Northeast birds pt 2

I am hoping it was passing through. Perhaps not as annoying as starlings would be.

They are annoying as well, but seem to only pass through here....I stopped feeding a few weeks ago because the bears are out.....would really like to keep seed out to see buntings & grosbeaks, but don't want to take the chance......

Red Poll's came back!!

That's a good thing Celeste spring is here!
The crows have been crazy here.

They look like purple finches, Pixie......

I don't think I've ever seen such a bird!

I don't think that they come this far south.

Cool pics.

Robin your right...I jumped the gun! They are indeed purple finches

Was pulling up after picking kids up from school and 2 Goldfinches were sitting on my weeping Redbud, looked so cool...wish I had my camera on me!

Hi ALL w/all your wonderful bird sightings & proof that spring is slowly moving to upper N.E. Guess most of us live in Black Bear Country; I knew yrs. ago to take down the front-yard feeders hanging from trees but always thot the ones on our canterlievered (SP?) deck (no stairs to ground) was safe enough so high above the ground. Rather forgot we still had a very small wood-pile underneath (2 yrs. ago; cold spring like this one) and I woke to hearing lawn chrs. being tossed about .... and you know the rest of the story ~ chairs/feeders & new heated bird-bath trashed to the ground. While I'm yelling BEAR ON THE DECK, my hubby had gone down to the basement and yelled back . . . "YOU SHOULD SEE THE SIZE OF THE ONE UNDER THE DECK.!) Perfect "cure" to take all of them down 1st wk. + in April. Some of you may remember the cartoons in regard to our VT Gov. who didn't remove his feeders & about this time of yr. heard outdoor noise & ran out on his back lawn w/ near nothing on, and didn't realize a Mama w/two cubs were nearby & promptly got chased back into his house. It certainly made some N.E. news & cartoons went viral. P.S. I still have the irruptive Red Poles w/rusty red dots on their foreheads, but not the dozens & dozens. Since only sprinkling sunflower hearts on deck railing & a low pan w/water, they've are moving north again to nest; nothing left on the deck late aft.

Like the bear story

Yes....I never thought I'd be afraid to have a bear in the yard until he was actually right in front of me, huffing like a dog.....

And huff Bears do w/very BAD breath snorting at me as I scared Mama off the deck 2 springs ago. However, my hubby made comment the next moring (kinda' a true but sad recogition in the homongous Gazillion spread of suburbia/comercial props & all else ) ~ ~ ~ "Hey, we are where they lived for 100 yrs. plus & we are tresspassers in all wild-life land that's left .... & I didn't know whether to back-lash that he is a deer-hunter, or be depressed at that truism. Smiles came this cold spring joining our ou-tback young National Guard couple w/3 smallish baby ducks pecking around our feet ~ but ready to go into new Hen House w/ tiny 25 fluffy chicks; little guys so cute . . . hopefully super young neighbors of 2 yrs, have it under control w/reserved help. Want to note our spoiled 2 cats of near 6 yrs. old have stopped droolng over a deck of 5 mins. in freaking cold about possible bird-snap (always miss) but now looking down the lawn at ducklings that given a few more wks. before we move to camp will be quite large & could easily cause injury to the already reduced "male jewels" of yesterday.

The baby ducks sound very cute.......brought my binocs to the farm yesterday, but only saw nuthatches, heard a sapsucker.....

Saw our first flicker of the spring last sun. thanks to the large white rump they can be recognized in flight.

The goldfinches are back

A few were on our feeder over the winter. Now there is a larger number using it & are colored up nicely.

Robins in the yard, nuthatches and a pair of cardinals, white throated sparrow I think--they didn't turn around for me.

Isn't it tough when birds insist on facing the wrong way?

Nuthatches moving all over the beech tree & ignoring the feeder. Looking for insects?

Noted a few yrs. ago that ground-feeder Junco's (always read they nest in Can.) were grnd-feeding all around our sumr. camp ~ now even at home & maybe winter hungry enough to come to feeders all over my deck. Also on ground where (before Bear time) I always throw a giant cupful against my dark shaker-shingled house that would fly off to a lg. circle by our woodpile. ??? Big chg. of bird habits w/some 600 Robins sited in Burlington, VT that stayed the last 3 winters, harsh or not.

