Bird Brained Part 2

Here is part two of my bird post. I thought I'd show Lilly doing her Elvis lip curl first!

All winter I've had one cardinal couple that comes regularly to my feeders. Today I saw another male cardinal! The bright red against the snow is quite beautiful. One of the males lingered around until dark and it was a joy watching the flashes of red in my neighbors shrubs while I was busy in the kitchen.

Mary, once posted that she had twenty pairs of cardinals, they looked like red berries on her tree. I can't imagine having that many in my yard; I would be so thrilled.

I usually see the hawk fly through the backyard at least once everyday, it usually perches in the tree for a while and then flies away empty handed. One other time when we had several inches of snow I saw a Cooper swoop by my feeder and catch a bird. Some unfortunate bird met its demise today. It was probably a starling since the feathers looked short and black. And there were a lot of feathers!

I've also had a downy woodpecker couple that have been faithful visitors to my feeders all winter.


It's funny, I never really thought the females were that pretty until I started photographing them. They really are gorgeous birds.

While I was outside, (without a coat), trying to get pictures of the hawk, I heard the goldfinch in the tree above my head. I haven't seen them lately. In the beginning of the winter I had quite a few of them, one even came to the window during a snowstorm to drink water from the window.

A house finch on the frozen birdbath.

Several people have mentioned that they don't see as many house sparrows where they live. They are still plentiful here...

as are the starlings.

It will be very interesting to see how many of my seeds actually germinate. When spring comes I'm going to have so much to plant...I hope!