Backyard Birding

The birds are showing every sign that winter is on its way. We have seen our first red-breasted nuthatches which, from my understanding, are only occasional visitors to my area. Others have reported increased numbers of these feisty little birds. I cannot believe how tame they seem. Yesterday, we had three in the yard at once. While filling the feeders, they darted in and out of the feeding station, collecting the black oil sunflower seeds and returning to the pine tree to crack them open. They seemed completely oblivious to my presence, landing just two feet from where I was standing. I wondered at the likelihood of one taking a seed from my hand.

Two days after hearing rumors that the juncos had arrived, I caught sight of our first junco of the season. My daughter claimed there was one at the bird bath but it was gone before I got there. Twenty minutes later, I startled one by the bath. Hopefully we will soon have small flocks of them gleaning seeds from under the feeders. They are my favorite of our winter visitors, although the red-breasted nuthatch is generating some rivalry for that position!

The house sparrows are beginning to form larger flocks and they are flightier than normal. They fly back and forth between our woodpile, the feeding station and the field behind our house. That is a popular collection spot for a number of different bird species. It is a popular spot for starlings, jays and flickers as well.

The goldfinches have finally found our finch feeder and are returning again. They are now in their winter plumage so gone is the brilliant canary yellow that colored our feeding station all summer. We bought a large finch feeder just for them this winter. Last year, we had flocks numbering over fifty goldfinches fluttering in the bushes and waiting for their turn at our feeder which only seated eight birds. We can now host 16 at a time and I may buy one of those thistle socks once we begin seeing larger numbers of finches.

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My husband captured the squirrel at the bird bath, on camera anyway. They are terribly cute, even if a tad expensive to feed. This one has a boisterous compadre missing most of its tail that frequents the feeders as well.

Our feeders are finally a flutter of activity again. We do not yet quite have so many birds as before our lengthy feeding break, but we do have regular visitors. There is the flock of sparrows which visits each morning and afternoon. Then there are the mourning doves, that energetic blue jay and a handful of house finches which normally come and go with the sparrows. Today, a male downy woodpecker made an appearance, as did our white breasted nuthatch. I am sincerely hoping that the goldfinches will soon return.

I need to get some more suet. We used to have so many woodpeckers visiting our yard it was amazing. They still come and work over the trees in our yard, and the down woodpecker still comes for the sunflower seeds, but I miss the Northern Flicker which used to come at regular times, several times per day. Soon it will be cold enough to put out our homemade suet. Right now, I think it would just ooze all over the feeder!

Today, we will be taking a field trip to the Loess Hills of Iowa to catch what we can of the raptor migration. I will post pictures of what we see over the weekend. In the meantime, fellow 451Press blogger Susan Walsh shares some earthly gardening advice. As I plan my bird garden for next year, I will be perusing through her site to find out what I can.

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I am pleased to announce that we already have activity at our feeders. We set them up Thursday and had our first house finches Friday morning. A flock of sparrows, some mourning doves and a blue jay have also made their appearance.

That left me wondering how often birds check a reliable food source once it has “run dry” before giving up on it. We left the feeders out, even though they were empty, so they did not just see the feeders while flying past.

Last year, however, we only had a finch feeder and a hopper feeder when we started and it took three weeks for the birds to find the food. This year we also have a platform feeder and a ground feeder. Perhaps they were just able to see the food better since it is not hidden inside a feeder.

It would be interesting to know.

“Mom! Mom! There’s a bird stuck under the fence!”

The children burst into the house to solicit my help in an avian rescue. Trying to figure out how a bird could possibly be stuck under a fence, I followed them out.

Sure enough, there were little brown tail feathers poking out from under the privacy fence.

“Are you sure it is alive?” I asked.

“Yes!” my daughter said. “It was moving.”

Doubtful, I walked around to the other side of the fence. His body was pressed against the ground with wings spread slightly. He was completely motionless but clearly alive. I reached slowly toward it and it darted out from the small depression it was nestled in and under another board.

I smiled and brought the children inside to give it some peace. It was a fledgling house finch. Although it hadn’t yet learned to fly, it had obviously learned to take cover and our fence was providing some much needed cover from boisterous children.

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We have had a bit of excitement at our feeders with the regular attendance of a family of blue jays. Their raucous youngster delights in its loud calls, and demands its parents continual attention. They dutifully bring their youngster seed after seed, despite the fact that it is sitting in the middle of the ground feeder, surrounded by seed!

A little catbird recently made an appearance. They are delightful birds. I spent some time playing with one in the woods when I was younger. I would call, and it would answer with its imitation. This one we merely watched from the picture window as it hopped about the base of the sunflowers.

A little house wren has also begun frequenting our little garden under the feeders. It is full of insects for it to hunt. It is quick, but not at all shy, making it a delight to watch. I have not been able to get a good picture through the window, yet.

The red-headed woodpecker and its fledgling have also made a few return visits. I am looking forward to watching the red feathers grow in on the youngster’s head!

