Today was a great day!!! (but not so great for pics)

This morning I had two Bald Eagles up in a tree for about an hour. Too far away for my biggest lens even with the doubler on it, dang it! I certainly tried, though. I was still in my nightie and there was no way to get closer to them, so settled for the tripod and hoped for the best! This was the first time I have seen Bald Eagles here.










Just after the eagles left, a flock of birds landed in a much closer tree, but still out of camera range. It was a bunch of American Robins. I have never seen them here at this time of year before, so they were a most welcome surprise as well. They were here for about 20 minutes. I think this is males and females???







This Downy Woodpecker has been hanging around the last couple of days, too.






The Starlings have been swarming lately - huge clouds of them!

Also the Northern Flickers are here, and there's quite a few of them - the red-shafted ones.

My two hawks are still hunting at my feeders. They were here today as well, hung around for quite a while but left empty-taloned. One of them got a California Quail the other day, though.

I have both the Slate Juncos and the Oregon variety here. Quite a few Oregons but only a couple Slates.

My usual crowd of House Sparrows, Song Sparrows, California Quail, Mourning Doves, Goldfinches and House Finches are still here, too. The Goldfinches seem to be getting yellower - but that could just be me wishful thinking for Spring to get here!

I am participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb 13-16) http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/great-backyard-bird-count-2009 These new birds were wonderful to see so I could add them to my list that I submitted tonight. Is anyone else participating in this?

Cheers,
Sue

_________________
The sound of birds stops the noise in my mind.
- Carly Simon

The woodpecker pictures are nice, thank you.

Bald eagles are pretty commonplace here by the coast. I'm not sure
why they're up your way, but perhaps they're only passing through?

Oh, and thanks for the report. We've been getting pretty much the same
for the last week or so. Juncos are a very recent discovery for me, I had
assumed they would all be the Oregon type, not sure I'd recognize Slateys
but I'll keep an eye out. I got a number of pictures of something that looks
like a goldfinch, I haven't looked too closely as there seems to be something
very much wrong with the eye that I can see in the profile shots.