A flock of 30 Pinyon Jays stopped for a very brief visit this morning...meaning they were here for around 2 minutes before something spooked them off. The first winter Harris's Sparrow was here for around 5 minutes at 8:00 am. It will probably not visit again until late this afternoon. The pair of White-winged Doves is here.
The birds have been so jumpy lately...nothing is coming in with any regularity and all are skittish. The Pinyon Jays normally come in and sort of take over for up to 20 minutes at a time. They generally do this around 3 times daily. That has not been the case lately. While some of this behavior can be attributed to the mild weather...I fear the Sharp-shinned Hawks have been the major contributor. Typically between 3:30 to around 4:45 we have a "feeding frenzy" with all our usual birds coming in to feed before nightfall. As this has not been the case for the past 2 weeks...I have started going out at about that time of day and walking our property to try and figure out if we have more than just Sharp-shinned hawks to be concerned with. What I have discovered is, while we do have at least 2 Sharpies...we have another visitor...a Red-tailed Hawk has been coming to the yard every afternoon. I have actually observed this bird watching the feeders. He appears at around 4:00 every afternoon. While I know Red-tails generally hunt rodents and small mammals...this behavior has me wondering if the particular bird is hunting my feeder birds. Polly Wren Neldner 151 County Road 359 La Veta Huerfano County -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/cobirds?hl=en.
