The Zen Birdfeeder

My Living Rhododendron

When you walk near my rhododendron when it is in full bloom, you notice, "IT'S ALIVE!!"  Alive with American Bumble Bees!

At any one time, there are dozens of these bees moving from flower to flower, gathering pollen.  They seem unconcerned about my presence only 3 feet away. 

They are not aggressive at all, only hard to capture in an image because of their constant movement.

All the bees were about the same size; they were worker bees.  Then one huge bee came into the bush - I'm pretty sure it was the queen bee. 

The queen is larger than all the workers, and she's the only bee in last year's colony to have overwintered underground, surviving to start this year's colony.

These bees do sting, but they are not aggressive, so look for them this spring and keep an eye out for the big queen!

Now That's a Mouthful!!

During Black-capped Chickadee nesting season (April - July), you can tell alot about what's going on in their lives by what they're carrying in their beak.  Here's a guide to some of the stuff you might see them carrying and what it might mean.

WOOD CHIPS

If you see a chickadee with a beak-full of wood chips, they are in the early stages of clearing a potential nest cavity.  If you put out a nest box for the chickadees, put an inch or two of wood chips in the bottom of the box and you'll even see them carrying chips out of an artificial cavity.

Make sure to watch them as they fly off; they will land on a perch away from the cavity before dropping the chips.

MOSS

If you see a chickadee carrying strands of moss, it may have started to build a nest within a cavity.  This moss base may include other fibrous materials as well.  I've seen them taking fibers out of our coco doormat to add to their nest!

ANIMAL HAIR AND FIBER

When you see a chickadee carrying a beakful of animal hair, they may be putting the finishing touches on a nest.  This lining of soft material will nestle the eggs and eventually the nestlings, helping to keep them warm.  You can offer alpaca fiber, sheep wool, or even dog or cat hair.

Chickadees will sometimes start or even complete a nest and never use it.  So watch for these other beakfuls to see if you really have an active chickadee nest.

INSECTS

See a chickadee take a juicy green caterpillar into a cavity and - lucky you! - there's a good chance you've got eggs and maybe babies!!  While mom is incubating eggs, dad brings her food.  Sometimes she'll come out to get it, or else he'll bring it in to her.  Then, after the eggs have hatched, insects make up the nestlings' entire diet. 

This stage is fairly easy to observe since parents get pretty busy providing insects for their rapidly growing young.  You'll be able to enjoy this activity for about 28 days: 12 days of the female being fed by the male during incubation and 16 days from when the eggs hatch to when the babies are ready to leave the nest.

FECAL SACS

If you see a chickadee exiting a nest with a dark-and-light blob, they're doing a little housecleaning.  They're cleaning a tidy sack of poop, called a fecal sac, that has been left by a nestling.

Chickadees are so common in backyards that it's easy to observe their nesting activities if you take the time.  See if you can follow their progress through each of these steps in the process.  Have fun but be careful you're not disturbing them!

Top 3 Benefits from Bats

Bats can sometimes get a bad reputation, but before we judge them, here are three really big benefits that bats provide:

Pest control

• They eat millions and millions of night-flying insects
• They help control agricultural pests - farmers love the work bats do!

Mexican Free-tailed Bats emerging from Bracken Cave
in search of flying insects

Pollinate

• Bats help ensure production of seeds and fruit - again, the farmer's friend!
• They improve genetic diversity
• If you love bananas, or avocados, or peaches, or cashews - thank bats.  These foods depend on pollination by bats

Disperse seed

• Bats help to restore lost or damaged rainforest
• They are more effective seed dispersers than birds

So give bats a break.  Learn about them and learn to protect them.  Add a bat box.  Do whatever you can to help these beneficial creatures of the night.

Here's a couple videos of Mexican Free-tailed Bats as they emerge from Bracken Cave in Texas.

 

 

Video by Nancy Castillo
Facts Source:  Bat Conservation International

 

Related articles

Wasp Nests in My Bat Box

Bats by the Numbers

66    percent of bat species that hunt insects

1000    the number of mosquito-sized insects that ONE Little Brown Bat can eat in just one hour

$3.7 million    the estimated value of bats in the U.S. in reduced crop damage and reduced pesticide use

33    percent of bat species that feed on the fruit or nectar of plants

41    years is the record for the oldest bat in the wild

1    on average, the number of young reared per year

5.7 million    the number of bats killed by White nose Syndrome since 2006 (as of spring 2013).  Biologists call the loss "the most precipitous wildlife decline in the past century in North America".

 

Millions of Mexican Free-tailed Bats
leave Bracken Cave each summer evening

Images by Nancy Castillo
Fact Source:  Bat Conservation International 

 

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Wasp Nests in My Bat Box

Help Produce the Passenger Pigeon Documentary "From Billions to None"

Last fall, I wrote a post entitled "Too Many Doves", which was to illustrate that the Mourning Dove population of 400 million birds shouldn't be taken for granted, a point proven by the extinction of a bird that used to number in the billions: the Passenger Pigeon.

Passenger Pigeon specimens at Cornell Lab of Ornithology

As a result of the background reading I did for that post, I now have a heightened interest in all things Passenger Pigeon.  That's why I want to tell you about an exciting documentary currently being created by the Project Passenger Pigeon group. 

