Shadow of the feeders on the pole

This week sort of flew by (no pun intended). The cold weather we’ve been experiencing lately gave way to a gorgeous, spring-like day today. It warmed up enough to allow me to re-hang the window feeder. I had barely gotten the door closed when the first red-breasted nuthatch landed on the feeder. If I didn’t know better I would have thought that it hadn’t eaten since the feeder came down last week!

The feeders continue to attract several dozen birds every day (I lost count at twenty-six at the other day.) I even came downstairs the other morning to find a Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) visiting the yard. I hadn’t seen one in the yard since this fall. I haven’t seen it return yet, so it may have been just passing through the area, but it was still a pleasant sighting.

I’m hoping to see lots of new birds next week when I am in California for the United Methodist Camp & Retreat Leaders’ Gathering. There are apparently several stands of redwoods at the conference center where we’ll be staying. I most certainly will be packing my small binoculars and camera, which will hopefully come in handy for the John Muir workshop I signed-up for. Luckily for the birds, I’ve made arrangements for Kevin to fill the feeders while I’m gone. Hopefully he won’t spoil them with any of his delicious culinary treats (which you can read about here.)

As I’m not sure that I’ll have access to the internet—or even the time—while at Mt. Hermon, you might have wait another week for the next update. Until then, happy birding!

Snowy Sunday

We received a good six to seven inches of fresh powder overnight here at the Lake and a light snow has continued to fall throughout the day. I’m not always a fan of driving in the stuff, but I do love the way snow makes everything look. The bitter cold weather seems to have passed and my feathered friends seemed to have managed to survive. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of my window feeder. As I went to clean it out on Friday afternoon, one of the suction cups slid and that was that. It is now sitting inside waiting for slightly warmer temperatures to make an appearance. (In order for the suction cups to actually hold the temperature needs to be above freezing.)

There has been a steady stream of visitors at the other feeders over the weekend. The cold weather and snow doesn’t seem to slow the birds down at all. Yesterday I did notice that there was more seed mix on the ground below the feeders than usual. A few minutes later I think I figures out the reason—I saw a blue jay scrunched up at the wooden feeder trying to get some food. I wish that I had had my camera at that moment, because the whole scenario was just too funny. It didn’t seem to be intentionally throwing seed down to the ground, but the sheer weight of the bird made the feeder tip quite a bit (to the point where I thought the jay might fall off.) It was quite humorous to watch. Guess the feeder is smaller than I thought…

I committed a faux pas yesterday and didn’t refill the feeders before the sun went down. One of the outcomes though, was that the chickadees finally started nibbling on the suet that I had put out a couple weeks ago. I was beginning to think I had gotten the wrong kind of suet, but they seemed to enjoy it this morning, so I may hold off on getting another cake until the current one is gone.

I leave you with a shot I got yesterday of two siskins munching away on nyger seed that had fallen from the sock feeder. (A lot more seed falls from the sock feeder when it’s almost empty…)

Blue Jay

I wrote a couple weeks ago about my excitement at hearing some Blue Jays (Cyanocitta cristata) in the yard. For the last couple of weeks, I have been attempting to get a snap shot of one in the yard. Unfortunately, it just hadn’t worked out until today. It turns out that blue jays are quite skittish and apparently have phenomenal eye sight. Each time I stood to get closer to the window, the jay would fly away.

When I came home for lunch (which has become my primary daily bird watching time) today, I saw a white-breasted nuthatch at the wooden feeder. So I picked up my camera from the coffee table and zoomed in. I’m am by no means thrilled with the digital zoom, but I was able to get the best shot to date of this little bird that is also frustratingly skittish. After it flew away I put my camera down so I could each my bowl of ravioli. I was about half-way through when I saw a jay zoom by the window. I quickly picked up my camera in the hopes that it would land near the feeder. A few seconds later, it did so and I was able to get a few shots off. The shots I got weren’t high quality, but I was thrilled to have finally gotten any shot in which a blue jay could be distinguished!


