Backyard Birding

[DrW]

3 hours ago, T&C said:

This one shows up on my feed once in awhile... west Texas feeders:   https://www.facebook.com/watch/36857797726/1366548490378820/

 

Beautiful. I get jealous when I see this variety on their facebook site. These feeders are located in Fort Davis, where it hilly with lots of trees in the valleys. We are about 6 hours away in Lubbock, where it is essentially flat with very few native trees. Compared to Rochester where we lived before, what I miss most are the warblers. Here you get yellow-rumped and orange-crowned warblers. In Rochester a trip to the Island Cottage Woods during spring migration could bring you 10 warbler species within a couple of hours. 

As to your suggestion of mealworm feeders, my wife would see this as a reason for divorce, even the dried ones.

[T&C]

21 hours ago, DrW said:

 

Beautiful. I get jealous when I see this variety on their facebook site. These feeders are located in Fort Davis, where it hilly with lots of trees in the valleys. We are about 6 hours away in Lubbock, where it is essentially flat with very few native trees. Compared to Rochester where we lived before, what I miss most are the warblers. Here you get yellow-rumped and orange-crowned warblers. In Rochester a trip to the Island Cottage Woods during spring migration could bring you 10 warbler species within a couple of hours. 

As to your suggestion of mealworm feeders, my wife would see this as a reason for divorce, even the dried ones.

Not sure at all what this means... freeze dried mealworms in a bird feeder? Birds like you described that you have now love them, great source of protein. What is wrong with that?!

[SoTier]

Not in my "backyard" but as I was driving to the family camp in Gowanda on Tuesday, I flushed a bald eagle from the side of the road where it was likely breakfasting on a road killed critter.  It was a back road, and obviously that eagle wasn't expecting to be disturbed.  If he/she had flushed left towards the road instead away from it, I might have hit him/her.  It's the closest I've ever been to a non-captive bald eagle,  probably less than 50 feet, since it was just off the road and just in front of my bumper.  I would have been crushed if I had actually hit him/her.

[ExiledInIllinois]

@ work today: "It takes a Village" 😏 

 

[Punching Bag]

We got no baby Mourning Doves.  Both birds were feeding other day and now they are gone; nest is empty.  Perhaps a racoon or snake got the eggs. 

[T&C]

3 hours ago, Limeaid said:

We got no baby Mourning Doves.  Both birds were feeding other day and now they are gone; nest is empty.  Perhaps a racoon or snake got the eggs. 

I have plenty of them here... there is a pair outside right now under the feeders getting what dropped... but I have never had them try to nest in a place like you have. Its all nature I guess, someone lost and someone ate.

[Punching Bag]

2 hours ago, T&C said:

I have plenty of them here... there is a pair outside right now under the feeders getting what dropped... but I have never had them try to nest in a place like you have. Its all nature I guess, someone lost and someone ate.

 

We have always only seen one pair of them.  Never any extra and usually pair together.  Not seen them last 2 days and they were regulars.

[CookieG]

On 4/27/2022 at 1:38 PM, Limeaid said:

 

Yes we have some wild walnuts and chestnuts in yard and have seen them picking at them but we were NOT trying to catch a cardinal.  I'd love a food only squirrel trap (squirrels are called long tailed rats in Chinese) ate.

Why fighting or trying to outsmart squirrels is a losing battle:

 

My power went out three times this week.  Three power outages, three dead squirrels. 

 

My nephew sent me the video today after the latest squirrel suicide.  Most might have seen it already, since it has 90 million views, but it is incredible to watch.

 

Luckily, there is enough bird life in my back yard that I don't need bird feeders. 

 

[T&C]

Nice article on our backyard birds, I learned a few things.

 

https://www.baynews9.com/fl/tampa/weather/2022/05/23/birds-react-differently-to-extreme-temperatures

[Irv]

Got a shot of this guy last week.  

[SoTier]

On 6/6/2022 at 11:33 AM, Irv said:

Got a shot of this guy last week.  

 

Love pileated woodpeckers!!! 

[Big Turk]

See Cardinals, Blue Jays and Yellow Finches routinely around my house.  Once saw one of these cool little guys in the tree outside the window also a few years ago, but never saw him again.

 

https://abcbirds.org/bird/black-and-white-warbler/

 

Obviously the normal sparrows, robins, crows and red wing blackbirds also.

