Happy Birthday Ruth! (and Joe)

91 and counting!

Bluebird

Well, Eastern Bluebirds are still around.  I haven't seen any for awhile but caught this one out my back window today.  In two of the pictures a House Finch joins in...

 



Cooper's Hawk

This is why I started my blog.  I knew I would have an opportunity to see some interesting things from my backyard.  This evening, I was standing at my back fence and a hawk caught my eye in the woods out maybe 30 yards.  I've seen a Red-tailed Hawk around but looking closely I saw the tail.  I knew I had either a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Very similar but the tail is one way to tell them apart.  Here is what I saw initially...

 

Then it moved and I was able to get a clearer view and saw the size of the head and the shape of the tail...

 



 

Then it flew toward me which caught me by surprise.  It landed on a dead tree maybe 20 feet away from me.  It had its eye on something.  Here's what I was able to capture...

 

Here's a cropped photo that's auto-corrected

 

 

For more fun, here's a "touched up" image using an app I have...

 

 

 

Then it flew along the woods and turned sharply back into the woods and down near the ground.  I could see some movement...a small bird.  I also saw a Northern Cardinal in a thicket likely taking cover.  It flew closer to me but still near the ground (images not so great)...

 

 

 

Well, that was exciting.  Getting a fairly close picture of a Cooper's Hawk has been on my list.  I've been fortunate getting decent pictures of a Red-tailed Hawk.  Today I can cross this off my list and get to work on seeing something like an Indigo Bunting.

 

Here are two images from the internet to show how close the Sharp-shinned Hawk ("Sharpie") and a Cooper's Hawk are...

 

 

Sharp-shinned Left and Cooper's Right

 

 

Last day of the feeder for the "season"

I only put my feeder out in the winter and early spring.  When the oak tree starts filling in, the light is blocked and my view is blocked so my picture taking suffers.  The birds don't survive on my feed and I've realized I'm mostly putting it out to get pictures so time to put it away.

Today was a good day and a great way to end my feeder season.  Because it's the last day and my favorite bird, I will include all of the American Goldfinch pictures I got today on lunch...

 

If you look closely at the back of the head, the yellow coloring is not all there yet.

  

I will probably try a thistle sock again in my front tree so stay tuned for that!

The Return of the Coyote

I'm assuming this is the same coyote from a few nights ago...but I'm not sure.  It did make the same move into the woods in the same spot so I will monitor that to see I can get a closer shot.



The latest from my trail camera

I put the camera out Friday evening into this morning (Sunday).  Two different vantage points.

Here's what I captured:

A coyote on the hunt for something (likely a rabbit)....



A fox squirrel getting busted by my Squirrel Buster feeder...



And two different woodpeckers (Downy and Red-Bellied)...

Easter photo

Here is our group photo from the other day.  Rusty is a pro...