The Birds

Astonishingly the birds come out in the storm.  At one point there were 30 to 40 birds in the bushes around the feeder.

 

 There were sparrows, titmice, juncos, chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, mourning doves a starling and a woodpecker.  In the time since it first started snowing I have shoveled my way to the feeder at least every two or three days. Why have these birds stayed around?  They seem to be able to find enough food and protected hideouts.  They chatter in the sunshine, and perch on the treetops.  

But it is a dangerous game.  A couple days ago I saw what looked like some sticks in the snow next to the weeping larch.  But then I used binoculars.  It was the remains of a bird, probably a blue jay.  Feathers were scattered about where a predator had attacked a bird waiting for a turn at the feeder.  The culprit was probably a hawk.  We had seen one fly past.  Today the remains were covered with a new layer of snow.  Only a single vertical feather marks the site of the carnage.  But they still gather at the feeder.  No more sign of the hawk.