Backyard Birding

One of my favorite birds to watch is the barn swallow. Its agility in the air as it swoops and dives, catching insects on the wing is truly magnificent. Other than offering wide-open spaces and old buildings, there really is not much you can do to attract barn swallows. Since they are not overly concerned by human presence, and nest readily in outbuildings and abandoned buildings, they have benefited greatly from human development which has expanded their range considerably.

Massachusetts birder Robert Tougias shares his childhood memories of watching swallows in an old, abandoned casino as they swooped in and out, caring for their young.

One of the most remarkable habits barn swallows have is their unique style of skimming the surface of a lake by dragging their lower beak through the water while speeding over the surface. I can never forget that. I remember that the female never left the nest for long and her forays averaged about seven minutes. She also seemed to turn her eggs each time she returned. I don’t remember much more than that, and at age 9 my observational skills were limited. TheDay.com

It is definitely worth a drive to watch barn swallows, especially when they are rearing young. The tiny nestlings stretch their necks out so far, it seems they will fall from their nest. Stay far enough away to not disturb the parents (they will dive at you if you get too close!), but take time to enjoy these precious moments.

If you would like to learn how to sketch these wonderful birds, Jill Novak is offering “Sketching Baby Barn Swallows,” the first in her “Sketch With Me™” series for free.

Image credit: Malene Thyssen, www.mtfoto.dk/malene/

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There are really only two things you need to enjoy the birds which frequent your backyard: birds and a place to view them. Providing food, water and shelter will help attract a greater variety of birds. But there are some things which are nice to have indoors, as well. The following is a list of what we keep near our viewing station to help us get the most out of the time we spend watching our birds:

1. Field Guide to North American Birds. Ours is put out by the Audubon Society. I like it because it groups birds together by color, making it easier to identify similar species. But what type of field guide you should have is largely a matter of personal preference. If you do not already own one, I would recommend checking several out from the library and seeing which one you like best. After doing this, I’m considering purchasing a second guide. Our library has one of sketches which aren’t quite as nice as the color photos of our guide, but it includes sketches of the different plumages you might find on males, females, juveniles and in different seasons.

2. Binoculars. These are especially nice if you plan to watch birds at local parks. We use them to watch the red-tailed hawks in the field behind our house and to watch the blue birds hawk for insects at the back of the property.

3. Notebook. I would not have thought of this, myself, but it is a nice way to keep track of what is happening at your feeders. It is interesting to note how many of our birds come at roughly the same time every day. It also showcases those unique visitors, such as our white crested sparrow who we only have seen three or four times. When a new bird shows up, I take notes and make a simple sketch to help me when I look through the field guide. Here are some more ideas to extend the use of the notebook to increase your children’s appreciation for nature.

4. Camera. I am not much of a photographer, but I enjoy trying to take pictures of our birds. They rarely stick around long enough to run for the camera, so it is good to keep it close.

Start with what you have and as you gain experience, you will be able to make more informed decisions about future purchases if you decide any are needed.

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After Sally asked for more clarification of my last entry, I decided it best to post a picture of our branch we have stationed outside our viewing window. A tornado went through our community several years ago and it broke off the top of one of our trees. The dead branch lay up there for two years before finally coming down this winter. We carelessly tossed it near the feeding station since that is close to where we keep our dumpster and the birds loved it so much we kept it there through the winter. When my clematis didn’t come up again out of its place in this old milk pail, we stuck the branch in there to make it easier to mow.

The milk pail is heavy and we filled it with dirt to make it more stable. This brings the birds up close to our window and provides them a measure of security while they wait for their turn at the feeders. It also seems to have cut down on the number of birds colliding with our windows.

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To bring birds a little closer to the window, my husband placed a large branch in an old milk pail. The plan worked perfectly. Birds congregate there waiting their turn at the feeders, preen their feathers and quarrel amongst themselves. Our blue jays have also found convenient places to wedge their sunflower seeds so that they may crack them open. We also get a chance to observe our visitors more closely, like this beautiful Northern Cardinal.

Because they feel safe, they also now tolerate more activity without flying off. While sitting outside eating watermelon, we got to see several birds up close. We were only about ten feet from them. The downy woodpecker was the only one brave enough to leave the cover of the branch to eat, and the others kept a wary eye on us. But we got a closer look than normal.

