More birds in our backyard

Tom was off from work today for the President's holiday. He spent the afternoon outside in the backyard photographing the birds that come to our feeders. Here are a few photos that he took. I had to work today so I was very envious that he had this opportunity!

The Carolina Wren is one of my favorite little birds. I just love the way that Tom captured her with her wings flapping. These little guys made their nest on our front door last Spring and we got to watch them feed and fledge 4 babies.

We have both white-breasted (above) and red-breasted nuthatches in our yard. As a child the nutchatch was one of the first birds that I looked up in the bird book. My mother taught me the obvious like the robin and the cardinal, but what was this strange bird walking DOWN the tree trunk. The bird book said "you can usually identify this bird as a nuthatch because of its atypical behavior of walking DOWN the tree". I can remember being was so excited that I identified my first bird.

It has been so cold lately and the weather so strange and erratic that the birds have been very hungry, needing a lot of energy just to stay warm. The cardinal usually comes to our feeder very early in the morning and then again very late in the evening when the light is less than optimal. I put out the food in the mid-morning and they both came right away. Tom was lucky to be able to photograph the cardinal in the nice winter afternoon light.

We are blessed with 5 different types of woodpeckers that visit our backyard! A little bit of suet on the log and these little guys were very happy.

The last two photos from today -- two photographs of a female Junco.