National Geographic could just sit in your backyard to film its next series. :-)

It is fascinating how the animals learn the order of the food chain so quickly in life.

I've been watching a local Harlan's hawk (dark-morph Alaskan/NW Canadian subspecies of the red-tailed hawk) that has migrated to overwinter in the same spot in my town more than one year in a row. It found its old stomping ground, all the way from Alaska. Tough bird.

Animals have senses we don't have (birds and fish use the magnetic field for navigation, etc) and it never ceases to amaze me.

It is 9 years to this very day that I moved here in the sticks--that is somewhere beyond the country. Prior to this, I had been in a major city for my adult life. This has been a rewarding life experience. I may have the only images of turkey vultures performing their mating walk--again in the back yard.

It always fascinates me that I can look out the kitchen window with binoculars at a bird way on the other side of the yard, with a lot of trees and shrubs in between, and that bird is looking right back at me. It happens again and again - they're always scanning the yard for danger (or food).

They recognize me too. When I get too close most small birds head for the nearest shrub or tree and then come right back as I pass, but if a hawk appears there's straight line flight into the next county. The other day I noticed the exodus of a whole lot of birds I didn't even know were there and it occurred to me that it was like meteors radiating out of one spot in the sky. I traced the trail back and sure enough there was a hawk there.

I moved here to a rural part of Plymouth, MA, from the East Village in NYC, so I understand what you're saying about the rewards. Turkeys in the front yard are my joy.

Claire

Good observation, Bob!

konrad:

Thanks. I've noticed quite a few red-tails sitting in trees on the side of Route 1 in Chester County, PA (Route 1 is a 4-lane lightly used road here). The hawks stare into the grass median, and when they see something, they are quite focused on their prey. In fact, I had to slow down to miss one that was flying into the median.

Claire:

I remember reading a post here about bluebirds going to a window to ask for food. That was when I first started watching the birds. Well, I thought it was someone's imagination--until I realized it wasn't.

There was a time when a mother mockingbird kept screaming at me until I chased a cat from near her nest. When I was feeding the birds regularly, the white-throats, upon seeing me, would jump up from the brush, land in the bushes, and sing to me. Probably the most amusing was when the male and female red-bellied woodpeckers--whom I always call red and rosie--landed in a tree on the side of the house and started shouting at me. I looked at the feeder with mixed nuts and saw it was empty. Once I filled it with their mixed nuts (they like the white ones and always search for them), they left me alone and ate their nuts.

Here is something you may wish to try with mockingbirds. While in the yard, I may discover a mockingbird nest by observing the parents repeatedly going towards the same general area. The parents will first land on a nearby branch and look at me. This is where I must obey their rule. When the parent looks at me, I must turn away from the parent. I usually turn my back to them. Then, the parent heads for the nest and I hear the happy chirp of the chicks being fed. I don't know if this is a learned mockingbird trait or if it is instinct. However, the parent will fly away unless I look away while they go to the nest. I've been obeying their rule for years now.

I think you're right with instinct, other birds do the same, I've seen this with American robin, they never fly directly to the nest when a person or predator is near by.

Konrad:

What fascinated me about the mockingbirds was their acceptance after I simply had turned my eyes away, or turned around, after they had landed prior to feeding the chicks.

When the Carolina Wrens nested under the deck, the parent would hop up the steps towards the nest, then hop to the side, and then fly under the deck for feeding. I never bothered them. However, last Summer, when the Eastern Phoebes took over that nest, I realized I could go down in the basement and watch to my heart's content without bothering them. Strangely, I saw an Eastern Phoebe here in January. There were bugs here in January due to the warm Winter but now is an awful time (cold and snow) for the Phoebe.

I'm anxious to see who claims that nest this Spring--the Carolina Wrens or the Eastern Phoebes.

chescobob: Mockingbirds don't nest here - I only rarely see one passing through, and most birds nest in the surrounding woods. I suspect the House Sparrows have a lot to do with keeping other birds a distance away so I don't see nesting behavior.

I did once hear frantic chirping from the House Sparrows clustered in a big old rambling rose. I went out to see what was going on and flushed a Cooper's Hawk by chance. The sparrows immediately quieted down, and my feeling was that they were calling to me for help. The hawk had them cornered and was waiting in ambush.

I've also been sitting innocently out on the deck reading and been buzzed by two Black-capped Chickadees, one after the other. I could almost hear them giggling as they flew by my head.

Northern Cardinals are notorious for being protective of small birds, but I once saw an incidence of apparent exasperation. Common Grackles, lots of them, were nesting in the neighborhood and bringing broods of fledglings to the feeders. This went on for a week or so, with the fledgling grackles landing on the path before figuring out how to get to the feeders. The cardinals mostly feed earlier or later than the grackles (and cowbirds and red-wings), until the blackbirds leave for the season.

One day, though, a pair of cardinals buzzed a fledgling grackle, startling it, and then flew off. It felt like a bit of revenge for them monopolizing the feeders.

Claire