Bird Watching In Our Backyard 2

Pine Grosbeaks love the pine trees but I have found they also love the maple trees that are all around our house. Their name Pinicola is Latin for pine dweller.

The little chick-a-dees stay off the feeder until the grosbeaks are gone. .

The Grosbeaks like a flat feeder where they can fly in and fly out with no problems. They have also been eating the crabapples and grapes from our trees and vines.

Cold doesn't seem to bother them. They are fighters always fighting with each other. We have seen all these females but there only seems to be one male.

My husband goes out to have a cig and they fly in and out with him standing there. They don't seem to be bothered by the dog standing right up to the feeder watching them.

Sandhill Cranes in the potato field across from our house. They nest in the fields.They are very loud and will wake us up in the morning. Not great pictures taken out our bedroom window. Believe me they can wake the dead. I think it's a family Mom, Dad and two kids.

Their food is worms, grasshoppers, snails, frogs, seeds, and sometimes snakes, small birds and mice. Potato farmers don't like them because they eat swollen underground plant stems, like a potato.

They have wondered into our yard looking around for I don't know what. The Cranes below were in another potato field.

The field is planted with potatoes, wheat or beans every year.

These Crane pictures were taken on the same day I took the Eagle pictures on my Eagle hub in the same field. The Cranes must feel safe hanging around the Eagles. If an Eagle would go after a Loon I would think they would go after a Crane.

This little hummer flew into our barn. Rescued him and the granddaughters took his picture. When I opened my hand he flew away.

The snowbird (Juncos), this little bird liked the bird house under our deck . I think it kept him out of the wind. We have lots of Juncos they winter here and farther south. Pretty nice little birds that like to eat from our feeders.

Alaska and Canada are the juncos' summer home.

Rare to see the Indigo Bunting, he was happy to eat the bird seed all over the ground. If we see them at all they always come in with the gold finch and the Grosbeaks. This photo was taken in the Spring.

This is a partridge out by the big trees. Trying to get some of the seed we put out. We get mother and baby partridge in the meadow . One of the reasons I stopped walking down there with our dog if he saw the babies he would try to jump on them. A big dog trying to jump up and down really looked silly but I worried he would hurt them. I knew he just wanted to play. The dogs to old now to walk to the meadow.

Sorry, not a great picture of the Morning Dove, Turtle Dove or Rain Dove but the best I could get for now. I love the Wooo sound they make. They are pretty much here all year round. They are all over here like I think they are in most of the North America. Some will head north in the Spring but if there is a bird feeder near by they will stay.

The birds hit our doors or windows all the time. We do what we can to stop them like putting hanging things in the window. It doesn't always help.

Most of the time their just stunned. This little guy flew away after we took him outside.

Hummingbirds on our deck. We get Ruby-throated Hummingbirds here. I have never seen any other kind of hummingbird here.

I have more hubs on our birds, bees, bear, cougar, wolves and eagles. All about the wildlife in our area and by our home.

We saw this big Pileated Woodpecker eating off our bird feeder. Please excuse our cat Levi Jones mewing in the background and our bird clock. It seems every time I go to take video everyone in the house gets mouthy. Taken on Jan 2012. You can see our Christmas decorations still up. It was 21 below here this morning.

Bird Watching In Our Backyard 2