On a cold and blustry day....

Brrrrrrrr.......We aren't getting the terrible snow or ice that the north is getting, but the temps dropped quite a bit today. Winter making her return for Groundhog's Day. Sorry...no groundhogs. Too cold to come out and look for your shadow. I did catch the Towhee sneaking out of the bush for some seeds. I've been trying to get a decent photo of it. It always hears me open the door to sneak out for a better shot and disappears into the bush again.
One good shot....a male, as you can tell by the really black head and back. I haven't seen a female here yet.

Right above it on the Maple tree a female Red-bellied Woodpecker was doing some searching for bugs.

She dug in one spot for awhile.

I had Mike take a bungee cord and put up a new suet feeder in honor of the awful cold weather. Will mount it better when it warms up :-) A Downy/Hairy? found it pretty quickly. Couldn't tell the size well enough. Usually I try to mentally measure it against the suet cage.

This male Cardinal looked like it was fighting "Custer's Last Stand" backed up against the tree and surrounded by Cowbirds and Starlings. Poor thing looks a bit intimidated!

Way too many Cowbirds, but they do have a certain beauty.

Cowbird female and Starling.....it made an interesting comparison. When the Starling waddled up, it was like two fussy females meeting at the neighborhood market.

"So what'cha buying today, Deary? I think these sunflower seeds look pretty fresh."

Cowbird female on its own.

Male bonding among the lads.

Starling.....better known as the "greedy hog". The Downys really hate the Starlings and are too small to drive them off.

Mrs. Cardinal with some sparrow friends.

This squirrel really looked orange. Fur coats are nice when it's 20+ out. There were at least 5 squirrels out there today.

This one is on alert......all the birds flew away and I realized there was a hawk out there somewhere. It stayed like this until the birds started coming back and sounded the "all clear!" Mike later saw a hawk grab a ground bird out front.

On these blustery days its every animal for itself.