True blue

Not so dumb. When there are hawks on the prowl the jays stay in the bushes.

But when they feel safe they're in your face. Usually they are hit-and-run food grabbers, but at this time of year they're blue vacuum cleaners, pickup every bit of food they can get into their mouths before flying off.

All contributions welcome.

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Whoosh!

The jays are like blue vacuum cleaners scarfing up nuts right and left, more than one at a time, then stashing the results in hidey-holes.

Part of birding is social. "Nice to see you". "What have you seen today?" "How's the family?" etc. A couple of us were chatting when, WHOOOSH!, right by our heads flew the young redtail. Well, excuse me. Maybe we were standing on potential prey, but this was funny, awesome, but also worrisome. Sweet hawk, beware. Humans. It's wise to keep on alert. Not this youngster. Sat on branch studying the space while we gawked. Humans are fine. We're all friendly. Nothing to worry about. The hawk stayed in the space obviously hunting for lunch.

Then hawk flew slightly southeast, same thing, low to ground, near humans.

I moved on, but after 20 minutes or so doubled back. Now there were two hawks, one mature, one immature and they were into territorial facing-off.

Both hawks headed east followed by a group of enthusiastic birders. I opted to go in another direction. I feel that such a crush of people isn't good for the hawks. What are the hawks learning? How will this translate to other spaces? Birders adore birds, but not everyone has parental feelings towards birds. There's potential danger. I don't know the answer. It's wonderful being able to see these majestic birds, but a little common sense seems appropriate.

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Lots of noise

The goal yesterday was to try and find the young red headed woodpecker. I had been told that the bird was setting up turf at the south east end of Sheep Meadow, so that's where I headed. The trouble with that space is that birds can move back and forth over the 66th street transverse, so to get from one side to the other it's necessary to run around the ends. As I approached I heard crows screaming on the baseball field side. Drats! Stuck on the field side. But I need not have worried, because the action was taking place all over the general space. Caw! Caw! Caw! CAW! Where was what they were screaming at??? That became obvious pretty fast- a Cooper's hawk. It flew into a tall tree at the Meadow edge before being chased further north.

There's a flock of crows, sassy, bossy, social, also anti-social.

I suspect that a bluejay stashed food in this little hollow. The crow spotted the stash.

Winner take all.

More screaming. Another hawk. Go away!!! Caw! Caw! Caw!

Finally, I could get down to trying to find this woodpecker. It also was marking off its space. It chased pigeons and downy woodpeckers. It's voice is distinctive, clicky. Interestingly, it didn't interact with the crows and they left it alone. This little bird does its pecking high in the trees so getting an ideal shot is very hard. It doesn't yet have the red head feathers, but there's a glimmering of what's to come when the sun hits its head.

I stayed in this area more than an hour and behavior was non-stop,- screaming crows, hawk chasing, woodpecker chasing space invaders, small birds on other side of transverse hunting for food near edges of bushes very hawk-aware. When the hawk swoops the tiny birds vanish into the bushes and the squirrels freeze on the side of the tree. Survival. And all the while screaming crows. CAW!!!

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Little regulars

Someone delivered seeds and they attracted the chickadees.

White throated sparrows also curious about food deliveries.

Titmouse arrival.

I think this is from Harry Potter, not a Thestral or a Hippogriff , but definitely from the world of Magic.

I'm going to try and find the red-headed woodpecker today.

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Still here

The great miracle.... goldfinches walking on "water". Oh, sorry..... ice.

I suspect the varied thrush will spend the winter here. Good food. Good protection. An adoring audience. What more could a pretty visitor ask for.

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Lunch, sigh !

There is no assurance that anything will be seen on a cold day in the park. This time there were two cooper's hawks in close proximity, calling at each other, doing some chasing, all territorial, lunch-hunt time. Cooper's #1

Cooper's #2

Something spotted.

Heading for lunch

Oh, NO !!! Lunch = one male cardinal. Sad, sad, sad, but that's nature.

Hawk called to other hawk to get lost. There's no sharing. Scram!! Other hawk flew off.

Lots of looking around, food protection, before hawk moved to nearby tree with big flat branch, ate cardinal very fast. Impossible for pictures, but it's the usual, pluck feathers, then eat meat. There was no wind, so the feathers floated down right below the dining table. I picked them up and brought them home. There's now a cardinal memorial envelope in my treasure box.

There are still lots of cardinals, always on full alert.

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