Throwback Thursday

Looking back at my blog during the A-Z Challenge has inspired me to post more things from the past, so here goes my Throwback Thursday plan. Every Thursday, I plan to post something from the past that occurred the same week.

Today's post is a look back to 2011, when we got our first bird feeder. We have had many feeders over the years and many visitors. We have very much enjoyed watching them all. About a year ago, we added the Merlin App to our bird "watching," and that is bringing a new fun aspect to it all.

Presently, we have fewer birds at our feeder than we would like, but there are plenty of birds around enjoying what nature has to offer.

So without further ado, here is the blast from the past. 😀

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May 21, 2011

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Recently, for Ward's birthday, we put up a bird feeder, suet feeder, and bird bath. He wanted to become a bird watcher---at least from our windows. We put out expensive seed and suet and waited for the birds to come. Slowly, but surely, they have been finding their way to our gourmet offering.

However, did I mention the whole family is severely lacking in our understanding of birds? Until the new feeder, I was the advanced one because I could identify both a cardinal and a robin. Ward could spot a blue jay, and Wally and Theodore knew a crow when they saw one. That was about the sum total of it. One time, my sister, a longtime birder, took me birdwatching. While she was saying, "Look at the white on the tip of the bird's wing," I was saying, “Which tree?”

After a couple of weeks of watching, we're very proud of our new knowledge. We can now tell you that house finches are our most frequent visitors, the male cardinal doesn't like sharing, and the feeder REALLY swings when a crow lands on it. We can also tell you that we have both pileated and downy woodpeckers enjoying the suet, but neither one seems to resemble Woody Woodpecker. We're still a little confused about all of the little brown and gray birds, but we think we have been visited by a black-capped chickadee, a white-breasted nuthatch, and a house sparrow.

We've also had the ubiquitous visitor to every bird feeder—the squirrel. So far, the “squirrel-proof” feeder is doing its job, but we are enjoying the squirrel's antics as it tries to eat from the suet feeder in all positions. So far, upside down seems to be the favorite. Perhaps it's trying to copy the woodpeckers.

Who knows what we will see next? Maybe it will be something exotic. I just hope that we will be able to recognize it when it comes.

A Footnote: Special thanks to the boys' Aunt Martha—the bird expert who has been a tremendous help in getting us started.

They're Back

Squirrels love bird feeders.

We have had a bird feeder at our house for years and years. While we have never reached the number of visitors we had at our old house, we have enjoyed watching our feathered friends here.

However, the last three years have seen an unwelcome trend. Late summer, the birds stop showing up and stay away until spring. This includes all of the birds that don't migrate. It's as if the bird community has a meeting and says that they are done with our feeder and move on to other things. We still see plenty of birds around, just not at our feeder. I asked Aunt Martha, my bird expert, for insight, and she said maybe the neighbors had put up more feeders. 

When it happened again this year, we did our standard. We cleaned the feeder and filled it with fresh food. No takers. After a couple of months, we moved the feeder to the back. No takers. We bought expensive food. No takers. 

Red-bellied woodpecker

Tufted titmouse

Until this week. I guess the birds had another meeting and decided it was okay to return to our feeder because we have seen finches, juncos, Carolina wrens, tufted titmouse, chickadees, sparrows, cardinals, and a red-bellied woodpecker. 

Male and female cardinal

It's all a mystery to me, especially how they all seemed to leave and return at the same time. But for whatever reason, I am glad they are back. 

Caroline wren

Until next time...

Note: All of the pictures are from years past. Our newly arrived birds are too skittish for me to get close enough for a picture.

Spring is in the air

 I wish I knew the songs of birds better because they are singing all the time now. I can identify a few common birds, but I rarely see the bird while it is singing to know whose song is whose. And it doesn't matter how many times Aunt Martha identifies songs for me, I don't seem to remember them. But I enjoy them all the same.

We have been seeing more bluebirds this year than years past.
This one was visiting on our porch.

Right above the bluebird on the railing was this female with whom the male was flying around. I don't know if they are officially a couple or not, but I've cleaned the bluebird box in case they want to raise a family there.

We have had a few days of warm, spring-like weather and it is definitely a mood lifter for all concerned. I have been working in the yard cleaning flower beds that didn't get cleaned in the fall and pulling some of the winter weeds that have taken up residence in our vegetable beds. I find weeding is a time when I get a chance to think.  This week my thoughts went to hopes for a different summer than last year as more and more people get vaccinated.  While working in the dirt, I imagined picnics, trips, and family gatherings. Summer may be a little soon for my imagined freedom as Ward and I are in the last group to be eligible for vaccination, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. My father-in-law is fully vaccinated now and our last visit was more relaxed than it has been in a long time even though we were still taking precautions. It was pleasure.

While cleaning the mum bed, I found our first blooming crocus. I think this one was planted by a squirrel. The ones I planted haven't bloomed yet, but any day now I expect to see their bright colors.

However, the snowdrops are blooming. They sometimes bloom as early as February,
but I was happy to see them even if I had to wait until March.

