Robin, The second bird is a male Yellow Rumped Warbler 100% sure. I love all of our warblers so very much. Here where I live I have many species that nest in the woods,fencerows,etc behind me. The Yellow is spectacular and the Prothonotary..well Wow!!!! is all you say when you see one. No other country on Earth is as blessed with so many cool birds as we are here in the United States and the warblers of North American are a very special part of that group indeed. Great pictures of one of our most common warblers...Mike

Juvenile Common Gallinule

Thanks everyone! I also posted on the bird forum and they seem to think it is a blue grouse. He said it was pretty big and when he came toward it to take a pic, it raised it's wings and came toward him like it was coming after him. haha, I think he was overreacting a bit :)

Its a duck, a green wing teal I believe. Birds have a number of predators, small and medium mammals, other birds, reptiles. Could be a hawk or owl, or a cat or fox or raccoon. Squirrels even will raid nests I believe.