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  • Welcome back!

    We decided to spruce things up and fix some things under the hood. If you notice any issues, feel free to contact us as we're sure there are a few things here or there that we might have missed in our upgrade.

Birdies!!

Gunny

Well-Known Member
I LOVE watching birds of prey. The wife doesn't like them though since they hunt the other birds. We had a red tailed hawk and a coopers hawk that would occasionally snatch a sparrow from our feeder at the apartment we lived in. Our apt faced the lake so there was a lot of open space with some trees for them to perch. We even got to watch a pair of nesting Bald Eagles that have made a home here. They used to perch up in a large tree about 30 yds from our patio. We would see them fly out over the lake and come back with a nice size fish. Pretty awesome.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
I wish I coulda gotten a picture. We have a variety of birds of prey around here but I'm never fast enough with the camera.
 

Roansdad

Well-Known Member
That's my bird of choice. I love hawks and falcons and all birds of prey. Ill try to post a shit of the coopers hall eatin it's catch on my deck. Just sittin out my window eating away. Very cool. We have a lot of different kinds around me but the best is a few years ago a pair of bald eagles have taken residence at our towns reservoir
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
They're not much better here. Both they and the Starlings can be shot for pests IIR. If I start getting to many giant flocks like that I'll have to leave the feeders empty for a few days.
 

Gunny

Well-Known Member
We usually only get those cow birds every now and then but they will wipe out my feeders in no time. Same with those dang Starlings. Luckily we haven't been discovered at our house, but at our apartment they would clean us out.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
I don't mind the occasional one, same with the house sparrows. Its the giant flocks of them that'll get to me. If they hit to many days in a row I'll leave the feeders empty for a few days. They'll stop coming but the little birds'll be back really quick when I put seed back out. Well, them and the Jays lol, as soon as I put peanuts out the Jays'll be back. I swear they can smell them!
 

Robtouw

Well-Known Member
I love the pics! During the spring my place is covered with humming birds, in the winter we have a lot of owls, red hawks and gold eagles. They seem to scare off the little birds. I love watching my feeders in the warm months. I can look out our patio windows over coffee and watch the "party at the bird feeder"!
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
We've got a Sharp-shinned hawk haunting ours and our neighbors, but so far it doesn't appear to have put a serious damper on things. Couple years ago we had some kind of large hawk haunting them. Never got a good look at it. Not a redtail, but it never hung around long enough to get a solid look at its markings to really TELL what it was. We'd get a glimpse of 'big and brown" coming IN, as everything at the feeders scattered for cover, and then it would be gone again.
 

dpenning

Well-Known Member
During the summer we have a hawk that treats our feeder as a buffet. Every now and then we will see a bunch of feathers on the ground. One day we actually saw the blur of it happening. Dove seem to be the flavor of choice.
 

dpenning

Well-Known Member
Here too and ours are FAT! Your pictures are fabulous! I really need to dig out my camera, although I don't get much traffic this time of year.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
Well if it makes you feel better I usually end up taking at least 4 or 5 for every one I post. Most of the rest end up with half a bird cause they moved or the like....its fun documenting them though. I flushed a Northern Flicker out of the apple trees just over a week ago and was so pissed I didn't have my camera ready!
 

Gunny

Well-Known Member
Ruth, it's odd to me that you have so many of the same birds we have here. I would've thought you had a lot different species up there. I love the little chickadees and their little chirps. Last night we were watching tv and Gunny went to full alert mode, giving his grunt that he does when something's not right. I looked outside to see a beautiful pair of cardinals on our feeder. Lol. I guess he hasn't seen them out there before.
 

ruthcatrin

Well-Known Member
Oh we have some different ones, I just don't have as many photos of American tree sparrows and northern flickers lol, and I doubt you have Redpolls and Pine siskens too. We had cardinals out there all day today, and of course I didn't get a single photo...