WINGSCAPES

Feeding the Birds

Talk to any sales clerk at a backyard bird supply store long enough and you're likely to hear the story about the new customer who wanted to start feeding the birds in their backyard; so they bought a feeder and some seed, and went home happy.

However about two weeks later the same customer called back quite upset. Whenever there was a large number of finches and other small birds gathered on the feeder, a hawk would suddenly swoop through, grab one, and fly away.

 
Nine times out of ten, the clerk will then tell you that it took all their will power not to respond "Well, you said you wanted to feed the birds..."

Many thanks to James in Florence, AL who contributed this superb image of a Cooper's Hawk, a well known "feeder swooping" species, to the Wingscapes BirdCam Photo Gallery. Indeed, James notes that whenever this hawk appears, all the other birds leave.

 

Nesting Pair of Redtail Hawks

Saturday morning brought a cool surprise...a pair of Redtail Hawks were building a nest in a pine in our back yard. We've watched the hawks behind our house for years, but they rarely lingered in our yard, perhaps because bluejays and other residents would mob them. Hopefully, they can get comfortable enough with the nesting location to stick around. If anyone has any advice for how I can feed them (using pet store feed mice?), please email me.

I wish I could claim that this image was taken with the BirdCam. I took this with my Nikon SLR and 200mm lens (effective 300mm on digital N70s)...