Daily Piccies Vol. 462

The have not been around here,but they will be.

Our Goldfinches are starting to change into their spring colors. The males are looking a bit like "patchwork quilts".

Lucky you. Ours are still in winter plumage.

Our Goldfinches look about like this, some are really ratty looking. Our Harris's Sparrows look a bit bedraggled too. We never had them stay the winter, so I was curious to see what their molting looks like. Messy. :)

Here's the Cooper's Hawk that's been around off and on, and Mr. Kestrel. He was so nice to sit there while I took his picture from an upstairs window. I am so glad the plastic was taken off from the winter. This would have looked more blurry.


This message was edited Apr 4, 2016 6:02 PM

Our Chipping Sparrows have arrived...Yay!!

goldfinches are coloring up. A phoebe arrived yesterday. I wonder what it can find to eat, unless there are bugs in the barn.

Yay...our Purple Finches have arrived right on schedule!! They sure are beautiful!

I guess by now most of the Goldfinches are changing color. You're lucky, iris. I've never seen a Phoebe here!

Nice pics, Chilly!

So excited...Yesterday we had our first Baltimore Oriole of the season (April 27th) and this morning our first of the season Rose-breasted Grosbeak and White-crowned Sparrow (April 28th)! Wow, Wow, Wow!

Fantastic! We have only seen a grosbeak here one time, but not this year.

I went downstairs where we can have a better view of the tube feeder & there was a white throat on the ground. Grossbeak next? I doubt it, but one can dream. I saw the white over the eye of the sparrow, then the yellow patch & then the small white at the throat.

Iris that's great about the White Throat! You might see Grosbeaks. This has been a weird weather year so you never know. The one I saw this morning headed right to one of the sunflower seed feeders.

I'm expecting Hummers in the next week and, if we're lucky, Indigo Buntings.

Grosbeaks? I finally saw a female in the garden after all these years. I was lucky to have found the colorful male before, but this is my lifer for the year. Wooohoo!

Congrats on seeing a female! That's super exciting.

The male in your pics looks like he's still molting. Sometimes when they first arrive in our yard they're still changing. We get both males and females, but our males usually show up first.

Ooops, NAN, so is that image of a juvie male? I didn't see the red coloring so I mistaken it as a female. lol

I'm not sure if it's a juvie or a molting adult. You can just barely see a little red in both your 1st and 4th pics. The female is brown, more similar to a large sparrow.

I wasn't able to quickly locate any of my own female pics so here are some links. I think the female's markings are very pretty. BTW, if you're seeing males, you probably have females around, or will very soon.

http://www.enature.com/fieldguides/enlarged.asp?imageID=17403

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rose-breasted_Grosbeak/id

I thought the large display picture on Audubon's website of an immature male (with berries on it's face) was cute, but they had other pics as well.

https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/rose-breasted-grosbeak

I have seen Swallows around the reservoir (Lake Pueblo) but couldn't get a good enough look or photo to identify until today. Photos aren't great - but not quite bad enough for the "appallingly bad" thread - It turns out I was seeing more than one type of swallow.
1 - Cliff Swallows identified by nest shape - birds are still just a blur
2 & 3 Violet Green Swallows - light wasn't right to catch their wonderful color, but the pattern is distinctive and clear.

Pic #1 is definitely Cliff Swallows, based on their tail shape in addition to nest locations and shape.

Nuts is right about them being Cliff swallows. On one of the birds, I think I saw the white "headlight" on its forehead. That's how I tell them apart from Barn Swallows when I cannot catch the tail shape. And yes, the location is a good indicator. I like how they all nest together like that. :D

Many years ago I raised baby Cliff Swallows two years in a row when I still lived in California. I was doing some rehab at the time of mostly birds and was registered with the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Game ( I believe it's now called Dept. of Fish and Wildlife).

They nested every year under an overpass that crossed a stream about a block from my house. Cliff Swallows were the first Swallows I ever saw and to this day very recognizable to me, even from long distances. I used to love watching that large community of Swallows flying and swooping to catch mosquitos and other insects.

We can use more mosquito catchers here, since the bats have declined because of 'white nose syndrum'.

Way too sad about the declining bats. :o(
Sure hope the numbers increase again soon.

