Our old thread was getting ssooooo long, and it almost wouldn't open for me at all.
So on to a new thread....
Coming from here...
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1335658/
I am personally ready for Spring, so I called the new thread Spring 2014! Ha!
This first photo is a female House Finch in the foreground, and her mate in the background.
We try to keep our little friends fed here....
Black-capped Chickadee
Carolina Wren
Carolina Wren
Dark-eyed Junco
House Finch - male in foreground
Downy Woodpecker - female
Downy Woodpecker - male
Northern Cardianal - male
Northern Cardinal - female
Tufted Titmouse
White-throated Sparrow - female
White-throated Sparrow - male
Thanks for looking!
Karen
wow!!
Thanks for the new thread ,and especially the wonderful pictures to start it off!
Outstanding photos!
I THINK I saw one of those (??) sparrows you all talked bout that have the dark streaks
around the head and cheek and the longer tail...I was like--"OH...there's one!"...
G.
Karen, I'm really glad we got the camera for Christmas. Not nearly as adept as you, I too enjoy the little birds. I still can't get a titmouse to say "cheese". LOL
I have another manual tele 500 and 2x converter to play with, but haven't shoot manual on a SLR in years. As I aged all those ISOs and speeds slipped away somewhere. The redeeming factor in digital is you don't have to do a contact sheet or print to see if a photo is worthy of keeping. I have to keep this mind more and experiment.
Thank you for sharing the photos, Karen. The light behind the female cardinal is superb!
Ric, interesting to see that your birds eat corns. The ones in my backyard wouldn't touch corns. Is that because there were other seeds available?
This message was edited Mar 2, 2014 11:45 AM
Thanks to all for the nice comments! You all know that I just enjoy sharing what I see through the lens.
Ric, I couldn't agree more! Anytime someone writes me for advice abut cameras and/or taking photos, I always say the best way to learn is practice, practice, practice! In this digital age, if you don't like a photo you took, your best friend is the "delete" button... then go out and try again! You will do great with your new "toys"!
Donner, the female cardinal is my very favorite feeder bird! I love her colors, and she usually gives me a good photograph! Her husband is quite flighty and hard to capture! LOL!
Karen
This message was edited Feb 10, 2014 10:46 AM
Karen, if I could ever find a way to show the remarkable encounters I have been blessed to have in my life with birds, you would be one of the first with whom I would love to share them.
Thanks Karen, our cardinals really light up our backyard, Sometimes we have as many as 8 males queued up to feed. Have you ever noticed that behavior? As 1 finishes they all move up a notch to feed, Very polite birds.
lol Ric,
I had one male cardinal who claimed my yard as his and it was only with his permission that other males, most likely his sons, could come and go. The two years I had feeders had him come in first, check out food and then perch in one of two Japanese Maples nearby and 'chip, chip' in the others. First his mate, then other females (daughters?) and then sons! He would fly in to the platform feeder sometimes to re establish order. I could be wrong, but I think he also chipped to me when seeds were running low. I never mastered chipping back. Stopped feeder feeding because too much temptation to young feral cats. Several lesser females could eat at one time but had to diperse when main mate came back, Males only one at a time after main mate finished.
We feed mixed bird feed, sunflower seeds, right now we are putting out some of the scratch feed that we give the chickies, that has cracked corn and some other grains and there is the whole corn that we have in the deer feeder. So they have a real smorgasbord out there. We have stopped putting out the thistle seed as the birds just haven't been using that for quite a while I even put out new fresh seed and new sock but they just don't seem to want it. Oh and the suet that is keeping all the woodpeckers happy.
Usually I find the corn kernels untouched, or with just the 'germ' eaten away. Once this fall every single kernel disappeared.
Millet and safflower keep mine happy, and no squirrel pig outs. I added a little thistel in the regular feeder, curious to see if any new customer appear for it.
A couple years ago--I bought 2 of these huge bags of bird seed at Costco--
which consisted, pretty much, of mixed Sunflower seeds and Safflower.
Maybe a scarce bit of millet... $19.99. I just opened the second bag this year.
I have an old metal bucket with a lid where I mix up all the seeds I use to fill
my big triple feeder. I like to mix--so that every bird can have something...
I have quite a few Doves that feed here-so I buy this 10lb bag of millet at Big Lots
for $7. I scatter this on the ground for the doves...along with whatever I have in the bucket.
Sometimes, the Doves go to my big tube feeder to eat--pretty awkward--as they are so big.
The squirrels are, of course, first to eat up all the Sunflower seeds in the mix I scatter.
