Beautiful pics as always Karen, thanks for posting them.
Muddy, It makes it so much easier, there is a whole maze of snow blown paths, our yard hasn't been snow free for months, only grass I've seen is in the pathways.
This guy came out early enough for me to get a pic of him, tonight. Will probably be back later with the whole gang, usually two does and another yearling.
Are you feeding them corn?
That belly looks awfully round. I wonder whether its fur is fluffed up or the "guy" is a "gal"?
Not sure if it's a boy or girl but too young yet for breeding. Yes, we are feeding corn, just a scoop each night we don't fill up that feeder. They were coming in and trying to get feed from the bird feeders, when they do that we put out a little feed for them. I don't like to encourage them to come in the yard but usually they just disappear come spring. We have had very little problem with them eating the plants. Last winter they ate a small newly planted shrub that Ric bought but it came back last spring and I covered it this year so they can't eat it.
You're very nice to them!
If they were destroying my gardens I wouldn't be so nice. LOL
The sound Doves make when startled and flying off is produced by
feathers in their wings. It is not a vocalized sound.
Just thought you may want to know this. G.
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/mourning_dove/sounds
The Kinglet and the Warbler are only winter visitors in Virginia. In spring and summer, they will be much further north for nesting.
I was very excited to see the Kinglet, and to be able to see the bit of red on his forehead. He is the size of a ping pong ball, but when he comes to the feeder, he ferociously guards it from all the other birds! The only only he won't stand up to is the doves!
That's interesting, Gita; thanks.
Karen, what do Kinglets eat?
Well, at our place they eat a hulless blend of sunflower and mixed nuts designed for porch and patio (no mess from shells, etc.)
Here is Cornell's page (this is a great site for bird ID I am sure has been shared before)
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/ruby-crowned_kinglet/id
It's smaller than a Chickadee?! You weren't kidding when you said it's the size of a ping-pong ball!
I think some of what we believe to be yellow finches might be misided kinglets. I'll have to try and get a better look. Ids haven't been my forte. I just assumed what I was seeing was a finch going back to his loud summer clothes. LOL
I have one of those plastic Upside Down feeders by Perky Pet that's for goldfinches. I have a lot of goldies year-round & I've found that if I use one of the regular finch feeders, or a thistle sock, they get chased by the other birds. I have the Upside Down one hanging from one of my window awnings. It has 6 ports & there have been many times there've been 10 or more goldies vying for space. Drives my cats NUTS! I've been buying bags of white millet from the Wild Bird Center in Severna Park. The juncos, doves & white-throated sparrows love it. I put it in a dish on my side porch. I've had 2 mockers hanging around; they'll eat suet but also apples & raisins. I had a bunch of robins show up about 3wks ago. One of them follows me all over the yard, chirping at me. It'll follow me up to the patio & wait till I go get some raisins (doesn't seem to eat the apples). It'll usually eat 4-5 raisins, then grab one & fly off. Several times it's been so hungry it practically eats them as I'm pouring them out of the box! If I'm not fast enough it chirps at me. I've even heard its chirps while I'm in the house, & looked out to see it perched on my porch railing staring at the door! Has me trained VERY well. It's fun feeding all God's critters, but way expensive. I'm very done with winter & so ready for spring!! :)
That's so funny about the robin!! I had a robin in my yard that would not eat raisins; it kept picking at seed shells instead.
I had never heard about the Upside Down feeders. If other birds try to use them - which I'm sure they only do once - it must be a kick to watch!
I thought my mockingbird(s) had left, so I wasn't as diligent about keeping its food dish full. I saw one trying to eat suet from upside down feeders today, so I put grapes, suet and a few dried mealworms in its dish.
We had a robin arrive with the snow on Thursday! I see them in town sometimes during the winter, but I think the ones in our yard migrate. He was surely thinking he'd picked the wrong date to travel! LOL
Gita, that's cool about the doves' wing feathers. I figured it was just more dove-cooing I was hearing amid the wingbeats!
