Your awesome captures never cease to amaze me! This series was great. Love them all, but especially the chickadee. Thanks as always for sharing!

Donna

Beautiful shots! Great brown creeper - not so long ago you had never had a chance to get a photo of one, as I recall, right? I can't believe how much your goldfinches have yellowed up already, here they have not at all.

Wonderful pictures. I love wildlife ones, I have considered buying a trail camera just to see what lurks around the chicken house at night!

I was happy to see the great shot of the song sparrow since I had trouble identifying the one I saw. Why can't the bird books have great shots like these posted here?

glenda

Love that Carolina Wren!

I can just imagine having to duck under the icicles while trying to fill the feeders. Wise to break them off, but they are beautiful.

Claire

This is my winter critter. Comes looking for food.

Thank you for the kind comments!

Wow..I seldom see a coyote "in person"-usually follow their daily activities via tracks and occasional trail cam photo.

The Brown Creeper was a serendipity-it landed close to me at the same spot the day before so the next day I carried my heavy camera/lens combo. When I heard it's little wind chime voice I fired up the camera and was ready when it landed. But those opportunities have been extremely rare for me.

Great pics and close ups on those cuties. I like the pic of the Chickadee "drinking" from the icicle because it's so interesting to observe the behavior that the birds have adapted to over thousands of years of winters. Boy do you have a lot of icicles on the roof there.

Our Goldfinches don't have that much yellow yet.

Just LOVE the 'chickadee drinking from icicle'--am planning to send this link around to all my bird-loving friends.

Even though we are in the burbs right near Boston (exactly half a mile from the Boston Marathon route on Commonwealth Avenue) we have the usual brown/gray New England coyote and the brilliant red fox who trek through our backyard on a regular basis. We have groups of 20 wild turkeys who terrorize the mailmen, but no bears, wolves, jaguars. It is amazing how some of these wild creatures have adapted to living in urban environments.

Sounds like a great place for wildlife!

Off-topic, but since you mentioned jaguars, I stand on my theory that someone in eastern Kentucky breeds black jaguars and his customers turn the cubs loose when they get too rowdy.
I.e., I was called in to sub teach at Rodburn elementary yesterday and in the lunch room one of the teachers was complaining about a "huge" "black panther" with a five foot tail in her backyard that leaped up onto a bank about 25 feet away before vanishing into woods. She said she called the fish and wildlife number but they told her that black panthers "don't exist in Kentucky" so they wouldn't come. I laughed and said that anytime I tell people in other states about the jaguar they react as though it's just a "hillbilly urban legend."

I reassured her that I'd checked online and read they are harmless to humans and usually to livestock-just don't let her dog out of the house when one is around, and told her what happened to my neighbor's dog. That dog had to have $300 worth of stitches this fall, but Jeff said all the panther did was give the attacking dog one casual slap, then walked off without looking back.

He also commented that it was black and had a "five-foot tail." Locals call them "black cougars" but also often see regular cougars, unaware that they are separate species.

Meanwhile, DuBois told me a customer in West Liberty said he'd seen black panthers many times while hunting and taking care of his cattle.

Wish I could see one. All I have are photos of the tracks-which are unique to the animal and a different size and shape from a cougar's track

Love your photos especially the chickadee! We hear coyotes often and see them once in awhile. I've only seen two fox in our neighborhood, ever and it was midday. I was really surprised to see them run down the street and into the woods.

Nice shots Rachel - it's nice to see someone that I recognize is still here!

Wow Rachel,I just loved all of your pictures! Thank you so much for sharing them. Your bird captures are fantastic, esp. the one of the Tufted Titmouse. They are so quick and they don't stay in one place long. I can imagine that it took some patience to get that one! I love the browns in the female Junco, and the Carolina Wrens are some of my favs! I have a pair here in my yard, and they are the first to sing in the mornings. They are visiting my BB feeder for mealworms and Bark Butter every day.

Great pictures, as usual, Rachel.
I fully expect to one day click on your post and see the black panther.

Fantastic photos, Rachel! I especially like that chickadee photo but all are just wonderful!

Thank you so much!

It finally turned warmer during the past 4 days and the snow is almost gone so we went to the fish hatchery. We had front row seats to some exciting action-especially when a male Bufflehead decided another male was a rival and attacked him, but I'll need to post the pics in a separate thread