BIRDS

[Wilma]

I just watched an amazing thing.  I was sitting at the east window with my cat, watching the snow come down when a blue jay flew in to the window bird feeder.  We both sat perfectly still so as not to frighten him and watched him dig through the snow ( it had piled up to about 2 inches) to the feed.  He flung the millet around to uncover the sunflower seeds.  He would then pick up a sunflower seed, tap it sharply against the side of the feeder until he had shelled it and eat the meat.  We watched him for about a minute until Bud couldn't stand it any longer and made a movement toward the glass.  Good-bye, Blue Jay.  Now I know what the sharp tapping noise has been that I have been hearing this morning and couldn't locate.

[indygal]

Aren't jays amazing? Even though they're ornery, I still count them among my favorites.

I saw something interesting today as well. We have two feeders in our backyard. Beneath one was a flock (murder) of about 20 crows. In the surrounding trees of our yard and our neighbors' yards, were about another 25 or 30 waiting their turn at the feeder. As some on the ground would fly away, that many of the others would glide down to take their places. None even noticed the second feeder, about 15 feet away. It was just unusual to see so many crows, as they rarely bother with the feeders. And it was obvious they have a pecking order....talk about squabbling at the "dinner table"!! LOL

[Wilma]

I have read that crows are intelligent birds.  I don't think I would like to be one though.  It is almost impossible to kill one.  My little brother (age 12 at that time) thought that if he could shoot one crow, the rest of the crows that were cleaning up the chicken feed would stay away.  Of course they wouldn't fly in if he were outside and if he opened the door to go out, they flew.  So he decided to shoot through the screen.  Shooting through the screen deflected the bullet, so he tried the second shot through the hole from the first shot.  He got his crow and, yes, the rest of the crows stayed away.

I was scolded by a jay this morning because I hadn't put fresh feed in the feeder.  He was sitting on the frozen over feed from yesterday and couldn't scratch it loose.  So I put more feed in on top of the frozen so he could have his breakfast.  I was considering finding the heat gun and thawing the ice but then it started snowing.  It will all still be there when it thaws.  My feeder is mounted just outside a window so I can open the window and fill it.  Bud finds this very interesting.

[Janet Harrington]

Hey, another story from my Mother that I had never heard before.  Cool.

Jim and I watched the birds in our backyard today.  We have four feeders.  The birds have just flocked all the feeders today.  We didn't see any blue jays, but the cardinals, male and female, just like Mother's picture were out in force.  Some of the cardinals were sitting on the feeders under the little eave staying out of the falling snow.  It was funny.  I wish I could have taken a picture, but I knew that they would fly away.

Remember to feed them tomorrow as they will need to food with so much snow on the ground.

[Wilma]

So far, I have had blue jays, cardinals, chickadees and a variety of sparrows feeding at my feeder.   I had to hang a sheer curtain so the birds couldn't see Bud, but like all cats, he has found his way around it.  What kind of birds have you had?

[indygal]

The past few days we've had a jay, a few cardinals, several juncos, starlings and sparrows, and only one mourning dove (which is unusual, as there are usually at least two pairs). Also, we haven't seen the ring-necked turtle dove that spent the summer and autumn months as a regular visitor at the feeder. I haven't seen any crows in the yard since the other day when I wrote about them. Strange.

Our girls (three cats) love to watch the birds from the sunporch windows. They sit very quietly and don't disturb the birds at all. They also perched in the windows this summer and fall and watched the family of possums that visited our backyard. Neither the cats nor the possums got too excited about each other! LOL

[Janet Harrington]

I've had blue jays, cardinals, male and female, sparrows, maybe some finches, I'm not really sure.  It need to find my binoculars and see what they are.  I did see a red headed woodpecker flying from tree to tree.  They seem to fly different than some birds, like a torpedo.  I too have had a mourning dove, just one, or at least I just see one.

[genealogynut]

I have a question regarding hummingbird feeders.  How does one keep from attracting the wasps and bees, also?  I've also thought it would be nice to attract the hummingbirds, but I don't want the "extra visitors."    In past years, I have put out bird seed for the cardinals, finches, etc.  But I also get aggravated when the sparrows would get into the bird seed and literally kick it out on the ground by the bucketfuls and wasting so much of it.

This year, the finches seem to do lots of fighting over who gets which perch at the feeders. (like little kids squabbling).

[Wilma]

I want to share what I saw this morning.  I was tracking a sound that sounded like a cricket and it led me to my open bedroom window.  About ten feet from the window is a climbing rose and in this rose was a family of cardinals.  Papa, Mama and almost grown son.  Son looked full grown but still had bits of fluff and was getting his red feathers.  Papa was beside him and it looked like he was kissing him or had just given him a tidbit.  Son was doing that begging thing that baby birds do and Mama was about a foot away watching them.  Papa sensed that they were being watched and he moved away a bit while son went to picking at the rose bush limbs and Mama stayed close to him.  I backed off so as not to disturb them further.  This rose bush harbors birds all winter.  Quite a few of them are cardinals.

[Teresa]

How cool.
I love to watch nature when they are doing their "thing".
I have about 11-14 hummingbirds and I can set on the porch and they literally will be swarming under and around getting to the 2 feeders I have hanging. I have 2 more and they just flog them too. I am filling them about every 3 days.
In fact, reminds me that I have to make more "stuff" for them..