A Blue Jay looking inquisitively at a Dark-eyed Junco

About ten minutes later another jay shows up and I got a couple more shots before it flew off. Then the nuthatch returned and I was able to get an even better shot of it. I was about ready to put my camera down when the jay showed up again. As it was searching for the perfect seed, a junco landed and, even though I was implementing the digital zoom, I captured some cool shots of the two of them pecking around. Then another jay showed up and was joined a moment later by a third one. I was like a little kid in a candy shop!


Two jays visiting the yard

Blue jays are certainly fun to watch and their varieties of calls are as unmistakable as their coloration. I have not personally heard it yet, but blue jays can apparently mimic the call of a hawk. After observing the smaller birds, blue jays look huge in comparison. This is particularly noticeable in the pictures I got of the jay and junco together (the junco itself is noticeably larger than the chickadees, gold finches, siskins, etc. that visit the feeders.) I’ve read on a couple other blogs that in some communities, jays have been known to become a bit of a nuisance by hogging feeders. I am keeping an eye on the jays, but for now they seem to only temporarily scare off the other birds. Fortunately for the smaller birds, my feeders are not sufficiently large enough for jays to land upon. Fortunately for the jays (and the ground-feeding junco) the other birds toss enough seeds overboard to keep them happy. A final observation I have made is that jays generally do not eat directly below the feeders; preferring instead to grab a couple of seeds and head to a nearby bush to crack the seeds open and enjoy the meat inside.

As a side note, the first deep freeze of the winter arrived overnight. So far the birds don’t seem to mind the bitter cold, although I did notice the seed mix in the feeders did seem to disappear a little quicker today…

When I imported the photo files onto my computer earlier today, I noticed a few frames where the pole appeared to have swallowed a jay and I found it rather humorous. Here’s a collage of that series for your enjoyment:

Close Encounters of the Bird Kind

On my way out the door yesterday morning, I noticed the feeders were almost empty, but there seemed to be enough to make it until lunch time. At one point mid-morning, I was looking out my office window and saw a Downy Woodpecker exploring a couple of nearby trees. The director with whom I was chatting on the phone was not nearly as excited as I was (perhaps her inability to see it from 100 miles away had something to do with it.) As soon as I hung up, I broke out the old binoculars that lurk around the office and watched the downy for a moment before it flew away. However, it would not be my last encounter with that woodpecker yesterday…

At lunch, I went home to fill the feeders. I gathered the necessary supplies (a small can, a water bottle I cut to sort of resemble a scoop, and the seed mix) and made my way to the door. There were several chickadees, goldfinches, and siskins going to town on what seed remained in the feeders, so I stood there at the door observing them for a moment. Despite trying my best to slowly opening the door, sure enough by the time I slid the door half-way open they darted off. I made my way across the crusty snow took the first feeder down, filled it, hung it back up, and retrieved the second feeder. As I went to hang it back up, I was greeted by a siskin perched on the first feeder. I think it startled me more than the other way around. I lost the impromptu staring contest and it flew away in a victorious manner.

I went back inside to eat my lunch. No sooner had I sat down than a “tap, tap, tap-tap-tap-tap” could be heard on the eastern side of my house. This same noise had woken me the morning before and I had a distinct feeling that it was a woodpecker. Unlike that first time, I was able to quickly make my way outside in time to see…a downy woodpecker fly away. I did not have a difficult time finding where it had been drumming—there were several noticeable holes in the cedar siding. (I’ll do a more in-depth entry on this saga another day.) This was not such a thrilling discovery, but there was nothing I could do at the moment except go finish my lunch.



When I finished eating, I noticed a siskin in the window feeder. So I grabbed my camera and slowly made my way to the window. Next thing I know I had taken almost seventy shots of the siskin. I got a kick out of watching it trying to figure out what the “big” gray thing was a few inches from its face. If you want to see some of the better shots, I created a Pine Siskin album. Otherwise, here are a couple of my favorites:







As I was getting ready to head back down to the office, the downy showed up again. So, I took an alternate route out of my sunroom and snuck around the side of the house. Apparently, it thinks it has found the mother lode of a tree! The motion of raising my camera was enough to startle it off. I did get another shot of the portion of the siding it is excavating. I did some research and I will be implementing some non-lethal techniques to discourage the downy from re-visiting my siding!

