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This has been a week of highs and lows. One day it was sunny and the activity at the feeder was basically nothing except a couple chickadees and both hairy and downy woodpeckers . I figure them as regulars as I can move the feeders for filling and hang seedcake without them flying away. One woodpecker follows me to the barn and back when I fill the chickadee feeders. I have had a couple days though with quite a bit of traffic. There have been: Chickadees, about a dozen Junco's all very dark and crisp, in good shape to my eye and then some females and juveniles; robins, our yard was full the other morning at dawn; Mourning doves, downy woodpeckers, male and female; hairy woodpeckers, male and female; crows; raven; Blue jays; Sharp shinned hawk; Northern Shrike (haven't seen it since Wednesday or Thursday. (Something is still hunting off my feeders and I think it is that, as I don't see anything but 'frozen' birds. Usually I can pick up the hawks. The shrike nestles right down on the vines.) One American goldfinch, one red winged blackbird, male, has staked out the swamp down the road, holds forth in my ash tree; one unidentified black bird, very black and glossy and an amazing purple hue over all. Long beak, narrow and not yellow. Hoped to get a chance to check it out further but I haven't seen it since. Not a brown headed cow bird or a starling, beak is different than that of a RWBlackbird. I have a Common Grackle, just one male (usually we have them in numbers); starlings; mourning doves; a couple nut hatches and then there are sparrows. There are White throats, Song, American tree, Fox, a Savannah, I think and one I can't identify. I tried to get photos but my camera isn't strong enough to capture birds in that part of the yard. I do ahve one that is slightly blurry but hard to see. It is a sparrow, I am fairly sure. It is alone, and wants to feed. It is somewhat larger than a song sparrow and it is heavier, more barrel chested if you get my drift. It is also quite silvery almost, like aging drift wood. It has stripe over the top of its head that isn't clearly defined line as it would be on a white crowned, it has yellow but more of a yellow blush (compared to white throats eye patch) that I can only just glimpse over the front upper area of the eyes. It is lightly striped on the chest with what might be a stick pin on the breast but I can say for sure because it is wet out there. It doesn't jump and scratch like the others it just drives its beak into the ground. It was here yesterday and may have been here the day before. It was on one of the raised platform feeders (in the grapevine station ) for awhile and it did put the boots to an American tree sparrow. This morning it was in the front yard and under the feeder there. It is moving about the border garden and flipping leaves up with its head........oh and it has almost white mutton chops. Sorry I haven't learned all the terminology yet. Chest is almost white to a silvery tan. Other than that we have had 3 chipmunks, and a small brown/gray rodent that is getting more and more round as each day passes. It kind of looks like a tiny rat but it doesn't get any bigger, or longer, just rounder. I know I am missing something.... Marg in White Point, Queens http://margmillard.ca
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