tufted titmouse even. Rav my friend in NH gets lots of those but I have never seen one in my neck of the woods

Bumping

My Mother and Grandmother have been feeding the birds since I can remember and I never thought much of it. They are way into it - multiple feeders, feeds, birdbaths, etc. As I get older and started to appreciate things like this, I got into it over the summer (this thread actually helped when I read it way back when). Now, I am absolutely hooked.

I have gone through at least 10 feeders by trial and error to keep down the Jays and Blackbirds. Man they will wipe you out of feed. I have a great combination now of two feeders and suet and have now logged most of the common birds - Chickadees, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Goldfinch, Sparrows, Morning Doves, Tufted Titmouse, Blackbirds, and White breasted Nuthatch (one of my favs). It wasn't until the suet was added until I started to get Downy Woodpeckers (my new fav). A recent addition as it started getting colder are the Junco's.

Now today, we got our first Cooper's Hawk. Like Raven said it's windy and it is hanging tight right in the tree line ready to make a move. The smaller birds are very wary, but they are swinging in and grabbing food.

Wish we could still see Raven's pic's. Would also like to see other set-ups as well. I'll get one of mine up soon. This has been loads of fun, and I'm getting the kids into it. Nothing like watching the Chickadees stacked 10 deep waiting their turn to swing in - Air Traffic Control's got nothing on them.

Thanks Mom, Gram, S-B.Com :btu:

Chris,

We had our 1st hawk last year.Still not sure if its a Cooper's or a Sharpie as I've come to find out that Sharpie's are actually more common locally.Either way fascinating to watch that bird do its thing.Have yet to see it this year.

This was taken this week. Had a bunch of them come by for the day.
Plus the Carolina Wrens are living under my open back porch overhang again. They just sit on a ceiling joist with their head buried in the side of the wall and must think i can't see them. They are right out in the open. They don't even stir when I reach outside the door to get wood for the stove. Every nite as it gets dark they fly to the porch to sleep. They do it all winter long and for the last 10 years probably. I can't think they would be the same pair but pretty weird they do it in the same spot year after year. They are like pets now. Birds still haven't found my other feeder yet. Very crowded this morning. Heated birdbath is in my future, maybe for xmas.

BassWipe - BTW - Thanks for starting this thread. Based what you are saying, mine may be a Sharp Shinned one as well. I just looked it up. They do look alike, with the Cooper being the bigger of the two. I have a long way to go before I could tell the difference. It hasn't taken a shot at a bird yet when I have been watching - they definitely have attitude - pretty cool.

Ours is at 3 shots 1kill,as far as I know.The kill that I saw was actually a pigeon out in the road in front of our house.Definitely the same bird though.

We also have a fish pond in the yard too.The combo of feeders and pond make for some great watching.

http://birdquest.tv/Page3.html
anyone seen this? its pretty cool.

First sighting today for what I believe are Winter Wrens. Up to 13 different types of birds so far. Want to add some hummingbird action this spring.

This? Got several of these all year round. Probably my favorite I get. Very loud bird. They sleep under my back porch on a rafter all winter. 3 of them huddled together. Been doing it for years but not sure they are the same exact birds each year,.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmysmith/2908920923/

Carolina wrens - my favorite. 2 are living under the eaves of my garage now and enjoying the seed and suet. Lots of woodpeckers and cardinals....and another favorite though quite shy and mysterious - a Northern Flicker. Think there are two of them.

Nope///not this time......Thats all him..:1poke:

Yes. I was tossing up between the Winter and Carolina version. With your picture, now I'm more convinced of the latter. A lot of activity today.

The last two days have been spectacular for bird watching when I've had time to look.You name the bird we've had it in around our feeders.The suet feeders have been very active.

Gonna head out and replenish the seed feeders and then kick back and watch till game time.

I love the bird watching at my house. Your best bet is to get a NE bird
calender, they list and have pictures on every month :grins:
Just pin it up near the window and you will be able to ID them easy

After last weeks storm we lost the tops on all the trees and I can hear the Hawks cry. Now what ? will they rebuild or move?

VB

Has anyone gotten Purple Martins? I understand all must be right with the world to attract them,let alone have them return.

I have tried for years. Put up a martin house 15 years ago and never had any luck. House is still there but the sparrows use it every year now. You really need to be near a water source, pond, from what I understand. It will keep them around. The golf course less than a 1/4 mile away has them but they also have water and cranberry bogs.

Damn, Been away all weekend!

Raven, Any way to get some of your pictures in this thread back up?

thats nice Jimmy ..

Saw a rat around the feeders today.Followed his trail to under my pond bridge.

Been patiently waiting to get a shot at him but no luck so far.

Its that time of year again.

I was surprised the last two days as a large blue heron has showed up at my fishpond,usually they're gone by now.He ain't getting anything because of the net.

Getting all the usuals at the feeders now.No hawk yet though.

if your watching them
 

realize that when its 14 degrees out and there's absolutely NO :point: Liquid WATER


add some warm water to the bird bath

they'll eat snow yes....but it chills down their core temperature
SUET right now is more important than SEED !!!

