Birds on Ice

Happy Thursday everyone - day 3 of no school. I have to admit I've enjoyed my leisurely mornings drinking my coffee and watching the birds. I love birdwatching. It's been particularly amusing here the last couple days because of all the ice. We have a Shepard's hook out in front so I can watch the goings on from our living room picture window. The big draw is the suet - they all like that. It took the woodpeckers to get thru the ice covering on the feeder, then everyone started coming round. I hadn't seen any Red-Bellied woodpeckers here lately but now I've been seeing a Flicker. At first I thought it was just an enormous Red-Bellied, but it's not. He's not used to me yet either. The rest of the little birdies are used to me having my face and camera shoved in the window taking pictures, but he's new and a tease. I have to move slowly and now I can sit down on the couch and watch him, but as soon as the camera shows itself, off he goes and watches me from the trees.
Anyway, all the little guys (chickadees, sparrows, dark eyed juncos, etc.) would land on the curve of the Shepard hook and just slide around the corner and down. Poor things. Then we had the Ice Capades on the patio - a Morning Dove literally looked like it was skating (gliding in all, it was just missing some tiny little skates) across the patio getting what the others chucked out of the feeders.
I think I managed to see at least 10 different birds hanging around. It was like a little show - one or two would hang out, they'd fly off and then another would show up - it was a birdie conga line.
So, here's a few pictures to enjoy.
Stay Warm,
Jodi

My little Chickadee

Tufted Titmice

Common Flicker and Sparrow

Nuthatch