Posted in Birds, tagged birds, robins, spring on February 20, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Last week a few robins were in my backyard. Perhaps checking it out for a nesting site or stopping by on the way back north. Either way it was a welcome site after a nasty winter.
Yesterday I spotted about eight robins poking around in the leaves when I went for a walk at a nearby park.
Welcome back robins.
Posted in Holiday, tagged birds, Christmas on December 25, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos on November 20, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
The Red-bellied Woodpecker is a year round resident in my yard. This medium-sized woodpecker can be found in the eastern half of the United States. They prefer the tall woodland trees but can be enticed to backyard feeders with offerings of suet or peanuts.
This female is often in my yard. I was potting some plants to bring in for the winter when I heard a loud yelp from the walnut tree and seconds later there she was at the feeder scolding me because it was empty. She has very distinctive calls, a cha-cha-cha or rolling kwirrr sound. Once you are familiar with it the bird is easy to find.
You can tell this is a female by the lack of red feathers on the top of her head. The male has an all red cap and juvenile birds have no color on their heads. People always want to call this bird a red-headed woodpecker, but that’s a different bird. If you look real close you can see a small patch of red feathers on her belly, which is how she got her name.
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Cross-posted on Under My Apple Tree.
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos on November 13, 2010 | 1 Comment »
For a week or two in early autumn and early spring the White-crowned sparrow visits my suburban Chicago backyard. I look forward to his visit in spring, not so much in autumn as I know winter will soon follow.
This is a migratory native North American sparrow that spends it’s summers mainly in Canada and winters in the mid to southern United States and Mexico. Larger than the House Sparrow, it can usually be found scratching around on the ground for seeds.
I took this photo Halloween weekend, the same weekend he arrived last year. I sometimes wonder if the same birds visit every year.
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Cross-posted on Under My Apple Tree.
Posted in Birds, Garden, Photos, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Photos, Wordless Wednesday on October 13, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Birds, birds everywhere at Cantigny Gardens last weekend. This Cedar tree was filled with about 50 Waxwings. This is a fairly common bird but you’ll only see them if you look up. They like to travel in flocks and can be seen eating berries in fruit trees or catching insects in mid-air.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, hawk, Photos, Wildlife on September 24, 2010 | 1 Comment »
As I’ve said, I like to provide food for any of the birds that show up in my yard. I didn’t exactly mean I’d serve little birds to the hawks, but sometimes it happens that way.
This Cooper’s Hawk buzzed the feeders this evening and then perched on the fence for a few minutes. I looked outside when I heard all the little birds chirping. No one was eaten and the hawk went on his way. I have some grackle on the menu if he’d like to come back tomorrow.
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, Wildlife on September 24, 2010 | 3 Comments »
Bad birds, bad birds, what ya gonna do…
I’ve had a flock of grackles hanging around my feeders for 3 weeks now, sometimes 50 birds at once. Usually the grackles move on after a week or so but these seem determined to stay. Perhaps I need to make the yard less attractive. Four regularly filled seed feeders, suet and three bird baths may be too hospitable.
I always provide food for whatever birds show up and that has worked fine, until now. The grackles are too aggressive and they bring lots of friends. The little birds are getting knocked off the feeders and scared away until the grackles are finished. And they eat and eat and eat until nothing is left for anyone else. They can consume a suet cake in one day. The only bird that doesn’t back down to them is the Blue Jay. I had a Cooper’s Hawk show up and that chased them away for a few days but alas, they returned.
I’m considering replacing one of my feeders with the type that has the wire mesh around it so only the little birds can get in. At least the little guys will be able to eat. Also, I hear the upside down suet feeders are an option that woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches can use but not the big birds, so I can add one of those.
Anyone have a better suggestion? I’ve gone through 50 pounds of bird seed and several suet cakes a week this month.
Update 10/13/2010:
I replaced the sunflower seed in the white tube feeder with safflower and I stopped filling the tray feeder with cracked corn, nuts and millet and instead left it empty. I also left the suet holder empty. Within a week the grackles were almost gone except for one or two. The number of sparrows also declined but the number of cardinals and finches doubled.
Last weekend I put the suet back up and put seed and nuts back in the tray feeder. I’m leaving the safflower out as the finches, cardinals and chickadees are eating it. So far so good.
Posted in Birds, tagged birds, Wordless Wednesday on August 11, 2010 | 4 Comments »
Wrens are very territorial. If I got anywhere near the nestbox filled with chriping baby wrens, momma wren would let me know about it. She was quite loud for such a tiny bird.
More Wordless Wednesday.
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Wordless Wednesday on July 28, 2010 | 9 Comments »
Posted in Birds, Wordless Wednesday, tagged birds, Wordless Wednesday on July 14, 2010 | 3 Comments »
There are a lot of woodpeckers in my yard this year. Dad woodpecker brought his three young ones to eat at the suet feeder last week. This little one was nice enough to pose for a picture.
You can tell this is a juvenile by the red cap on the top of the head. Adult males have a red patch on the back of the head and females have no red.
More Wordless Wednesday.
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