Grackles at the bird feeder.

Today was an especially busy animal day in my backyard on Shellpot Creek. We have a bird feeder in a cage to keep out the squirrels and only let in the smaller birds. One particular common visitor is the Carolina Chickadee as well as a variety of smaller brown birds. It seems that one bird at the feeder will draw others of its own kind and then all different kinds of birds. Today's explosion of birds started with the chickadees and moved on through the brown birds to mourning doves, cardinals and finally Common Grackles. These last several are actually too big to get seed from the feeder and usually make do with the seed the smaller birds spill on the ground.

Today though, several grackles tried to get into the feeder. They were unsuccessful.


This is two different birds. Many more just stuck to the ground area.

During this bird excitement we also witnessed a squirrel flipping over and over again on the ground and jumping off of a bush. We also had a visit from our ground hog. No pictures of those, as they were too far away. It is quite the wildlife extravaganza around the creek.