Today from my Window

Today was damp, grey, and it drizzled off and on.  So even though the temperature was balmy (50 degrees!), it seemed chilly.   The birds must have thought so, too, because there were lots of them eating at our feeders today.  Let's take a look...

Pine Siskins have been appearing off and on.  Today, there were about 10 of them.  For their size, they are rather dominant at the feeders, sometimes chasing other birds off.

Today they mostly seemed to be sharing the spots.  Doesn't the next one look graceful while waiting its turn?

We also had lots of finches today.

You can see them coming and going in that photo.  The bottom bird is a female Purple Finch... you can tell by the predominant light eye bar.

The male Purple Finch has more color and less streaks than the male House Finch.

Here's the House Finch:

and his mate:

We also have lots of American Goldfinches.  This one was only sitting on the sweet corn, waiting for a spot on the sunflower feeder to open up.

This is better...

Meanwhile, Black-capped Chickadees swing in and grab a seed whenever they get a chance.

Then off they go!

 Tufted Titmice also come in and grab a seed quickly and go...

Then they take the seeds over into our crab apple tree to eat.  As you can see by the bark on the tree, it gets a lot of abuse by the birds.

White-breasted Nuthatches like the sunflower seeds, too.

They also are quite good at landing upside-down on the bottom-only suet feeder.

Chickadees are as well.

Today I was taking a photo of a Downy Woodpecker on the suet feeder-- when...

an instant later, there was a switch.... this Hairy Woodpecker took its place. 

I was looking thru my camera and sort-of missed the switch.  I thought I was seeing things!

The other woodpecker at our feeders today was a Red-bellied.  He likes sunflower seeds. Can you tell this is him at the feeder?

Once he gets a seed, he takes it to this spot on the trunk of the crab apple tree to eat it.  He usually does this for several seeds in a row, then goes off somewhere else for his next course.

Dark-eyed Juncos like to eat on the ground.  I have a natural stone with a depression that I put mixed seed in for them. (And I scatter it around the area for the other ground feeders such as the Mourning Doves).

American Tree Sparrows also eat the mixed seed on the ground and the deck.

Blue Jays had already cleaned up all the whole kernel corn I had spread on the ground in the morning, so this one came hunting for something else.

My husband doesn't like Blue Jays because he thinks they are greedy, but I think they are handsome enough to be excused for that trait!

I really enjoy watching the birds from my kitchen window, perhaps especially on a grey, damp day like today.  They certainly brightened the day up for me, I hope sharing my photos brightened yours!