Backyard bird watching

[justplugit]

Great fun, BW, having breakfeast and seeing the regulars come, and from time to time a rarey

. I get a Red Tailed Hawk who makes a good fly by at the feeders from time to time, but rarely connects as the feeders are set up near escape bushes. Cooper's are smaller and alot quicker.

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by justplugit

Great fun, BW, having breakfeast and seeing the regulars come, and from time to time a rarey

. I get a Red Tailed Hawk who makes a good fly by at the feeders from time to time, but rarely connects as the feeders are set up near escape bushes. Cooper's are smaller and alot quicker.

Yes it is.Coffee while sitting on the stool by the back window and the binocs right there.It fills the void when I'm not fishing in the off season.

He(or she) didn't show today but we were out and about today and the activity kept the birds away.I really want to get some decent pics so we can figure out if its a Cooper's or a Sharpie.

[Raven]

the cooper hawk is most anxious to score a small bird to eat during a very windy storm approaching....and thats when to look for them.

so when the flurries start blowing sideways they are sure to appear.

My parrot would square off with him in the tree and shriek sometimes being chased around from tree to tree (in summer) with the cooper hawk 1 foot away from sinbad the parrot's tail feathers ...with him screaming bloody murder the whole time even though they were equal in size.

i go thru 50 pounds of black seed per month...but i have found i attract more birds offering suet than seed and i buy both types;
the natural beef suet thats white and pink and the suet cakes
you can buy at most stores although the cheapest source is the christmas tree shops at 79 cents each and never pay more than a buck each.

i like feeding the red belly wood peckers and of course the nuthatches and the downy woodpeckers too.
cardinals love safflower seed the most........

i have cardinals every day( two pair) ...and if you have thistle seed you'll get the purple finches and the gold finches by the dozen.

i attach boards to my deck railing with a lip on the edge so they have a landing perch but they favor the branches i screw down to the railing to land on the best.

[justplugit]

Rav, have you reproduced that outragous feeding system you had on Pleasant Mountain on your new farm.

That was awesome.

[saltfly]

I have 5 feeders outside my double window where my tying table is located.This year I put a heated bird bath in the yard and it's the nuts!The birds are loving it.It cost about $65 the heating element is inside and very easy to clean.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by justplugit

Rav, have you reproduced that outragous feeding system you had on Pleasant Mountain on your new farm.

That was awesome.

that was one of the first things i did..........

i will be growing allot of sunflower seed this season to be sure...

after that i'll be planting many types of berry's and growing vines

creating habitat , bird houses, bird condos , until i have so many wildlife biologists will be calling me... and then perhaps i'll have the perfect solution for bugs,,,ahhh ha ha ha - eatem up birdies lol

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by Raven

the cooper hawk is most anxious to score a small bird to eat during a very windy storm approaching....and thats when to look for them.

so when the flurries start blowing sideways they are sure to appear.

My parrot would square off with him in the tree and shriek sometimes being chased around from tree to tree (in summer) with the cooper hawk 1 foot away from sinbad the parrot's tail feathers ...with him screaming bloody murder the whole time even though they were equal in size.
i go thru 50 pounds of black seed per month...but i have found i attract more birds offering suet than seed and i buy both types;
the natural beef suet thats white and pink and the suet cakes
you can buy at most stores although the cheapest source is the christmas tree shops at 79 cents each and never pay more than a buck each.

i like feeding the red belly wood peckers and of course the nuthatches and the downy woodpeckers too.
cardinals love safflower seed the most........

i have cardinals every day( two pair) ...and if you have thistle seed you'll get the purple finches and the gold finches by the dozen.

i attach boards to my deck railing with a lip on the edge so they have a landing perch but they favor the branches i screw down to the railing to land on the best.

We go through a fair amount of seed ourselves.Jane has started to show me how to make homemade suet(bacon fat and peanut butter!)

We have three pairs of Cardinals I can certainly id by pair.We also get a Downy woodpecker too.Lotsa tufted titmice and black-capped chickadees.Nuthatches and blue-jays and of course sparrows,starlings,doves and finches.And other seasons bring a whole host of other birds which in Spring brings the damn grackles!

There really is nothing like seeing that hawk though.It really is awesome.

[gone fishin]

And lots of squirrels .. feed em 5mm lead!

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by gone fishin

And lots of squirrels .. feed em 5mm lead!

.177,.20,.22 or .25.As long as it comes from a quality pellet rifle!At least when that used to be doable.Grain fed squirrlies are nice but the neighbors might not like the "scene" so to speak.Not anymore.I've learned to live the buggers.The right food along with the right feeders,the birds and squirrels are fine.

[Clammer]

I,m gaiving aball beweet beed feeders & birdhouses ;;


great time :;I,ll be selling most of my fishing gear >so I can spend more time checking these little peckers out :;

What has worked for me with squirrals & coons >>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Is I have loaded the base of a couple of stands & make sure they are toooo far from a place that they can fly from > with axle greese >>> works awesome /they dob,t even attempt to get to them any longer

[Raven]

Originally Posted by justplugit

Cooper's are smaller and alot quicker.

the thing about Cooper hawks....is their ability to cork screw thru
any type of cover
because of their wing design........ sand sharks of the air....

like a larger version of the barn swallow and due to their smaller wingspan they can maneuver between branches and still grab their intended target .

in Spring:
i'll be building several Owl boxes out back until i get a nesting pair... including one inside my barn (make six inch holes)

that and the bat boxes (anti mosquito plants) will help alleviate some of problems.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Raven

i'll be building several Owl boxes out back until i get a nesting pair...

I had a pet Screech Owl and a Crow at one time. Natural enemies, but they tolerated each other.


Kept the owl in a nice large cage and fed him, along with the crow who was free but never left the neighborhood, hamburger meat.

The crow became a real menace as he would find anything shiny,

along with picking clothes pins off the neighborhood clothes lines and drop them

in the gutter spouts. Neigbors weren't too happy.

When i left home i gave them both to the County Park where they had an aviary and the Screech Owl lived for at least 20 years.

Cool birds.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by justplugit

Great fun, BW, having breakfeast and seeing the regulars come, and from time to time a rarey

.

i'd call this Indigo Bunting a rarey i think...

been trying to photograph one for many many years

and today was the day.

[justplugit]

Nice shot Rav. That sure is a rarey, last time i saw one was at least 30 years ago. One i could never forget.

The other rarey i haven't seen since that time was a rose breasted grossbeak, another i'll never forget.

[zacs]

my favorite part of this thread is when Raven said titmouse. hehehehehe...

[Raven]

realize that when its 14 degrees out and there's absolutely NO 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.

[basswipe]

Originally Posted by Raven

realize that when its 14 degrees out and there's absolutely NO 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.

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.

[basswipe]

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

[basswipe]

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.