Backyard birding

This guy stops by from time to time. I happened to grab the camera this afternoon.

Beautiful shots!

I had about 15 Bluebirds and one florescent-bright cardinal bathing in the puddle in the driveway a few days ago. Unfortunately I was unable to grab the camera in time to get any pics.

Awesome, I wish I didn't live off of a desolate field. When the Red Wing Blackbirds invaded this spring I stopped feeding them because none of the other birds could get food.

I have a couple hawks and egrets that visit along with the herem of turkeys that stop by to look in my back door.

I have a very nice example of a red tailed hawk, a large barn owl who sits on my chimney at night to hunt, and the further most northern nesting site of the Mississippi Kite (gorgeous birds) is on my property, but nothing like an eagle.

He's gorgeous.

I have a mating pair of Red Tail hawks and three Barred owls. I awake to the screetch of the Hawks and fall asleep to the hoots of the owls. Every once in a while just as I drift off I am awakened by the scream of a rabbit dying

wow... would be so neat to see birds like that in the wild...

I snapped this at the zoo in Toledo though the bird net... not near as awesome as a wild shot though :(

donalson wrote: wow... would be so neat to see birds like that in the wild... I snapped this at the zoo in Toledo though the bird net... not near as awesome as a wild shot though :(

I saw him! My favorite was the Cyclops Eagle. Did you see him?

Joey

There is a Red-Tailed hawk that hangs aroud our neighborhood. He uses my front yard for his dinner table.

That's about the size of mine. One day I was in the shop sweeping out right by the back overhead door when I heard a thump.

I looked up and about 3' away from me was the Hawk sitting on his butt with a talon clutching a mouse that was halfway under a board.

I looked at him and he looked at me as if to say "Go away."

I was afraid to move thinking I'd scare him off so we stood that way for probably 15 seconds until he dropped mouse, stood up, looked over his shoulder as if to say "You just cost me dinner" then he exited stage right.

End of story right? Wrong!

I finished up and stepped out the door to throw out my sweepings out and there he was right at head level about a foot from me. Just sitting there patiently waiting for the mouse to make a wrong move.

I quickly left and when I peeked around the front corner of the shop I could see him still sitting there.

Really cool experience.

I love to watch birds of prey hunt. Haven't seen an eagle outside of Alaska in '98, loved to watch 'em 'fish'. Locally, hawks are awesome and frequent the woods behind my house. Seen a red-tail dive bomb from over 200 feet and snatch a rabbit by the nape from a brush pile but 25 feet from me, hawk lost grip when the rabbit got tangled in the brush and fell to the ground.. one lucky rabbit that day. Juvenile hawks are a hoot too, seen too many times to count one juvenile take on ten crows in the air, single out the leader and win, looked like a 10 on one gang fight. I lmfao. Falcons are rarer, they're more towards the mountain areas here. Owls are awesome hunters too but they've disappeared here in suburbia lately. I am totally impressed... what a power animal.

The barn owl sits on our chimney and hoots enough to distract our TV viewing, but after going out one night and shining a flashlight in his face and having him leave for a couple of months during which time I began to get field mice, I do nothing to disturb him.

Big fella. And worth his weight in mice and also snakes, or so I'm told.

I only have a Merlin falcon living in my yard, no eagles or hawks.

I did get to see two hawks fighting land about 10 feet from me, right next to the garage. One flew off and the other (on his back) looked over as to say "you didn't see anything" and then flew off after the first one.

The Barred owl we likes pooping in my driveway.

Owl poop is corrosive to car paint if you don't get it off right away.

Took this one about 20 minutes ago. Same tree, different bird.

I watched a crow and a sharp shinned hawk battling outside my office window just now. The hawk got the drop on the low flying crow. They were mixing it up pretty good for 30 seconds or so.