B is for Birds

I didn't know much about birds growing up. I knew that robins were a sign of spring and the cardinal was the West Virginia state bird. The rest of them were some version of brown and gray and built nests and laid eggs. That was about all I knew. That lack of knowledge was still evident when I was in college and my sister tried to take me bird watching. I couldn't even find the trees she was showing me, let alone the birds.

But that all changed several years ago when we put up a bird feeder for my husband's birthday. Watching our daily visitors was soon my new hobby. I slowly learned that many of the brown and gray ones were sparrows and the big black ones were crows (okay, maybe I already know that). But I learned you could tell the difference between crows and hawks in the air because hawks soar while crows just fly basically in straight line. The saying, "As the crow flies" comes from this that.

I learned that many of our woodpecker visitors were black and white and preferred suet to sunflower seeds. I also sadly learned a sapsucker woodpecker can kill a healthy maple tree in just a couple of years with the holes it pecks.

In the nesting boxes that soon followed our feeder, I learned that bluebirds can put up a pretty good fight defending their territory from sparrows, and chickadee chicks line themselves up in a circle with their tails in the middle and their heads facing outward. I also found out that wrens use twigs to build their nest and put spider egg sacks in them to help control the mites.

In addition, out of curiosity and a little googling one day, I learned that birds poop and pee at the same time. They only have one opening for all the business that needs to be done so when you look at a bird dropping the poop is the black part in the middle and the white is their pee, so to speak.

We don't have as many visitors to the feeders at our new house, but we will get there, I hope. In the meantime, I enjoyed the mockingbird, juncos, starlings, finches and crows that visited this morning. And I didn't have to ask my sister or anyone else what they were. These were birds I wouldn't have been about to identify a few years ago. Slowly and steady, I am happily learning.

Below are pictures of some of our visitors over the years.

Male and female cardinals--WV state bird as well as 6 other states

Bluebird guarding the nest box from sparrows.

Wren nest made from twigs. See the white fuzzy things?
Those are the spider sacs that will help control the mites.

A robin and buds on the tree. Both signs of spring.

Pileated and male downy woodpeckers enjoying the suet cakes.

I was better at identifying crows on the ground than in the air until I learned their flight pattern.

These very young chickadees have already lined themselves around the nest with their heads facing outwards.

I've read that the sapsuckers holes usually don't damage a tree. However, we had one determined bird who eventually killed my son's favorite climbing tree.

Besides learning about birds, I've also learned a lot about squirrels since we put up a feeder.