Bob Chilcoat wrote:

Some
mornings there is a small pile of feathers on the ground near it, perhaps
indicating that the red-tailed hawk that lives in the area is also feeding
there (or perhaps the owl we hear at night sometimes).

Redtails rarely take out birds, and almost never songbirds (they're too awkward
to catch them). Owls are even more unlikely to kill birds. Both raptors prefer
rodents, and small owls would have to be near starving to eat anything else. Of
course, a Great Horned owl will add skunks and cats to the larder, but I've
never heard of one eating birds. Your raider is probably something like a
sharp-shinned hawk that you haven't seen (or maybe your "redtail" is really a
sharpie).

At any rate, the birds seem to have been really chowing down this year.

I think it's the warm winter we're having. I actually saw some Starlings
yesterday. They should've migrated south months ago. I think we have most of the
usual winter crowd and some of the summer crowd too.

George Patterson
Coffee is only a way of stealing time that should by rights belong to
your slightly older self.