New Garden Projects #6

Yeah, I agree with house sparrows being bad, but I don't get them here----last year we had soooo many pine siskins---wonder if any will show up this year---they are an irruptive species.

I played with the nuthatches all day yesterday. I put black sunflower seeds in the feeder and they took them all away and then flittered and chittered around me til I put more out. Brazen little guys. I need to get some suet going. That will keep them going for awhile.

i love the tame birds. they sit while i fill feeders and call friends to dine

Birds get me through the winter!

last week my loppers broke and had to replace them - yesterday it was the trimmers - bought both together about 18 years ago - annoying

Maybe a message from the plants??

actually with what i've put them through surprised they lasted this long - still the end within days of each other?

Garden projects here involves leaves--lots & lots of them. Amazing that DH's rake doesn't give up in protest.

That is one great stone, Bill! I think the bonsai table is a great use of it! What the heck will you do with yourself when winter comes??? LOL Something cosmic going on with those garden tools!

NuttyD - I hope you are feeling better by now? I've been preoccupied with the fur babies and have just found the time tonight to start catching up.

JoAnn - what a great job you did on that bird feeder!! As usual, it is so creative and different! Love it!

Hey the bluebird of happiness was sitting outside my kitchen window this AM on the red barn.

How Beautiful!

Nice shot of the bluebird, Kathy!

Bill, get some new ones and get back to work! LOL! I wish I had time to get to work!

Karen

great pic kathy!

Awesome, I wish I had bluebirds here.

I thought all the decent birds had migrated.

Very nice. Don't think I've ever had one.

The bluebirds are fond of open fields and farm type areas with orchards.
We have a project here to make and post BBird houses ,boxes.
Its the state bird.

very cool JoAnn

hey Allison

hmmmm so you'd think I'd have them, that's the geography around here.

we have fields right next door and in the area - so that is why we get them from time to time - hoping my clean up project brings them back to nest - my neighbor with the yard like the serengeti has them more often as i have a view of the barren waste land from here - maybe i should build them a few bluebird houses if they put them where i have a view?

I tried some here (next to the hay field but the wrens took over.

i've got wrens too - they are noisy little birds, very active and always on the hunt for bugs - also some little snowy woodpeckers - still fun to watch

I have a wren that comes back every summer.

I have a Carolina wren that I love, but that bluebird is a real fav. The flood control dam below us did a project with bluebird houses on the rock face of the dam ---after a few years they took the houses down, but the bluebirds still stay around. And I've seen snow buntings there as well.

Pics please of the BB houses when they are finished ge. Thanks muchly. They are such prettiful birds. Well I've started a feud with my insect suet. The chickadees and nuthatches are chasing each other away from it. They have never done that before. They are usually good sharers. Bert the challenged Blue Jay isn't helping either because he keeps trying to crash land on the suet cage too.

I think there are plans for BB boxes online, they need something spacific.
Red squirrils also raid the nests.

Tree swallow will use the boxes--they are nice also. Wrens will build several nests to keep other birds out.

If the holes are the correct diameter Tree sparrows cant get in.
I am amused for hours watching them try to wiggle their big buts ,but no deal.

Hi Kathy! Great shot of the bluebird! We had a pair that made a home at the farm 2 years ago. It was such fun to watch them. They are such beautiful birds.

Dahlia - how is Bert challenged? You are far more creative in naming him than we are in naming ours.....Jay. Duh.

Iris - we love our tree swallows too. Here is a photo of Tess from this past summer.

:)

YES!

I'll have to chec out Tree Swallows, we had Barn Swallows on my GF farm when I was a kid. They would line up on the telephone wire and wait to be fed.
I think they are in the Swift family.

I've never seen Bluebirds around my neighborhood, but I have seen them in other parts of town. There is an area where there are lots of Winterberries under some powerlines and I usually see them flying from one side to the other occasionally. I am always in awe at how bright of a blue they are. : )

Typing too fast for keyboard ;)

This message was edited Nov 13, 2009 7:39 AM

DonnieB Bert was born with, well frankly, a bad doo. He had a feather duster instead of a point. His parents left him with no skills. He had to learn how to fly and land and be a blue jay all by himself. The first summer he had many mis-adventurers trying to be other birds: he almost drowned in the bird bath trying to bath like a robin, pecked trees like the woodpeckers but mostly he was known for crash landings and sending feeders flying. When he matured he got a pointy doo like other blue jays but stayed much smaller than the norm. He still sometimes tries to be like other birds and this summer he tried to visit the baby robins in the nest. You can imagine the reaction he got :O Anyhoo Bert is now trying to go to the suet cage and can't land on it so is making a huge racket.

Oh, poor Bert! He's a survivor though!We have not had many birds at our new feeder---don't think they like it, & neither do I---can't see the birds feeding.

there are not as many birds here as usual - they usually empty the feeders within days a week at the most - its been two weeks and only have to put out more suet.

loaded the car up with some nice granite before my hike today - i think i have the base stones for the table now

Have you got new competition wha? I had a lady from across the lane come over to check out my feeders once cuz she said I was 'stealing' the birds and she wanted to check out the competition. Actually I don't think it was the feeders. She didn't have any bird baths. shhhhhh Can't wait to see the 'table' when it's done.

This message was edited Nov 13, 2009 2:32 PM

I love Bert, Dahlia.....he is my kind of bird....even though I have to work at loving blue jays generally. I'll make an exception for Bert though. He'd like my low-slung bird baths here. They're very low to the ground because they are just inverted flower pots with big saucers on top. The cats, squirrels and all kinds of birds make use of them daily. Once in awhile, Frosty the Cat hides under my jatrophe bushes to snag an unsuspecting bird bathing. I have to have a discussion with her when she does that.

I wonder what is going on with all the birds not coming to your feeders! Maybe there are still lots of berries and other food available, so they don't yet need to find the feeders.

Bill - I can't wait to see your table. Post a shot as soon as you finish it, please!

here is the rock table i finally got in place that will be used for bonsai