Hi everyone and Happy Friday! The sun is shining beautifully, though there are clouds around as well, but it is a nice morning! It is really quite mild, for this time of the year, with a temperature of 46F (8C) already. The birds are busy this morning, as usual, but there are not as many as there has been the last few days. I think some of them, like the juncos, are using this nicer weather to continue their southward journey. There seems to be less than half the juncos that were around 2 days ago.

You probably noticed I was not here yesterday, except for my early morning post. It was one of those days when things just kept going wrong, so I did not get to spend much time here. It actually began with hurting my back when I took the garbage out to the street for pickup. Hauling that garbage can down the stairs, well, it kind of got away from me and pulled me along with it. My back is still complaining about it today.

But I am hoping to get my new feeder poles finished so they will be ready to put up in place on our next nice day. I might even get one in place today. But that will depend on my back. Oh well. There is a hawk around. It showed up 2 days ago, I thought perhaps it would be gone by now. But it is still here and came by twice today already.

I am not sure what it is, but I think probably it is a Cooper’s hawk. They can be deadly on birds, which are their main diet. I think it might have caught a rock dove yesterday. It was kind of hard to tell in all the confusion of birds flying and squawking in every direction. Although if he did catch it, then he likely would not be hunting again this morning. The grosbeaks have returned.

They flew away the first time the hawk showed up this morning, and they have been gone for 2 hours. I guess they did not want to take a chance. Hopefully that hawk will leave soon. Fortunately they do not stay the winter. I miss my little chipmunks already. Still, they are smart, heading off to bed early. They miss that late fall cold, damp weather.

Yesterday afternoon I noticed there were a lot of birds around, so I decided to go out and take pics for a while. I got myself set up and ready and…no birds. Not one. Every bird had disappeared mysteriously after I went out there. They were still around when I first went out, but once I was set up and ready for pictures there was nothing. Even the blue jays had gone. I waited. Nothing. I waited longer. Nothing. I waited even longer. Still nothing.

I was cold so came back inside. I looked out the window. Blue jays were here, chickadees were picking up seeds, so were the nuthatches. Juncos were back and a white-throated sparrow. Amazing. There are two white-throated sparrows around still. That is quite late for them. Normally they would have gone south much earlier than this. Oh well, it is nice to have them around still. I hope you all have a fabulous Friday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.