What's at your birdfeeder?

“What's at my bird feeder? Usually my cat.”

“its been busy, 15+ common redpoll, three or so black-capped chickadees and one downy woodpecker. it was interesting when i was squeeking while refilling the feeders. i know of a man that would have chickadees eat out of his hand by being very still and letting them get use to him.”

“I was watching a little piney squirrel chase a big grey squirrel around yesterday. That's pretty funny. Did you know that a piney will bite the testicles of the bigger squirrels in order to cause an infection and thus inhibit breeding?”

“Now that's a little pervert of a squirrel? Better let Kleetn know!

I used to have a mess of titmice that would eat out of my hand, and perch all over my head and shoulders when I still lived with my parents. No such luck now.”

“Two additions in the past week. Goldfinches and a Purple Finch.”

“tarabull - do you ever see any Kinglets (either Ruby or Golden Crowned)?”

“Not at my birdfeeder, but saw a bald eagle at Kootenay Lake in BC and almost ran over a wild turkey driving home. STUPID BIRD. After almost being hit be me, it crossed in front of my wife just behind me.”

“Turkey dinner at Pathman's house!”

“A hawk, so all the other birds left.”

“A really happy and rather well fed cat....”

“Almost every night we get a momma deer and two yearlings eating the sunflower seeds that have dropped from the birdfeeders. On New Years Day, we watched momma settled down in the snow in the woods while it drizzled and then saw one of the yearlings nearby under a big balsam.”

“The Liquid Amber is almost bare of leaves and the seed balls are drying and bursting open. What follows is that the Lesser Gold Finches in our neighborhood are having a banquet! Even the House Finches who normally eat our wild seed mix are going to town here. Though the Lesser Gold Finches are shy of us, it is fun to watch them in the upper reaches of our tree, hanging upsidedown from the little balls, swinging away, and eating to their hearts content! To stand under the tree now, is to risk peppering your hair with these practically microscopic little seeds. During the summer, the preferred food for the Lesser Gold Finch is Dandlelion Seed and so they keep to the hills and away from us. It's a nice treat to see them a little closer.”

“'xcuse me, any Twin Peak (tv series) lovers around? A friend of mine, who's fan of the series, would like to know what bird that is, that is shown right at the beginning of each show? Can anybody help, please?

If someome could explain me how to copy an image on this site I could also post a picture.”

“googled twin peaks. would this be it?

http://www.twinpeaks.org/archives/images/gifs/bird.gif”

“that's it! Any idea what it is?”

“kind of difficult to tell without color, this pic gives no real definition, no markings, unless i see a white eye stripe there. are there wing stripes? the only thing really clear is the shape of the beak.

what do you think they are trying to say with this bird? that might help me. what was twin peaks about? i never watched it.”

“I never watched Twin Peaks either...
I have just uploaded a colour version of that same picture. You find at the same place as my other albums here on TT. Hope that helps?”

“the pic is way to small. can ya upload it again larger? don't blow it up, that only makes it grainier. or if you found it on a website, post a link like i did.”

“you know what, the more i look at it, the more i think it's an ordinary American Robin. dark head, bit of white around the eye, hint of white under the wing. it's definitely redbreasted. the beak is the right shape. what do you think?”

“mmm...sorry, I have no larger copy of that picture. I have googeled American Robin and yes, possibly it might be it, considering that the coloures of the pictures are not really good.

(...)don't blow it up,(...) lol, that reminds me of a funny story which happened while I was working in England. I wasn't too familiar with british colloquial terms. One day my colleague came to my desk, holding a bundle of papers in his hand and said to me: 'Go to the copyshop and blow it up'. I sat there, speechless, wondering why on earth was he so mad about the copyshop that he would tell me to go and blow it up?!
How was I supposed to know he wanted his papers 'enlarged', rather than having the copyshop bombed?”

“The only things at my feeder are the damn black/grey ratsqurrils. They are becoming unbelievable.

Does anyone have an extra predator they could lone me? They would keep well-fed. Email on profile.”

“"They are becoming unbelievable"

Why, do they tell you stories?”

“"Why, do they tell you stories?"


lol.”

“HOI, I saw a golden crowned kinglet on the trail you hiked with us in MI (Manistee River). Not on that trip, but one that was just a bit quieter.”

“Q doesn't yer dog have any motivation towards those rodents?”

“"“Q doesn't yer dog have any motivation towards those rodents?”
Sassafras"

Abbey moved on to that great, big doggie run in the sky about 2 and a half years ago. The guy next door has a doggie and even he can't keep them away. My friend has grown so desperate that he spent the last past summer trapping them and re-locating (after I talked him out of shooting them with his pellet gun).”

“Sorry to hear that.”

“cardinals and blue jays”

“Thanks, Sass.”

“HOI, no. The feeders have been up for three months and we're still getting new birds so I'll keep watching.

The funny thing about the Purple Finch... NC and I were looking at one of our bird books on Sunday and I said I wanted Purple Finches cause I think they're pretty. Not an hour later, NC hollered to me that I wouldn't believe what bird just showed up at a feeder... a Purple Finch. It was the first one to ever visit (as far as we know) and we haven't seen him since.”

“We started to have problems with sqirrels. Once or twice my husband and sons set up a trap. A shopping store basket set up on a stick with a bit of seed underneath. They tied a bit of string to the stick and waited on the porch about 25 feet away. The squirrel didn't hardly wait until they had left before he took the bait! OMGOSH you should have seen the ruckus when that basket fell! They waited a few minutes for him to settle down but that just did NOT happen, so they eventually used a hiking stick to turn the basket over so he could get away. That little sucker and his pals did not bother us again for years. Whenever it does become a problem we know what to do, teach another generation! ;D”

“speaking of birds, you have got to check out this guys bird photos. His bald eagle gallery is absolutely amazing.

