Deb Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Over the past couple of years I've discovered the joys of back yard bird watching. It started with one birdbath and a small feeder.........now I have four baths of different sizes, two hummingbird feeders, and three bird feeders because once you start feeding them, they tell their friends and before you know it, you're running a buffet line in the backyard. LOL!! In Denver my regular visitors were chickadees, nuthatches, juncos, finches, chipping sparrows, three varieties of woodpeckers, flickers, blue jays, mourning doves, and the occasional hawk. Depending on the time of year, I'd have other birds drifting thru but those were the regulars. I'd have occasional invasions of ravens and grackle but I managed to keep them at bay most of the time. I love the little chickadees and nuthatches. They're silly and lighthearted little birds who used to come sit up on the patio with me. Of course there were the squirrels who were a major pain in the neck but I finally discovered that hanging slinkies on shepherd's hooks make fairly effective baffles. <cackle> It's also highly entertaining to watch the furry little rats the first time they jump on a slinky and it body slams them back to the ground. hehehehehe Oh, don't look at me that way.........those squirrels were so fat they just bounced! It's still technically winter here so I don't have the large assortment of birds that will show up later but so far I've attracted finches, cactus wren, hummingbirds, robins, white tailed pigeons, and rock doves (which are pigeons wearing desert camo). There are enough of them to go thru 20-30 pounds of seed a week! I'm not sure what kinds of birds will show up as they begin to migrate up from Mexico but I'm looking forward to seeing some unusual birds. Phoenix had a private aviary destroyed in a wind storm a few years ago that released about 20 pair of peach faced lovebirds into the open.....and they thrived so well that they're a common sight a little further north from me. I keep hoping that one will wander thru my yard. Frankie and Deano, my two feline companions, were the ones who got me started because I thought it would entertain them to watch the birds. They're feral rescues who are indoor kitties now but they adore watching the birds so I've set up bird watching stations for them in all the windows that look out at or over the trees in both the front and backyard. They're happy to sit and watch birds for hours at a time--so much so that we refer to it as Kitty Cable now. It's nice to have a hobby that I can share with my furbabies although I get the feeling that we have different motivations for watching the birds. LOL! Sometimes I catch Deano licking his lips when he sees a particularly fat dove. So, any other birders here? Deb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KathieB Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 I lobbied for a bird feeder in Missouri. It took L a couple of years to get the message, but once one was in place, he blossomed into an avid birder. We have a list (with pictures) taped on a kitchen cupboard of visitors, It's Lloyd now who worries they might not like this brand of seed so maybe we should get that kind this time. I enjoy sitting on the screened porch and watching the goings on at 6 seed feeders, a couple of suet feeders and one hummingbird feeder. I'm no longer surprised when himself comes home from the hardware store with one more feeder and/or pole. A pair of Turkey Vultures nested in a barn a couple of blocks from our house. A camera was installed. I spent many hours watching the interaction of adults and chicks and was on the ground when the last chick left the barn. We're hoping the pair will return to nest again this year. The site should become live in March. He also enjoys the squirrels and has names for all of them, although, truth be told, I have a feeling that the one he's calling Oscar today may not be the Oscar of yesterday or tomorrow. Some can be recognized by their tail configuration. There was one squirrel with what appeared to be half a tail, so naturally he became Stumpy. We figured he'd met up with a cat or a lawnmower or some other disaster. The following spring Stumpy was back with three stumpy-tailed pups -- each with half a tail. Apparently it's a genetic issue. And there are some white squirrels in Marshall. They've been seen several blocks from us but none have come to visit. I solved the squirrels-up-the-shepherd's-crook problem by layering 4 foil pie pans and suspending them from bits of chain. Cut a slit in the pan, make a center hole, slip it onto the pole and stagger the slits to make it solid. Every once in a while one will try to get past it, but mostly now they just stare at it and mumble obscenities. While we're in New Orleans, we content ourselves with watching the graceful white egrets and looking for soaring Turkey Vultures.over the swamps. About cats -- I had a cat who totally ignored the floor console tv except for the one time I caught her watching a Jacque Cousteau episode. She sat there for the whole program, even the commercials, and left when it ended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dalesq Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 Yes! I bred and raised all kinds of finch, quail and doves for most of my life and had a huge walk in aviary in the backyard until I developed a life threatening allergy to them. Now I just enjoy the wild ones. I can look, but not touch Hummingbirds are my favorites. We maintain two feeders for them and have year round residents. