I put out shelled peanuts today, but the Blue Jays were unhappy because they wanted ones in shells.
I couldn't stand hearing them whine, so I went to the bird store, bought some and put them out along with the split peanuts. Everybody seemed happy!
Photo 4 shows just one of the reasons why I love Blue Jays: Before digging in, they screech to let the others in their family know there's food. Maybe other birds do it too, but they don't have a shriek that's heard around the neighborhood!
cute chippy!
I haven't given a thought to bird feeding yet- wonder if I have any seed. I'll be doing straight safflower again. And pure suet.
Re the fox- we saw one behind our yard last week, Then couple nights later, I think I saw it run across the road around the corner a few yards away. Always very fleeting here, can't imagine one coming up to eat our birdseed.
Actually, the fox was eating peanuts from this guy's deck, but I wouldn't be surprised if they ate birdseed if that was all they could find.
There's a fox in my parents' neighborhood that comes up to their sliding glass door to eat cat food that they leave out for their neighborhood cat. It seems totally fearless.
This morning there was a huge group of birds feeding on something in my backyard. I don't know what they were eating on the lawn, but they were definitely all over the viburnum berries. I hardly have any berries left now.
I wonder if perhaps birds taking off with berries in their beaks dropped tiny bits that the others picked up from the lawn? If the feed trays I usually fill with millet and safflower seeds are empty, I'll see doves pecking for peanut scraps .
I can't wait until I have more berries for the birds. I'm hoping that my Elderberries will produce berries next year. They eat the berries from my dogwoods pretty quickly, although come to think of it there are often half-eaten ones on the driveway. I think even birds can be sloppy eaters.
The viburnums are at the bottom of the slope, so I don't think the birds on the grass were eating berry droppings. It's zoysia grass in the back so there aren't even grass seeds for them to feed on. It's a lot of fun seeing a large group of birds like that. I don't even know what they were! They kind of looked like female cardinals, but I don't think they hang out in groups like that.
It was probably a migratory flock, possibly Summer Tanagers? http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Summer_Tanager/id
Like flocks of black birds, I always wonder if they find weed seeds, bugs or what?
I spooked a Catbird from one of the dogwoods today.
Catbirds are so sweet!
If your yards are like mine, there are probably plenty of seeds from Asters, Goldenrods, Mistflowers, Milkweed, etc. all over the place.
WOW, that summer tanager is a beauty!
Isn't it? I think I've seen them in the woods, but never in my yard.
From what I can tell from flipping through my bird books, they're the only other cardinal-red birds that we're likely to see in our area. Female tanagers are yellow, but I can imagine that your eyes might have focused on the males. (Hmm..poor choice of words??.)
Well, female cardinals aren't red, so we're back to square one on what looked like a bunch of female cardinals.
Okay, nickel's dropping. Something that looks like female Cardinals...checking..
This message was edited Nov 3, 2014 10:11 PM
I'm drawing blanks.
Ssg, I hope they stay long enough for a photo if you see them again.
My 2 cents,
Cedar Wax Wings or Bohemian Wax Wings (larger and ruddyer)
They have crests like cardinals and coloration of female. Juviniles and migrators travel in flocks. With all the wind lately....berries could have been scattered on ground.
This message was edited Nov 3, 2014 11:07 PM
SSG - we don't see foxes often, but we have opossums and raccoons that regularly come up on our deck to scavenge for cat food that may be left over from daytime feedings outside. We have a table on our deck, up against the house, that comes just below the bottom of the kitchen window. I can be sitting at the little kitchen table inside next to the window and hear a critter in the food dish. I lean over, knock on the window, and a raccoon raises its head and looks at me no more than 2-3 inches on the other side of the glass. It knows I can't get it through the glass and goes back to eating, just inches from my face and knocking hand.
If I just start to unlatch the adjacent casement window, however, the raccoon is gone in a flash. An opossum, on the other hand, pays little attention even to that. If I go to the front door and step outside the opossum will get down from the table and slowly amble away, seemingly more out of consternation than fear.
I never think of waxwings because I've only seen them once, on a bird walk. The ranger acted as if they're common though.
They're each so funny in their own way greenthumb!
Oh, waxwings! That's a possibility!
Ugh, I really dislike raccoons and opossums. Raccoons in particular are too smart for their own good!
In ali my years living here (46). I have seen a racoon twice.
A confused deer running across the road--once
A fox running through the yards--twice
That's it for 'wildlife"....
BUT--then again, this IS a tight development. There's a small patch of woods
by the High School and some more at the end of my street where it dead ends
to an undeveloped "woods' area..
Gita
Most of the wildlife I see is when it is dark (dusk, dawn, middle of the night). Seeing some critters like fox or raccoon is unusual and I have learned to be 'alert' for possible rabies.
Greenthumb, I agree with your obsevations on raccoon and possum. For awhile here, the racoons would give me a 'join the party; look when I came outside and they were at the picnic table finishing up the cat kibble! I had a mama fox that would bark at me when she figured I had not put out the evening cat food.