 

Have seen a few cool birds on my travels hiking throughout the area...lots of Blue Herons and White Egrets along with various Woodpeckers.  Have also seen Bald Eagles a few times, and a Little Blue Heron a few weeks ago.

 

Saw my first bluebird(which is weird since it's the state bird of NY) about 5 years ago at Mendon Ponds, but have seen them many times since, mostly at Knox Farms where I have also seen owls a bunch also(only place I've ever seen them).  

 

Coolest bird I have seen at Knox Farms tho was a tree swallow with it's really beautiful colors 

 

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Tree_Swallow/photo-gallery/305568151

Edited June 10, 2022 by Big Turk

[Irv]

Had a lot of luck with this to attract the woodpeckers.  They sell it at Home Depot.  

 

 

Bird on Bird Violence Today.  

 

  

Edited June 10, 2022 by Irv

[Irv]

And this one.  

[T&C]

8 minutes ago, Irv said:

And this one.  

Nice... I have them, the downy woodpeckers (2 on the suet feeder right now, same one as you have), and the pileated. Have actually seen the pileated on the feeder once, looked like king kong on a building. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

4 hours ago, Irv said:

Had a lot of luck with this to attract the woodpeckers.  They sell it at Home Depot.  

 

 

Bird on Bird Violence Today.  

 

  

Red bellied woodpeckers love that suet, as do starlings.  I finally cut back to sunflower seeds only since a full cake goes in a single day, and it's 99% starlings. 🤨  I also have one robin that would rather eat off the suet than hunt worms.

Edited June 10, 2022 by Ridgewaycynic2013

[T&C]

50 minutes ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Red bellied woodpeckers love that suet, as do starling.  I finally cut back to sunflower seeds only since a full cake goes in a single day, and it's 99% starlings. 🤨  I also have one robin that would rather eat off the suet than hunt wirms.

The starlings are a pain in the ass for sure... european starlings to be exact. It's actually legal to kill them here as they are an invasive species but I'm not into that. I use the beef tallow based cakes... the woodpeckers love those greasy cakes of nuts and seeds but the starlings don't like it too much. I can't use the no-melt cakes anymore because, like you said, gone in 1 day. I also now have 2 bird feeders that are too small for anything above a cardinals size to comfortably land and eat so that helped with the starling thing too.

[Irv]

The Starlings have become a nuisance.  I did get a cool video of an adult feeding an immature Starling on the suet cage.  It seems like the Red Headed Woodpecker is top dog on the suet cage as they run the others off - Pileated not withstanding.  The cake does last about a day and you guys are correct.  Starlings are the monster eaters.  A lot of Starling on Starling violence.  

 

And, yes.  I still need to get a life.  

 

 

Edited June 13, 2022 by Irv

[ExiledInIllinois]

4 minutes ago, Irv said:

The Starlings have become a nuisance.  I did get a cool video of an adult feeding an immature Starling on the suet cage.  It seems like the Red Headed Woodpecker is top dog on the suet cage as they run the others off - Pileated not withstanding.  The cake does last about a day and you guys are correct.  Starlings are the monster eaters.  A lot of Starling on Starling violence.  

 

And, yes.  I still need to get a life.  

 

 

You need to do a background check on those young starlings!  😏 

[SoTier]

I have catbirds coming to one of my suet feeders that I located close to my tall arborvitae screen.  The starlings either don't like the location or they haven't found it since it's on a combo feeder and faces the trees.   They do clean up the other suet feeders in short order.

[Augie]

On 6/8/2022 at 8:58 AM, SoTier said:

 

Love pileated woodpeckers!!! 

 

We had some buddies up the street who had a pileated woodpecker who had pecked a hole in the siding of their house and was living in the attic. They covered up the hole, and he just pecked another one next to it and was still living in the attic. They gave up trying to get rid of him (it was a rental)  and named him Woody. They asked “do you want to go upstairs and see Woody?”, and sure enough, there he was in the attic staring right back at us. 

 

In retelling this years later to a friend, I got to “do you want to go upstairs to see Woody” and our friend turned to her college age daughter without missing a beat and said “just so you know, the correct answer to that is always NO!”   😂

 

 

 

.

Edited June 17, 2022 by Augie

[SlimShady'sSpaceForce]

Saw my first  

 

yesterday

 

[Punching Bag]

Ran out of bird feed mix so I put some corn in feeder I usually mix in.