Woodcock's wings make a "twittering" sound that you would swear were vocalizations. Click on the "Flight and wing sounds" tab on this page:
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_woodcock/sounds
You're right; I never would have guessed those sounds didn't come out of their beaks!
I asked this way above--but it, sort of, got way-laid.
What is the difference between White Millet--Beige Millet--and red Millet.
The one I buy at Big Lots in an 8lb bag is the sand-colored...buff colored Millet.
Is this considered white?
Did someone say that red Millet is Milo? the seed no pone much eats?
Thanks..g.
Apparently, white, beige, and red millet are all the same thing. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proso_millet . To quote, "The seeds are small (2–3 mm or 0.1 inch) and can be cream, yellow, orange-red, or brown in colour." Milo is "grain sorghum", as opposed to "sweet sorghum" rather than "red millet". See https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/afcm/sorghum.html .
Thanks, David!
As usual--your answers and explanations are very vast and inclusive.
G.
Good info! The stuff even English sparrows kick (messily) out of the feeder is milo, I think... reddish and larger than millet.
Carol, cute about your robin! I'll toss some raisins out there for ours if I see him again.
Apparently doves and cowbirds like milo (also wild turkeys and pheasants, but the average backyard bird feeders aren't going to see those!).
I would never cater to cowbirds, and my doves like regular millet very well. I did see a turkey one day under the maple tree by the deck. What a surprise here- but t may have been a domesticate that wandered over from the farm that was behind us.
I found a small bag of deer corn (I think) from a store that closed
years ago (Myers Seed Co.). I opened it and it smelled very stale
and moldy.
Spread it around by the trees and here and there--this morning, it was all gone...
no wonder i was hearing a ruckus while still in bed...
I also hung 3 new suet cakes--in my usual places. the one hanging on the tree trunk
was not hung very well as it was already dark.
I use the mesh onion bags and hang them on a nail in the tree. Must have pulled off...
This morning it was gone and the empty bag was laying on the ground.
Looks like the grackles and co. all had a good breakfast.
Bought a 40lb. bag of Pennington mixed seed yesterday at Wallmart ($15.97).
It is still in my car...I cannot lift it. Will wait for my neighbor to come outside and ask him.
Their seed shelves were TOTALLY TRASHED--very empty. Did not get any safflower.
Will have to pick it up at HD tomorrow.
Everything is trashed at the Wallmart. I often wonder if they have any
night "recovery" team to keep things straight and to re-stock???
G.
It's good that you got that old corn out of there.
with Thursday being a total snow day, and lots of ice still around Friday, Walmart was probably especially insane this weekend. If they have night recovery, I guess they couldn't keep up. I avoid Walmart but Mark likes it so I go sometimes.
I don't generally shop at WM--but I DO go there when I know I can get
what I need for less money.
Bird seed is one of them. Also--strawberries, fruit and produce in general.
Wonderful Artisan 4-lettuces grown in that plastic, cube-like container--$2.50
here are a couple other things I will drive there to get...
EG--they have very good deals on vitamins..
Hate the parking area,,,usually have to walk a long way back to the store.
G.
I thought that moldy seeds and nuts were very bad to feed to critters! Isn't mold highly toxic to birds?
With all the snow cover and now melt, today and yesterday are 'clean up' feeder and feeder area leftovers priorities for my yard. Just because birds will eat some thing doesn't mean it is good for them, or won't make them sick! After I clean and sanitize my feeders. I'll put them away until next time. Very little BOS seed left, maybe two or three days worth.
Next year I'll buy fresh seed and definitely stay away from cheap mixes! I would have saved money and given the birds more nutritious food by just feeding BOS which all got eaten by all of the birds that came around this winter.
From this site as well as many others...
http://thebackyardnaturalist.com/wordpress/mold-alert/
"* Please, we urge you to check your feeders ASAP. If you see mold, or the seed is clumping (a sign of pre-mold dampness), dispose of the seed and clean the feeder thoroughly with hot soapy water, as stated above. Also, rake up any shell debris on the ground below your feeders. It will likely have mold, too."
