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!