Why can't they all just get along?

Under the category of "Things I never saw around here."

               My latest bird-feeder configuration isn't to the liking of the hummingbirds. The hummingbird feeder is a little too close to the other feeders. And this causes friction.
               Sometimes the titmice or chickadees pass a little too close to the hummingbird feeder, and it ticks off the hummingbird. He chases the other birds off.
               I had never seen this before, probably because I had always had the hummingbird feeder isolated in the yard.
               But the sight of a hummingbird chasing another bird around the yard is downright funny. It's not like it really bothers the bigger birds. They seem to come back for their food and ignore the little pest as best they can. Meanwhile, the hummingbird - the smallest of birds, no bigger than my thumb - insists on being bossy and buzzing the others when they get too close.
               So I'm watching these antics the other day when something more sinister develops.

               (Bassoon music, here)

               In a flash, I catch the big wings and the fan tail of a Cooper's Hawk zooming into the big shrubs nearby. The birds scatter, the squirrels scramble, and the whole yard is suddenly empty.
              Now, this happens many more times that I actually ever witness, because the whole scene develops so quickly.
               But this hawk was successful. And he stayed. He actually brought the prey to the ground and fed - for about five minutes.
               I had never seen this in my yard. I had seen a Red-tailed Hawk feeding in my brother's yard out in the country. But I had not seen a hawk feed in my yard.
               The Cooper's was around long enough for me to go get my binoculars and give him a good study. I couldn't tell exactly what the food was, but it looked small, and the feathers were gray. I suspect a titmouse was the slow one of the group. Poor little titmouse.
               But the hawk feeds, and life goes on ... in the wild kingdom.

Here are the survivors I saw today:

(AM, sunny, 78 degrees, 20 minutes)

American Goldfinch
House Finch
Northern Cardinal
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Chipping Sparrow
Brown Thrasher

Jewels of summer

Male (left) and female American Goldfinches.

               Goldfinches are fairly regular visitors to my feeders. They come in groups and dress up my tube feeders like jewels of summer.
               In the summer the male American Goldfinch is about the prettiest bird that visits our yards. Their bright yellow and black coloring makes them obvious. They are less evident in the winter, when their colors fade to a yellowish-gray and black.
               Since American Goldfinches are year-round residents in most of the continental U.S., you have a good chance of attracting them most anywhere. If you live in the Southwest, you may confuse the American Goldfinch with the Lesser Goldfinch, which has a more black on its back and head.
               Like most birds, goldfinches like sunflower seeds. But if you want to bring them in numbers, try thistle or nyger seed. You can present the food in a number of ways. Some people even plant thistle in their gardens. And there are goldfinch-specific feeding methods. One is a tube thistle feeder, which looks like a normal tube feeder, only with tiny slits in the ports. A thistle sock works too. This is a seed-filled net that you can hang from a limb or another feeder. Finches cling to these like chickadees.
               If you're not sure you have any goldfinches around, try buying one of those socks to put out. The reward is well worth the expense.

               Here's what I saw at my feeders today:

(AM, partly cloudy, 85 degrees, 30 minutes)

House Finch
American Goldfinch
Northern Cardinal
Common Grackle
Brown Thrasher
Carolina Wren
Tufted Titmouse
Red-winged Blackbird           

Woodpeckers

  This young Red-headed Woopecker takes to a

 light post near my home.

 

   Downy Woodpeckers like suet.

   But they'll come after sunflower seed

   as well.

 

 

 

          A Red-headed Woodpecker came to my suet cage the other day. Among the prettiest visitors to my station, these birds show up here about once a month. I hear them more often, but they like to stay in the trees where the crawling insects reside.

      That's the story with most woodpeckers; they like to hang out in older and dying trees because of the bugs. It's their main source of food, and the reason why we see fewer of them at our feeders during the summer.

       In the winter, I'll put out extra suet and rub peanut butter (crunchy – yum!) on a tree to supplement their diets. Some woodpeckers like acorns and nuts, too, so don't be surprised to see one grab up a peanut you leave out. Fruit, sunflower seeds and even hummingbird nectar are other things woodpeckers like.

       I have had six species of them come to my feeders. The little Downy Woodpecker is the most frequent; the big, beautiful Pileated Woodpecker is the least-frequent visitor.

Here are the others:

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (yes, they suck sap)

Northern Flicker

Red-headed Woodpecker

          Most people in the eastern U.S. get the same set of woodpeckers. Up North and out West, folks have a chance at seeing even more species of woodpeckers.     

If you have a dying tree still standing in your yard, think twice before cutting it down. You may have a good chance of providing a home - as well as a food source - for these interesting, hard-headed birds. You can also buy or make a woodpecker house.

Here's what I saw at my station today:

(AM, partly cloudy, 83 degrees, 15 minutes)

Brown Thrasher

Northern Mockingbird

Carolina Chickadee

Common Grackle

Northern Cardinal



Squirrel proof - I think

Clever, huh? The platform on the clothesline post in the background is one of the stands where the squirrels feed.

 It has taken me much of the summer, but I think I have come up with a squirrel-proof feeding station. Let me repeat, I THINK. Nothing is completely squirrel proof, the experts say. But I am testing that theory.

 My new setup: the ol' line-and-baffle system.

 I waited for a couple of weeks for a scavenger buddy of mine to find some wire long enough. But he couldn't, at least wire that he didn't want to sell to the salvage yard.

  So I went to Lowe's and bought 50 feet of nylon cord. At $2.50, it was cheap enough. I had some PCV pipe, so I took that and a few plastic soda bottles for baffles.

               I stretched all of this over about 30 feet, between a light post and a pine, 8 feet up - no low-hanging limbs. I hung the feeders between the baffles and waited.

 

               After about a week of trying, one brave squirrel, studied, calculated, and went back to his nest to do a detailed engineering diagram no doubt. Then he gave it his best effort. He swiftly and acrobatically covered about 10 feet of cord, recoiled and actually hurdled about 4 feet of the baffling, grabbing the cord on the other side with his little front feet. Then he shimmied up and was on the tube feeder.

 

               Wow! I've got a Flying Wallenda here.

  But I wasn't finished, no I wasn't. I had heard of using old record albums as baffles, so I dug up a couple of old 78s - Stokowski, Wagner. (That's Vaagner, if you're saying it. And no, I couldn't sell them on eBay. I tried.)

               I strung the albums on the outside of each set of baffles.

               It has been two weeks and no squirrel has dared. Oh, they will. They're planning and plotting this very moment.

    And yes, I'm feeding them. They have their own little stands for eating. It's just that they're on a diet now; they're not going through 20 pounds of sunflower seed in a week.

               The birds have more undisturbed time at the feeders. That should continue for a while, at least. I think.

Here's what I saw at the feeders today:

(PM, 82 degrees, partly cloudy, 15 minutes)

House Finch

Brown Thrasher

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Northern Cardinal

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Nuthatch