to get to the feeders and the special dough it was very loud and annoying.

When I would shoo them away they would go just far enough away, watch me go back into the house and then right back they came.

It did look funny to see them perched along the rooftops of my neighbor's houses watching me. I finally got tired of the battle and removed the four feeders that had the dough and suet. They were quite confused for a while when they couldn't find their food.

I don't usually see the mourning doves in the winter unless there's snow on the ground, but there were several here this morning.

They all had something white on their backs and tails. When I zoomed in closer while editing my pictures I saw clearly that it was ice crystals. There was no frost on the ground when I saw them and we didn't have any snow or ice on the ground either. I thought that was a bit odd.

Yesterday, I was sitting at the table with a little friend in my lap, (I've been babysitting this week), and I saw this Cooper's hawk fly into my backyard. Thankfully, I had my camera on the table. It was a little difficult getting pictures while sitting down with little hands grabbing for the camera.

Usually, the Cooper hawks just swoop by the feeders once and leave, and only once have I actually seen them catch something. This one was obviously more hungry than they usual are. It went into the spruce tree, which is shelter of choice for the sparrows.


Then it walked through my corner flower bed intensely searching for hiding birds.

I was surprised at how long it actually stayed on the ground. After all that searching it went away with empty talons. Too bad it didn't come back today, it could have had its choice of starlings.

Early yesterday morning it was frigid outside, this little downy woodpecker stayed in the same spot for so long that I was beginning to wonder if it was alright. I even went outside to the patio to get closer look and it didn't budge. After quite some time passed another downy came to the suet feeder and this one flew to another tree.

Well, those are my bird adventures for this week. Hopefully, the starlings will move on and I can actually get some birds with nicer manners to enjoy my Zick dough.