A Treat for my Sweet

We awoke to a light covering of sleet, ice and snow accompanied by freezing rain.  Yea, that is about as much fun as it sounds .  The only upside to weather like this is that it brings the birds to the feeders in droves.  Which kept the cats and I very busy today, peering through the windows, stalking birds.

My choice today was these two blue jays - the one in front had just taken a crop full of seeds from the feeder and carefully given several to the second bird, most likely its mate.  It's early in the season for the blue jays to be re-establishing pair bonds, so it took me by surprise to see this behavior.  If you look closely, you can see the seeds in both beaks.  You know I'm a sucker for shots like this...

A few notables today were the season's first Pine Siskin, which I nearly missed because it was in with a large (20-30) flock of American Goldfinches; and a couple of female brown-headed cowbirds.  Took gobs (that's a lot) of pics, most through the windows as it was too wet and cold to spend much time outside.  

And I had a face-to-face with a Coopers Hawk when it flew in and landed on the deck railing about 6 feet from where I was crouched, and less than 10- feet from two very lucky Downy Woodpeckers.  The hawk took one look at me and left in a whoosh of wings, leaving me fumbling for my camera and the woodpeckers breathing collective sighs of relief.  No doubt if I hadn't been right there, the hawk would have gotten one of those woodeckers!

A short while later, another hawk (uncertain as to identity) came flying out of the woods with a crow on its tail, followed immediately by a second hawk.  You don't want to mess with crows if you're a hawk - they don't take any crap off of anyone!

So, a fairly exciting day, bird-wise.  Fire is roaring and we're toasty warm inside...

TTFN,
Debbi