One more encounter to share—as I headed back around the side of the house, there was a siskin at the feeder beckoning me to come say “hello”. Luckily my camera was set and I cautiously approached the little bird on the red feeder. It allowed me to get incredibly close and I got a cute close-up shot of it. I think with a little work, I may be able to hand feed a couple of my visitors soon!

Slip Sliding Away…

Ice-covered Feeders, 7 January 2009

Well, the rain/sleet/snow/slush storm hit overnight and has continued most of the day. I feel like I’m living on glacier right about now… When I went to fill the feeders at lunch time today, I found the lid of the red, cylinder hopper completely frozen. It took a while to chisel away at the ice before it opened up. I then realized that enough ice had built up on its tray to freeze over the hopper openings. I was able to break enough ice off so the birds could get to it. One side of the wooden feeder was also frozen in, but that ice jam was soon broken up. No sooner had I gotten back inside than almost two dozen birds showed up to feast.

I felt sympathy for the little birds—they appeared to be drenched and had trouble hopping around on the slippery layer of ice coating the yard. Okay, to be honest, I did chuckle while watching a couple of goldfinches slip and slide all over the place. I was nice though and broadcast some seed on the ground to make it easier for them to retrieve.

I don’t recall where I saw it, but I recently read that the survival rate of chickadees in winter storms is substantially higher (something like 68% v 29%) when they have access to feeders. I feel much better about myself tonight!

Pine Cone Bird Feeders

Our annual Special Needs Winter Retreat concluded earlier today. I had a lot of fun visiting with the campers and volunteers. One of the many cool activities Directors Eric and Sarah had planned was pine cone bird feeders. This is an easy craft/service project all wrapped up in one. Here's how to make your very own feeder:

Take a pine cone.


Cover it with peanut butter (unsalted, organic is best. Don't worry, the peanut butter won't get stuck in a bird's mouth.)


Roll the cone in bird seed (sprinkling the seed works too.)


Tie a string around the top of the cone.


Hang it on a tree branch (or in this case a porch railing) et voilà—an instant feeder.


With an impending winter storm, I’m sure it won’t be long before the neighborhood birds find these treats!

The Neighborhood Hotspot

Some Juncos and Goldfinches Visiting the Feeders

The activity at my feeders seems to increase with each passing day. At one point yesterday I counted no less than three dozen birds (primarily chickadees, goldfinches, nuthatches, and siskins) at the feeders at the same time. As I was working on Friday’s entries, I heard a blue jay in the side yard, so I quickly made my way down to the sunroom (I hadn’t heard or seen a jay in a couple weeks—much less one at the feeders—so I was pretty excited.) Not only were there two jays, but a red-bellied woodpecker as well. I initially thought it to be a flicker, but the coloration of this particular woodpecker was a bit darker than the flickers that had visited the yard previously and it had noticeably more red on its head. By the time I got back from running upstairs to fetch my camera, the jays and red-bellied were gone.

Hoping that they would come back, I perched on my stool and stayed there for almost forty-five minutes watching the comings and goings of the birds. While the woodpecker didn’t return during this time, the blue jays did (accompanied by a third jay) and a white-breasted nuthatch made a couple of appearances. I was pretty sure I had seen this new nuthatch the other day, but wasn’t completely positive. This was a pretty exciting sighting.

After refilling the feeders yesterday, I realized I was almost out of seed. I needed to run a couple errands in town anyway, so I swung by Wild Birds Unlimited and picked up a twenty pound bag of “Supreme Blend” on my way through Johnson City. I received a free bag of “Choice Blend” with the window feeder and a bag of “Supreme Blend” with my hopper feeder. The “Supreme Blend” is a little less expensive and appears to have more black oil sunflower seeds, but the birds seem to really like it. What the birds really didn’t seem to care for is the cheap seed purchased at the grocery store. Lesson learned.

