The Zen Birdfeeder

Plentiful Berries for the Birds

Since mid-September, birdfeeder activity in the northeast has absolutely tanked.  I wrote about the abundance of natural food sources when I did a post on pine cones called A Look Inside a Pine Cone.  

Fruits and berries are amongst the other natural food sources that are still widely available to the birds and other wildlife.  I walked around the yard a couple weeks ago documenting all the berries still out there.

Barberry

Burning Bush - I've never noticed berries on this bush before!

Rosehips

Holly

Bittersweet

Still lots of pine cones!

About the only fruit-bearing trees in the yard that has been depleted are sumac trees.  Everything else still has fruit on it.  And as long as there's still lots of fruit and seeds out there, and as long as the temperatures remain mild and we have no snow, we can expect that birds and other wildlife will continue to feast on these natural food sources instead of visiting our feeders.

Birds have been using the feeders first thing in the morning and late in the day so enjoy the activity during those peak times.  And hope for snow!!

Franklin in Defense of the Turkey

"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country.  He is a Bird of bad moral Character.  He does not get his Living honestly.  You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him...

The Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America.  He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a Red Coat on."

Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to his daughter

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

FROM THE THANKSGIVING DAY ARCHIVES:  Thanksgiving Dinner Advice from our Feathered Friends

Project FeederWatch Week 2

Downy Woodpecker enjoying Bark Butter

My week 2 of Project FeederWatch was an abbreviated one this Thanksgiving week.  Only one day to count.  Here's what visited on Monday:

November 23, 2009

Blue Jay                          29
Hairy Woodpecker           1
Black capped Chickadee   10
Dark-eyed Junco              31
Northern Cardinal            1
Red-breasted Nuthatch    1
Mourning Dove                13
Downy Woodpecker         2
Tufted Titmouse             3
White-breasted Nuthatch   1

SPECIES         10
INDIVIDUALS    92

Dark-eyed Junco

HIGH COUNT BIRD
Some big groups of jays again but the high count bird this week was 31 Dark-eyed Juncos.  I have a feeling it's going to be a good junco winter!

BONUS BIRD
The White-breasted Nuthatch who was MIA in last week's count appeared a couple times today to earn Bonus Bird status.

THE FIRST 15 MINUTES
Starting my count early in the morning gives me a lot of birds within the first 15 minutes.  By 7:15a, I had seen 6 species and 48 individuals.  Chickadees, doves, juncos, a hairy. a cardinal and 29 (!) jays were at the feeders by the time it was barely light.

Black-capped Chickadee

BEHAVIOR TIDBIT

With so many jays around, its fun to watch the interactions between them.  There was a lot of posturing going on, both on the feeders and on the ground, with dominant birds standing tall and taking jabs at other jays that got too close.

The jays also seems to come and go in waves.  A large flock would clear, and almost immediately, another group of jays moved in.  It was interesting to watch their movement.

Jeffrey's Woodpeckers

While we hope we are an inspiration to our customers about the birds, sometimes our customers inspire us.  Take Jeffrey and Laney who came into our store a couple Sundays ago, beaming with excitement about the pileateds visiting their suet sandwich feeder.  Jeffrey was carrying around his digital camera showing anyone in the store who would look at his pictures of one and then two pileateds eating at the sandwich feeder.  He'd excitedly say "Look what we had at our feeders just 3 hours ago!"

All Pileated Woodpecker images courtesy of Jeffrey Lutzker

Jeffrey just loves this feeder because of the woodpecker activity it brings.  He even calls himself "the woodpecker man".  And who wouldn't be excited about the sight of two pileateds at a feeder?  Then just a week later, Jeffrey and Laney were back in, reporting they'd had 3 pileateds - that's THREE - on the feeder!

As you might expect, their story inspired me to put my suet sandwich feeder back into action.  It's always been a good feeder at my house too, not attracting pileateds, but bringing in a good variety of birds including Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, nuthatches and chickadees. 

 

But it is also the favorite feeder of the Brown Creeper when they are visiting my yard. (Creepers are also known to eat Bark Butter, but I haven't seen them yet.)

An advantage of the feeder is that you can fill it with peanut butter suet slabs, hang it in or on a tree (Jeffrey's as well as my preference), and squirrels can't get to the suet.  They may nibble at the edges but only the beak and tongues of the birds can reach deep into the feeder to get the majority of the suet.

When I refilled this time, I filled one side with suet slab and the other side with Bark Butter.  I'll report later how that goes.  But for right now, I hope you enjoy seeing images of Jeffrey's pileated that helped inspire me.  I hope it inspires you as well!

