Photographs through my Office Window – February 2017

Our February has been very mild so far – some cold mornings but generally warmer than usual – and not snow. The birds frequent both our bird bath and feeder. The cardinal likes the maple or sycamore.

The chickadee comes when it can get a drink or a few seeds when the juncos are not around.

The doves are sporting a sheen to their feathers.

I don’t see flickers every day but there was one that must have been very thirsty. It arrived and kept the juncos away from the bird bath --- and I had time to take some portraits. My favorite is the last one of this sequence that shows the feathers fluffed against the cold.

The red-tailed hawk is still around. I first saw him peering from the black walnut tree through the pine. He flew to another tree where I could only see his front and the beak; can you see him in the jumble of branches?

The blue jays are around every day. They have quite an attitude! The second picture shows the varying shades of blue and note the way the feather look on the top of the head (almost like scales).

Starlings don’t come around our deck very often – and I’m glad since they usually travel in flocks. Our feeder is squirrel proof…and apparently starling proof too since it closes down if too much weight is on it (2 or more starlings!).

I observed two different types of sparrows this month…didn’t realize it until I looked more closely at the pictures. The first was a house sparrow.

And the second was a white-throated sparrow which is only in our area during the winter. Note the yellow marking between the eye and beak.

The downy woodpecker comes for very short visits to our feeder. It finds most of what it needs in the forest behind our house.

February was a good month for birdwatching through my office window!