HAIL to thee, blithe spirit!
Bird thou never wert—
That from heaven or near it
Pourest thy full heart
In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. Higher still and higher
From the earth thou springest,
Like a cloud of fire;
The blue deep thou wingest,
And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden light'ning
Of the sunken sun,
O'er which clouds are bright'ning,
Thou dost float and run,
Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun.

 RichardPrins wrote: 
Wow, that is super-cool!

The girl who gets gifts from birds

The babies hatched!

 Alexandra wrote: 
thanks.
its really rare to see them anywhere in the hood. and to see them AND 2 hawk sightings in the same day may be a sign of The...well...it may be a sign of something
 

Beautiful capture in "mid-cry" and with feathers all fanned out! I've never seen buzzards land on chimneys before.....

This guy and 2 of his friends swooped down past my living room window yesterday. His wingspan looked like it might be close to 6 feet. He ended up on a chimney across the street.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
i also saw 2 hawks, or saw 1 hawk twice, yesterday. a very unusual day in the neighborhood

 ScottN wrote:Thank you!  I have never been much a bird fancier until I moved into my present situation.  The downstairs of the duplex are big-time birders and have a great "feeding tree" in the backyard.  Today I was privileged to fill the containers with various seeds, nijer thistle, etc.  Very rewarding!

 
I wasn't much of a birder, either, until we moved into our previous house, 17 years ago. We lived with thick forest on two sides at the back of the house, and had the biggest bird population I've ever seen, including thousands of hummers. I miss it so bad!!

 MsJudi wrote:Thank you!  I have never been much a bird fancier until I moved into my present situation.  The downstairs of the duplex are big-time birders and have a great "feeding tree" in the backyard.  Today I was privileged to fill the containers with various seeds, nijer thistle, etc.  Very rewarding!

If anyone's interested, there's a hummingbird nest cam! Here's the link.

The birdie sitting in the nest has two eggs, which should hatch any day now.