Skywatch Friday - birds of a feather and a little weather

To begin, a backdrop of lovely sky blue sky...

I heard the crows before I saw them.
They were raising such a ruckus!
I knew there must be a bird of prey in the area
that they felt threatened by.
Sure enough, I snapped the picture above
of a large number of crows attacking a hawk.

National Wildlife Magazine, June/July 2010 issue
has a segment under 'news of the wild'
about how crows can recognize a face
for as many as 4 years later.
(I know some people who can't do that!)
Honeybees can also recognize one human face from another.

Bet they can remember where the good flower beds are too!

I took the next 3 pictures when I was in Massachusetts recently,
and saw more blue skies.

Above is a male ... goldfinch or is it a Baltimore oriole?
(Please click on any of the pictures to see them bigger.)
Click here for a link to Cornell Lab of Ornithology
information about orioles.

Above is the female who was traveling with the male.
Click here for the link to information about the
American Goldfinch.

What's your conclusion?
What's your child's conclusion?
Baltimore Oriole or American Goldfinch?

But the weather turned from blue skies
to shades of slate and charcoal,
which I found just as beautiful,
if not even more interesting than the blue skies.

For more Skywatch Friday links, click here.

Have a great weekend!

~Aerie-el