We have also not had any window collisions since putting this up, which is was a nice, unplanned benefit.

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The Eureka Reporter wrote a nice article about backyard birding, one of America’s most popular hobbies. I definitely relate with the opening lines:

After gardening, bird-watching is probably the most popular hobby in the country, said Louise Bacon-Ogden, a local bird lover. People go from putting a feeder in their yard and observing birds to taking bird walks to traveling across the county on birding trips.

It builds and builds, Bacon-Ogden said. “It’s a snowballing sort of effect.”

We put up a feeder in order to attract birds to our yard for Project FeederWatch. It was a homeschooling assignment to help my children learn more about what scientists do. I didn’t expect the hobby to take over our yard and bookshelves. I didn’t expect to be making field trips to different biomes to see different types of birds. I had never before noticed just how many different species of birds live in our area.

We have nine feeders which attract a variety of birds. Our favorites are: American goldfinches, house finches, blue jays, cardinals, rose-breasted grosbeaks, red-headed woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers, northern flickers and downy woodpeckers. It is a rare and special treat when one of our native sparrows stops by. We get both white crested sparrows and song sparrows, but they are a little more shy than the house sparrows which think the ground feeder belongs to them and them alone.

We are yet to travel across the country to see birds, but we have traveled across the state. This spring, we went to see the Sandhill Cranes during their migration outside of Kearney. I had never seen anything like it. The constant karroo, karroo of their call echoed in my head long after we left. I could still hear them as I tried to go to sleep that night. And I cannot wait to make the trip again next spring.

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A problem has developed with our feeding station which we have to address. Many of the birds which visit our feeders are considered by many to be pests, but we decided early on that our general philosophy would be “the more the merrier” so long as the house sparrows and grackles did not actually begin driving other species away. Then the red squirrel found our feeder. But we like squirrels so we came up with a compromise.

This problem is a little more expensive, however, and goes by the name of bandit. So named for those adorable little stripes on his face and tail. Yes, a raccoon has discovered our bird seed. The seed has been sitting outside in plastic containers for months. But two days ago, a raccoon discovered that if it knocked one over, the lid would pop off.

Smart varmint. And expensive. It is now responsible for the loss of half a container of black oil sunflower seed which would be about 10 pounds. I’m not sure how to deal with raccoons, but for the moment, we have put the dog out by the seed. I don’t want to leave him tied out overnight indefinitely, however.

I’m thinking maybe we could build some sort of crate to hold the bins upright so the raccoon cannot knock them over?

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Do you remember Woody Woodpecker?

This interesting character who became popular back in the 1940s was based on the pileated woodpecker, a species that cannot be confused with any other living species, as the note on the US Geological Survey site says.

The pileated woodpecker is a unique bird. They bore rather large, characteristically rectangular holes to find insects in trees. Small trees have been known to snap in half after their excavations. Their call is a loud “yuck yuck yuck” which is reminiscent of Woody’s laugh. You can listen to it here, at whatbird.com. There nesting behavior is interesting as well. They have been known to make more than 10 exits from their nest burrowed into a tree in order to confuse predators and allow multiple paths to escape!

I am happy to note, however, that the range map they show is wrong. While the pileated woodpecker did disappear from Nebraska, it has returned in recent years.

I did not realize that they could be enticed into your yard by anything but a suitable rotting tree to eat from and nest in, but apparently some can be attracted by large nesting boxes.

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A hairy woodpecker flew up close to our viewing window. These birds look very much like a downy woodpecker, but they are much larger. The are also much more shy, thus more difficult to really watch. He searched our branch for insects, examined the platform feeder, watched the other birds at the ground feeder and finally flew off.

I then turned my attention to the sparrows gathering at the ground feeder. I was hoping to get a picture of one of the fledglings begging for food. One of the grackles lurched, catching a sparrow by the wing. It flapped wildly. It freed itself and retreated to the edge f the feeding area. The grackle began to strut, lunging at the sparrows until they were all driven from the ground feeder.

I did some reading and found that grackles are known for this behavior. They occasionally catch sparrows and drown them in the bird bath or other available water source and then will eat them or feed them to their young. I may have to do some more reading to see if there are any satisfactory means of discouraging them. I doubt the grackles can tell the difference between a house sparrow or a tree sparrow or that he even cares!

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