More odds and ends.....

A few more busy critters from my house....

I put up a new suet cage on this shepherd's crook and the Downy was having trouble hanging onto the pole. I am going to get Mike to wrap some black tape on the pole to make it less slippery. When she gets on the suet, she is just fine :-)

A Goldfinch on the rim of the fountain. Those red leaves are my new little Dogwood tree that I hope will eventually replace the dead one that I have covered with a vine. I was happy that it survived our drought of this summer.

A White-Breasted Nuthatch guarding the ash tree and the suet cage that hangs on it.

However, that doesn't stop the Red-Bellied Woodpecker from helping herself to the suet.

Several of the birds really like this large feeder and its tree location. I'm trying to figure out where to put another one.

First Mourning Dove that I have seen since the hawk started hanging around.

This House Sparrow had those odd white feathers in her wing and she is also darker in color than most of them.

"Found a peanut, found a peanut...."

A row of pigeons spotted while sitting at a stop light.

A couple of Pine Siskins showed up the other day.

Three of the feathers I have found in my yard since the hawk showed up. The one on the far left looks very much like the colors of a White-Breasted Nuthatch. The photo doesn't show the colors very well....it is that special grey with black right before the white. I was very upset about that until I saw two of the Nuthatches a few days later. The other two I don't know what they are. Maybe from the hawk, itself.

And then we have the night time visitors. I can count on at least one of my skunks showing up every night shortly after it gets dark. The cats usually alert me to their presence by wanting to go outside and chase them away. Sorry, kitties.......you can't play with the skunks! This is the beautiful almost all white one.

The other night two of them showed up together. A normal black one with white stripes and the white one.

The black one. I'm pretty sure that there is a third one that has less white than this one. I've seen one with just a couple tiny white marks on the head and a bit on the tip of its tail. That one seems to be more "shy" and I haven't gotten a good photo of it. Of course I would prefer that they would go eat somewhere else, just because of the "odor" worry. I sure hope no other cat or dog comes along and upsets them while they are in my yard!