Who's Watching Whom?!

As I sat "counting" birds for The FeederWatch Program this past Sunday and Monday, I had to laugh at the observances I made at who was actually watching whom.

Of course, there I sat with my binoculars, camera, clipboard with tally sheet, pen and coffee behind closed patio doors. About 10 feet away were my feeders hanging from the tree and other pole systems.

Lovely, little every day birds I watched and counted.  Cardinals and House Sparrow.

All of a sudden I spotted this gray fluffy intruder!  Not one of my cats!  Mine stay indoors at all times.  Such a pretty cat...who had obviously been watching all of my birds at the feeders too.  I'm not sure what she was rolling around in.  The other day Finn was rolling around in that same area and I looked to see what might have been there, but saw nothing.

I didn't want the cat to get any of the birds, so I sent out my buddy, Finn.  As soon as he went flying out the door, the cat ran.  However, he did check out the area where it sat.

Finn giving the icy stare...DON'T COME BACK!

A little later, this beautiful Cooper's Hawk landed about 3 feet from where I watching behind patio doors.  I was so excited...I was afraid I wouldn't be able to hold the camera steady!  I'm sure this is the closest I'll ever get to such a magnificent bird!  I'm having enlargements made of these pictures so I can enjoy them every day!  He didn't catch any little birds either.

So, I guess I'm not the only one out there watching.....

Beautiful Colors and Markings

Included in this post are some of the birds I really just love to stare at!  Their beautiful markings and colors just fascinate me.  Since I'm not always around to see them I try to take a picture of them so I can look at them whenever I want.

The next pictures are of a female Yellow Shafted Northern Flicker.  Some pictures are a little fuzzy but I included them to show their markings from different angles.

You can tell this is a female because there is NO black slash mark (kind of like the Nike trademark) under it's eye. 

A little out of focus, but I like the squirrel in the background.

Again, a little fuzzy, but showing her back markings.

Now, a pretty Blue Jay.  This shot was interesting because there was some fog in the area, but after brightening the picture to show the color of the jay, I lost the fog.  I thought the color was more important.

A bit out of focus picture of a Red Bellied Woodpecker.

A Blue Jay about to take off with a peanut.

Finally, a really strange "bird" on the platform feeder.

Little Birds and Silly Squirrels

In my previous post I included some Carolina Wren pictures that weren't the best.  In the meantime, I've captured a few more pictures that are quite a bit better.  I still get excited when I see these cute little guys.

I know it's really hard to distinguish this little bird, but you'll have to take my word for it that the next two pictures are of a brown creeper.  I know it just looks like a wet leaf in these two pictures, but it is a brown creeper.  I'll have to continue to try and get a better picture of this cute little guy too.  It is situated at the top of the picture right below the large twig.

 You can see in this picture he has changed positions and is sitting upright.  Sorry the pictures are a bit out of focus.

I love this next picture, because the squirrels were chasing each other around the tree.  Can you see all four of them?  The hardest one to spot is on the upper right portion of the tree.