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 15, 2014 Share Posted February 15, 2014 We had enough hawks and other raptor-types at our other house that I got out of the habit of a bird feeder, although once we get our back porch built (not until after the workshop's done and moved into) I think I'll move them out back. If I left my hummingbird feeder at the old house I can always replace it, and the neighbors gave us a cute bird (squirrel) feeder we have hanging from a corner of the garage, empty for now, that I hope to set up in back. Mostly we watch the birds we see on hikes, bike rides and paddles. On the paddling weekend we did a few years back with the AL Scenic Paddling Trail folks we spent a lo o o ong day with an ornithologist observing at least 50 different species of birds and stopping to untangle an egret that had run afoul of a mass of monofilament fishing line. The egret was already going into shock, but not so far gone it hadn't pecked the ornithologist's arms into bloody hash. My favorite bird stories include when on one of our hikes around Torreya State Park we came upon a mated pair of painted buntings. Another is one day when DS#3 was visiting us at our old house we were working around the house and I mentioned wanting to put up the hummingbird feeder, but I hadn't seen any hummingbirds in our area; he commented he had never seen a hummingbird and didn't believe they were real; as he said that we both heard rather a loud buzzing sound; there was a little brown hummingbird hovering about an inch from DS; nose! and then flew off. Finally, again at the old house, I was loading the washing machine when DH called me from the top of the stairs, holding our Audubon bird book in one hand and ushering me into the front room where we kept the computer; just outside, in the pine tree next to the deck, was a red cockaded woodpecker, sitting on the tree looking in at us, in exactly the same pose the photographer had caught for the picture in the bird guide. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey6163 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 I love feeding the birds, and they are sure appreciative especially with this cold, snowy winter we're having. Chad surprised me with a big bag of seed last night along with the bread heels from work, the blue jays are such hogs, taking almost more bread than they can fly away with. We have several feeders and two feeding stations set up, one outside my window and the other outside John's. :-) Bruno, the Shepherd LOVES watching them too, he is quite entertained by them. The cardinals and woodpeckers are my favorites, we even have a pair of Orioles that have stuck around for the winter , bet they're sorry ! :-) I look forward to the hummingbirds coming back along with the rest of the warm weather birds. It is definitely an enjoyable hobby, I have a couple of new feeders and houses to put up in the Spring, if it ever gets here. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grazhina Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 Hummingbirds love fuchsias. They always show up in my garden, but especially if I have a fuchsia in a hanging basket on the porch. One year a robin made its nest in the hanging basket. The robins overwintered here. They were very fat this winter, munching heavily of the tiny crab apples and holly berries in my front yard, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat57 Posted February 16, 2014 Share Posted February 16, 2014 When we first moved to my present home we saw all kinds of wonderful birds in our yard,including a baby Red-bellied woodpecker and his mama. It was fun watching him get fed and taught to fly! ^_^ We scattered birdseed and for several months watched a wonderful parade of color every day. Then we started feeding the stray cat that visited the edge of our yard on occasion,because we had rats-one had made itself at home inside the trailer for awhile-ugh! Well,we now have 8 sweet yard cats,but no more birds visiting the yard. Of,course we also don't have to worry about raccoons or possums on the porch,and no more worries about vermin getting inside. I definitely don't put birdseed out anymore,because it would be a death sentence for those lovely feathered jewels.