Protecting My Birds

I know the hawk has gotten at least 2 of my Red Cardinals. Last week I saw red feathers out in the field and today I came across this horrible site. I have been trying to spend time outside chasing 2 hawks that stop in everyday, one is a smaller one who has no fear when I stand below him under a tree and yell at him, this other one pictured is a Red-Tailed Hawk, much larger and he can't hide behind the tree branches, which make him easy to spot as he looks over at the smorgasbord of birds at my house. When hawks are present  you should not feed the birds for a few days, but we had such frigid weather and it was cruel not to feed them. But here the hawks have always been around for years.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Indy the German made Weimaraner was bred to be a bird dog....aaahhhhh. He wants a bird so badly and I have to be right behind him to scare the birds away from him. He is so lovable that its hard to imagine he wants to eat these adorable creatures.

This female Downy Woodpecker is up high in the tree away from Indy. One morning I looked out and one of these birds was pressed up against the tree not moving. I knew what that meant, a hawk was nearby. So out I went to scare the hawk off.

Oh the poor little Junco has survived all of the elements, from 5 below zero degrees a few nights ago, the hawks and plus the dog. It has been over a month that he has been here. I put homemade suet in a dish on the ground for the Juncos. Of course it is much easier for this broken leg Junco to eat there.

I feed the bluebirds their mealworms about the same time everyday and this makes it easy for me to have the camera handy. One day I just arriving home at their feeding time and as I got out of my vehicle I heard them and at that moment a hawk was flying in. So I stood outside and kept guard while they ate.