This winter I haven’t seen many, but then we don’t have a feeder and our birdbath has a leak but also no heater. I hear them, though, from time to time.

Last week I downloaded the Merlin app. Today I used it on my walk home from the town centre. I was amazed to record thirteen species in a 15 minute walk. Sometimes I could see or hear a bird the app didn't pick up. Conversely it sometimes recorded one I couldn't see. It was an interesting exercise considering I live in a town in a nature depleted country.

I've started carrying a bag of dry catfood in ALL our cars. I never know when I'll come across a situation. There's a pond behind the library...we stopped and threw handfulls of pellets to the Canadian geese and Mallard Ducks.

Just watched a flock of cardinals flitting around the feeder. I don't think I've ever seen them in that number. We have had all sizes of woodpeckers this winter.; hairy, downy, red bellied and pileated. It's the first year we have had the red bellied wood peckers here regularly. House finches, purple finches, nuthatch, pine siskins and the black capped chickadee are all common on our winter feeders.

Robins, Starlings, Ladder-back Woodpeckers, Doves, Pigeons, Chickadees

A lovely Cooper's Hawk came to visit the other day. Luckily I was sitting inside and had my cell phone with me.

Nicole, this is from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:

Wild animals have naturally specialized diets.

Most wild animals have grown to have a specific diet over time. Some may thrive best on insects, others may feed only on plants. Regardless, human or domestic pet food is not part of a wild animal’s diet. Food designed for humans or domestic pets is meant to meet the nutritional needs of the species it is designed for. If a wild animal were to eat food like this, they might not get the nutrients they need in order to survive. Malnourished animals are likely to die from lack of proper nutrients or predation due to their weakened body.

Even though it may seem like your local possum, raccoon, or other animal might be able to eat food designed for your household pet, it is still unsafe for wildlife to eat pet food. Most pet foods are designed to meet the specific nutritional needs of domesticated animals and are not meant for the active lifestyle of a wild animal. Pet food is just as harmful to wildlife as human food.

So, better to carry a bag of bird food in your trunk.

I sincerely doubt a little dry cat food is going to hurt ducks or geese. They also get natural food. It is certainly better than what most people feed them ... bread. I used to go every day to a jr college and feed turtles in a cement pond. No natural food at all. People kept putting them in there. I fed them floating catfish chow.

The Harvey flood came and they were finally able to escape. I moved away, but last time I was by there, people had again put turtles in there. Makes me sad, because most people who fed them, fed them lettuce or bread. No nutritional value at all.

I rehabbed wildlife for 23 years. Dry cat food and dog food was the basis for much of what we fed. Other stuff too, of course. Possums got at least a quart of yogurt every day. In the wild, possums have a very short life span...a couple of years, and they are very geriatric. I still feed 3 possums every night here. Tonight they got yogurt, apple sauce, raisins, and cat chow.

I know for a fact that some of the raccoons that I raised, released, and stayed around, lived 15 years. What is bad is when people feed them crappy food...bread or other things that aren't nutritional.

As for birds ...a few days ago I saw a Killdeer. I hadn't seen one in many years. Birds that nest on the ground have been decimated by fire ants.

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I enjoy observing birds. I don't know where all the peacocks went, haven't seen them around since autumn, but we have many other large birds here: ibis, wood storks, herons, pelicans, osprey, and I see them almost every day.

There's a house I pass daily that must be specifically feeding storks, egrets and ibis, because they perch all over the front yard and on the roof. Saw an eagle at the park not that long ago, and turkey vultures, seagulls (of course) - and plenty of shorebirds around the beaches.

Also saw a little palm warbler the other day - they're so cute and elusive. It flew right in front of me and perched on a shrub for a moment. Weather was frigid that night and I hoped it would stay warm.

Palm warbler

Thank YOU @marilyn_c. The pond is frozen. No insects. The plants are gone. It's NOT bread. It's got dried fish in it!

We have lots of cardinals, red-bellied and downey woodpeckers, sometimes we see but mostly hear the pileated ones, eastern bluebirds, chickadees, goldfinches (they lose their bright color in winter), titmouse, juncos, and some others that will migrate through. We often see hawks and owls, and both of us have seen an eagle recently as have some neighbors. We aren’t sure where they might be nesting but maybe nearby as there are several small private lakes and ponds plus the river is only a few miles away. And of course now we have doces on occasion and the crows started coming around a couple of years ago. Bullies.

i have the usual assortment of rather drab winter birds right now. the only vivid color i see are northern cardinals and various woodpeckers.

it'll be this way until spring when everything comes back to life and my yard will be bursting with color. i can't wait! i also have one eastern bluebird nest box right outside my window. last summer, they raised 3 broods successfully. love seeing these gentle souls!

indigo buntings, baltimore orioles, orchard orioles, rose breasted grosbeaks, swarms of hummingbirds. i often wish i got paid for keeping feeders full because it's like having a full time job!

