A few days later I spotted this little fella:

[ATTACH]76897[/ATTACH]

Notice the band? It doesn't look too shiny, so probably not from this month, but it's hard to say for sure exactly when he was banded. Since March of 2011, we've banded over 75 chickadees here. :eek: The most I've ever see at once coming to the feeders is about 14 or 16 and a more normal number would be 8 or 10. I never in my wildest dreams would have thought we had over 75! And I'm still seeing unbanded ones!

Hazel,
glad to see the banders came back! Did you guys get as many bitten fingers this time as you did last year? If I remember correctly one species last time took great offense at being banded and retaliated.

We probably got as many pinches, but none of the species this time had as powerful a bite as the Rose-breasted grosbeaks did! :laughing: The cold weather did make chickadee pecks and pinches feel worse than they normally do, though. :D This was the 6th visit for the banders. Augie is hoping to return in May to see if any of those RBGRs return--but he may have trouble finding enough helpers this time! :o :laughing:

I love it when you have the banders come, you get such good close ups. I have to say, I understand why the birds want to bite (I wouldn't like someone interrupting my day with a net either) but I'm glad you guys keep doing it anyway.

I'm glad they keep banding here, too, but sometimes I feel really selfish about it. I love learning a little more about the birds' private lives (at least that they stick around from winter to winter, they seem to stick with the same 'crowd' and most importantly, they're surviving! But I worry that some might be hurt in the net or so stressed by the banding that they become sick. I haven't seen any untoward signs of illness or found any dead ones, but still, that thought hangs there in the back of my mind. :o If I ever saw evidence of injury, I think I'd close it down...

I suppose being netted is rather stressful, and I would hate to see any of your birds hurt. On the other hand, if they keep coming back year after year even after being netted and banded than maybe they aren't too upset about being captured and handled. After all, they have wings, if they were truly upset they would fly away when released and not come back. I know birds are the origin for the saying "bird brains", and can seem silly but they are smart when it comes to figuring out what hurts or helps and avoiding it or finding it.

I found a dead Am Goldfinch this morning while raking up under the feeders. :( It was unbanded, though. I hope there isn't something catching going around. I might have to up my bleaching schedule to once a week instead of once every two weeks...

Some March birds
 

[B]American goldfinches.[/B] They're slowly putting on their yellow summer finery, but right now they're looking a bit motley :D

[ATTACH]77158[/ATTACH]

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The woodpeckers, on the other hand, are in fresh courting plumage and looking mighty fine! This is a [B]Hairy woodpecker[/B] male:

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The [B]Black-capped chickadees[/B] are our most faithful all-year visitors.

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A few fun shots--soft focus action.

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February and March were big for [B]Common redpolls[/B] this year. We don't always have them in WI since they normally nest and winter further north, but every few years there will be a failure of the seed crop and they'll head south. 2011-2012 was an irruptive winter. These are females:

[ATTACH]77164[/ATTACH]

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This is a very brilliant male:

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The redpolls have all headed back north for the season but because of our extraordinarily warm March, they were still here after all the snow was melted. It was sorta freaky to see them on grass since I'd never seen them in anything other than snowy conditions before! :D

[B]Downy woodpeckers.[/B]

A fem:

[ATTACH]77168[/ATTACH]

A male, poking around in the sumac:

[ATTACH]77169[/ATTACH]

March has been a big [B]Fox sparrow[/B] month. I've seen more this year than I ever have before. These are the red fox sparrows--the ones out west tend to be more of a slate color.

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[B]Pine siskins[/B] are moving through right now:

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Lots of [B]purple finches[/B] this winter, too. It's very hard to determine an age and sometimes even gender on a purple finch. If you see a brown striped one, you can't tell if it's a fem or if it's a young male, since young males look like females until their second year. If you see a raspberry colored purple finch, it's a male sometime after its second year. Occasionally, though, you can fairly precisely determine age. This male was born two springs ago and is just starting to make the change from brown motley to raspberry glory:

[ATTACH]77176[/ATTACH]

These purple finches are all males older than two years of age:

[ATTACH]77177[/ATTACH]

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[B]Dark-eyed juncos.[/B] The usual subspecies we get here is the slate-colored junco:

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[B]Mourning dove:[/B]

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[B]White-breasted nuthatch:[/B]

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[B]Red-bellied woodpecker, fem:[/B]

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Finally, a goofy downy woodpecker fem, sunning her armpit:

[ATTACH]77186[/ATTACH]

And a couple of shots of an early-March mixed flock of winter finches:

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Hazel,
I love seeing your birds. And I like the creative way you included your signature in places where it didn't detract from the picture. Seeing your birds reminded me of my recent mourning dove and hawk pictures. Look closely at the mourning doves, one is missing it's tail, probably due to the hawk. Don't worry both birds are still alive and well, they were spotted under our feeder recently, but these pictures were taken away from our feeder at a nearby park.

