Feeder Birds and a Party Crasher

[mjs1973]

I headed to the woods long before the sun came up yesterday morning, hoping to stake out a good spot to get some dee in the snow shots. Unfortunatley I dressed too warm for the hike and ended up overheating, and sweating. The damp base layer didn't take long to make me cold once I got set up in the dark to wait for the deer and the sun. The sun didn't bring much warmth with is, so after about 2 hours in the sub freezing temps, I headed for the truck.

I parked the truck next to a tree that had 3 bird feeders in it,and waited, with a hot bowl of chili that I packed in a thermous earlier that morning. Here are a few of the shots I got from my truck blind.

Red-bellied Woodpecker



Blue Jay



Dark-eyed Junco





Northern Cardinals









Downy Woodpecker (Male)



All of a sudden, the birds scattered as a hawk dive bombed the group looking for breakfast. It looked like he hit the ground pretty hard, then flew to a branch close by that didn't give me much of a view. I couldn't see if he got anything or not, but I'm gussing that he didn't. He didn't seem to be eating anything from what little I could see, and her flew off after just a few seconds.



After watching the feeders for a while, I headed for home. I found this on my way.

[Loupey]

Wow that's some variety. A lot of work PPing all those images too. Thanks for sharing.

I love that second DE Junco. How often do you come across a bald eagle? Some catch I'd say :thumbsup:

[mjs1973]

Thanks Loupey. That second DE Junco was right at the minimu focusing distance for the 500mm end of my Sigma 170-500. A little closer, and I wouldn't have been able to get the shot.

Bald eagles are getting more and more common in my area. I think we have about 1150 nesting pair in Wisconsin. Three of those pair are in my county, and a friend has a nesting pair on his farm, about 5 miles from my house. The wife and I went to Dubuque yesterday and saw tons of them soring over the Mississippi River, along the bluffs.

This time of year they like to congregate in large groups (called a convocation) along the rivers where the damns keep the water from freezing, and they spend a lot of time around open farm land looking for carion.

[paulnj]

Michael, you sure do know your eagle info

That hawk you have is a Cooper's hawk and all these images are outstanding!

[mjs1973]

Thanks Paul. Cooper's hawk was my first guess, but it was just a guess.

I soaked up a lot of eagle info at another Raptors show I went to last week. Here's a link to photos from the show if you didn't see it already.

[Copy_Kot]

Outstanding as usual Michael :thumbsup: I really like the juncos and cardinals, I've been trying to get a male and female together for a long time... and the eagle is pretty cool too!

[Loupey]

Sounds like a terrific comeback for the eagles there. Must be awe-inspiring to see a wild one soaring.

In my area, we only have a pair caged up in a zoo. Even that draws a large crowd.

Keep us posted!

[paulnj]

Oh come on loupey, giant eagle is in your state :lol:

[karen m.]

Thanks for posting Great photos

[mjs1973]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to look and comment. I hope you enjoyed the pics as much as I did taking them.

Loupey, the Bald Eagle has made a dramatic comeback in the last 20 years, due to the outlawing of DDT. The birds were injesting DDT and it was causing them to lay eggs with very thin shells. When the eagles would try to incubate the eggs, they would crack open.

I don't remember the exact details from the raptor show last weekend, but I know they are still finding traces of DDT in some bird eggs. I find that pretty distrubing since the substance has been banned in the US for so long.

I should clarify that. It's USE has been banned in America. I believe it is still being manufactured in the US, and being shipped to other contries.

[Knight]

Like them all Michael o`canon Theres quite a few Eagles in my erea but i have never been able to get a photo .