Also, the crows of mega-yrs. ago heading south have wintered here for decades. For 2 decs. or more, I have an unusual 8 mo. symbiance w/ONLY 4 on our half-acre in sub. back to back w/other 40 yr. old homes on a high hilll/wicked winds of the mtns. far away (old pasture of 1900's huge farm). If a 5th crow even lands in one of our giant Maples (property line) it's war, taken care of within a min. Any pasta-meat-loaf -dry bread,etc. or what tired looking "leftovers" that don't go into my composter gets tossed out over the deck rail & those 4 are there within a min. as they know the sound of my deck-door opening. (Rule #1, no bones/or anything that might involve a roving pet to choke on or get sick. And no vegetative stuff to encourage deer.) However the wild turkey's are so far out of control that new younger families moving in w/small raised beds of veggies are now putting up fences. Seems the forces of Mother Nature is trying to reclaim this once beautiful farm overlooking our tiny Capitol City of Montpelier. And I don't have a problem with that!! CKL in VT.

No, I like to see the wildlife, too, even if they are destructive. There has been a change in bird population here as well.....we now have ravens nesting & black vultures......the ravens have expanded south, the black vultures, north.

Turkeys have not shown up here so far. They take dust bathes in our iris seedling bed & damage the plants. Otherwise they are ok.

Good thing iris are so hardy!

The little young ones get jolted out of their spots, not the ones which have been around awhile.

My iris are looking good this spring ...hoping I get plenty of blooms.

The turkeys live in Boston, too. I've seen them cross the street and make four lanes of cars come to a stop. I think some of them live in the Arnold Arboretum.

Almost hit a turkey coming home yesterday afternoon...funny how we are talking about them

These flock of gender seperation & age (until mating time) wild turkeys are rather weird looking & much smaller than I guess the domesticated birds killed for Thanksgiving (or the massive huge & colorful ones featured on Thanksgiving cards). But for all their solid "smallish" bulk, when startled can instantly soar into surrounding trees. Amazing! All winter the rather "dowdy" females w/teen gals come in their own group. Then the Tom's somewhat bigger in their group. Then the "Jakes" which are teen males. Never together, but may approach our huge neighborhood from different directions & diff. times. (All coming from a huge Pine stand bordering a deep ravine w/brook running down to tri-river connections surrounding our town of Montpelier.) The "Jakes" look like they have a small squirrel's tail popping out their chest (weird). And now in late March saw my 1st TURKEY STRUT of several males intergrating w/the females & suddenly Mother Nature "pushed a button" & two layers of mahogany brown feathers fanned up w/a side step - left then right (which side do you like, Ms.) and it was astounding, beautiful & even laughable. Also noted that the male leathery faces are BLUE of all things!

Don't know about youse folks further south/east/west or wherever, but it's frighteninly dry here ~ dusty dry!! Not wanting to yet hook up the hoses, I've filled gal. water jugs (I save) in the tub every night & next a.m. pour onto plants I know need spring rain. (Spring Bulbs, Astilbe, Monks Hood,4 Clemmies,etc. freaking out about stuff at camp where we spend the summer, like new Rhoadies & many Hydos and last springs heavily mulches strawberry beds. ARRGH!

We are about 2" below normal. Strange with the 60" of snow.

Our turkeys are absent right now, but they will come. Plenty of trees for them to roost.

Dusty dry here as well....scary! Heard a barred owl yesterday......called back to him, he called back to me....

Rained all day yesterday, so we're set for a bit

Love when they talk back to you
always wondered though if it was another person whistling the same back at me

Heard an owl call a couple nights ago. Not sure which kind, but not barred.

Woo Hoo saw a hummer at the feeder today!!

Turkeys are paying us semi regular visits. Some times one, Sometimes two and sometimes three. Can,t seem to pin them down to a regular time, they just show up at any time. Mostly late afternoon to early evening.

Have a great day,
John

Yay for the hummers


gobble gobble

My sister sent this link.
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/8/Great_Blue_Herons/

Red Tailed Hawks too,they have 3 babies
http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/16/Red-tailed_Hawks/

Jo, those are so great!

yummy, he's currently eating a squirrel

When I was a grader there was just a few trails thru the woods to a shack by a pond.SapSucker Woods is the greatest place to visit.I used to go there all the time when I was a kid and took my children there when we visited my parents.