Most recent wildlife sightings: wild turkeys! I have had to stop my car twice now for them to finish crossing the road. Finally getting a sense of how big they are. Didn't know that they eat alot of acorns.
Wish there were more wild turkeys in our yard and less acorns.
That's too funny about the fox, Coleup!
Greenthumb, I know it will be difficult because of the lack of light, but if would be great if you could get photos of the raccoons and opossums.
I see foxes 4-5 times a year; recently one was running across my back yard. He bolted when I opened the door, and I'm pretty sure he scaled the 6' fence to get away.
I try to bring in all peanuts at night because I want the raccoons to stop thinking of my yard as a food source. I don't begrudge them the peanuts, but I would rather they not come to my yard at all because of the fish.
Every time I read about you guys and all your cool wildlife, I'm jealous until I remember that you also have deer issues and then it makes it okay ;-)
Worldwide cool wildlife has declined by over 50% in the last 40 years. It is not just the Monarch butterfly, pollinators, bees, or our favorite song birds, or the fish, crabs and oysters once so abundant in the Bay I live near, or the large mammals and big cats, but the entire biodiversity of our planet . See Living Planet Index and World Wildlife Fund recent report. It is not just my imagination that there are fewer of most of the cool wildlife I grew up with or longed to see alive and well in their homes across the globe and not just in zoos or aquariums or Nat Geo mags or tv specials.
http://wwf.panda.org/about_our_earth/all_publications/living_planet_report/
Basically then, these days I am grateful for any wildlife I encounter in my daily life including deer.
I wonder what the deer around here will eat this winter as 3 of the large properties where they were able to find brouse have been cleared, putting additional pressure on what ever brouse may be available in my yard? Last year was the first year they ate most of the wintercreeper and other euonymous shrubs and nipped back some hydrangeas that would have been lost to late cold snap anyway.
One young buck did choose a Japanese Maple for his rub and I did lose the tree because too much bark had been stripped all around its trunk. I posted about this here and got some good responses on protection for young trees See Deer Devil post in thread
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1340075/
I had to run an errand at work and I hit a house finch :-( I went back to see him and he was dead on the road. I moved his little body to the side so no one would run him over again. It was sad....
aw, poor finch, poor Jeff!
Sorry to hear that, Jeff. The bird shouldn't have been flying that low; maybe it was sick anyway.
Coleup, deer in our area and elsewhere in the Northeast are contributing to the decline of other wildlife in a big way by destroying the native plant population. Native berry-producing plants are usually eaten to the ground. If they do manage to grow and flower, deer will eat the buds. They ate the Goldenrod, Monarda fistulosa and Culver's Root plants in the forest before they had a chance to bloom. There is little understory because they eat tree and shrub seedlings, hence fewer shelter and nesting spots for birds.
To make matters even worse, they do not eat most of the non-native plants, so they proliferate, out-compete and smother the natives.
I know that we humans are responsible for the super-sized deer populations in suburban areas, but I am hoping the herds are culled before winter anyway.
You might want to put up deer fencing around your yard this year...or feed them..or both.
Coleup, I forgot to say sorry to hear about your Japanese Maple. That was a good size tree (It would have made nice nesting places!) and I'm sure it was painful to watch it die.
I'll be doing a bit of both feeding and fencing.
I'll group my plants together (most things I grow are containerized, including trees) in four or five groups bedded down with oodles of leaves and draped with bird netting/deer fencing in the hopes that the deer will be deterred from nibbling when their sensitive noses encounter the black plastic.
I will also do some creative blockages to discourage any habitual browsing raids. However, the 3 - 5 deer who claim my area as their range have 80 % less forage than last winter. Dept of Nat Res says not a suitable area for a controlled hunt/cull. If deer survive winter, there will be less to eat in spring and so on.
For the first 30 yrs I lived here no deer. Out on my paper route they have yearly managed hunts and the bow hunters are manning their tree stands. Its hard to watch this year's fawns try to make sense of their world after their moms have been taken. No efforts to manage the forest and edge habitates have ever been part of the overall community plan. Invasives abound.
Odd that we get angry at deer or a deer as if it were a trespassing human bent on malicious destruction of our personal property....
Estimates are that it takes 1 and 1/2 times the earth to meet our current rates of consumption of resources. So, in addition to getting as much milkweed and nectar plants planted I think I'll find homes for all the white and red oak acorns sprouting in my yard and find other outlets for my urge to bring balance and sustainability where I live, knowing it will not be a simple journey and may take generations to bring round
Muddy, thanks for acknowledging that one can be sad witnessing the death of a tree and Jeff for checking on that finch and your loving kindness in letting it rest in peace off the road.