The message of my original post was that there is a lesson to be learned from the extinction of a species that was so numerous that its mass flights would literally darken the skies.  This is one of the goals of Project Passenger Pigeon as well.  Right now, they are hard at work on a documentary called "From Billions to None: The Passenger Pigeon's Flight to Extinction".  Here's where you can help.

The project has launched a Crowdfunding Campaign to help fund the film's production.  Check out the campaign page where you can see a trailer of the film.  If you are able, please join me in helping this film become reality by making a donation.  There are many contribution levels available, and I'm sure they'd appreciate anything you can give.

I know that I'm looking forward to seeing the finished documentary!

 

5 Tips to Attracting Orioles into your Yard

One of the first questions we ask customers who come in our shop hoping to attract orioles is whether they've seen them in their area before.  If they answer "no", we usually suggest they watch for them and pick up a feeder when they know they have the proper habitat for orioles.

If they say "yes, I saw them last year" or "yes, I've seen their unmistakable pendulous nest in a nearby tree", we then encourage them to try an oriole feeder.

If you can answer "yes" to my question, here are my top 5 tips for attracting orioles into your yard.

1)  Have the oriole feeder up and ready BEFORE they arrive.
In our area of east central New York state, that means putting out an oriole feeder near the beginning of May.

2)  Hang the feeder so it's visible from the treetops.
Orioles are treetop birds, so make sure you hang your oriole feeder where they would be most likely to see it from their perches at the top of deciduous trees.

3)  Offer fruit.
Oranges are the easiest food to offer orioles at a birdfeeder.  Cut them in half so the insides are up.
You can also offer grape jelly.  Orioles have a sweet tooth and will eat mounds of grape jelly daily.  Don't make the jelly pile too deep, just in case some other smaller bird with a sweet tooth gets into it.

4)  Offer mealworms.
Orioles eat insects, especially tent caterpillars, and will eat live mealworms offered in a birdfeeder.

5)  Offer nectar.
Orioles will lap up nectar, but because of the size of their bill, it needs to be in a specialty oriole feeder that has ports bigger than those on a hummingbird feeder.
The nectar concentration is weaker too, 8-to-1 instead of the hummingbird nectar ratio of 4-to-1.  Check out the nectar recipe page on our website.

At our Wild Birds Unlimited shop, we have a number of oriole feeders for providing these foods.

So, get those feeders out and watch for that stunning flash of orange and black of the beautiful male oriole!

Photo credits: 
Image 1 & 2 - WBU Inc. image library
Image 3 - Mary Foss Bullard, WBU-Saratoga's Fan PIC of the YEAR 2012.

They're Not Late, You're Just Early!

It's only the first week in May and already we're wondering where the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are.  Well, they're busy migrating.  They're probably right on schedule.  We're just antsy!!

Here are my hummingbird return dates for the last 7 years:

2006 - May 9
2007 - May 6
2008 - May 9
2009 - May 10
2010 - May 9
2011 - May 4
2012 - May 4

All those dates work out to a May 7 average return date.  So they're probably right on time.  They're flying as fast as they can!

So keep that feeder up and the nectar fresh, and relax....they're on their way!

Note: these return dates are from my location here at 43rd latitude and 1,345 feet.

Wasp Nests in My Bat Box

If you maintain a box for bats, you'll need to occasionally look inside to make sure wasps have not built a nest inside it.  Bats may be reluctant to occupy a bat box or a box chamber that has an active wasp nest.  The nests take up space inside the box, and bats could be killed by the stings of an aggressive wasp species.

While cleaning a bat box is best done in the winter when both bats and wasps are gone, I procrastinated and just cleaned my bat box the other day.  It has had a number of wasp nests in it, some for a couple years.  I've been lucky enough to have had bats in the box for the last 3 summers and they have co-existed with the non-aggressive paper wasps within.


It is still early enough in spring that bats have not yet returned and the wasps are not active.  If bats were back and the wasp nest active, I would only attempt a cleaning after dark, when the bats have departed for the night and the wasps are not as active.  Even then, I'd proceed cautiously.

I used 2 pole sections from my roof rake that allowed me to reach all the way up to the top of the box without difficulty.  I was able to detach all the nests - about 4 nests of various sizes came out.

This is the only way recommended to remove existing wasp nests.  NEVER use wasp or insect spray inside a bat box!

The box is now ready for the bats' return and I will try to make sure I clean it out yearly.  Hopefully I've cleared the way for a few more bats to occupy my box!

Read more about Bat Houses and Wasps on the Bat Conservation International website.

FAQ - If Squirrels Don't Like Niger Seed, Why Do They Chew My Finch Sock?

Q. If squirrels don't like niger (thistle) seed, why do they chew my finch sock?

A. When squirrels chew a hole in your finch sock, they're curious about the food inside.  But once they find out it's something they don't like, they stop.

In the meantime, the seed is lost and they've destroyed your sock. 

Eliminate frustration by getting a finch feeder with metal parts.  You won't have to be buying new socks all the time!

Male Mallard Aggression

Mallard drakes can become very aggressive toward other males.  Here, two males attack a less dominant bird, with one actually mounting the bird as it would mount a female during a mating attempt.



This is entirely a show of dominance, seen on a City Park pond in New Orleans, where populations are high and competition for territory intense.