Winter Birds from my Office Chair

I have seen birds since my last post, more than four hundred species in fact, most of them while in Costa Rica in December.  I plan to post a few photos of those, but today I am posting the birds that I saw while I should have been doing useful things with numbers.

The bird we see in our yard in winter the most is the House Sparrow.  There are dozens of them, more than we have in the summer.

Blue Jays vary in our yard, some winters we don't see any, in other years the Jays are here intermittently.  This year we seem to have about 4 or 5 on an ongoing basis.  There were more in the fall, but I think some moved on.

(In the interest of full disclosure, the photos of the Blue Jays were taken from my kitchen window, not the office window, but the same birds have been seen from the office, I just liked these photos better.)

One of my favourite winter birds, the Common Redpoll, like the Blue Jays, are not here every year.  This year I've seen maybe three or four at a time, but I am quite sure there are more around.  One of the things about a farm is that there are many food choices, showing up at the feeders by the house is not required in order to be fed.

We have a Red-breasted Nuthatch this winter.  I may have seem one in our yard occasionally in the past, but this little guy is a regular at our feeders.  Very exciting for me.

And then there is the summer bird that shouldn't be here but is.  This American Goldfinch startled me when I saw him a few days ago.  I have no idea where he has been since all his buddies few south, but he is here eating my niger seed this week.

And occasionally the sunflower seeds too.