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 I love this bird talk! They're so fascinating to watch and it's very cool to hear what kinds of birds are in the backyards of people in different areas. i hope that you birders will continue to post here as the birds come back to your house for the summer. Holly, I have a raptor problem too, even in Denver where we were close to the national park in the center of the city. I was sitting on the patio one day and a sharp shinned hawk swooped down and perched on some camel bells to watch me. It took a few minutes to get over being smitten by seeing such an amazing bird so close up but I had to chase him off to save my chickadees. I think the ones that I've seen here so far are chicken hawks but they swoop in like stealth bombers and suddenly there's just a puff of feathers floating in the air where there was a finch or sparrow just a split second before. We do see buzzards circling once in awhile but since I don't serve carrion, they haven't come into the back yard. :-) Kathie, tell Lloyd that I do the same thing with the squirrels and it made me laugh to hear that he does it too. Now I feel like it was just a normal thing to do. There was one who would run along the railing on the other side of the fence so all I could see was his wavy tail. It looked like the Loch Ness Monster so of course I dubbed him Nessy. Then there was Scamper and Sproing, the two babies born in the nest under my neighbor's patio eaves. They had easy access to my yard and pretty much lived there. Sproing could get past any baffle that I put up because he could literally jump at least six feet straight up. But then he figured out that the birds were messy eaters and threw more seed on the ground than they ate so he turned into a Hoover and just laid on the ground and sucked it up. It didn't take long before I changed his name from Sproing to Jabba the Squirrel. He was so obese that his fingers were fat! There wasn't any more sproing or even a scamper left in that squirrel! Kat, I was lucky enough last year to watch a pair of flickers nest in the dead tree in my neighbor's yard and see the fledglings fly for the first time. Their parents quickly taught them that the food was next door as did the blue jays down the street. I had all kinds of baby birds practicing their flying in the relative safety of my yard. I think what tickles me the most is on hot days when the birds all fight to see who gets in the bath. One of my baths is a large, deep one that I got for the bigger birds, but the finches adopted it as a swimming pool instead. They could fit at least a dozen in there which made me laugh because they looked like one of those carnival games with all the rubber ducks in a plastic wading pool. All I could see was just this little cluster of red heads bobbing around and having fun. The blue jays were so rowdy in the tub that I'd have to refill it when they were done. There was also a lady robin who believed that she should have total privacy for her bath and would go all ninja on any other bird that tried to get a drink while she was bathing. Her mate would simply sit on the fence and wait for her to finish. Hummingbirds seem to be naturally curious little creatures. I was wearing a bright pink shirt and sitting out on the patio the other day when one came and hovered in front of me to see if I was a flower. He stayed there for quite awhile, watching me with as much fascination as I had for him. It's definitely spring here because the activity in my backyard has been the type that created that old phrase, "the birds and the bees". LOL!! The doves are particularly fond of public displays of affection. Deb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I've been watching the birds outside of my kitchen window. We have a birdbath, feeder and 2 suet cages for them. The cardinals are a real treat because of the bright colors and have taken up residence on one of my azaleas, mocking birds reside in the camellias. There are wrens and mourning doves that show up regularly. I also have an unknown type of bird that comes around and it's driving me up the wall trying to figure out what it is. Dull blue wings, back and head, light rusty colored breast similar to a blue bird but the kicker is a top ruff on the head like a blue jay. There are no marking like the jay so that's what's throwing my identification. The listings don't show anything like it and I can't stand at the window hoping it will show up so I can take it's picture. There is a woodpecker that shows up every year (they live in a tree behind my house) but that crazy bird attacks the neighbor's gutters. His rat-tat on the metal gutter sounds like a jack hammer. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Gayle, I checked both Peterson and Audubon; perulas match your description, except they don't seem to have a crest. The other bird that does match, including a crest, is a kingfisher; but y'all don't live near moving water, do you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted February 17, 2014 Author Share Posted February 17, 2014 There is a woodpecker that shows up every year (they live in a tree behind my house) but that crazy bird attacks the neighbor's gutters. His rat-tat on the metal gutter sounds like a jack hammer. Flickers and woodpeckers do that to attract mates. Apparently the female is drawn to the amount of noise the male can make so they tend to pick metal gutters and vent pipes. That's a noise that can make you sit straight up in bed at 5am!!! I've always thought it was sort of strange that the females associate all that clatter with a desirable male. <grinning> Try that with a human female and she'll just call the cops. Gayle, I'm drawing a blank on that bird too. Perhaps it's an exotic bird that escaped from a private aviary? I had a grey singing