This is the time for migrating birds to arrive on Cape Cod or pass through on their way north. (Click on blog link to see other photos.) Wednesday night I was reading a notice from Wild Care Cape Cod, which is an organization which “helps sick, injured, and orphaned wildlife through wildlife rehabilitation.” This was the notice:

It is peak time for migration and the chance to see some different birds that you might not otherwise see.

Thursday morning about 7:30 am, Phil called out to me that there 25-30 birds at the bird bath taking turns drinking. This was highly unusual. I quickly got my camera but only got 2 shots, which you can see here, as they all flew away, staying less than 2 minutes. When I entered the photo into my iBird Sleuth, it said they were young Red Crossbills. How cool was that! We had never seen one before and we got to see a ton of them at our birdbath. Wow! It doesn’t get much better!

You still have time to look around and see if you can spot a bird you’ve never seen before… maybe you’ll even see a whole flock of them! It was such a treat for us!

Thank you Stephanie, Executive Director at  Wild Care Cape Cod, for the post which heightened our awareness!

The Orchard Oriole is another bird that we look forward to coming back again in the spring. This chestnut-colored male Orchard Oriole with a black head is just beautiful. Like the Baltimore Oriole, he also loves to eat at our grape jelly feeder. Sometimes people mistake them for a Baltimore Oriole but the Orchard Oriole is much darker. (Click on blog link for photo of the female.)

The 2nd photograph is the female Orchard Oriole. You can see how very different her coloring is compared to the male.

Both are just beautiful, don’t you think? Have you seen an Orchard Oriole yet this year?

The other morning when I went out to feed the birds, I noticed a huge splat of bird poop on the wood chips. I thought that that must have been one big bird that had come by. (Click on blog link to see other photo.)

I looked way up in the trees but didn’t see anything until… I went inside and looked out the window. And there, about 15 feet above my head, was a huge Red-Tailed Hawk sitting on a branch. He must have been there when I walked by and that was probably his mess on the ground.

As we watched him for over an hour, we couldn’t understand why he wasn’t trying to get the numerous birds, squirrels and turkeys in our yard. And then he opened his beak and regurgitated two big balls of fur. You can see them in the photo. They are about 2-3″ each. He must have just finished his meal, thus not wanting anything more from our yard.

Wow! I didn’t know that hawks regurgitated pellets just like owls. Surely a learning experience for me! (I did not know that I had gotten a photograph of him with his beak open, ready to expel, until I looked on my computer!)

As a sequel… the following day I saw the hawk get another squirrel and bring it up into the tree. He must think we have great pickings!