Chilly ~ It's admirable that you're interested in rehab. Even transporting birds to a licensed rehabber takes dedication.

Back when I was involved (on a very small scale, mind you) there were no local rehabbers. In fact it was so difficult to find any that I bought two books, which I still own, by a couple of rehabbers in other states.

I devoured every word in those books and eventually called each of the ladies that wrote them. They were so helpful that I would occasionally call them when I needed advice.

I also became friends with a raptor rehabber in Texas when I was there one year.

Good for you for caring so much! Thank goodness for those of us that do. I wish everyone did.

Yay...what a great week!!!
Just in the last week our Orchard Orioles and Hummingbirds have arrived (Hummers were over a week later than normal). And today our Indigo Buntings showed up! I'm just sooooo excited!

We have nothing new & exciting. However all the birds seem very busy.

Iris, they've been very busy here as well and even more so today. It turned really cold here overnight (44º right now and super windy) and I think the cold is creating a lot of activity.


This message was edited May 14, 2016 12:58 PM

The orioles have been entertaining me today. Actually these guys made my day as I watched them repeatedly come for nectar amid my red hot pokers. The northern oriole came as well as the orchard oriole, but my pictures blurred when I took of the northern's.

Orioles eat the blossoms on the Red Hot Poker plants here also.

Love your pics, Brenda!
I really like Red Hot Pokers, but we don't have a great deal of full sun areas.

Pollen, I didn't know they eat the blossoms. Interesting.

Here are a few more pictures of the orioles taking nectar from the Red Hot Pokers.
Recently I bought 4 more Red Hot Pokers at a local nursery, so now I have pokers in about 5 different flower beds. That should keep them happy for a while. They also enjoy the red honeysuckle blooms. I've watched them and they take nectar from the back of those blooms. I can't tell you how much string I have put out for these guys this year. This was a first for me to know that these guys enjoyed the nectar from the pokers. What a treat for me too!!

Okay - they peck at the blossoms and we assumed they were eating them, but perhaps they are after nectar and are taking a shortcut like Brendak654 says they do with the Honeysuckle. Which reminds me - I better go refill the hummer feeders. I couldn't find my oriole feeder this spring so the Orioles and House finches have been guzzling the hummingbird food.

Very, very pretty, Brenda!

Ah...now I understand what you guys meant. Apparently they poke or bite at the blooms to get to the nectar.

Pollen, I haven't had much luck with the Oriole feeders I've tried. It seems like some of the Orioles will use them, but many can't figure out how to get to the nectar.

They love Grape Jelly and Oranges, though, so that's what I mostly give them. When we have a lot of Orioles they'll actually fight over the grape jelly.

Now they've thinned out. We still hear them and see some, but as it gets into summer they're more interested in insects, especially when they're feeding their young. Occasionally they also come to our suet feeders.

That's neat about the Orioles coming to your flowers. Mine only go to the oranges and jelly. I've seen them glean insects from plants, but that's it.

I finally got a picture of both Oriole males together, Baltimore and Orchard.

It is starting to get buggy at the oranges with the heat. Usually the orioles stop coming around this time, but they are still dining. I put the jelly into an orange half after they eat out the fruit and rotate them out when the oranges begin to get icky. I started throwing them in the ditch and other areas to keep the cats away.

They like our tulip poplar when it is in bloom.

I may have to plant more tulip poplar. irisMA - When you say they like your tulip poplar - is it the blooms they like or the insects?

Do any of you offer string for the orioles? They will riddle rope or or other stringlike objects out in about in our yard for nesting material. I find them very interesting and fun and vocal and beautiful. I have tried offering them oranges and all I had was ants and a woodpecker and later a dried up orange. I can especially do without all the ants. Anyhow, my suggestion is that if you should offered the orioles string (12 inches or shorter - shorter so they will not hang themselves), for nesting material. Ours are still taking string. I think this year we have several yearling orioles and they are not master architects yet - so they are going through a lot of string. I put the string in a basket on the front porch and off and on during the day the come and take beaks full of string. One year they had been in the garage helping them selves to fishing twine and when I walked out into the garage it was like a cobweb of fishing twine and I could not imagine what was going on until I followed the trail of fishing twine to the tree. hummmm - always entertaining!