I heard something outside in morning and was going to open dog door to let Zelda chase away squirrel and I found a young deer licking bird feeder to eat corn.  Deer was lucky I have been using the standing one rather than the hanging one I put away each night.

[Gugny]

On 6/13/2022 at 4:52 PM, Irv said:

The Starlings have become a nuisance.  I did get a cool video of an adult feeding an immature Starling on the suet cage.  It seems like the Red Headed Woodpecker is top dog on the suet cage as they run the others off - Pileated not withstanding.  The cake does last about a day and you guys are correct.  Starlings are the monster eaters.  A lot of Starling on Starling violence.  

 

And, yes.  I still need to get a life.  

 

 

 

@BringBackFergy loves Starlings!!!

[T&C]

26 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

@BringBackFergy loves Starlings!!!

God lov'em.

 

Haven't seen any in a few days so maybe they went over to his place.

[BringBackFergy]

53 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

@BringBackFergy loves Starlings!!!

Pains in the ass.

[DrW]

[Gugny]

FINALLY saw my first bald eagle yesterday (July 4th).

 

My girlfriend and I spent the day on Lake George yesterday with a couple of our friends (their boat).

 

We were on an island, cooking out, swimming, etc., and the two of us took a break from the other two (they never shut up) and went to the dock and sat on the back of the boat.

 

All of a sudden, we saw this beautiful bald eagle with an eaglet in tow.  We watched them fly to their nest, then the mature eagle flew back out and snagged a fish out of the lake.

 

Quite a sight and I'm glad we were able to see it.

[ExWNYer]

On 6/21/2022 at 2:08 PM, Gugny said:

 

@BringBackFergy loves Starlings!!!

 

 

The only Starling I'd love to see is Marte...

 

35 minutes ago, Gugny said:

FINALLY saw my first bald eagle yesterday (July 4th).

 

My girlfriend and I spent the day on Lake George yesterday with a couple of our friends (their boat).

 

We were on an island, cooking out, swimming, etc., and the two of us took a break from the other two (they never shut up) and went to the dock and sat on the back of the boat.

 

All of a sudden, we saw this beautiful bald eagle with an eaglet in tow.  We watched them fly to their nest, then the mature eagle flew back out and snagged a fish out of the lake.

 

Quite a sight and I'm glad we were able to see it.

 

When I was in high school (back in the dark ages), my brother had a buddy who was dating a girl nicknamed 'Bald Eagle' because of her inability to grow hair in a certain...ahem...anatomical area. (True story) 😇 

[SoTier]

The hummingbirds have apparently abandoned my yard since their favorite flowers -- bee balm, trumpet vine, early blooming hostas, crocosmia -- are past their prime, but they've been replaced by some other seasonal visitors, most notably by goldfinches.  They come mostly for my sunflowers, but if the sunflowers aren't ripe (they aren't yet) they feast on my tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds.   This morning I had a dozen crowding the two feeders, including the bright males and the olive colored females.   I've also had flocks of young bluejays coming for peanuts and recently fledged song sparrows and wrens.

[T&C]

2 hours ago, SoTier said:

The hummingbirds have apparently abandoned my yard since their favorite flowers -- bee balm, trumpet vine, early blooming hostas, crocosmia -- are past their prime, but they've been replaced by some other seasonal visitors, most notably by goldfinches.  They come mostly for my sunflowers, but if the sunflowers aren't ripe (they aren't yet) they feast on my tube feeders filled with black oil sunflower seeds.   This morning I had a dozen crowding the two feeders, including the bright males and the olive colored females.   I've also had flocks of young bluejays coming for peanuts and recently fledged song sparrows and wrens.

Interesting on the goldfinches... they only seem interested in niger seed or millet when they are down here in the winter. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

6 minutes ago, T&C said:

Interesting on the goldfinches... they only seem interested in niger seed or millet when they are down here in the winter. 

Many years ago when working good paying jobs I could afford to keep a large feeder filled with nyjer seed.  I eventually moved out for a few years.  Upon my return and now retired, I found that hungry finches will settle for the black oil sunflower seeds I feed the chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals.

[SinceThe70s]

2 hours ago, T&C said:

Interesting on the goldfinches... they only seem interested in niger seed or millet when they are down here in the winter. 

