Our Backyard Birds in the Snowstorm

With all these snowstorms, the feeders in our backyard are pretty active. Not with any unusual birds, but the juncos and white-throats are visiting non-stop. Of course, the cardinals show up throughout the day as well. The hardest part of all these storms is keeping a fairly clear path out to the feeders so you can keep them full!

Of course when the Bluejays come in with a flourish, everything scatters. These guys certainly know how to get to the front of the food line. They remind me of the bullies in school who would just cut in and push the little kids out of the way.....not much you can do.

The juncos are pretty resilient though....

That is until the real predators show up!

I was standing on the back porch just getting some typical shots of the White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos, when this young male Cooper's Hawk bombed into the bushes trying to catch a meal for himself.

He sat out in the open and then dove into the bushes trying to flush birds. With all the cold and snow, it seems we have 1-2 Cooper's Hawks (there's a larger adult bird) visiting regularly as well.

It's nice to know that there's birds to watch, even if we can't get out as much as we'd like. And while I truly love these Cooper's Hawks, I'll be happy when spring comes and they guys move off to some more isolated wood lots to set up their nesting territory.

Enjoy......Sheila