B.B.B.B.B Bird is the Word ...

We have been pretty serious backyard bird watchers for over a decade now ... and can actually spend hours on the weekend keeping tabs on who is flitting about by our feeders.  

There are many interesting things to observe about birds and their habits ... like that the Cardinals form communities during the winter months - we have had up to eight pairs per winter - and this winter we have six pair.   We know that Goldfinches can go from a beautiful bright yellow in the summer months to a drab olive green in the winter, and that nuthatches are very acrobatic.    We discovered that there are some Robins that stay around all winter around these parts, and they seem to hang out with the Cedar Wax-wings, who seem to travel in gangs and look like bandits.   Hummingbirds are very fascinating and one year we even had a teeny tiny nest of babies right outside the front window!   Bluejays are bullies at the feeders, and the chickadees are quite verbose with ter constant "chick-a-dee dee dee" call.  We can see a change - of course - with all the seasons at the bird feeder ... one of the most pronounced is the arrival of the Junco in the fall announcing the pending arrival of the winter snows.  We have been thrilled by the sight of the large Pileated Woodpecker, and mourned slightly as we witnessed nature's food chain in action when a Northern Shrike made a meal out of small songbird right in front of our eyes. 

Rich has spent countless hours building bird blinds, hanging out of some of our windows (sorry neighbors!), and trying very hard to be patient to capture some of our fine feathered friends through his lense ... we hope these few shots are only the beginning!