Overrun by Feathered Beasts

The feathered creatures ruling my property these days bring beauty, song, and some annoyance to my existence. 

These last couple of weeks, I have been hearing a lot of bird song in the mornings. Songs that sound like spring... and we're a long way from actual spring. Odd.

Remember this crazy cardinal? I wrote about him back when he was hurling himself against my shop window--thinking he was chasing off a rival, apparently. All these weeks later, he is still slamming himself into both my shop windows and a garage window--pretty much daily. Crazy bird.

I recently discovered this on the back side of the JayBee. What?! When did this get constructed? Must have been back in the late summer. I have now knocked this down--before a new family moves in--and I'm thinking about creating yet another nest arrestor.

These last few years, the population of turkeys in Maine has exploded. Unfortunately, my neighbors (naive, former-urban dwellers) have been feeding the turkeys this year, so I frequently have dozens of turkeys in my yard at a time. (If anyone is wondering why it's a bad idea to feed turkeys, you must listen to this great This American Life episode--Poultry Slam 2011.) On this particular day, there were about 40 turkeys behind my portable garage--both on the ground and in the tree.

When they heard me, they scrambled up the hill in a long line.

Yesterday, my sweet George was sitting out in the sun in the driveway. When I opened the door, he surprised me by racing to get indoors.

Did he know there was a bald eagle in the tree over the yard and another raptor in the top of a tree further back in the woods?

The bald eagle took off from her perch and soared over to the other raptor. I thought she was going to join a juvenile bald eagle but that bird took off and, when I saw how big he was, I thought maybe he was a golden eagle. It's hard to distinguish between the two.

Here they're swapping positions. The bald eagle is landing in the tree and the other bird is taking off. See the upturned wing tips? That can be an indicator of a golden eagle. Bald eagles fly with horizontal wings. Technically, though, it's really in their soaring positions that their wings look different. Since this is more of a takeoff than a soar, I guess I still don't know if it's a bald or golden eagle.

This morning, I woke up to more bird sounds. I was afraid a huge woodpecker was pounding on the back side of the JayBee. Thankfully, he was drilling a huge hole in a tree on top of the hillside. Can you find him in the center of this photo? He's huge--at least a foot long.

The screeching overhead was two bald eagles sitting together in the tree that overlooks the yard.

This close to the JayBee.