birds at the feeders so far

So, since putting up the feeders, the number of birds in the yard has increased exponentially.

There are many of what appear to be pine warblers. I wish I could get decent photos of all these birds, but I cannot get close enough before they take off. Anyway I have only just noticed these birds in the last couple of years and only in the fall and only a very few were around. This years, there are at least a dozen, probably more, hanging around. 

There are also some American goldfinch. They look like the warblers, except their heads have a black cap. There are at least a half dozen of them hanging around too.

We have several resident downy woodpeckers. They hang out around here all the time. There are definitely some yellow-bellied sapsuckers too. 

We are getting various chickadees, nuthatches, grosbeaks and definitely house sparrows.

Of course there are the grackles and starlings. This year, they actually seem to be less annoying and less bullying to the other birds. Which is good, because I despise bullies.

The crows and robins are permanent fixtures around here, but they do not use the feeders.

Speaking of the feeders, those crazy-assed squirrels are getting bold. There are a couple of black squirrels, both with bright brown tails, that mostly just hang around and eat the seeds and such that the birds drop on the ground. The chipmunks, brown squirrels, and grey squirrels seem to be pretty casual about it too, but there is one squirrel, an all black one, that is just a menace. He is like the Darth Vader of squirrels: Squirrel Vader.

I keep catching him hanging on to the sunflower feeder for dear life trying to eat the seeds. A couple of days ago I did not see the feeder. At first, I thought the wind had somehow unseated it from its cord. Then I saw that the cord was all chewed up and chewed through. Then I saw the feeder on the ground and the lid off and Squirrel Vader pigging out. 

I was not impressed. I replaced the cord with electrical wire, filled up the feeder again and put it out. After about a half dozen attempts by Squirrel Vader to get to the feeder and me coming out and drilling Brazil nuts at him (I did not get close at all, by the way. Unless it is a hand grenade or some type of firearm, I pretty much cannot aim.), he would just run when I opened the door. 

Everything was great for a couple of days, but he is back to his antics. The boy is now throwing sticks and nuts at him. If this guy would just settle to foraging and taking the odd freebies from us and the birds, like the other furry tailed rodents, I would not have to chase him away. I need to get my super-soaker ready for him.

Back to the birds.

The blue jays come and go. Sometimes they are around for weeks and sometimes just a few days. Hopefully they hang around this year. They can be quite entertaining. I put some nuts out for the squirrels, including Vader, and that huge jay was taking them. I saw him with a pecan in his beak. It was pretty wild to see something like that for the first time.

Pretty sure there are eastern kingbirds and juncos hanging around too. These are pretty laid back, especially the juncos.

As I have mentioned before, the cardinals around here do not seem to hang around in the winter, but I think I saw my first one yesterday and the same guy today. However, he seems smaller than the cardinals I have seen in the past here abouts. It was hard to get a look at him, the angle was always bad and he was very skittish and I could not get close.

I really need to get a good and easy to use field guide and a better camera than my crappy phone.