Good Seed Bad Seed

To answer the frequent question, "What seeds will birds eat?", here's a quick and dirty list of Good Seeds and Bad Seeds for your feeder birds. 

Print this page, cut out the chart and carry it with you in your purse or wallet.  Then, the next time you pick up a bag of birdseed in a store, look at the ingredient list on the bag. 

Don't buy a bag of birdseed that has any of the Bad Seed ingredients.  If you do, you are spending money on stuff your birds don't eat.

GOOD SEED	BAD SEED
Black oil sunflower	Milo
Striped sunflower	Canary seed
Sunflower chips (hulled sunflower)	Grass seed
Niger	Oats
White proso millet *	Wheat
Safflower	Sticks
Peanuts
Cracked corn *
* in limited amounts only

THE GOOD SEEDS

• Black oil sunflower is preferred by most birds, it is high energy and the thin shell is easy for smaller-beaked birds to open.

 

• Striped sunflower has a thicker shell so many small-beaked birds can't eat it but your big-beaked birds can.

• Sunflower chips (hulled sunflower) is like lazy-man's lobster.

• Niger is a favorite of finches

• White proso millet is favored by groundfeeding birds like juncos, doves, and sparrows.  A word of  caution: don't put it in a tube feeder where it can accumulate on the bottom and get clumpy and moldy.  Put it in tray or hopper feeders or broadcast it on the ground.

• Safflower is a problem solving seed.  Squirrels don't gorge themselves on it, and "nuisance" birds  like grackles and crows don't eat it.  Birds like it but they may take a little while to adjust to it.

• Peanuts are high in fat and perfect for winter birdfeeding.

• Cracked corn will be eaten mostly by sparrows and doves.  Buy only blends that have very limited   amounts of cracked corn in them - it readily absorbs moisture and makes the seed go moldy faster.

THE BAD SEEDS

• Milo is usually the major ingredient in cheap birdseed blends.  It is not eaten by most eastern birds.  It is red and about the size of a BB.  Just say no!
• Canary seed, grass seed, oats and wheat are all fillers.  You pay for them but the birds don't eat them.
• Sticks...well not a seed but avoid any seed bag that has lots of sticks, stems, stones or if the seed looks dirty.

Project FeederWatch Week 1

 
Red-breasted Nuthatch

Project FeederWatch started nationwide on November 14th and I started my count on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  We've had slow feeder activity since mid-September, so I wasn't expecting a high count.  In my Predicting the Birds post, I estimated that I'd see 11 species.  Let's see how I did.

November 16-17, 2009

Blue Jay                        20
Hairy Woodpecker           1
Black capped Chickadee   6
Dark-eyed Junco            14
Northern Cardinal            1
European Starling            1
Sharp-shinned Hawk        1
Red-breasted Nuthatch    1
Mourning Dove                3
Downy Woodpecker         2
Tufted Titmouse             3
American Crow                1

SPECIES         12
INDIVIDUALS    54

Blue Jays

HIGH COUNT BIRD
Blue Jays dominated the count with a high count of 20.  That's a lot of jays!

BONUS BIRD
Never a sure thing on a count day, I had an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk show up both days of the count.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

THE FIRST 15 MINUTES
It's amazing how many birds make up the first 15 minutes of your first count day.  I started my count at 7:00a and by 7:15a I had recorded 5 species and 25 individuals.  15 jays were busy at the feeders as soon as it was light.

BEHAVIOR TIDBIT
I had fun watching a Downy Woodpecker trying to negotiate a tube feeder.  First off, it was filled with safflower, which is not particulary a favorite of woodpeckers.  When she finally landed, she awkwardly wrapped her tail around the bottom of the feeder.  She then proceeded to a tree branch to glean insects, then next tried to negotiate the Eliminator feeder, another feeder with short perches.

What was interesting was watching this bird try to land on feeders as if she was doing it for the first time.  It made me wonder if she was a new bird to the yard searching for new food sources in unfamiliar locations.

PREDICTING THE BIRDS

So, how did I fare in predicting the birds I'd see on this first count day? I predicted 11 species and saw 12 - not bad but the details weren't so good.