This afternoon, when i got back from grocery shopping, all the birds were sitting in
the bare tops of my trees. A neat sight...all in silhouette.
G.
Millet, safflower, black-oil sunflower, suet, peanuts and dried mealworms have been the most popular in my yard. Nothing eats thistle right now, either from the feeder or the ground. The purple finches eat it in the summer but are going after the BOS now, I think because it has more fat.
I haven't noticed cardinal pecking-order; I put food on the ground as well as in a feeder so I guess they spread out. ..or maybe I'm too busy watching other birds to notice.
Coleup, I'm sure the cardinal was letting you know the seed was gone....the blue jays let me know when the peanuts are gone. They alert the others when peanuts are available, and take turns swooping in for them. Sometimes one jay will knock a peanut from a platform feeder to the ground for another to retrieve. Last week, a jay stood a foot a way from a squirrel that was hogging a pile of peanuts and screeched in its face until it moved.
muddy--
I have not seen a Blue jay here yet....are they winter feeders?
My Finch feeder is not being visited either. I don't have Thistle in it,
but a Finch Mix. All kinds of small seeds...
What I have done in the past with older Thistle seed is just mix it into
my regular seed mix.
The Gold Finches may be picky--but the other birds will eat it.
G.
I have a blue jay or two this year, but other years they have been scarce.
I moved one suet block, so that the two blocks were on opposite sides of the tree- as the downy woodpecker was hiding from the jay, so I wanted to help, give him an extra option..
Ric, I have not seen the pecking order you speak of. During the summer, all of our bird friends bring their chicks to the feeder when they have fledged and watch over them. We enjoy that a lot! The House Finch males will come in and "scout" the balcony, then call in their mates and watch over them as they feed. The cardinal pair comes in together but are very skittish. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is our most skittish visitor.
I buy a completely hull-less mix of seed.... Sunflower, safflower, peanuts, pistachio, etc. it is a bit more expensive, but we are 40 feet up on a third floor balcony and it really helps not having the seed shells everywhere! The birds eat everything coming out of the feeder so no mess! We also put out peanutbutter suet and water.
Remember the birds later this week! Another big storm coming in Wed. night into Thursday!
Karen
I went to the font of bird knowledge, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website, and learned that sometimes blue jays migrate, and sometimes they don't, and no one can figure out why. See the first "cool fact" on http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/blue_jay/lifehistory
This message was edited Feb 10, 2014 10:55 PM
I need more birdseed! I've still got plenty of BOS, but I'm getting to the bottom of my white millet & safflower, and I've been out of thistle/nyger for almost a week. I've come to the bottom of my 20# bag of squirrel mix, too. All the critters are really eating a lot this winter!
After the last "melt" day, Joyanna and I swept a remarkable pile of hulls off the deck. The thistle and millet that falls is definitely chaff... and that's a switch from when i fed a mix that had the red millet in it... the birds would throw that mix around. Thistle is still popular with our birds -- mostly with the finches (goldfinches & house finches both) but also with juncos, occasionally with sparrows and even cardinals!
The squirrels do seem to leave the white millet andd safflower feeder alone. I buy those seeds separately and combine them in the feeder, because any mix I've found inevitably has sunflower seeds in it, and squirrels will make a big mess digging through a seed mix for the sunflowers!
We've been seeing 4 male cardinals lately... The seem to "flock up" when there's snow; otherwise we see just one pair at a time. My dad (in Pittsburgh) reported the same thing... Last week he said there were enough in the back yard to elect a pope!
I haven't put out peanut butter for a week, because the grackels were getting to be too numerous, but with the really cold weather taking another swing at us I think I'll refill the PB log feeder.
My son bought sunflower butter but didn't like it. I'm going to put some on the tree trunk. I picture the squirrel licking the tree….. But I hope birds find it first!
haha Jill your dad…cute!
Red millet always seemed leftover here too.
And sunflower hulls have some anti germination compound. Can prevent seeds germinating under the feeder. ( Though that could be a good thing)
The hulls around my sunflower feeder are really deep and I just let them there like mulch. The established plants grow fine there but I don't get much in the way of weeds in that area.
Cool... I've been sweeping the hulls off into the deck bed. Maybe I'll have fewer weeds to pull! Lots of safflower hulls, too, but with my luck they encourage germination so it'll end up about the same. :-)
Ha ha - isn't it nice that birds and squirrels make mulch for our gardens? One of my brothers-in-law asked me where I got peanut shell mulch! I use a leaf blower to blow what the critters drop onto the lawn onto a garden path.
