Hummingbirds, Hawks, and Finches

In the past day I’ve seen the following outside the house – it’s quite interesting.

First, we put up a hummingbird feeder as a leap of faith on 5/22/09 (yesterday).  We’d never seen them around here but they are supposed to be here.

Within an hour we saw a few hummingbirds around the feeder- it was pretty cool.  They were iridescent blue/green and that’s all I can tell you about what species they were. (Note: If you live in or are familiar with the species of hummingbirds around Stevens Point WI please Contact Me and let me know – I’m clueless).

Then this morning I got up and noticed a big bird in our front yard – I grabbed the binoculars and determined (with the help of Google) that it was a Rough Legged Hawk.  It was eating a fresh kill and sat in our front yard for 15 minutes or so eating.  It was probably 100 feet away from me so I could see it quite well with my binoculars.  It was a fantastic bird – I’d guess it had a 3-foot wingspan, yellow legs, and the way it tore the rodent it was eating apart made me want to NEVER go near it’s beak.  Still though – this beats living in the Minneapolis suburbs like I used to – I love seeing this stuff.

Later in the day I actually saw something else cool – an American Goldfinch.  That’s not remarkable – there’s a lot of them around Stevens Point.  However, this one was VERY fat and full of eggs.  It had that same look that 9-month pregnant women do when they are all tired after a short walk (or in this case flight).  It came up the a puddle from last night’s rain panting (*perhaps), took a few drinks, and flew off.

I bet there’s a set of fresh eggs in a nest nearby tonight.