Ken Conger. He's a game warden in Virginia, but sure gets around some.”

“Yesterday morning we had a whole flock of Buicks Wrens on the ground feasting on the Liquid Amber seeds. They are so tiny and sound so cute peep-peeping.

This morning there was a Ladderback Woodpecker jackhammering away at the top of the tree.

We put out a new tray feeder with large songbird seed, (black oil sunflower seed & cracked corn), still haven't seen any larger songbirds. Anyone have any ideas for luring back the Western Bluebirds and others?

Steve & BrianSean made a pinecone/peanutbutter/birdseed feeder and hung it up, just a few takers there. We think they have a problem with perching on it.”

“I forgot to mention that my husband finally got one of the bunnies to eat an apple slice out of his hand. The bunnies regularly use our shed to give birth; after a while when the little ones are old enough, they all move out again.

The raccoons are back, Steve was throwing bits of stone ground whole wheat bread to them, they seemed to like that. I think he's nuts, racoons make me a little nervous, I've seen them get vicious. However, they will only be around for a few months and then we won't see them again until next winter.

Our low-income rent apartments are old and run-down, but we live in the most wonderful area! Just a block away from the hills, we get to see all kinds of wildlife. We ARE blessed!”

“Pamela...I haven't seen the Buick Wrens before. I love my Carolina Wrens though. I was thinking of making the peanut butter pine cones myself. I have had a red headed woodpecker and the cutest downey visiting the feeder resently.

You are right...they are such a blessing.”

“I still occasionally get that hawk bathing in the waterfall. I don't know who's more nervous about it- the koi fish or the cats.

I went outside a little while ago (about 46 degrees now) and my side yard exploded with little song birds everywhere. It was very cool.”

“I came home from work a few days ago and a beautiful Red Shouldered Hawk was perched in the top of our Liquid Amber. I watched for about 30 seconds until she gave a few mighty beats of her wings and flew off; AWESOME!

I noticed last week that even though there are a few leaves left clinging on my tree, there are buds! How exciting!

Steve has put out a bird bath, they don't seem interested yet. It froze over last night, the thermometer was 28 when he woke up this morning at 5:30.”

“We have had doves, cardinals, blue jays, sparrows, robins, and one day a Merlin Falcon with a fresh kill still in his/hers talons.”

“We're still learning what birds are TRYING to feed in our yard. A Large Hawk, has been in the area. Not a whole lot of birds. The hawk was watching our 6 pound puppy last Summer when we brought the puppy home.




Kibbles and bits? (Sorry for the misuse of the "?").”

“i wouldn't worry about the punctuation so much, half the time i don't even capitalize, i am typing faster than i can think. my only beef is spelling, if i don't know how to spell something, i look it up.

how many bird books do you have? we must have a dozen of 'em by now, that is the only way we have learned to tell all the little birdies apart.”

“I just have one and it has worked for just the small variety we have. Maybe in the spring/summer I'll have more...books and birds! LOL”

“once the birds get used to the fact that you are regularly putting out food, they will start showing up. the books help a lot. you will learn to look for things like body shapes, beak shapes, wing and eye stripes, hoods, ruffs, colors and where exactly the colors are.”

“I just had a grey jay land on my feeder...I've seen them out west but never here in Wisconsin although I know they are here...very cool!”

“I can't differentiate many birds by sight, but I'm pretty good at telling the difference by taste;)”

“We had a small hawk on the backyard fence a little while ago.
Its a very bright and clear and windy day.

This bird stands about 8-9 inches tall and is about 14-15 long.

It may be a Coopers Hawk and is too small to be a Broadwing Hawk which is between the size of a Coopers and a Redtail.”

“Steve tells me a Sharpshinned Hawk blew threw the yard and scattered a mixed flock of birds at our feeders this morning, causing an House Finch to fly into our house. He was able to gently capture it and release it outside.”

“The Sharpshinned was back in my Liquid Amber this morning, boy is he a beaut, I think this one is a junenile. He perches quietly and waits. The finches and sparrows know not to come anywhere near my yard, but the Mourning doves are a little different. They will fly in twos or even flocks right into the tree, completely oblivious to his presence. He leans forward and studies. . . and then he swoops! The totally surprised doves scatter in all directions completely unnerved. He missed all four times today though and finally left. I now know that the crows do not call out "caw caw caw", they are saying, "hawk! hawk! hawk!" Steve tells me that sometimes the crows and ravens will pick off the Liquid Amber seed balls and drop them on the hawk's head!”

“Hey Pamela...I just wanted to tell you I made some of the peanut butter/bird seed pine cones this weekend. Well...the good news is the birds LOVED them. I hung 6 around the yard the chick a dees, titmice, nuthatches and others went crazy over them. I had birds everyone where. The bad news is the squirells loved them more...my son called me yesterday at work and asked why we had squirells hanging from pinecones in the trees!!!! Those little stinkers cut the strings and hauled off the pcones!!!!!!!

On another note I got my Carolina Birds book out and discovered that it was a yellow bellied sap sucker that had been visiting the suet feeder...not a red headed woodpecker. I also had a piliated woodpecker on a rotted pine today when I went home for lunch. He had to be 36" from tip to tail!!!

What a hoot!

CG”

“You lucky dog you, we mostly get doves, sparrows and finches. We do have occasionally, larger songbirds, but only a few and they never stick around. I AM jealous! Did you read how we scared the crap out of generations of squirrels? It's in this thread somewhere. Of course you have to admire their ingeniunity.”

“I didn't see that...I'll need to look.

When I went home today I had a pair of Carolina Wrens hanging out on the front porch. I have doves as well and when I go to fill the feeder they wait till the last possible moment and fly from where they seem to be buried in the leaves...scares the pee out of me every time!”