Here’s another shot of a pine siskin at the sock feeder with noticeable yellow on the tips of its wing:

Pine Siskin

The First Pine Siskin to Visit My Feeders

According to Peterson’s Birds of Eastern and Central North America, Pine Siskins (Carduelis pinus) are an “uncommon, irruptive” species. So I was pretty excited to spot one at my sock feeder the other day! About the only thing I enjoyed while suffering from the stomach bug was being able to watch my bird feeders from the couch. At one point, there appeared to be something new nibbling away at the sock feeder. It looked a lot like a goldfinch, but even from ten feet away its coloration seemed different enough to make me slowly get up off the couch and sneak a closer peek. I’m glad I did. As I got closer I saw it was darker than a goldfinch and had noticeable streaking on its breast and belly. Luckily my camera was right close by and I took a few snapshots.

I then spent quite a bit of time looking through my Peterson guide and my Birds of New York book trying to positively identify my new feathered friend. I even consulted the Cornell website. After my initial research I was able to narrow it down to being either a Pine Siskin or House Finch. Unfortunately, none of the photos I took really captured the tips of the bird’s wings or its tail and I hadn’t noticed any yellow in those locations in my direct observations. But I did have a couple of profile shots that showed the beak pretty well. Luckily, one showed up again the next day and I was able to observe the yellow streaks on its wings and tail, which confirmed my initial suspicions that it was indeed a Pine Siskin.

More Pine Siskins have shown up each day since my initial spotting. They are fun, little birds that appear to have a set pecking order amongst themselves. One of the other behavioral characteristics that I have noticed is that they’ll approach a feeder when a goldfinch or chickadee is already there, but will keep these other species away when the siskin is there first. Of course, it does give way to nuthatches and larger birds. As a side note, at one point yesterday morning I counted fourteen siskins at my various feeders.

First Night Binghamton in Review

I was invited by my friends, Eric and Sarah, to go to First Night Binghamton. First Night is a family-friendly (aka alcohol-free) New Year’s Eve event celebrating the arts and cultural diversity. Binghamton is one of over 100 communities around the world that ring in the New Year in this style.

None of us had ever been to First Night before, but we thought it sounded like a cool way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Browsing through the official program, the sheer volume of options to choose from was overwhelming. But choose we did.

First on our itinerary was Basin Street Dixieland Jazz Band. We really enjoyed listening to this New Orleans style band. Their energy was infectious—especially that of their rubboard/harmonica player.

Next up was Bronzissimo!, a handbell choir from Central UMC in Endicott. The acoustics in the sanctuary of St. Patrick’s Church really added to this top-notch bell choir.

We then caught a horse-drawn carriage ride over to Marilyn’s Bake Shoppe, but 400 people had beaten us there earlier in the night and there were no cupcakes left to decorate. Fortunately, we were treated to cookies and conversation by Marilyn herself. The bakery opened a little over a year ago and has had pretty good success so far. After tasting one of the delectable cookies, I understand why!

Our itinerary then took us across the street to see the neon light sculptures (done by Alfred University students, professors, and alumni) and then down the street to the Broome County Public Library. It was fascinating to watch the volunteers from the Southern Tier Chinese Culture Association translate our names into Chinese and create calligraphy bookmarks. Finding a safe place to put the bookmarks proved to be a little perplexing, but as Eric said, “It’s a bookmark. Put it in a book to flatten it.”

We had then hoped to catch a stand-up comedian at City Hall, but the line was a little long and after a few minutes we decided to head elsewhere. Elsewhere ended up being Temple Concord. Upon arrival, we decided that the group we went to hear didn’t really appeal to any of us, so we called it a night and proceeded to head to our friends’, Mike and Mandi’s, for the countdown.

Overall, we enjoyed First Night. Even though we didn’t see a lot of people while we were outside, most of the venues seemed to be pretty busy. Knowing more about the various performers further in advance would have been more helpful in creating an itinerary, but I think we did pretty good with our selections. It was also nice to visit some new places and discover some new music groups. I’d say it was a good start to a New Year!

Christmastide

The First Chickadee to Enjoy the New Feeder

It’s been a little longer than I had hoped since my last entry, but I’ll try to keep this somewhat short. Along with some awesome presents, I also received the stomach bug for Christmas! Fortunately it waited to strike until after I got home from my parents’ house in Greene… Needless to say, I did not enjoy that Christmas present!