This message was edited Feb 11, 2014 8:33 PM
Made another raid on Southern States for bird seed today... got cracked corn for the squirrels, too, the spoiled things. 20 pounds of safflower, 25 pounds white millet, 10 pounds thistle, 10 pounds peanut hearts (thought, what the heck, it'll stretch the PB suet), 20 pounds of "woodpecker treat" and the 10 pounds of cracked corn. I guess I should have picked up an extra 5 pounds of something for an even 100. I picked up 40 pounds of BOS on sale recently, or that would've been on my list too. That had BETTER last until spring, 'cause that's all they get!
Joyanna helped me make a special mix for the squirrels (she likes them; I'm hoping I don't regret encouraging them!). We also mixed up a batch of PB suet with as many extras (peanut hearts & woodpecker delight, also some elderly dried fruit) as it would hold... well, I think it'll hold that much; I'll let you know how well it stays together out there!
Lucky birds; they'll be eating well for the rest of the winter.
It's great that your daughter is so interested in feeding the birds and squirrels, and that you're teaching her how to give them TLC!
We're getting extra (And extra hungry) birds this winter, due to the construction project behind us. I'm glad our tree guys made us a new brush pile, because there's not much brush anywhere around. Anytime you look at it, the brush pile is just vibrating with birds.
The birds were still tucked in their nooks this AM. Cold here 10*F when I got myself moving, about 30 minutes ago there was more activity, it had warmed? up to 14*F. We're filling the feeders daily, much to the squirrel's delight, those eating machines should be fat.
The black Birds hit my feeder while I was gone today. Pigs!
Just filled it back up in anticipation of the snow... G.
Same here.
I noticed a few winters ago that the ground feeders were very happy when I tossed seed on the relatively bare ground under our snow-covered patio table, so now I throw a cover over it to keep it even drier underneath. I wonder how the birds manage to survive in this cold weather.
Feeders were nearly empty again this evening (refilled them yesterday!), so Joyanna helped me refill them just before she went up to bed. With half an inch of slippy snow ("slippy," that's a Pittsburgh word) on the deck already, I opted not to refill the BOS and PB feeders down on the patio... but I did fill 3 little ball-shaped feeders with a mixture of BOS and "woodpecker delight" and put them on the deck, and there's plenty of BOS mixed into what Joyanna now calls "squirrel treat." I figure with all the bird food the squirrels have eaten over the years, having the birds raid the squirrel feeder is a case of turnabout being fair play!
I like the idea of covering the table to make a relatively snow-free area beneath... too late now; I'm not going back out there! We'll probably shovel a little area near the door. We often put seed on the doormat anyway. Kitty TV!
I put most of my nyger (thistle) seed in freezer bags, some of it straight up and some mixed with peanut hearts. It has a high oil content -- like nuts so -- and gets a little stale/rancid at house temps. Not a big deal with other seeds, but the birds just won't touch old thistle seed. Freezing solves that problem!
Cleaned several yards of snow around the feeders, cleaned the feeders and added more food.
Got loads of birds, including a small group of Eastern Blue Birds http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/New_York/NY-bird-bluebird.jpg . The first time I ever saw these birds. So exciting!!! The blue is very dark this time of year.
This message was edited Feb 26, 2014 1:38 PM
Blue birds how nice!! A park nearby has them but they have never come to my feeders.
I dumped one feeder to refill it and seemed like the thistle portion of my custom mix is uneaten so far. Maybe some finches or somebody will find it on the ground before it goes bad.
Glad to hear people seeing bluebirds. With as harsh a winter as we've had, many bluebirds perish. They used to migrate out of this area, but they don't migrate now, and I know some bird watchers that have found them frozen to death. They love mealworms!
Darn english house sparrows. THey are so piggy. THey just came, and they throw the seed out of the tray!
That's so sad about the bluebirds! I bet some have frozen this year.
Lucky you, donnerville; I'd love to see bluebirds in my yard. The only time I saw them in my yard was about 2 years ago, and I was so excited that I went in and out twice to put food out that I thought they'd like. They got spooked and never came back. I should have just let them eat whatever it was that was that attracted them in the first place.
I'll put out another mealworm feeder in case they come this year.
I knew nothing about bluebirds and didn't have a mealworm feeder :o(. They were eating suet in my backyard. Not sure where they live normally. I was so lucky to have a visit from these beautiful birds. Hope they come again.
This message was edited Feb 14, 2014 11:41 AM
