After a few days of nothing but clouds and rain it was a relief to see the sun rising this morning. Apparently the birds in my backyard were happy too, as the feeder was as busy as Grand Central Station during the morning commute.

Everybody was flying in to grab a seed, though most of them were chased out by the next wave of incoming.

The little birds, the chickadee, titmouse and nuthatch were mostly rousted out by bigger birds.

Meanwhile, on the deck, someone else is getting a drink.

And another was just watching all the goings-on.

I was standing in the breakfast room, trying to get shots around all the distractions, lots of feeders, the dog in her pen, the railings were all things the camera wanted to focus on rather than the birds themselves.

But, regardless of my shortcomings, the birds kept on giving me fun images, even if most of them were never going to be stored on my memory card.

The comings and going were constant.

Just when one bird got comfortable and was enjoying breakfast another, usually larger and often noisier, swooped in and took over.

The biggest of all was this guy.

He made quite a show, puffing up when he saw anyone else attempt to move in on him…

…and giving the evil eye if the puffing up didn’t work.

Still, a foolish little goldfinch wasn’t paying attention.

He made a couple of circles, surveying the situation.

He wasn’t about to give up.

But in the end the poor guy had to concede that he was no match for the huge and boisterous crackle. After all, there are other feeders out there.

So in the end, for that moment anyway, the bully grackle won.

But the little birds are very patient and once the big guys left, they happily settled down to the leftovers.