Spring is always such a fun time to watch birds — we always get a few unusual birds stopping by in addition to the usual suspects starting to pair up for nesting.

This high-stepping towhee pranced through the grass beneath our feeders, looking for early insects. With those long legs, you can see that Towhees are well adapted to their habit of jumping and scrapping leaf litter.

After I brush out the dogs, I put the dog hair in an empty suet feeder for birds to use as nest material. You can barely see this black-capped chickadee for all the fur in its beak.

For the past five to ten years, we’ve had more cotton-tailed rabbits than squirrels. I think that’s why this red-tailed hawk was keeping an eye on the back yard one day last week, perching in the neighbor’s blue spruce tree.

Then yesterday we had another red-tailed hawk come in to check out the bunny availability. It arrived just after dawn and hung around all day, waiting for an unwary bunny to make a mistake. Look at how much lighter its belly band is compared to the bird shown above.

And finally, I heard our first broad-tailed hummingbird zipping overhead. It’s been cold and wet today so I made up some sugar water and put it in the hummingbird feeders to help the little guys through the night.