finch in my yard a few years ago and people tell me it's impossible for one to be in Colorado because they're not even native to the US but I even tracked down a recording of his song and there was no doubt about what it was.......it was just a mystery about how it got there. Of course I'd see dyed finches every now and again and those were definitely pet store escapees. Maybe someone else has an idea about what your crested bird might be. It's really too bad that they don't cooperate to show up and sit still for portraits when you have a camera handy. LOL! Deb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 As I said, Gayle's mystery bird matches the description of a kingfisher (take a long look at that azure kingfisher): https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1T4DMUS_enUS290US291&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=llgCU8ZKx9DIAaXigLAM&ved=0CCYQsAQ&biw=1264&bih=601&q=image:%20kingfishers Wotcher think, Gayle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Holly,It could very well be a kingfisher, there were a couple of close matches and I hadn't even thought of them. I do live about 300 yards from a river but have never seen one this far away before but I haven't been looking either. It's hard to tell if there are any markings on him/her since I've only seen them while they are on the suet cage. Either a side shot or it's rump is visible. I did wonder if bird species would cross breed because it looks like a hybrid, blue jay/blue bird because of the tuft of feathers on the head. Deb, thank goodness the woodpecker waits until everyone is awake around here, he also tries to get her attention while pecking at a telephone pole up the street but always goes back to the metal gutter. The tree they roost in is a dead poplar tree right behind my backyard. I've seen them go into and out of several holes in the trunk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey6163 Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 I've been working on a couple of bird houses and have plans for a new feeder. We put an orange out yesterday for the orioles and the chickadees have been going crazy over it too. We are lucky to live out in the country surrounded by woods, we get a huge variety of birds, and many of them raise their young here year after year. The doves build their nest in the pine tree off the deck, catbirds in the other pine,woodpeckers in the locust tree, orioles in the pear tree, and bluebirds in the houses scattered about the yard. I watch the hummingbird tracker and make sure to have syrup out for when they arrive, such beautiful little birds. Back in the woods we have hawks and owls that nest each year, I love listening to them whoot. Down the road a bit a pair of bald eagles nest each year, so we have a little bit of everything here, many hours of enjoyment ! :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 17, 2014 Share Posted February 17, 2014 Gayle, if you're only 300 yards from a river, that could very well be a kingfisher. We spot them all the time, paddling, and they don't nest that close to the water (I would guess because of the osprey and red-shouldered hawks). They're really neat little birds. I had never seen one in front of God & everybody until the day DH & I rode our tandem bike along the St Lawrence Seaway from Ville Ste Catherine into Montreal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 The first time I ever saw a kingfisher was when DH and I were fishing in Indiana. It was a treat for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deb Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Deb, thank goodness the woodpecker waits until everyone is awake around here, he also tries to get her attention while pecking at a telephone pole up the street but always goes back to the metal gutter. The tree they roost in is a dead poplar tree right behind my backyard. I've seen them go into and out of several holes in the trunk. Oh how cool!! With any luck they'll raise their family there and you can watch the babies fledge and grow up. They're adorable when they first learn to fly. I love watching the young birds when they're still perfecting their flying skills. Most of them do okay but occasionally there will be one with some issues that takes a little longer to figure things out. We had a young finch in the yard a few weeks ago that hadn't quite figured out the taking off part. He'd make several attempts before he'd get enough air to take off so he sort of bounced around the back yard like a feathery ping pong ball. He finally figured it out but for awhile there I was afraid we were going to have to build him a catapult to get him up in the air. I've been working on a couple of bird houses and have plans for a new feeder. We put an orange out yesterday for the orioles and the chickadees have been going crazy over it too. We are lucky to live out in the country surrounded by woods, we get a huge variety of birds, and many of them raise their young here year after year. The doves build their nest in the pine tree off the deck, catbirds in the other pine,woodpeckers in the locust tree, orioles in the pear tree, and bluebirds in the houses scattered about the yard. I watch the hummingbird