Look closely at the picture - this oriole has a beak full of string/thread. I like to use a #30 tatting thread or crochet thread. The # 30 is a little large than sewing thread and it is thread I have on hand, but the they also like regular sewing thread. Sometimes I opt to use orange or red thread so I can spot their nest a little easier.

These two photos were from a prior year - they are toooo fast grabbing string for me to get their pictures this year.

If you haven't done this (offering the 12 inch or shorter string/thread), I hope someone gives it a try - if they have orioles. One an other thought - I put the string/thread I offer, in a basket on the front porch so I can catch a glimpse of them AND so the string will not get wet and mat together.

I think I mentioned some time ago I use my own hair. I use natural shampoos and only rarely aloe gel to keep it in place. When I clean my hairbrush, I keep it for the birds and cut it into chunks to put in the wire cage.

When I learned orioles used horse hair for their nests, it was an experiment I tried one year to see if it would keep them here for nesting... and it worked. There's people with horses down the road a ways and my hair was the closest substitute I could think of and natural that I would think breaks down over time.

I found that female Orioles can be just as territorial as males, so I put out the cages in different areas to avoid stress.

Strangely last year they didn't take to my hair, but used baler twine. I hope the young were ok since that likely is plastic and could strangle them. Rarely do we find the nests during nesting season, but it is always like a treasure hunt after the leaves fall off the trees.

The second picture is from a couple of years ago. After we saw this, we hung a cage from the swing set. Oh, she struggled so much.

I am not sure what the attraction is. When we lived in CT 40 years ago there were 5 tulip poplar trees across the front of our property along the road. The orioles were happy with those trees. They were old trees as it took 3 people to encircle them. I have mainly seen the female working in this tree & we see them nowhere else. They turn into a large tree so it needs room.

Great shot of the two Orioles Chilly! I only see the Orchard Orioles once in a while.

I also like to put grape jelly in orange halves. I used to do it more when I was using a different feeder. I would start by putting a tiny bit on top of a freshly cut orange half and as they'd eat the orange, I would add more and more until I had an empty peel to fill.

Brenda, I always use ant moats or sticky stuff like Tree Tanglefoot for all my Hummer and Oriole feeders (including oranges). Otherwise the ants show up within a day.

My husband bought some cedar to build an Oriole feeder like an Audubon feeder I saw in a catalog. At the moment, though, he's overwhelmed with so many projects.

Right now I'm using a cool plastic "Chip & Dip" plate that I found in assorted colors at Menard's. I think they were about $1.50 (I love to save money) so I bought several for butterflies and birds. The Orioles really like the Red one I hung. I put Jelly in the center "Dip" part, but an orange would also fit. The part where chips would go is perfect for fruit, nuts or other bird snacks.

Iris, you're lucky to have Tulip Poplars. Birds and also Butterflies love them plus they're beautiful. They're also host plants for Eastern Tiger Swallowtails. When our "parkway" tree had to be removed after heavy storm damage, the city gave us several choices based on the trees they were planting that year (they're responsible for the trees on the strip of grass by the road). Our first three choices were Tulip Poplar, Chinese Elm and Bald Cypress. We ended up with the Chinese Elm.

Brenda & Chilly, wonderful pics! I love the string idea and no, I've never tried it. Don't know why. I've tried using my hair. My hair stylist collects it for me after I get my hair cut, but I haven't had a lot of takers. Maybe the pieces are too short. The birds really love the cotton nesting fluff I put in suet cages. I buy it from "Farm & Fleet". I'll have to try string, though.

Brenda, your garage/fishing twine story made me laugh. I bet that was funny to see. :o)

It was great to hear the success with the moats and great to hear about info on the tulip poplar pertaining to the orioles AND the swallow tails.

Such a good thread - THANKS!

I have not been on the forum for a while. I have had one fledging of 5 bluebirds in May and now the pair are starting their 2nd clutch of eggs. I have 3 eggs in the nest as of today. Here are a few photos of the activity. 1. my male BB. 2. New nest with 3 eggs. 3. Papa and 2 of the young birds visiting the old home.

David in Stafford, VA