Cardinals, pileated woodpecker, snowy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, mockingbirds, painted bunting, along with your usual crows.

Ninapearl: You have such colorful birds, several of which I've only seen in pictures! Where are you located?

@juneroses i'm in west central illinois. i'm surrounded by hundreds of acres of timber and farm fields so there's lots of natural habitats for nesting birds. it's really fun to watch them mid-summer when they bring their fledglings to the feeders. years ago when i saw my first indigo bunting, he stayed for just a couple of days. fast forward to now and i have at least a dozen of them every day and they come to the feeders all summer.

i tried for years to coax the orioles to my yard with sliced oranges but it wasn't until i put out a couple of grape jelly feeders that they swooped in. when, heaven forbid, i get busy and the feeders are empty, they will sit in the trees and sqwak at me.

funny story i may have told here sometime in the past...a couple of eldery ladies drove up my lane and ended up at my house where the lane dead ends. i went out to their car and sure enough, they had taken a wrong turn on their way to the illinois river just up the road and were hopelessly lost. they were on an annual audubon society bird count and told me the only bird they had not yet seen was an orchard oriole. i invited them up to sit on my deck and guaranteed that they would see several. i put another grape jelly feeder out and rang a little bell i used to use to call the birds in. i had no sooner turned to walk back to the deck and 3 male orchard orioles flew straight to the feeder. these ladies were so excited but trying to stay quiet so as not to scare the birds away. told them there was no need to be still, the birds would ignore them. they squealed and chattered and were so cute to watch. they stayed for about 30 minutes and couldn't wait to get back to show everyone their pictures.

another time i had a strange bird come to my sunflower seed platform feeder. this was long before the age of facetime. i posted photos on an online birding forum asking for an i.d. i was deluged with responses, it was a lazuli bunting. this bird is very rarely seen east of the rocky mountains. it was suggested i send documentation to the ornithology department of the natural history museum in chicago, which i did. i got an email from them saying that my sighting was only the second ever in illinois so it was definitely a "lifer" for me. beautiful bird, he only stayed one day but i as so glad i saw him. this was pre-cell phone years and the only photos i have of him are on old floppy disks. i pulled this photo from google...

another "lifer" for me was a male painted bunting and that, too, was many years ago. i have since learned that there are a few breeding pairs around st. louis which is 2+ hours from me but i haven't seen another one since.

I have juncos, cardinals , doves , three kinds of woodpeckers, titmice, chicadees, finches, and a big Cooper Hawk yesterday.

I've heard more than I've seen -- they've been out there the last few days singing their spring songs, looking for love, whatever they are. I did see a male cardinal this afternoon.

Male & female House Finch...

Nuthatch

Daughter and her boyfriend were outside this morning and they saw a black bird. She said it's a crow, and he said no it's too small, it's a raven! And she said but ravens are bigger? Then they both noticed the shiny head, and realized it was a grackle.

The best part is when the grackle came back to visit me and my daughter later on in the day

Wait! I have another. There are seagulls who have taken residence on our dock? I usually only see them in numbers at the local parking lots for retail places???

Last Friday at my volunteer gig in So Cal

, we were visited by two red shouldered hawks. This is one of them:

After I declared I hadn't seen any peacocks, I was driving yesterday and there was a car stopped in the road at a 3 way intersection, and as I got close enough to pass, I saw why - a male in full display and a number of others in front of someone's yard and in the street too.

Here's a rather blurry pic I took of one awhile back...

Sometimes they do this in the middle of a busy street - they're not too smart 😄

And Ninapearl reminded me of the one time I saw an indigo bunting at the feeder in our yard. Such a lovely sight 🙂

This morning around 7 am DH and I were getting in the car and heard bird sounds over head.

We could easily see 2 large birds high up in an oak tree. It was a pair of Cooper's Hawks.

A first for me!

S/he was fine, but felt trapped by the glass railing. Finally figured out a way to fly up and around the railing. But a nice treat to see! And yes it was very cold that day, thus the 'fat feathers'.

We were surprised to see this little face peering out of the wood duck house.