Heading north

  The other day as the snowfall began to diminish in the afternoon I shoveled out under the bird feeders. In no time after I put down what I call critter mix groups of birds took turns filling their bellies.
   First came the cardinals, juncos and sparrows. Then several mourning doves stopped by.
After awhile I lost interest and turned away to watch a movie. I was sitting with my back to the window where the action was going on. At one point there seem to be a large shadow moving across the yard. Upon checking, it was a flock of about one hundred plus red-winged black birds with a some common grackles mixed in. I spent about an hour watching their comedy show after that. They'd all start in the trees then down to the ground, after about two minutes back into the tree. This was repeated a couple times then they'd make a circle around the house and would end up back in the same tree and repeat the cycle.
  The sharp-shinned hawk was watching all this and made several flights through the yard.
This hawk has spent about five winters here and never hit a window to my knowledge.
Not so this day three times there was a thump on the window. I think all the choices caused it lose track of where it was headed. There are five feeding stations in my yard so they were spread out.
This group of photos calls for a click to enlarge!