Another one of the preening mourning dove because I love the tail and the pale blue-gray colour under the wing. And the redd-tail hawk.

Last two of the hawk, one from the front this time. He was watching me, but also the crows that were attacking if he showed any sign of trying to fly.
And one of a sparrow just because they are such bold, fearless little things.

Nice pics, obc!! Your doves are lovely and that front shot of the red-tail is spectacular!! Even your lil sparrow is cute! :D

I see a fair number of tailless doves, especially in late fall and early spring. When there's a thaw followed by a freeze overnight, their tails get frozen to whatever they're perched on for the night and they pull out the feathers getting free in the morning. :( Sometimes they exhaust themselves getting free--I've had them arrive at feeders too tired to eat. Luckily, a little quiet time in a shoebox in a warm place does a lot to rejuvenate them and they all recovered.

Really? When the mourning dove showed up without a tail at the same time the hawk showed up, I was sure the hawk was the cause.
I love the mourning doves. At first glance, they are just a gray-brown bird, nothing exciting, but the more you watch them, the more colours you see. They are usually so shy, it was a real blessing to be able to sit there and just watch these two without scaring them. Given that I was out in the open with no hiding place, seeing them relax enough to preen and search for food was really neat.

Our doves are a little nervous still. All winter there was a Cooper's hawk in the area. The doves learned quickly to stick to the thickets and not tempt the hawk by gathering big groups. For a couple of weeks now, the hawk has been gone and the doves were just starting to relax a little. But they haven't forgotten. A Sharp-shinned swooped in Friday after a junco (it missed) and the doves have been in hiding ever since! Silly birds--Sharp-shinned hawks are pretty small and not likely to try for something as big as a dove...

I saw my first Ruby-crowned kinglet of the year today! :highfive: The fox sparrows are still thick out there. The song and chipping sparrows have returned. And last week I had a cardinal encounter. Saw the mama in the bushes (managed to get a few long distance shots of her) and heard the male but, alas, they seem to have moved on. *le sigh*

Fox sparrow:
[ATTACH]77293[/ATTACH]

Mama cardinal:
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Song sparrow:
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Hazel. Your pictures are truly stunning and your captions are wonderful in identifying their characters--wonderful! :lovestruck:

OBC, your Mourning Doves are truly beautiful and am sure they bring a smile everytime you see them. :)

On another note, I set up my Oriole feeder and put some Jelly in it last weekend. The Orioles normally migrate here around this time but wasn't sure if their being chased off by the Cardinals, Jays and other song birds so, I stopped putting out sunflower seeds for the songbirds. :sorry:

I felt bad tonight hearing the Cardinals calling so I put out a [SIZE="1"]little[/SIZE] sunflower seed for them at dusk. :shrug:

Orioles are not that shy, DOG. :D Ours are more inclined to chase the other birds than to be chased, but mostly they just live and let live. You can probably feed both your seed customers and your orioles without too much conflict. :thumbs up I suspect the orioles aren't quite back yet--we're a couple weeks away from our first arrivals here...if they stay on schedule.

But meanwhile, lookee who showed up again this afternoon and was claiming the yard as his territory:

[ATTACH]77359[/ATTACH]

I'm so excited! Isn't he handsome? :flirt:

A few pics from May 2012.

A Savannah sparrow on a wire:
[ATTACH]77677[/ATTACH]

A close crop of a male Scarlet tanager that's nesting back by the neighbor's seasonal cabin:
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The display of the Dark Angel, a brown-headed cowbird (he-devil), a nest parasite:
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Yellow-rumped (myrtle form) warbler:
[ATTACH]77681[/ATTACH]

Cape May warbler:
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Baltimore oriole:
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Tree swallows checking out the martin house (they're still in the area but they're not nesting in the house, more's the pity):
[ATTACH]77684[/ATTACH]

Male Downy woodpecker:
[ATTACH]77685[/ATTACH]

Male American goldfinch:
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Gray catbird bringing nesting material to the peony bed. Couldn't figure out why they were building inside the yard when there was so much nice habitat outside it, but then we saw the foxes. They now have two fences and a Pack of dogs between them and the foxes and raccoons. Not so dumb....
[ATTACH]77687[/ATTACH]

Chipping sparrows gathering nesting material and ensuring the next generation at the same time:
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Male rose-breasted grosbeak:
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White-crowned sparrow:
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Male White-breasted nuthatch:
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Female Red-breasted woodpecker:
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