1.00 a square now at walmart

save your meat juices and let them harden in a coffee can
until they can be frozen ....then low-reheat and strain out the meat
scraps and pour it into a mold.... and then re-chill

fat is fat to a freezing Bird.

Just had a sharpshin hawk on a branch in the yard.run for the camera,changed lenses to a 400 zoom.......gone.It was watching the feeders and the bath water[plugged that in yesterday].Had a Coopers Hawk take out a squirrel the other day right under one of the feeders 20' from the house....Missed that one too,Damn.

I'm going to try and keep my pond running all winter this year. Today I installed a water spigot in the cellar with it's own hose so I can add water in the winter if it gets low.

Funny how water won't freeze if it's moving much at all.

Needless to say, the birds really love this. And the stream/waterfall/pond looks really cool after a good snowstorm!

-spence

Had a ONE LEGGED Downy woodpecker at the window suet feeder yesterday!!!
Little guy holding on and pecking away.
WTH, how is he able to climb trees with one leg. Talk about adaptability.

I had one of those Dave
 

years ago -> maybe 15 years ago i was living in an upstairs apartment and he'd come each day....to a kitchen bird feeding station....

he was literally un afraid of me...and practically let me touch him...
man i used to spoil that bird...:grins:

it was there i noticed how clever nut-hatches were...watching this
one smart bird take individual safflower seeds and tuck them up under the roof shingles one by one where there's a little notch for a future stash.

but..........................

i know it's cold when the woodpeckers ultimately cooperate!!
and share the same suet feeder....i have a 4 banger cube out there right, hanging via coat hanger on a landing rope that goes 40 feet out to a big ole Blue spruce.... a 2x4 is nailed to the deck rail supporting the rope and i have a bark board rough cut pine stick (still has pine bark) screwed to it... so the red bellied wood pecker is on one side and the huge downy
(looks like a mini penguin) is eating on the other side. :uhuh:

The fishpond does have a de-icer.It doesn't really warm the water all that much,it just keeps a hole in the ice and keeps my pumps from freezing up.The birds are able to get to water where it spills over from the top pond to the lower.

Got peanutbutter suet out in a couple of feeders.Have had a Downy Woopecker visiting those.

I added a de-icer two years ago.Haven't lost a fish over the Winter since.When it gets truly cold the fish will get right up against it. They're pretty cheap and don't consume all that much juice.

I've got one of those floating heaters to keep a hole open, seems to work well.

My bigger problem is water loss as the stream and waterfall are prone to ice up from splashing...

-spence

The feeders were very busy right before dark.Its gonna get COLD!

One of my pond pump hoses froze.Its damn good policy to run two smaller pumps in your filter than one larger one.

My guess is that when I plugged my deicer it was to much for the circuit and tripped the GFI and the more shallow of the two buried hoses froze.Can't figure out why this didn't happen the last two Winters.
Nothing new has been intro'd to the circuit.

A re-route of the heater cord fixes the heat issue.Hopefully we get some warmer weather soon.

Glad I saw this post as it reminded me to show you what I saw on Monday. I was out winterizing my boat finally as the weather was nice and mild and I saw the extended forecast with the arctic temps this week so I was doing my thing and I heard a very distinct bird call that I know very well but haven't seen since spring. Matter of fact I was hearing several of them. I look up and there are about 20 Bluebirds sitting in a tree above me. They were looking at one of the houses I have set out and they were also rooting thru my compost pile with the fresh table scraps, fruits, in there. I ran in and got my camera and got some good shots. I have seen them before this time of year in very large flocks. They are probably heading south but hang around a lot longer than I would have thought and they also come up north much earlier than I once thought too.


In the 3rd pic you can see a male and a female. They just finished checking out the bluebird house. Just a male in 2nd pic.

Here are a few in my compost pile and one on the fence, looks to be a female and a male sitting on the house. Hopefully they are far south by now as these temps this week were pretty harsh.

it's the date
 

December 15th thru Christmas i have seen flocks of them
one time at my feeders and they were after suet droppings
from the pecker heads. but it's always like ............a one day event.

Nice P. We don't have them anymore due to the lack of open space and hedge rows.
I built 4 Bluebird houses for my son when he built his house in the country
and they were all occupied within a month. :)

Mine is still running, but I left my net over the pond which caused the entire thing to really ice up in this cold weather. Also, my heater died so I had to get another today before the storm.

Pump is still going. About 95% of the pond, stream and waterfall are covered with ice...but it's still cranking underneath...which is pretty cool.

When I unfroze the bad heater today a few fish swam up to say hello, the water underneath wasn't even that cold. Assuming a lot of snow will melt into it and chill the water down a lot this weekend.

-spence

My boys are still pretty active considering the amount of ice.The deicer and moving water are huge in that respect.Having two pumps was the best advice I was given.

Nice pics Prof.

Had a crap load of Chicadees today.They even hung out with me while I was screwing around with the pond.

This is a pic of the one legged woodpecker I took this morning.
Right leg is missing, I'm sure he is happy having the suet to eat.
Pic not that clear as i had to take it through the window.

hafta take better aim...only blew one leg off...sites on the pellet gun musta been off...

LOL, ya way off, i was shooting at a squirrel. :D