nlbarber

Lots of activity at the feeders and in the yard, despite me only filling the feeders off-and-on. Yesterday a brown thrasher kept me company while I gardened, perhaps trying to point out the empty suet feeder. I filled it yesterday evening, and today there are at least 2 thrashers chasing each other off the feeder. One of them took a nice dust bath in the mix of pine tree shreds and clay left by last year's stump removal. As I was finishing up this post, a northern flicker used the same spot, so maybe I have a "dust spa" in my back yard. I haven't seen a flicker in several year--hope it sticks around.

Daddy bluebird showed up with 2 kids today, I guess to let them scope out the suet. One made it to the suet cage, then sat there begging. The other waited on the support pole for Dad to bring the goods.


As I was gardening in the back yard, it became obvious that the bluebird box I'd put up was, in fact, in use--I'd spotted grass and sticks through the hole but never caught sight of a bird entering or leaving. However, now the box is cheeping. After repeated bouts of standing around with camera or binoculars to get a good look at the occupants, I finally got a couple of non-backlit, not too blurry photos and think they must be house wrens. They disdain the hole in the box and are using the crack at the top, which apparently suits their desire to bring in larger sticks for nesting material. Small birds, very hard to see any distinguishing marks (not that I'm good at it, anyway--the rose-breasted grosbeak is about my speed), looking grayish-brown, lighter below, insect eaters (lots of grasshopper-ish things being fed to the chicks this weekend), and a faint light stripe above the eye. One of my books says "the most nondescript of the wrens".



Saw the first hummingbird of the season yesterday, so I changed the feeder solution to try to make it more attractive. No more hummers yet.

Also seen this weekend on or around the feeders or bird bath, the usual suspects: blue jays, cardinals, mourning doves, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, house finches, sparrows (still need to work on sparrow ID), Carolina wrens, tufted titmouse, and Eastern towhee. Not so usual is the pair of goldfinches--they are around, but don't often visit the feeder area since I gave up on thistle feeders.

The crow(s), who can go through a suet cake in a couple of hours by flapping up to the feeder and stabbing to knock large bits through the cage to the ground as they 'hover', have not yet discovered that I put suet out. Maybe they've moved on....I hope. The chipmunks are at the backyard seed feeder, though, so I'm off to Home Depot for hardware to install the squirrel baffle on that pole. Won't stop the squirrels, but the feeder has one of the squirrel-cages around it that's fairly effective. Chipmunks fit right through the cage openings.

I bought a new bluebird house yesterday, paying an outrageous sum for the copper-roofed model with the predator block. I wanted the predator block, as the problem with the old house is that the the hole has been gnawed or pecked to twice its original size. Copper roof? Useless, IMHO. However, I'm already a little late in the nesting season 'round here, and could only find a utilitarian birdhouse model with a predator block (plus the unwanted copper roof) at $Pike$.

I got it installed today after several attempts. The old house faced away from my line of sight, and 180 degrees from that would be still really out of view. There is one hole on the pole at a better angle for viewing, but the house is designed to mount with 2 screws (and not quite at the same distance as the pair of holes, so I'd had to drill a new hole for the old birdhouse). I made one attempt at drilling a new hole in the mounting pole, but I don't have the right drill bits so only achieved a small bright spot in the paint. Apply thinking cap...aha! Mount house on the one good hole, and anchor the top of the house to a screw in one of the badly angled holes with wire run to a cup-hook screwed atop the house. Hey, a little RubeGoldberg-ish, but it seems to be secure.

I don't seem to be too late. A pair of bluebirds were just checking it out, but never seemed to actually enter the house. First the female then the male flitted from nearby branch to the hole, peered in multiple times, then left. I was wondering if the 'new wood' smell was too strong, but now I think the bluebirds may have been too late--there seem to be a pair of chickadees going in and out. Must decide if I really want bluebirds, or if chickadees would be OK this year...

My little patch of grass behind the patio is covered with blackbirds: red-wings male and female, and one towhee. Whoops! There they go, spooked by something towards the street. Don't know what they were finding out in the sparse grass, though the ones who were over under the feeders surely did better. I don't think I've seen a blackbird flock in my backyard before.

Now it's back to the usual. Mockingbird on the suet feeder. Wrens waiting for a chance. Bluebirds. Nuthatches. Warblers and sparrows I can't identify. The downy woodpecker will re-appear soon, I'm sure.

Note to self: go find a new bluebird nest box to replace the one that's had the hole gnawed or pecked out to twice the original size...

