I too had a VATH at a feeder today. I have a small, about 1ft dia., bird
bath that was frozen over, so I brushed the snow off and put some white
millet on the ice. It is very close to some bushes. I had towhees, song
sparrow, and juncos use it for a while when a VATH showed up and fed for
about a minute before a song sparrow flew up to the dish and scared it off.
It did come back quite a while later. A beautiful bird and I got some
long good looks at it. The other suet, sunflower and peanut butter feeders
were also very active with both species of chickadees, RB nuthatches,
Bewick's wrens, pine siskins, downy woodpeckers, and northern flicker.
Also yesterday during a busy feeding time a SS hawk made a pass thru the
yard and landed in an apple tree. Perched there a few seconds and flew
off. Fortunately it wasn't successful, but the birds sure disappeared for
about 10-15 min.

Hugh Jennings
Bellevue, WA
gfjc96a at prodigy.com