A Squirrelly Update

This squirrel was not thrilled to have me back home!

I had a great time in California and I hope to be able to find some time this week to regale you with some tales of my week out there. For now a quick update will have to suffice. Here's a recap:
Monday—traveled to California, saw lots of redwood trees (they really are huge!), heard lots of birds in the canopy of the redwoods
Tuesday—attended some quality workshops/plenary sessions; saw an Acorn Woodpecker
Wednesday—attended a great workshop with Bob Ditter; took train ride into Santa Cruz and walked on the beach and wharf; saw lots of gulls, a brown pelican, and several sea lions; and managed to get shoes wet in Monterey Bay
Thursday—sat outside to listen to morning plenary session
Friday—left beautiful weather to come back to the frozen tundra and…my new Canon Rebel XS!
Saturday—slept; discovered squirrels had discovered my feeders while I was away and nibbled a few holes in my sock feeder; played with my new camera.


A gorgeous day on the beach…

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!

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.

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.

Birding in Tough Economic Times (and a Goldfinch Update)

UPDATE: The finch sock seems to be doing the trick. I’ve seen at least six individual finches hanging around the yard the last couple of days. Here are some better shots of one in the feeder and one having a bite to eat from the new sock.



I’m hoping that I receive enough cash/gift cards at Christmas to purchase a metal garbage can to place in my sunroom (Santa—any metal can with lid will suffice). Now you’re probably wondering why I would ever want to put a garbage can in my living space…to put bird seed in, of course. As much as I enjoy feeding the birds, I don’t enjoy feeding the mice. Living in the country has its many bonuses. Having to deal with mice is not one of them (although Bill, one of our maintenance guys, discovered an ingenious method to deal with mice. But I digress…) If you have purchased bird seed recently, you know how expensive it can be. Protecting one’s investment only makes sense.

Speaking of investments… I came across an excellent article in defense of birdwatching the other day. If you ever need to rationalize this addiction (oops, I mean hobby), I highly recommend you consult this article!

American Goldfinch

I remember the first time I saw an American Goldfinch (Carduelis tristis). I was walking down the main stairs of Sidney Dining Hall here at the Lake when a brilliant yellow bird in the brush across the drive caught my attention. (Incidentally, Sidney was replaced by Founders’ Lodge in 2003.) I just stood there mesmerized.

The other day, I was sitting on my couch watching one chickadee after another make its way to the feeder. All of a sudden another bird caught my attention. While it was similar in size to a chickadee, it was certainly not a chickadee. After flipping through one of my bird guides for a few minutes, I positively identified it as a goldfinch with winter/non-breeding plumage. Its plumage only hinted at being yellow, which initially threw me, but once I was able to see it fly in its roller coaster fashion around the yard I was convinced.

I tried my best to slowly make my way closer to the sliding door, but alas goldfinches startle a little more easily than chickadees. Luckily once I stood still at the door for awhile it came back. Actually that’s not entirely true—it took a few false landings before finally perching long enough to pick up a seed. What a beautiful bird.



I had just begun tinkering with the magnifying setting on my camera when the goldfinch in the photo above landed. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some better shots of finches soon—I hung a “sock” feeder filled with a nyjer/sunflower mix yesterday. The finches in my neighborhood are still a little skittish of the new feeder, but there were three of them hanging out on the barren deciduous shrubs in the yard yesterday, so it’s only a matter of time.

For those interested in learning more about the nyjer seed (which is not thistle!), I found a pretty descent article over at Shaw Creek Bird Supply’s website.

Black-capped Chickadee

A Black-capped Chickadee

Here are some shots of Black-capped Chickadees (Latin name: Poecile atricapillus) at my window feeder. From what I have been able to ascertain, chickadees can be likened to the scouts of the birding world. Ever the adventurer, a chickadee is usually the first bird to explore a new food source. Waiting in the wings (pun intended) are apt to be finches and nuthatches.

Chickadees derive their common name from their distinctive call—“chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee”. On a personal note, the chickadee’s song (a two-toned melody) was one of the first birdsongs I was ever able to produce. My observations thus far have led me to believe that chickadees are convivial birds that generously share feeder space with finches, but will easily give way to nuthatches. On the ground, all three species are agreeable. Over the next few weeks I’m hoping to be able to “train” the chickadees to eat out of my hands. I’ve found a couple good articles online that will hopefully help with this endeavor. I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

The photo above is one of my favorites I’ve taken so far. For a little bird, it looks very majestic perched there covered in snow seemingly oblivious to the fact that the only thing separating us is a sheet of glass. I enjoy being able to see a slight reflection in its eyes.

This chickadee is about set to go back and have a feast:



And with the seed firmly in its beak, takes flight. Not a prize-winning shot by any means, but I like how it captures the movement. Rapid shutter is awesome.



Finally, I thought this shot does a great job of capturing the side profile of a chickadee.