Theoretically, bluebirds are here year 'round. I never seem to see them in deep winter, though. Either 'deep winter' is over for Atlanta this year (tomorrow is Groundhog Day, come to think of it, so another opinion on that subject will be available soon) or the pattern has broken, as there's a pair at the back yard feeders right now, male in fresh, bright blue, plumage.

Must go make sure the bluebird box is cleaned out, in case they're looking for a nesting spot....

This brown thrasher is most interesting. It's working on the suet/seed cake that's in a hanging wire basket. It has a difficult time with the basket--frequently ends up spinning around and around, has trouble getting in position to peck at the suet, etc., but eventually either gets a piece in it's beak or knocks some to the ground. If on the ground, it flies down to collect it's booty. In either case, it then flies off across the neighbor's yard--I'm guessing it's feeding either a mate or babies, though it seems a little early for babies.

I didn't manage any bird-watching yesterday on the first day of the Great Backyard Bird Count. Did a little better today, basically while eating breakfast and again in the late afternoon. For a short while (right after I poured the milk on the cereal, in fact) there was all kinds of activity at the front feeders....and then the birds just left. None in the front yard, none in the back, and it stayed that way until I left for Jazzercise class almost an hour later. 'Tis a mystery.

Species and count:
Mourning Dove 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Carolina Chickadee 1
White-breasted Nuthatch 1
Carolina Wren 1
Eastern Bluebird 1
Northern Mockingbird 1
White-throated Sparrow 1
Dark-eyed Junco 2
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 3
American Goldfinch 7

With the JazzerThon tomorrow, I'll be limited again in my bird-count time, but I'll make another attempt anyway. Maybe I can have soggy cereal 2 days in a row for the bird count!

There's a crowd at the bird bath--2 robins all plumped up against the 20° (F) cold, and 3 cedar waxwings, plus more robins on the ground. But it appears that the waxwings are hopping around on top of what should be the water, so I think things are frozen solid. I may take a pan of warm water out shortly to (briefly) provide some liquid.

Over at the feeder area it's bluebird city--2 males, 3 females. Plus a wren, the usual collection of house finches, and a downy and a red-bellied woodpecker are trading places on the suet, running off the bluebirds. A dark-eyed junco just appeared to scavenge on the ground.

I noted a female bluebird going in the nest box this morning. Do they use the nest for shelter at this time of year, or are they nesting already? Seems a little early, and I haven't cleaned out the box from last year. I thought I had at least a month or so before I needed to do that...

It's hot. And humid. Gosh, San Diego was lovely...

I filled the bird feeders this morning, both seed and suet. I can see the suet cake in the backyard feeder from the window by the computer--the feeder is a cage-style that's much larger than the suet cakes I buy. The suet cake is slumped into a curved shape at the bottom, as it's too hot out there for it to hold its shape.

Current temperature is 93°F at 6 PM.

Two babies! One's good bit bigger than the other--it must have gotten a head start by hatching early, or maybe just had its feathers fluffed out. Looking at relative size to the parents, the fluffed feathers looks more likely.

In my lapsed month of LJ, I missed the period in which I decided that the newly mounted bird house didn't seem to be attractive to anyone this year. I got it up a little late, perhaps, and rationalized that it might need a year to season, lose the human smell, etc. Yesterday I spent a couple of hours in that corner of the yard trimming shrubs, digging up liriope, and clearing deadwood out of the hydrangeas, and saw no activity and heard no noises from the birdpole.

This morning, though, ensconced at my desk to try to work on taxes, I spotted a male bluebird pausing on one of the feeder poles. He flew on, and I watched...to see him head for the birdhouse. A little later I spotted a female bluebird clinging to the outside, poking her head inside. Then she left and the male emerged from the hole. By now bluebirds should be hatching their young, I think, so either this pair is quite late or they've been using the birdhouse for a while and I've just been oblivious. I'll be watching from now on, for sure.

In other morning bird activity (anything to avoid the taxes), the goldfinches are enjoying the thistle sock--maybe 2 pairs, certainly 3 males are around. A downy woodpecker has found the backyard suet block (been working on the front one for a while), a brown headed nuthatch has joined the house finches, titmouses, chickadees, etc. on the tube feeder, and an Eastern towhee pair are scouting for seeds on the ground. The cardinals and red-bellied woodpecker are sticking to the front yard--I think the feeder there is the only one they can fit on. The white-breased nuthatch and the cardinals are also front yard only, at least lately.