We accidentally broke our finch feeder. The goldfinches will have to make due with sunflower seed for a few days until we get it replaced. We are contemplating a larger one, just because of the number of them which come in the winter. Last winter, we hosted a flock of over fifty individuals! It was quite a flurry of activity surrounding our little finch feeder which seats only eight.

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It has been an eventful week in bird feeding. We were forced to bring all of our bird seed back inside because of the raccoons. With that gone, they figured out how to get the dog food container open. Unfortunately, it also rained, turning all of it to mush.

We also cleaned our feeders, prompted in part by the decision to post about the importance of cleaning feeders. I am not very good at cleaning on a regular monthly schedule and have decided I had better begin actually scheduling this monthly chore. Otherwise I put it off.

We allowed our ground feeder to go empty for a few days to see if that would help some of the sparrows and grackles disperse for awhile. It seems to have worked for the moment and we have more house finches than ever. Unfortunately, we suddenly have starlings. They came over the winter and mobbed the bird bath, but this is the first time they have eaten at our feeders. They predominantly are interested in the suet. After it is empty, I am not going to refill the feeder they prefer and see f that dissuades them at all.

Today we had a bird that I could not identify. It was kind of a dusty brown and a little lighter underneath. I am guessing it is a juvenile, possibly a cowbird. It looked a lot like this guy, but it has been awhile since I looked at it, so I don’t trust my memory entirely. At first I thought it was a juvenile starling, but it lacked the yellow beak.

I’d love to hear your stories about your bird feeding this week! Feel free to leave a comment or a link to your blog telling us about your birds!

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There has been an increase in the number of finches visiting our feeders. Our American goldfinches who have been a rarity since summer began have been coming daily. The house finches have been very active, sometimes taking over the entire sunflower feeder. My daughter and I wondered why. Here are some thoughts my eight year old shared:

Has the recent dry weather affected their food supply?

Are they somewhere in their breeding cycle that would require more food? They are all mature adults, so I don’t think we are seeing fledglings, as is the case with the sparrows.

Could they be getting ready for winter already?

I did not know the answers so spent some time on the internet. It appears that American goldfinches are one of the latest breeders of any bird nesting in temperate areas. They routinely begin nesting in late June or early July, so it is quite conceivable that nesting is requiring more food. Also, most of the birds we have seen have been males, so we wonder if the females may be busy incubating. House finches, on the other hand, should have finished raising their brood, but may be getting ready to raise a second brood.

How fascinating!

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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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I was finally able to capture a picture of the male oriole which has been frequenting our feeders. He has been eating the sunflower seeds which drop under the ground feeder, but we finally decided to cut up an orange for him. He never took it off the platform feeder, but when we placed it on the ground, he devoured the offering. He didn’t even seem to mind me at the window photographing him.

We have a female which frequents our suet feeder as well. She generally eats hanging upside down. While she is shy around us and takes flight at the slightest motion near the sliding glass door we are watching her through, she stands her ground against the red-winged blackbird which occasionally tries to oust her from her perch.

We never see the two together, but assume they are a pair. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to find their nest! We have only looked at pictures of the beautiful baskets they weave. Their beautiful song also fills the air while I am outside tending to the feeders and our gardens. You can learn more here and also listen to a recording of their song.

The sparrows appear to be almost finished raising their broods. The fledglings have begun visiting the feeders. They stand on our back porch, fluttering their wings wildly until an adult hops over and feeds them. They will stand in a pile of spilled seeds and still wait for someone to give them food!

The baby squirrels are getting big, and we are strongly considering investing in a single pole to hang all of our feeders from as well as a squirrel baffle. They are eating entirely too much sunflower seed! Other than that, there hasn’t been any real excitement this week.

Related Tags: Baltimore Oriole, oriole, birdwatching, birding, backyard birding

Yesterday afternoon, two blue jays arrived in our yard. Normally, the jays are rather aggressive when they arrive, and swoop boldly onto one of the feeders calling loudly. One of the blue jays hopped over to the garden under the feeders, picked up a sunflower seed and returned to his mate, feeding her the seed. He repeated this three times before the red squirrel startled them and they left the yard.

These two jays have been chasing each other through the neighborhood for several days now. We have been wondering whether they were fighting over territory or courting. I guess we know the answer now!

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We were quite surprised this morning to look out our window and see a Baltimore oriole under the ground feeder. Unfortunately, we startled him when we peeked through the curtain, so he wasn’t there long, but it was very exciting for us! Orioles can be attracted to oriole feeders which contain an orange flavored nectar or to orange halves. They occasionally will be seen at hummingbird feeders, as well. Although I had heard that they will sometimes take sunflower hearts, I never imagined one would visit our feeder.

Our Baltimore orioles only recently returned from their wintering spots in Mexico and Central America and are likely very hungry. This is the second one I have spotted in our yard. They also enjoy many of the same types of nectar bearing plants that hummingbirds visit. They can be seen sipping the nectar from prairie fire crab apple trees, a new addition to our garden (but too young to flower).

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia and is used under a Creative Commons license.)

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