Speaking of balance, it is estimated that the deer population in Virginia is some six (6) times what it was at the time the colonists arrived. This is due to multiple factors, primarily lack of predation and expansion of favorable habitat. Unlike the popular myth that deer populations have been displaced by development, forcing them to migrate into suburban areas, those very suburbs have made the rapid expansion of the deer population possible. Similarly, in the state of Maryland where the deer population has reached problematic levels, the white-tail deer had been nearly expatriated in the early years of the 1900s.
Deer do not primarily "live" in the woods, but mainly take refuge there when they are not feeding. The open venues of suburban yards filled with browse (hostas, expensive shrubs, etc.) adjacent to wooded green spaces for refuge have provided the ideal environment for the deer. Multiple births, once a rarity, are now commonplace as a result of the elevated nutrition now available. In most of these areas, the only means of population control is interaction with motor vehicles.
While native, the effect of the explosive deer population is not unlike that of Purple Loosestrife for example; native plant species decimated or eliminated locally, along with their associated faunal species. Deer populations have become major agents of native habitat destruction and facilitators of dominance by invasive alien plant species. This in turn leads to diminished populations of our insect species, resulting in declining numbers of birds, amphibians and even mammals that are all part of the co-evolved food web. For example, some 95% of our terrestrial bird species require insects for the successful rearing of their young.
Most humans consider deer as graceful and attractive, and this aesthetic, coupled with Disney childhood experiences hinders effective address of this social, economic, environmental and safety issue. If 200 pound rats were causing the same destruction, a public hue and cry would demand action be taken. Would any of you be OK with feral pigs destroying your yard/gardens? I have no intrinsic hatred of deer as a species, but this problem is serious in many ways, and needs informed, rational exploration for resolution.
It's really a shame that efforts to sterilize does hasn't been effective; hopefully someone will figure out a better way to do that soon.
I like the idea of planting oak trees. I probably could squeeze one in my front yard. I have a volunteer in a shady area in my backyard. I'm not sure how well it will do, but I'm leaving it.
Well put, greenthumb! 200 pound rats!
I'm reminded of one of my favorite videos on this topic, How Wolves Changes Rivers. I know I've posted it before, but here it is again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
Our ecology is completely out of whack because we have eliminated the deer's natural predators. It seems our best option is to cull them the best we can, whether it be by hunting or sterilization.
I remember Muddy saying there are no shrubs in the woods in her neighborhood because they've all been grazed to death, like in the video. I wonder how much our woods, forests, and rivers will change if the deer population was reduced down to a sustainable level.
That's a very interesting video, ssg; thanks for sharing!
I know we have coyotes in the woods near my house, although I haven't seen any. A deer once left a fawn by my front door to keep it safe while she walked around our neighborhood eating our plants. It was so cute! There aren't many places for deer to hide in the woods, so I imagine the coyotes are helping with natural control.
Thanks SSG I remember that video!
I love the PBS show ;Downton Abbey' and last season watched the special on the estate where they film the episodes. During the special they interviewed a number of the real staff it takes to run and maintain the house and estate: Housekeeper, Butler. Cook, etc. Tow staff I was particularlt interested in were the Groundskeep and Gameskeeper. If I am remembering correctly, each of them was the third generation to hold that position and how they worked together to monito and manage the interplay of habitat and wildlife over decades of fluctuations for the estate.and its continued health and diversity.
My view is that doing one without the others is impossible and folly in the long run.
Have been reading up on QDM, Quality Deer Management, being adopted and practised by many in the hunting communities across our country. Interesting stuff and discussions . Many teachable moments ahead for all of us.
Ferral pigs are already established in MD VA and PA!
awesome video, thanks ssg!!!
now I want to go to Yellowstone.
Yellowstone is a neat place - coyotes chasing rabbits in broad daylight, and bison herds walking around cars. One of my daughters and I went there last year.
I just stepped outside and surprised a very large raccoon that was trying to reach a bird feeder by standing on a birdbath. He lumbered off and started climbing a tree when he saw me.
Sally--You are good at ID'ing birds.
Saw a hawk this morning---it just landed on top of my shrubs at the corned
of the patio around my grill.
This are dense,boxwood-type shrubs--as I trim them. Most sparrows hide in there...
This hawk landed on top of the shrub looked around, and then dived into it through
a "hole" in the growth on top.
Came back out empty handed--but I did see a few fluffy feathers fly around.
After a while it came back and landed on the bush again. Then left.
By now--there was NO bird in sight. Still aren't..
I looked in all my bird books (3) but could not really ID it. Most likely--it may have been
an immature hawk of some kind (this time of year?) b/c of the streaked chest.
It was a large, slim, sleek-build with a long tail and slim legs. None of that "rough tough" look.
It's chest was white with dark (black?) streaks. The rest of the body was dark brown or grayish.
Cooper,s Hawk? Goshawk?
I'm awful with hawks. Cooper's seems like a good guess
http://feederwatch.org/learn/tricky-bird-ids/coopers-hawk-and-sharp-shinned-hawk/
I agree. Juvenile Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned Hawk
