FeederWatching - week #8

The frigid weather has brought more birds to the feeders over the weekend, and consequently, I had my most successful Project FeederWatch session for this reporting season, even though my time in counting the birds was really quite limited. I tallied a total of 23 species for this latest report.

Cooper's Hawk - 1
Red-shouldered Hawk - 1
White-winged Dove - 1
Rufous Hummingbird - 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 1 
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Blue Jay - 2
American Crow - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 4
Tufted Titmouse - 3
Brown-headed Nuthatch - 1
Carolina Wren - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 1
Eastern Bluebird - 1
American Robin - 2
Northern Mockingbird - 1
Cedar Waxwing - 2
Pine Warbler - 3
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 4
Northern Cardinal - 5
House Finch - 4
American Goldfinch - 3
House Sparrow - 20

This week marked the first observation this winter of American Robins in the yard. They may have been there all along, but they typically appear very early in the morning and late in the afternoon and I had missed them before. This week I saw them early in the morning.

This week also marked the reappearance of the House Finches. I had not seen any of them in the yard for several weeks, but there were four at the front yard feeder when I first looked out my window this morning. They are always welcome visitors.

Another first this week was the first visit to the feeders by the American Goldfinches. Although they have been in the yard for several weeks, I had not seen them visiting the feeders at all, but today, there they were, consuming the black oil sunflower seeds. I still haven't seen them visit the nyger seed feeders, set up especially for them.

This was also the first appearance by a Red-shouldered Hawk on my counts. I've had Red-tailed Hawks a couple of times, but this lone Red-shouldered was hunting over my backyard on Sunday, where, earlier, I had also seen the Cooper's Hawk.

I missed seeing the Orange-crowned Warbler this week, but I probably just wasn't out and observing when he visited. The other two winter warblers were present in the yard in relatively large numbers this weekend.

Overall, I was happy with my first FeederWatch count of the new year. Things should become even more interesting in coming weeks as the wild food continues to get scarcer and the birds look for other sources of food. They will find my feeders stocked and waiting for them.