Thanks for Birds

Here are the birds I saw in my father's yard in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, over Thanksgiving. Some are year-round residents, and some are winter visitors.

First up, one of several blue jays - this one out in pouring rain.





A mockingbird - first up, looking angry on a sunny day.



This mockingbird was in the rain. It was amusing - my sister had raked up all the leaves the day before, and this afternoon the back yard was filled with birds, despite the rain. This mocker was extremely annoyed at their presence, and spent a lot of energy trying to scare off the cardinals and towhees... who got out of his way but promptly came back.



Here's a hermit thrush.



Here's an eastern phoebe.


A pair of mourning doves in the front yard.



A Carolina wren.



Here's one of a number of little Carolina chickadees that, accompanied by titmice and other little birds, move through the woods every day, generally too flitty to get good pictures of.



Here's one of the titmice.



Here's a female cardinal - this shot is of her in a little Japanese maple.



And here's a male in the back. There were actually five pairs on the rainy day!



When I first saw this, I thought it was a thrush, but it's a brown thrasher instead. Sibley says it's a summer resident, but near the edge of the year-round zone...



Here's an eastern bluebird.



Back on the rainy day, here's a female towhee ...


... and here's her mate, out of focus, accompanied by one of our Canadian transients - a white-throated sparrow.


More white-throated sparrows, in the Japanese maple.




And another winter visitor, one of a number of golden-crowned kinglets (I believe that if you use a standard 12-point font, that name is actually longer than the bird!) who were going though along with the chickadees and titmice.





And finally, three woodpeckers. First up, a downy:



then a yellow-bellied sapsucker:



and finally, one of the pair of pileated woodpeckers that lives on the ridge: