The Delight of Birdwatching in My Yard

We love to watch the birds flock to our backyard, and we happily keep their bird feeders filled. We have a wide variety of feathered friends who make their daily visits to our yard, and sharing our space with them is such a privilege.

Band-Tailed Pigeons, which are huge birds found in California, are a gorgeous sight to behold. They often visit in pairs, sometimes in multiples, but some also visit alone. I happened to be sitting at my desk when two descended upon a bird feeder that is intended for small birds. Despite the relative lack of space to accommodate their large bodies, the two sat and ate for quite a long time, and what a sight it was.

Humans are not the only birdwatchers in our yard, and Cooper's Hawks make regular appearances to birdwatch, and hunt. Usually only one appears at a time, but on this day there were two of them perched on the phone line. The birds they seek to hunt usually get away, but I have found feather evidence that they are periodically successful. Here on the phone wire, they plot, but they were not successful that day.