tracker and make sure to have syrup out for when they arrive, such beautiful little birds. Back in the woods we have hawks and owls that nest each year, I love listening to them whoot. Down the road a bit a pair of bald eagles nest each year, so we have a little bit of everything here, many hours of enjoyment ! :-) Wow Stacey, you're really in a bird watcher's paradise! Do you use the Greenleaf kits for birdhouses? I tried some from Michael's and discovered that the holes were too small even for the chickadees without dremeling them out a lot. I never knew that they liked oranges! I'm really hoping there will be chickadees here later in the spring and if there are, I'll go buy a bag of Cuties for them. The chickadees and nuthatches are my very favorite birds and I miss them. I was watching a little cactus wren yesterday and they're pretty cute little birds too. They're a bit smaller than a chickadee and apparently they also like to play games to amuse themselves. They dine on the mesquite trees and this one was flying up above the tree and then doing a nose dive back into it. He must have enjoyed it because he did it over and over, singing happily the whole time. Silly birds. Deb <giggling> Okay, so I think I need new computer glasses. I could have sworn that was a bird in that emoticon, not a boomarang. hehehehehe I thought about removing it but it was more fun to laugh about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 This thread reminded me to check that the osprey cam site the city of Orange Beach had going last year is still up. The babies were such a hoot to satch last year; the little male took almost two weeks longer than his sister to work up the nerve to fly off of the nest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stacey6163 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I've never tried a GL birdhouse kit , these are some of my own designs. :-) Back when the boys were small I would help them build & paint bird houses and they would sell them at the auction barn for spending money. The ones I'm finishing up have a cat's face on the front and the entry hole is the mouth, I am going to try and figure out the camera on this tablet and take some pictures. :-) The next one looks like a cat has his head stuck in the bird house and the entry is the cat's butt , sounds weird, but it looks really cute. I have a couple of the Michael's houses that I got on clearance and I will need to make the holes larger, they are just too small. I just sent John out with more seed and another feeder and an almost empty peanut butter jar to put in the bush. Those little chickadees line right up to get some of it, they will get every last bit out of the jar and are so much fun to watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 When we lived in OH I fell heir to a bag of wild bird seed. I used to save the cardboard from rolls of toilet paper and tie a piece of crochet thread in a loop through the middle, slather them with peanut butter and roll them in the birdseed and hang them from the ends of the lighter branches of the trees in our yard for the birds that wintered over. The branches were usually too far and too flimsy for the squirrels, but the smaller songbirds LOVED them. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kat57 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Oh,Holly,great idea! I wonder if the cats would also be too weighty to get out there? I really miss the birds,but cannot give up my feline friends,either. Hmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxxie2 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 Ooooh Birdies are my buddies out here in the desert! lol I just found out what this big black and white bird is....a Magpie! He is so pretty! We have owls, hawks, western jays, chickadees, sparrows ( I don't know what variety they are), red finches, purple finches, assorted black birds, crows, ravens and lots of hummingbirds. We feed them all year around. There are other varieties but I can't think of them all just now. I did not imagine there would be so many birds out here in the sage desert as there are no trees. Go figure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I was standing at the kitchen sink this morning and who showed up? The mystery bird. I whispered several times for him to stay put while I walked across the room to get the camera. On the way back to the window, I turned the camera on, flipped out the view finder and removed the lens cap. You guessed it, he was gone. Later, I did manage to get a couple of shots but it seemed too far away to get a good look at him. I decided to raise the window so I could get a better picture, then waited. I haven't seen him since. Grrrrrr. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havanaholly Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Gayle, keep your camera by that window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gayle Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 I'll have to find a counter closer to the window for sure but the window is located at the sink. Not the best place for a klutz like me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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