 

We've had a goldfinch drop by a few times the past two weeks. Can't remember ever seeing one before, had to google to figure out what it was. Absolutely striking!

[T&C]

7 minutes ago, SinceThe70s said:

 

We've had a goldfinch drop by a few times the past two weeks. Can't remember ever seeing one before, had to google to figure out what it was. Absolutely striking!

I'm in Fl. so we only get them during the winter/cold weather times. They are gorgeous. Had one that befriended a cardinal last year and it was like he was adopted... they were always hanging together.

[SoTier]

13 hours ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

Many years ago when working good paying jobs I could afford to keep a large feeder filled with nyjer seed.  I eventually moved out for a few years.  Upon my return and now retired, I found that hungry finches will settle for the black oil sunflower seeds I feed the chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals.

 

I think that the goldfinches' food of choice here in WNY is thistle seed, but thistles don't ripen for about a month yet.   There are a lot of sunflowers ripening now, so they'll eat those, even settling for oil seed in feeders.  I've found that they never come to my feeders in the late summer/fall until my volunteer sunflowers around the feeder pole open and set seed.   They do stop by for a day or so during spring migration.  Most spend the summer in the nearby rural areas, especially where farming is still active.

Edited August 27, 2022 by SoTier

[T&C]

I've found a better way to use suet cakes... one of those why didn't I think of that before things. Starlings have tapered off but what I've been doing (with the standard green hanging suet holders) is putting the cake in the fridge for an hour or so. Then, taking the plastic wrap off and putting the cake in the holder with the plastic case instead of taking it completely out of the plastic case. It leaves 1 side of 6 open for feeding and none of them seem to care... woodpeckers, carolina wrens, etc... Less waste and they can all get to it. Took a couple of days for them to get used to it but now it's a regular thing for them. Starlings, whenever they come around, don't really bother with it anymore.

[Bad Things]

Yesterday evening the wife and I were out on the back deck when we spotted a massive Australasian Harrier flying overhead.  It landed on one of our taller trees to have a look around.

It eventually spotted the White-faced Heron nest in our neighbours gum tree, and had a feast of the baby birds in it.

It was actually quite a startling thing to witness.

[Joe Ferguson forever]

https://imgur.com/a/GHnWuhJ

 

2 from the backyard.  One professional photo.  Obvious quality difference!  Have heard a n owl out back but never been able to capture on camera.

[Joe Ferguson forever]

23 hours ago, Bad Things said:

Yesterday evening the wife and I were out on the back deck when we spotted a massive Australasian Harrier flying overhead.  It landed on one of our taller trees to have a look around.

It eventually spotted the White-faced Heron nest in our neighbours gum tree, and had a feast of the baby birds in it.

It was actually quite a startling thing to witness.

once watched a hawk kill a pheasant with one peck through the head while i was aiming at it w a 12 gauge.  Years ago, still remember it vividly. Startling and disturbing strangely, since I was about to kill it myself.  Not much into hunting anymore but if I was hungry...

Edited October 18, 2022 by redtail hawk

[Punching Bag]

I have been having issues with unwanted feeders at my feeding stations.   Beside the terrible issue with long tailed rats (that is what they are called in Chinese, in English they are squirrels) recently we have been having night feeders.  My wife said she saw a rat recently and Zelda, our German Shepard, has been indicating spots where she smells something.  Last night I wrapped my standing bird feeder with an old dog seat cover (useless since she sheds so much) and then a plastic garbage can to discourage night feeders.  I have found if they cannot feed multiple nights in a row they look elsewhere to feed.  This morning when I went out uncover feeder and Zelda indicated something under cover.  I slowly unwrapped it not giving it opportunity to flee. I saw movement under cover and my dog tried to get it thru cover so I banged it under cover trying to stun it before opening rest of it.  My dog then attacked the rat which appears to have got its foot caught in feeder and killed it after a fierce fight.  Taking off cover I found a hole the rat chewed in it to get to feeder.

 

Don't know if it is only one or if another has been feeding.

 

This year we have been putting suet out during year. It started in winter and I got some new birds so I continued feeding in spring.  The small woodpeckers have returned and we now have some "black" birds with a shiny blue tinge and yellow beaks I have not seen before.  They can feed from suet cage when suet is full but have issue feeding when cake is reduced in size.