I know what you're saying Lin but these 2 screeching were the red shouldered hawks. There were also a ton of crows making a big fuss for a good while. I don't know if the red shouldered were just excited at a fresh kill or if they were trying to run the red tail off so they could claim the kill or what. I could not see the red shoulders but I know their sounds now like the back of my hand & it was certainly them making the screeches.

I was disappointed I did not get a shot of the one time red tail flew/hopped with the squirrel & I could clearly see it's tail & entire body. By the time I got the shots I posted; red tail had already eaten most of the squirrel. I did have to research to make sure what bird it was as it looked different than the red tails I have seen before but during research found that there is wide color variation with red tails --- they can even be white! You learn something new everyday.

He is one healthy Hawk!!

Beautiful shots Ann. And how exciting to see those hawks.

Ann: I didn't realize you were saying the hawk on the ground was different from the ones in the trees. I sometimes read too quickly without really seeing what's written.
That great shot of your hawk is definitely a big Red-tailed; beautiful bird! I have trouble remembering which is which when it comes to hawks but the Red-tailed (I think) is the largest. I never knew that Hawks dined on squirrels but I've seen squirrels in my yard go into a sort of hiding mode when hawks are circling so it doesn't surprise me that they are prey for those beautiful birds. This is a picture from a couple of years ago; a hawk was circling and the blue jays began screeching as they do when a hawk is present and the smaller birds were chirping their distress calls too. I'd never seen this before but a couple of squirrels began flattening their bodies to the trees; maybe hoping to blend in with the bark for camouflage?

That's okay LIn, I do the same thing sometimes --- speed read. We'll blame it on speed reading like Sharon taught us to do.

Thanks everybody! Yes, that hawk was certainly healthy. It exuded health & vitality as well as self confidence. It was not phased in the least by all the cacophony going on around it. It's nice to see a critter so healthy & know it lives here or very close by. I did see it another day about 2 weeks ago from the kitchen window; it was already on the ground that time too. I was cooking & couldn't get free to do anything more than look in fits & spurts. And it was much farther away that day.

Lin, that's so cool about the squirrels flattening down on the limbs. DH & I often wonder about them around here. They seem to pay no attention to the hawks. We sit out back & watch the hawks flying overhead looking for a meal & making their calls & the danged squirrels just go on doing what they do. If I were a squirrel, I would be doing like yours in the photo! Or finding a hole to crawl into.

Great shots Lin and Ann, love the squirrel tying to blend in with the tree.

I am in awe of the great pics on this thread. My bird shots usually turn out as fuzzy brown dots. When an interesting bird turns up, I call for DH to get his camera - the one with all the knobs and buttons that I can't figure out - to take a zoom pic. He did pretty well with these two unusual grackles, one with white cheeks, and one with a totally white head. Has anyone else noticed albinism showing up in birds this year?

June, that's very strange, I have not seen that in any of the birds that visit my feeders, of course I do not get grackles.

How unusual!

June: Wow, great shots! I've heard of abinism and leucism in birds but I've never seen it. Here are two links which talk about it:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/i...

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/p...

Thanks for the informative links, Lin! My pied grackes are leucistic, not albinos.

I have so many self seeded Four O'Clocks this year. I was just out there in my front yard that has them all over and they smell divine! They look so pretty/

Honestly, I don't know where they all come from. I only had a few last year. But the hummingbirds sure love them.

Four O'clocks are so pretty but they can be invasive down here. I consider them a weed. At our other house we had way TOO MANY Four O'clocks! They produced so many seeds I could not ever keep up with them and the tubers grew so large that they were very difficult to dig up. I never noticed fragrance on any of ours; we had pink, white (lots of white!) and at one time the striped colors. Your bounty this year may be from birds gifting you with seeds.

They only have a scent in the evening when the flowers are open. Otherwise nothing.

But I do think they are so pretty. Underground Four O'Clock Tubers die here over winter so they never become to aggressive. But they do self seed all over the place.

I've heard so many folks comment on the nice fragrance of Four O'clocks ... it's just my nose I guess!

I have a Queen of the Night (Epiphyllum oxypetalum) and a Zig-Zag Cactus (Selenicereus anthonyanus) and also Peruvian Apple (Cereus repandus) all nocturnal bloomers that my husband says are all quite fragrant and yet I've never, ever been able to detect anything!! It's really weird because I have a lot of fragrant night blooming Hoya's that I can smell just fine.

A pair of Chickadees have been around most of the morning and early afternoon. Such cute little things. They are eating suet from the suet feeder along side the woodpecker. Of course I can't get a picture!

Here are some of the 4 O'Clocks blooming here. Lots of them this year from self seeding. They are very attractive to hummingbirds.

Wow, those are so beautiful! I do love them but they are quite invasive down this way. We had tons at our other house that had been growing there for many years. I used to hope our occasional hard freezes would kill them for good but no such luck. We bought that house in 1973 and they weren't there when we moved in and I didn't plant them so I'm assuming the birds dropped seeds. Four O'clocks produce soooo many seeds that it was impossible to collect them all so they reseeded prolifically every year! I dug out, or tried to dig many out over the years, some of the stems are so thick and tubers so large that I had to get my husbands help but they'd still grow back. There was a section of property outside our fence line on the road where only white Four O'clocks grew, they were so thick along the entire property line and tall!! I'm 5' 5 1/2" in height and they towered over me! The city on occasion would come mow them down but I remember one year when I spent weeks out there trying to get them out ... it ended up being a lot of work for nothing because they always grew back! I guess there were so many seeds and tubers beneath the ground that it would have taken a bulldozer to really get them all. These photo's are from @ 2009. I dug out so many over the years finding some tubers three times as large as the biggest one shown in the photo below ... I wish I'd thought to weigh some!

Lin, they are so good at self seeding that I am sure they would be a major pest down your way. Here the Tubers die off during the cold winters. So all that is left are the self sown seeds. But easy enough to pull them of you don't want them. I just left mine this year.

Wow, I have got to get some of those Four O'clocks - they're beautiful - and I love things that self seed!