Seeds have sprouted in 3 of the 4 milk jugs I planted. I'm still waiting on the carrots.

The brussel sprout plant that I didn't pull last fall is growing some new sprouts.
Another fun thing to find.

I hope that you have been able to find some signs of spring where you are.

Until next time...

Birds in Snow

The snow started Sunday night and it is still snowing this morning. Even with all of the precipitation we've had, it's not that deep because it has been intermixed with freezing rain and sleet. However, because of that, it is very hard to shovel. The end broke off one of our shovels, so we have to take turns with our other one.  The goal of the morning is to get enough of the driveway clear so I can get to work this afternoon. We haven't been out, but I assume the roads won't be too bad by then. However, I worry  about black ice on my way home when it will be dark and colder. We shall see.

In the meantime, here are some pictures from my files of birds in snow, just because.

Cardinal, house finch, gold finches, juncos

Dark-eyed junco

Female cardinal and dark-eyed junco.

White-throated sparrow

Mourning dove

Carolina wren

Male cardinal

 

Northern flicker

Female downy woodpecker

Red-bellied woodpecker

Male downy woodpecker

Blue jay

Tufted titmouse

House finches

Starlings

I guess I can't put it off any longer. Time to go shovel snow.

Until next time...

Thankful Sunday--January 19, 2020

I am thankful for birds.

or more specifically, I am thankful for the entertainment they provide when they visit our feeder.

Our first birdfeeder, Ward's birthday present

If you been with me long enough, you may remember that we got our first bird feeder several years ago for Ward's birthday. I was ambivalent about the feeder and probably could have gotten along just fine without one. Or so I thought.

Soon, I was a convert. I was totally into watching the birds, their habits, and trying to learn their names. That is where Aunt Martha, our local bird expert, came in. She identified many birds for me from the pictures I sent her. Gradually I learned names and characteristics of the birds and that made watching them even more enjoyable.

We had a lot of visitors this snowy day at our previous house.

At our previous house, as the birds got to know our feeders we had quite a variety visiting including a big fuzzy grey one call a squirrel. As aggravating as it was to have the squirrels empty our feeders in one sitting, I'll have to admit it was a fun exercise trying to outsmart them.

No, the squirrel was not stuck. Just resting for a while with a full belly.

Then we moved to our new house. The birds were slower to find our feeders and the variety of birds we got was fewer. And just as traffic was beginning to pick up, we started our porch project and took down all of the feeders. We moved one to in front of a kitchen window so we could watch the birds as we were standing at the sink. It took a while for any birds to find the feeder and it's only recently that some of them will stay at the feeder if they see any movement at the sink. Right now we have two kinds of woodpeckers and house finches that visit regularly. When the porch is done, we will figure out the best way to hang feeders from it and hope that eventually we get a varied population of birds to watch. But for now, we are enjoying our finches and woodpeckers.

This was this morning at our kitchen feeder. As I approached to take the picture, I scared away several finches. While they will stay sometimes, they are still skittish.
(Too much backlighting for a good picture.)

So for the entertainment that birds have provided us in the past, today, and the entertainment they will provide in the future, I am thankful.

Bird Wars

Those sweet little birds with their cheerful songs also have a dark side when it is time to reproduce. Then all is fair in love and war and reproduction. I've been seeing some evidence of this, this spring and summer in my two nest boxes. Below is some of the drama. See if you can follow along.

It all started at the beginning of May when a wren started to build a nest in Box A.
The twigs and white spots are typical of wren nests.

At the same time, a nest was beginning in Box B. It looked like a bluebirds nest
which is typified by the use of only one material in building the nest. 

Three weeks later, the nest in Box A had been lined with grass and feathers and had 6 eggs in it. Notice the cup toward the back, the sticks and white spider sac under the lining. All typical of a wren's nest.

A couple of days later, the Box A nest had no eggs in it. Not a trace of the six eggs anywhere. ( I didn't get a picture of the empty nest.)

Then I checked Box B and there was a dead wren in it. Ward removed both the bird and the nest. (I did not take a picture of the dead bird. This picture is of another house wren in the yard.)

A few days later, a new nest was built in Box B like the old one. It was not a wren's nest, but it was filled with 7 wren eggs. Meanwhile, Box A continued to have an empty wren's nest.

At least six out of the seven eggs in Box B hatched and fledged. The mother/father wren was very noisy anytime I approached the nest.

Two weeks later Box A, with the wren's nest in it, has five new eggs. Currently, the mother is sitting on them. We'll see what happens.

Were you able to keep track of all of that? Let's just say that for now, the wren's are winning. This drama was mild compared to what we watched last year. I won't go into it, but let's just say, bird wars are not for the faint of heart.

But Wait, There's More:

This may explain some of the things we saw last year and this year. 

• A House Wren weighs about as much as two quarters, but it’s a fierce competitor for nest holes. Wrens will harass and peck at much larger birds, sometimes dragging eggs and young out of a nest site they want – even occasionally killing adult birds. In some areas they are the main source of nest failure for bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Prothonotary Warblers, and chickadees.

From All About Birds

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.