Just now listening to the cardinal family out at the feeder, saying their names "chip, chip" and "tip, tip, tip". (I call the mama and papa cardinal Chip and Tip). Then when papa goes up to the top of the bamboo to declare his territory he does the "Cheeseburger" call. Sometimes it sounds like "Cheer, Cheer, Cheer, Cheeseburger" but he doesn't do that after the chicks hatch. I'm guessing that's when he doesn't want to attract the attention of the hawks.
Sometimes think the Blue Jays might be drinkers - their feeding calls sound like glass bottles clinking together to me.
I'm lucky that there is such good 'cover' for my little birdies because we always have hawks around here. The big stand of bamboo is 10ft. away from my birdfeeders and all the little birds flit out and back in there, where the space between the bamboo culms is too narrow for the hawks to get in. So while I know the hawks probably get some of the songbirds, at least I don't have to be a witness to the carnage.
The bamboo is also on the north side of my garden, so it provides a really nice windbreak in the winter. Birds seem to love it in the warm sun, on the coldest days I always have lots of them staying around.
