Backyard bird watching

[Raven]

Originally Posted by justplugit

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.

you should pop that suet outta the plastic tray because the softer
easier to eat side is on the bottom ....

and yeah that bird looks like it was born without it.

[basswipe]

With all the rain and warm temps the other pump is no longer frozen.

Now that the rain is done the birds are back with a vengeance today.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Raven

you should pop that suet outta the plastic tray because the softer
easier to eat side is on the bottom ....

Rav, i only leave one side open as it prevents the sparrows from ploishing it off in a day.
The good guys know how to hang on the open side and it will last a week or more.

[Raven]

i don't have a single common Sparrow

i have several red finches
a couple of song sparrows
(with the white and black striped heads)
also known as fox sparrows
quite a few cardinals mostly female
a wolf pack of blue jays(man do they eat)
20 or so Juncos
two morning Doves
and a wild grey cat that wants to eat them

around fifteen wood Peckers-
Hairy, Downies and Red Bellies and Nut hatches

typically around 50 birds live on my deck
i have 1/2 round bark Quonset hut's shelters
taken from logs i burn as they peel and or fall off

the 4x4 cube of suet sits over an old bird house
with a slanted roof that catches the "droppings"
from the suet so the Juncos land there with GLEE

the house itself prolly an old bluebird design......
is stuffed with seed which when seed gets real low
entices only the most intelligent of the crew
to stick their head in the hole and feast away.

but my best idea is the thinly cut slab wood
screwed to the uprights attached to the railing
that gives the pecker heads a landing pad
where they line up for their turn at the suet.

the bark is what they love because its perfect traction!
one thin strip of bark (about 2 inches wide)
i have screwed to
the outside of the slider to the deck so i can
watch the smaller downies from just 16 inches away.

the Barn cat who's almost as fat as Garfield now
has a grand time watching the Action for hours on end.

[Chris in Mass]

A pack of Starlings invaded today. I don't usually get these. Very cool looking - winter plumage. After reading up on them, it sounds as though they are pretty common.

[Raven]

they are a non native species common to England,
but when an ornithologist here in the states accidentally
had four of them "he was studying" escape in 1954 they
multiplied .........and now ..........
Flocks blanket Texas so thick
they literally block out
all satellite transmissions.

[Chris in Mass]

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

Searched Google (what else) for Birding in New England and came up with these reference sites, useful but not a bulletin-type board:

Common Birds of New England


Birding in Massachusetts

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

Chris, contact The Birdwatchers General Store in Orleans Ma., they will
have any publication you want. They have a web site too.

Rav, basically the same with the English sparrows we have. They used to be a ground bird eating the cheaper millet etc. but graduated to sunflower, niger and suet lately. They are worthless competing with all the good guys you have.
They are ugly, come in flocks, squawk, fight and eat you out of house and home.


Oh BTW- spring is close behind we had a lost flock of Robins in the crabapple tree this AM.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

First thing I'd do is get a copy of a good (i.e. classic) field guide like this one...get a used one, they already have mojo

Amazon.com: Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) (9780395266199): Roger Tory Peterson: Books

-spence

[Raven]

i was rather Astonished to LEARN....

i was taking apart a bird house i had set up for
chickadees i had in there last year to clean it out

so i could re -use it ......at my new place...
anxiously wanting to see the type of nest they make

and what did i find... nothing but greenish yellow moss
the kind that grows on streamside rocks...

no grass or small sticks like a typical birds nest
it was as soft as a tempurpedic bed too.

[FishermanTim]

Certain birds prefer certain materials for nests.
I put out pieces of string, clumps of drier lint, cotton balls or anything that could be used to line a nest/birdhouse.
They will take whatever they can find.

As for Common Flickers, they are primarliy insect (ants) eaters.
Then again, ANY bird will eat suet during the winter because they ALL need fat/protein in their diet.

During the spring you should try sticking apple and/or orange halves in the same area where your feeders are. I stick mine on tree branches. These will attact the fruit eating birds. For me, it means Baltimore Orioles.

Nothing like hearing them fighting/squawking over nesting territory, an seeing those bright orange kamikazi's whizzing around the neighborhood. They are loud and fast, plain and simple.

[Raven]

there's nectar feeders for Oriels too
all good tips TIM

[striperman36]

I am gonna try that

[Raven]

i've had more Birds (or sucess) come to my feeders that had suet
in them than just different types of seed.

Even Oriels... and Bluebirds will eat the droppings....

i have a wood pecker tree now meaning they have already started drilling it where the inner wood is soft so i take my suet cake and smear it or MASH it right in there ...especially any small crevice or hole.
this is the equivalent of them finding a wood grub, a highly soft after prize.

I also re attached my old bluebird house there and screwed it on right where a limb had been sawn off years ago.
it is full of black oiled sunflower seed and suet cakes i sawed in half
with a long serated knife and then i shoved them in there.

Soon i will have every concievable wood pecker , nut hatch,
tuffed titmouse , brown creeper ect. coming around.

I had a chickadee yesterday four feet from my face
just happier than can be because of all the seed i just put out.

He's goin: CHICK a dee dee to me... so i'd say it right back to him
"in my best impersonation" trying mainly to have the timing off the "notes exact" as i have practiced this for years.

this made him even friendlier and it was blowing his mind and
he was reacting in such a cool way as if to say "wow" this guy (human)
is talking to me in my language ...and he'd kind of jump on
the grape vine there and grab at it with his beak.

It was fun to watch his/her reaction. "I know when they know" and i'll settle for nothing less than them eating out of my hand someday.

I bought ten packs of Russian Mamoth sunflower seed and i will
grow a forest of them where right now its just a narley tangle
of vines then i'll dry the huge heads for winter. Plus i bought
the red variety for the different color.

Right After the birds......
yank out the striped seeds out of the seed heads the holes left behind make the most perfect place to put "hulled" sunflower seed
which is a bit pricier.

it's a bit tricky to dry them so they'll stay flat
and and not get moldy on the back side

so this year i'll make a large clamp style wood frame specifically for that purpous and find a dry place in the green house
to speed up that process.

One reason i get into this is because...you can be having the MOST crappiest day where everything possible seems to be going wrong and your JUST mad as hell in General...

and then one of these Happy ,totally cheerful little birds make it all melt all away in a single moment and you forget all about it.