Backyard bird watching

[FishermanTim]

One thing to be aware of when building birdhouses:
Every birdhouse can be plundered by other birds.
What I mean is that even if you build the house with the right size opening, if the house is left unoccupied it will be ransacked by the neighborhood equivilent of the local "gang".
Sparrows are my primary residents due to their bug-catching ability.
(If you get a mating pair in one of your houses, watch them after the young have hatched. They will fly back time and time again with beaks loaded with a multitude of local insects (mostly mosquitos).

Starlings like the challenge of widening the opening, but they don't stay in one spot for long, so soon many more species may check out the house because the opening is large enough for them to enter.

Last but not least are the squirrels. They will try to get at the sunflower seeds and the suet if they can.
They also will try and get into the birdhouses if they are big enough for them. (Note that they LIKE LOTS of insulation, so they will stuff everything including the kitchen sink into a house they have their eyes on.

Still, they are managable and shouldn't deter you in any way.

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

Starlings like the challenge of widening the opening, but they don't stay in one spot for long, so soon many more species may check out the house because the opening is large enough for them to enter.

(

FT, i found a good trick in prventing the "outlaws" from making the hole larger.
Epoxy a fender washer, drilled out to the the right size, over the opening.

[striperman36]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

One thing to be aware of when building birdhouses:
Every birdhouse can be plundered by other birds.
What I mean is that even if you build the house with the right size opening, if the house is left unoccupied it will be ransacked by the neighborhood equivilent of the local "gang".
Sparrows are my primary residents due to their bug-catching ability.
(If you get a mating pair in one of your houses, watch them after the young have hatched. They will fly back time and time again with beaks loaded with a multitude of local insects (mostly mosquitos).

Starlings like the challenge of widening the opening, but they don't stay in one spot for long, so soon many more species may check out the house because the opening is large enough for them to enter.

Last but not least are the squirrels. They will try to get at the sunflower seeds and the suet if they can.
They also will try and get into the birdhouses if they are big enough for them. (Note that they LIKE LOTS of insulation, so they will stuff everything including the kitchen sink into a house they have their eyes on.

Still, they are managable and shouldn't deter you in any way.

I've double layered some of my entrance holes to keep the vermints out
The best thing seems to be to clean it out as soon as you can after the young have left.

[likwid]

Got some better pics of him and his dusky friends.

[striperman36]

Old Grandad!!

[likwid]

He spent a solid 3 hours by the feeder during the snowstorm yesterday.

[Raven]

i didn't have birds in this shot.... because it was a camera test having just installed new batteries

but here is what i did ...i added an upright post to the deck railing
so i could screw on a piece of "pine slab with Bark" on it...

the Woodies love going up this.....(same as a tree to them)

i added an old bird house which is full of "shelled" sunflower seed....so its protected from the elements and its fun seeing the smaller birds going in an out....

i added old christmas trees...(free) too for shelter and i toss a few handfulls of seed into them...

have to get more suet today because they wiped it out already

[chrisjoe13]

Love this thread!

I alway notice birds where ever I am. Have most of the birds around that have been mentioned (never see blue birds though). I do get a flock of wax wings for a few hours in the fall (clean out the cherries from an ornamental tree), and also there are always a few phoebies around during the summer (back and forth to their nests all day).

A few years ago I got to go with my Uncle to tag the peregrines that live on top of the Fleet building in Prov. Awesome experience. We acted as "spotters" for my Uncle. The adult female would fly away and about 2 seconds later would be flying back at full speed (very fast, 180+ mph) in an attempt to claw his head and back. We'd call out, my Uncle would duck, and the falcon's claws would either miss or scrape off the top of his hard hat or jacket! The larger male just stood there watching and not caring. Very cool to see. He was heading to the Newport bridge after that but I didn't have it in me to climb out there!

He also tags the bald eagles that live in scituate, RI. every year. DEM rows him out to the island, he climbs a huge pine tree loaded with poison ivy vines and sits INSIDE the nest while he tags. The eagles just fly around and don't bother him while he is doing this. He's an interesting guy with a great job. These are the only two pics I have of him. He waited 18 yrs for a moose tag and drew one this past fall (he already said he will never do it again). The other is a 40+ inch bass landed on an 8wght. fly rod from the surf in Maine. The third picture is of a red-breasted hawk, the only one I have ever seen.