• I saw 8 birds I thought I would (chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, hairy, downy, jay, junco, tuftie and dove)
• I DIDN'T see 3 birds I thought I would (White-breasted Nuthatch, goldfinch, Purple Finch)
• I SAW 4 birds I DIDN'T think I would (starling, cardinal, hawk, crow)

I was disappointed that I didn't see a white-breasted because they'd been around recently, but it didn't surprise me that I didn't see the finches.  They've been so uncommon lately I guess my prediction that they'd show was a case of wishful thinking!

So I netted out with a measly 1 point in my predict-a-bird exercise.  I'll try it again sometime...it's harder than you think!  If you try it, let us know.

Wordless Wednesday

Johnny Jump-up providing a burst of color amongst the browns of fall
November 18, 2009 Upstate New York
Current temp 40 degrees ~ Overnight low 26 degrees

Predicting the Birds

I recently read an article about a teacher that tested her ornithology students by having them predict the birds they'd see during a birding excursion.  I can't remember where I saw it but I should've written it down because it was really right up my alley.  (If you know where I saw the article, please remind me!)

Black-capped Chickadees are almost guaranteed to show up at my feeders

First she'd have them write down in advance all the birds they expected to see during the outing.  After the outing, they'd get points for all the expected birds they did see, but lost points for birds they thought they'd see but didn't, as well as birds they didn't list but did in fact see. 

The point of the exercise was to help her students become better birding enthusiasts by encouraging them to think ahead of what birds they would likely see based on location, habitat, time of year, time of day, etc.

In the spirit of this exercise, I've come up with a list of birds that I expect to see this Monday and Tuesday, my first Project FeederWatch (PFW) count days of the year. 

I do have some history to go on.  Over the past 5 PFW seasons, this first count period in mid-November is usually kind of slow, marked by visits by all the "regulars", plus perhaps some late migrants and an occasion uncommon visitor.  Here's what I've seen on my first count days over the last 5 seasons:

2008/09    11 species (44 individuals)
2007/08    12 species (63 individuals)
2006/07    13 species (62 individuals)
2005/06    10 species (61 individuals)
2004/05    8 species (32 individuals)

With this information in hand and coupled with the fact that feeder activity is JUST beginning to recover from a major slowdown that started in mid-September, here's my list for who I think I'll see this first count period.  I predict I'll see only these 11 species:

Black-capped Chickadee
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Dark-eyed Junco
Tufted Titmouse
Mourning Dove
American Goldfinch
Purple Finch

The dove, Purple Finch and goldfinch are risky since they've all been very absent from my feeders lately.  All the others are strong probabilities and/or outright guarantees.  I'll consider a visit from a Northern Cardinal, a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk, or any native sparrow a bonus bird this week.

Northern Cardinals are uncommon visitors in my yard

I'll let you know how I fare when I report later on this week. If you give this little exercise a try yourself, let me know how it goes!

Listening to Day Break

I woke knowing it was a Project FeederWatch day and perhaps immediately wanted to set the stage for my first count day.  So while I hung out in bed with the kitty and read a few pages of my new book, I turned on the sound monitor.  It wasn't even light yet so I waited for the first sounds of the new day.

The chatter of a red squirrel broke the silence, perking up Lizzie's ears.  The squirrel's solo introduction lasted perhaps 3-4 minutes before he was joined by other members of the chorus.

While still too dim to even see them, goldfinches joined in.  A trio or perhaps quartet of zweeee-zweeee-zweee calls told me a small flock was passing through the yard.  Goldfinches have been sparse lately so I hoped they'd come back later in the day to be amongst the counted.

The next chorus member to join in was the Red-breasted Nuthatch with their yank-yank calls.  Just yesterday a group of 3 nuthatches serenaded me from the top of the silver maple; it seems like they were back for an encore.  They were soon joined by the dee-dee-dee of the Black-capped Chickadee, who I knew would be included in my count.

Then from afar, I heard the peek! of a Hairy Woodpecker.  It crescendoed as the woodpecker approached, peek! Peek! PEEK! PEEK! PEEK! Peek! peek!, then decrescendoed as it most likely flew over the house and into the woods across the road.

Taking in the sounds of nature before dawn arrives is like listening to music with the lights off.  You rely on sound only, removing the distractions of the eyes to enhance what you hear.  So, with darkness gone, the chapter finished, the kitty content, and carrying bird calls in my head, I was ready for a day of counting the birds.  Oh, and maybe a little work in between too.

Project FeederWatch Starts Today!

Just a reminder that Project FeederWatch starts today, November 14.  Log onto the project website for details.  It's fun - it's easy - it's for the birds!

My first PFW report and summary of my own past years' activity will be posted later this week.

Have fun counting the birds!