Some of the highlights of Christmas 2008 for me were: going to the 11 o’clock Christmas Eve Service at Zion Episcopal Church (I enjoy “high church”, what can I say!?!); getting to sleep in on Christmas morning; staying true to the Williams Family tradition of doing the advent wreath while cinnamon buns were baking; enjoying said buns; taking a couple hours to open presents (even though there were only three of us); laughing hysterically when my mom spilled her soda while dishing up Lob Scows and watching my dad rescue the serving bowl first (who cares if the fancy placemats were getting soaked!?! At least the Lob Scows was safe!); and giving my parents the wonderful gift of my presence (it doesn’t take a lot to please them apparently.) For those that are curious, Lob Scows is a hearty meat and root vegetable (i.e. parsnips, potatoes, turnips, rutabagas, carrots, etc.) stew that hails from the Anglesey region of Wales. My grandfather brought the family recipe with him when he came over from Gaerwen, Wales in the 1920s. It’s what we’ve had for Christmas dinner for as long as I can remember. Considering that it takes almost a day to prepare, it’s no wonder that we only make it once a year! We also started a new tradition this year of spreading bird seed at each exterior door. It’s actually a Scandinavian tradition that is supposed to bring good fortune in the New Year. The packs of seeds were gifts from Wild Birds Unlimited.

I received some great birding presents, including a couple of birdhouses, Peterson’s Field Guide to Eastern Birds, and some gift cards/cash that I applied toward some new birding toys. I also received an awesome new tripod for my camera (which I subsequently used to take some bird photos). It’s the same model tripod that we used to keep a photolog of our siding project when a group of us went to Kentucky on a mission trip in September. (I’ll try to upload some of those photos one of these days.)


Advanced Pole System

I thought I felt well enough last Saturday to go use some of my Christmas chest and purchased an Advanced Pole System from Wild Birds Unlimited, along with a raccoon baffle. Why a raccoon baffle and not just a squirrel baffle you might ask? Well, when I arrived home Christmas night and checked on the window and sock feeders and hung my new feeder, I looked down and noticed what appeared to be raccoon tracks in the snow! I’m not too keen on drawing raccoons to my feeders (they’ve been known to climb feeder poles too), so hopefully the baffle will deter them, as well as the squirrels. So far, it has done the trick. I also picked up a new metal trash can in which to store bird seed.

It was just about dusk when I got home with my new purchases, but I tried installing the pole in the yard. Unfortunately, I forgot that there’s only about three inches of soil in the yard. The rest is rock. At that moment, I would have testified that it was solid rock at that. I finally succumbed to a lack of energy and the fact that I had bent the part of the auger that was unsoldered to the pole. By this time I was exhausted and didn’t end up going to the annual Christmas bash at my friends’ house. On my way home from church the next morning, I stopped by the camp garage and picked up an iron bar and sledge hammer. Creating a guiding hole proved to be highly beneficial. The feeder pole went right into the ground after that. I ended up moving the new feeder to the pole and enjoyed watching some chickadees discover it before going to our summer staff reunion Sunday night.

I still didn’t have much of an appetite, but I enjoyed the reunion anyway—including the Yankee Swap gift exchange. The gift exchange basically involves everyone bringing a wrapped gift with an approximate $1 value. Everyone draws a number, thereby determining the picking order. The first person picks something from the pile and leaves the gift unopened. The next person picks either that gift or something else from the pile. Everything gets interesting when there are a few large packages that everyone seems to want and each round can last for several exchanges. When all was said and done, I ended up with the package that was filled with numerous wrapped boxes… I think the stress of opening all those boxes caused the stomach bug to hit me with a vengeance again on Monday. The only enjoyable part of the day was seeing my first Pine Siskin (more on that later!)

By Tuesday, I had started to get my energy (and appetite back). That afternoon, I ventured back to town and used my WBU gift card and $5 off coupon to purchase another feeder, a suet feeder, a special Advanced Pole System suet feeder attachment, and of course a suet cake. I also used some more of my Christmas chest to purchase some cheap pocket binoculars. My larger binoculars were too powerful to allow me to spy on the birds at the feeders! I think I am set with birding tools for awhile.

So that’s basically what I’ve done in the last week. I am now working on a couple more detailed birding entries and a review of my first First Night Binghamton. Stay tuned.