"Moldy bird seeds, nuts and suets can be deadly! We need to take this seriously, as birds can contract diseases from inhaling mold/fungus spores."
"Check all your stored seed, nuts and suets. It should smell fresh and nutty. If you notice any unpleasant musty smell or clumping, it’s gone bad. Throw it away and replace with fresh!"
Even though Winter temps "...may slow growth of the icky stuff, get this…It doesn’t die–even at 0°F– it just goes dormant and waits for the temperature to rise again. "
There's a lot of shell debris on the deck again that I'll sweep off once the snow melts this week... it's such fun having the birds right outside the windows; I'm willing to put up with the mess on the deck. Meanwhile, I'm tossing more seed onto the remaining snow so the birds don't have to scratch in the wet stuff. For the most part, I think the seed on the deck surface gets eaten before it can get moldy.
If it matters---this bag of corn was still closed--never been opened.
Maybe saying it smelled "moldy" was not correct. how about--"stale"?
There is a ton of seed chaff on my patio floor, steps and under everything on it.
I will clean it up when everything dries. It will all go into my SEM.
G.
The chafe under our sunflower feeder is treated as mulch, we rake it out evenly in the spring. The excess is sucked up by the vacuum on the mower and either directly used on the beds or added to the compost. The chafe "or hulls" may exceed 6-9"s in one winter. We try to keep our mulch as organic as possible, if we buy local double ground, it is usually about $24-28 a yard, but breaks down in about 2 years. With the addition of compost we have to check the Ph , but a little lime takes care of that. We usually have both burnt lime as well as crushed lime available. Just remember "burnt is better" as it is faster acting.
I'm pretty sure a couple of what I've thought were finches were Ruby Crowned Kinglets.
This morning Pat saw out of the corner of her eye a large bird alight in a tree about 50 yards from the house. Using binoculars we could tell it was an owl. However, due to distance, lighting, and view obstructing branches we were unable to ID species. It of course flew away before I could locate my camera and go outside. Still, a great way to start the day.
Oh, I would love to see an owl. I know they are in the woods behind the house but we rarely ever see them.
Often we hear what we think are Great Horned owls calling back and forth when it gets dark, and we occasionally hear other owls. If this one had not flown to the tree as I was looking out, I would never have noticed him. Had to get down on the floor to see what sort of head the bird had, and had been thinking it was a hawk. Nice surprise.
Mid Feb PBS "Nature" premiered a special on owls called 'Owl Power' It is well worth watching.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/owl-power-full-episode/11636/
My daughter and I were in the woods just about sunset in early Spring when a Great Horned Owl flew byabout 6 feet above the ground and less than 20 feet from us. Huge bird and wing span and totally silent flight!
Greenthumb or Pat,, can you guestimate the size of the owl for a possible ID?
Great Horneds often use the same 'perch tree' in a given area so you may spot it there again.
Would say it was about the size of the red-tailed hawk that nests regularly in our next door neighbor's trees.
The only time I remember seeing an owl in the woods behind the house was many many years ago we were out horse back riding thru the woods and looked up. It was huge and unbelievable how it moved thru the trees with that huge wing span and so very quiet. I have seen a few others in other places but that was my first and the best sighting I have ever had.
Once I was picking apples, pulled a leafy branch aside, and found myself face to face with a little screech owl. Really cute.
http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/habitat/landowners/infosheets/owls-in-virginia.asp
"The great horned owl is the nighttime counterpart to the red-tailed hawk." in terms of habitat and food preferences!
Here is a short video on silent flight
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/owl-power-owl-shows-silent-flight-superpower/11608/
This message was edited Mar 9, 2015 6:53 PM
It could have been a Barred Owl. They're active during the daytime and about the same size as Red-tailed Hawks.
It was years ago, but I remember crossing a bridge in the forest near my house and suddenly seeing an owl that was perched on the railing and staring at me. We really startled each other!
