Out on the Deck!

 I feed the birds on our deck, visible at our dining room windows. We get lots of mourning doves. I call them the piggies.  There are SO many of them, they come in large groups and try to finish off the seed I put out all at once! They are either all out there, or not at all. Never one or two. 

We get gold and purple finches. 

Here are some of the gold finches and purple ones too. The purple ones aren't really purple. They have                                                       more of a rose tinge to them. 

Some more finches. 

And we get the cardinals ocasionally. Lately it's been more of the females like this one, above.

Here's the male cardinal. Isn't he gorgeous!

Short story- when I was in 1st and 2nd grade, my mom gave me a picture of a cardinal

made out of real red cardinal feathers for the Science Fair. 

The first year everyone loved it. The second year people remembered they had seen it before! 

This is a Downy Woodpecker. They are the same as a Hairy Woodpecker but smaller. 

I think this is a Hairy one. The males have a bright red spot on the back of

their heads. The females don't. - The Woodpeckers eat the suet. 

Recently we have been getting the Starlings. They are a real pain. They gobble up the suet, and

chase the other birds away. The larger Woodpeckers seem to hold their own sometimes and try

to face off with the Starlings. When I see them I try to chase them away by tapping on the glass. 

We also get Chickadees- they are so cute with their little black caps and breasts. We get juncos, they are small gray birds with white breasts. We haven't seen many in the past few weeks. I wonder if they are

migrating? We also get Tufted Titmouses (mice?), Wrens, Nuthatches, Blue Jays and some others. 

We also get a few squirrels but not as many as I expected. 

And... the other day we looked out and saw two Red Tailed Hawks sitting in the trees!

The female is the big white fluffy one. I think it's mating season. 

They were huge! Someone told me that bird feeders are Hawk diners!!!

Thankfully these Hawks were maybe viewing the menu but

didn't swoop in for lunch!!!