Backyard bird watching

[Raven]

i know what ya mean....
cute at first............-pain in the arse Later
had huey and dewey robins in lil greenhouse
i could get so close i could touch them
then three weeks later all grown up
ready to leave the nest and all that
i walk in and they explode into frightful fleeing
like i was gonna eat them signaling the parents
to attack me as well.... so i learned my lesson

f-their nests in certain spots... like this huge branch over the driveway
the mother robin would build it there
and then roll out these huge
turd balls out of the nest right onto my wifes car.... endlessly
so i removed that whole limb completely

[Raven]

on another Note i finally figured out what's been raiding my suet cages
hanging on the Nuthatch/woodpecker tree i built

it's those freaking FLYING squirrels (3:00 am) ....man are they fast
they are twice as fast as a chipmunk.....

it would run up the tree and lift the suet cage up and down
to get a better bite... pretty darn smart

i'm thinking this is what's in my ceiling

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Raven

on another Note i finally figured out what's been raiding my suet cages
hanging on the Nuthatch/woodpecker tree i built

it's those freaking FLYING squirrels (3:00 am) ....man are they fast
they are twice as fast as a chipmunk.....

it would run up the tree and lift the suet cage up and down
to get a better bite... pretty darn smart

i'm thinking this is what's in my ceiling

Rav, sounds like you could use suet as bait to catch them.
They are tough li'll guys to catch but an easy meal might undue
them?

[Raven]

that peanut butter suet will take care of them
it's irresistible and can't dry out

[Saltheart]

What the bird that is about the size of a Robin , is mostly speckled brownish but has a big black butterfly pattern on its chest?

[Raven]

yellow shafted flicker



usually seen on the lawn drillin for lawn grubs

[Saltheart]

That's it! Thanks

The one I saw must have been a female as its colors were more drab but that's the chest pattern.

[Raven]

the way to attract them is to
take a special piece of wood
one
that has weather'd several winter's
has long since lost it's bark
and has sorta petrified a bit
having become grey -darker, heavier
usually oak or some other hardwood

then you drill a series of holes in it
as if they drilled them out themselves
by pecking.... in order to hide a cache
of acorns ...any kind of nut...

like if you made some oblong wholes by
leaning on your bit a little each way
so you could bang in some Almonds
that are still in the shell
without breaking them....

to them that is irresistible
later you can push real beef suet into those holes
in the winter time

[Saltheart]

I got finches all over the backyard today. I don't know why they suddenly are back there. I don't put out seed and while that area is thriving with wildlife , its seldom finches. Today they are all over. Mostly they are down in the grass , so small you often lose them as they go in and out of longer clumps.

Fun to watch the animals!

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Saltheart

I got finches all over the backyard today. I don't know why they suddenly are back there. I don't put out seed and while that area is thriving with wildlife , its seldom finches. Today they are all over. Mostly they are down in the grass , so small you often lose them as they go in and out of longer clumps.

Fun to watch the animals!

In my backyard, we have a couple thistle plants that look like they've gone to seed. This heat is when a lot of the weeds seem to drop their seeds.

[Raven]

eating wild grass seed i'll bet

[FishermanTim]

I was explaining to a coworker today why I stop feeding the birds in our yard during the late spring into the fall.
You keep feeding the birds and they will focus on your offerings more than what they should normally be eating.

Our birds do a nice job with weeds and bugs, and it helps when you don't want to use conventional bug sprays.

With the variety of birds that visit our yard/neighborhood, most insects take their life into their hands if they cross our "no-fly" zones.

Now if I could only keep the squirrels out of our yard, I'd be content....

[missing link]

no Blue Jays at all since B-4 winter in my back yard Wareham ,ma

[Raven]

yeah,
i have a huge bush of catnip growing thats gone to seed
little tiny black ones the size of poppy seeds
and they seem to love that stuff....
i'm trying to harvest it tho, so since i bought expensive
finch mix at the feed store...i shoo them away often

[Slipknot]

I never realized our territorial humming birds are.
they fight each other off for the feeder and hog it.
I don't know what kind these are but the males are cool looking.

[Striperknight]

Eastern Goldfinch in my yard eating the flower seeds.

[Striperknight]

Turkey Vulture that was by my car at work.

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Slipknot

I never realized our territorial humming birds are.
they fight each other off for the feeder and hog it.
I don't know what kind these are but the males are cool looking.

usually ruby throats

i sometimes sit in the back yard and this ruby throated humming
bird is doing LAPS around the house at mach1
to keep any intruders from pilfering his stash.

when i sit in the front, the hummbird comes down to me and hovers
right in front of my face doing facial recognition i suppose
and stays there for a full 30 seconds before jetting back to his spot
almost as if to say.... thanks.

[ProfessorM]

he must be waiting for the meat raffle info from you .

[Striperknight]

Originally Posted by ProfessorM

he must be waiting for the meat raffle info from you .

He was eying me up like I was the prize from a meat raffle. lol

[Striperknight]

I came into work the other day and this hawk was sitting on our smokestack screeching.

[Saltheart]

Lots of hawks near me now. Route 295 has become their buffet now. Some days there are half a dozen patroling a 3 mile stretch from Lincoln to Attleboro.

[Striperknight]

Close up of the young hawk at my office.

[PRBuzz]

Must have 1000's of starlings in the trees surrounding the house! Send over the hawks.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

[Raven]

they're not native to this country

that there were only two....yep just 2 here in 1954

until some dumb as dirt biologists let them escape

in Texas: flocks are so big they block out the stars

[Dick Durand]

Rather than deadhead my coneflowers, I let them go to seed, because goldfinches definitely enjoy the seeds.

[justplugit]

I was trimming shrubs early yesterday morning. Birds were singing, then the
Blue Jays started sqwaking and it became dead quiet.
I looked up and there were between 35-40 Hawks migrating south, high up on the thermals, just circiling in 100yd circles without moving their wings just riding the NW wind. Too far up to identify them, but one of the coolest things I've seen.
Nature is unbelievable.It was quiet for a long time afterwards.

[Raven]

very interesting

i didn't know hawks mass migrated

i've seen turkey vultures in large groups but
never hawks.... hmmmm

[Raven]

a Kettle of hawks
a murder of crows

everything else is just friggan flocks

[striper50trout]

Originally Posted by Raven

a Kettle of hawks
a murder of crows

everything else is just friggan flocks

And a gaggle of geese