The Zen Birdfeeder

Don't Miss the Goldfinch Invasion

Right now, goldfinches are busier than ever at birdfeeders throughout our area.  And if you're not seeing them at your feeders, you're missing out!

Just about all our customers are reporting large flocks of American Goldfinches - ten, twenty or more at a time - crowding their birdfeeders.  Their sweet canary-like songs are filling the treetops.  And both male and female goldfinches are looking a bit unkempt, as they are all in some stage of their spring molt.  It's quite a show!!!

If your finch feeders aren't busy, as they should be, or if you want to attract even more goldfinches, here's some steps you can take to enjoy all the activity:

• Clean your feeders.  Especially if you haven't given your feeders their spring cleaning yet.
  A weak bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) will help loosen grime and kill bacteria.  Rinse well; air dry.
• Refill feeders with FRESH seed.  If your niger seed (in the feeder OR in the bag) is more than a couple months old, it will be dried out and finches won't eat it.
  Finches are molting right now and have significant energy needs.  They're looking for the highest energy food they can find, and FRESH niger seed can provide lots of high energy fat and protein calories.
• Hang feeders in a location where the birds are safe from predators like cats.
• Keep the feeding area clean.  Rake and bag the debris underneath your feeders to help prevent the spread of diseases like salmonellosis, which flocking finches are especially susceptible to.
• Clean and fill your birdbath.  Due to their almost exclusive diet of seeds, goldfinches drink frequently and will stay close to reliable sources of water during dry periods. Keep the birdbath water clean and fresh. 
• Add another finch feeder to accomodate more birds.  But don't crowd the feeders; too many feeders in too small an area make it easier for disease to spread.
• Add a weather guard.  A weather guard over your finch feeder will help keep seed (and birds) dry.

Don't miss out - follow the steps above for the best goldfinch show in the neighborhood!

Eight Hundred and One Barred Owls

What do you get when you have 801 Barred Owls calling in a single place?

Hopefully, a Guinness world record!

801 attendees at the 2011 Midwest Birding Symposium gathered in the Hoover Auditorium at Lakeside Ohio last Saturday and, under the direction of the bird call lady Nicole Perretta, called out that familiar Barred Owl call, "who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?"

Three times these 801 voices called out in hopes of establishing a Guinness world record for the most people imitating a bird call in unison.

What fun being part of a possible Guinness World Record, even though in the process, we caused the local Barred Owls to seek out a new territory (only kidding!)

Be part of the fun.  The Midwest Birding Symposium will return to Lakeside OH in September of 2013.

Goldfinches: Our Latest-Nesting Backyard Bird

We're into the second half of July in upstate New York and our yards are filled with young birds, many just weeks old.  Doves and robins, woodpeckers, chickadees, jays, nuthatches and grosbeaks have all fledged the nest and are continuing to develop by the day.  Some species, like doves and robins, and perhaps chickadees, jays, and nuthatches, may even be working on a second brood.

American Goldfinches

But there's one very common backyard bird that is just now starting to begin their summer family.  The American Goldfinch is our latest nesting backyard bird, and they are just now, in mid- to late-July, starting the nest-building process.

Male

During early summer, they've just been very busy at the feeders.  Males have finished their molt and are in their gorgeous suit of yellow and black.  Females, though not as flashy, are beautiful in their own right.

Female

Now is the time to start watching for females carrying pieces of plant fiber or plant down (like from roadside thistle plants) which she'll use to construct a nest.  She will soon lay 4-6 eggs, and she alone will incubate the eggs for 12-14 days.  The male is still involved during this time; he helps by feeding the female.

In early August, when the young hatch, both parents will feed the nestlings.  They'll fledge between 11-17 days later.

From mid- to late-August, watch for the newly emerged fledglings following their parents and quivering their wings.  Listen for their incessant 2-note begging call (feed me! feed me!) and if you're lucky, you'll see them being fed regurgitated seeds!  Yummy!

So don't jump the gun - start looking for American Goldfinch nesting activity only when the down starts forming on thistle plants.  (These aren't the "thistle" they eat; rather they use thistle down to line their nest.)

A Mid-Summer Chickadee Brood?

Back in early May, the chickadees got me all excited by removing woodchips from the nest box and pulling wool from my nesting material ball. But after all this activity, they vacated the nest leaving a partially completed nest.

This is not uncommon with chickadees, and I knew that, but I still found it hard to not be disappointed.  And I pretty much gave up on the possibility of chickadees nesting in one of my 3 nestboxes this summer.

Lo and behold, over the last few days, I've been seeing some evidence of chickadee nesting behavior.  Just a few days ago, a chickadee was gathering wool from my now-ratty-looking nesting ball.

Then yesterday, I saw chickadee(s?) entering the nestbox in the backyard.  Was it active?  I'd need to keep an eye on it!

So today, I think I got some pretty good evidence that there are babies in that box!  It's just hard telling what stage they're at.

I saw one chickadee bringing a big juicy bug into the box; that could be for the incubating mom or for both mom and babies.

Then I saw a chickadee carrying a fecal sac out of the box.  The fecal sac is a mucous lined sac containing the excrement of nestlings.

Meanwhile, in our front yard, a chickadee was checking out a different nestbox and one was calling the soft fee-bee song, which Don & Lillian Stokes state is used "by the adults as they approach the nest" or during mate-feeding.  So I checked out the nestbox that was within 10-feet of the chickadee and there was nothing going on.

 

 

Then later on in the afternoon, I approached the log-home style nestbox (unfortunately, the top does not hinge open for monitoring) and tapped on the side.  Nothing flew out so mom was either unphased or out for the moment.  There were also no cheeping coming from inside the box.  As I backed off, a pair of chickadees approached and one entered and emerged a very short time later.

So here's what I'm thinking.  The nestbox is most likely active and I'm going to surmise that at least one egg has hatched but that the nestling(s) is young enough that it is not verbalizing yet.

If (and I know there's a lot of assuming going on) this is the case, the young will emerge less than 16 days from now, around July 21-22.

Until then, I'll continue to watch and see how things progress.  I'm disappointed that I won't be able to monitor the box for Cornell's NestWatch like I did last year, but I'm still happy to have an apparently active nestbox in the yard!  I'll keep you posted.

Observing Red-winged Blackbirds

Red-winged Blackbirds, as the real harbinger of spring, return to my yard in early March.  Their preferred habitat is marshes, wet meadows, or shoreline shrubs, and they nest in cattails or shoreline bushes, so they're not in my woodland yard for the habitat.  They're here for the easy food.  A reliable source of food that is not more than 1/4 mile from a nice patch of their preferred habitat.

There have been 3-4 regulars in the yard this spring and they've given me a little more time to observe them.  I find them to be spooky to approach, but I did get a few images that I thought I'd share.

The images above show the undertail coverts of a female blackbird.  When I previewed the image, I was just taken by how beautiful they are!  They form a wonderful pattern that we just don't see and/or pay attention to.

Amongst the White-throated Sparrows foraging on the ground, it would be easy to overlook a female Red-winged Blackbird.

And with the eye stripe, one could quickly pass over a female blackbird as a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak or female Purple Finch, at least until you note the pointy dark bill.

 

Blackbirds will visit feeders, like the male above sharing a hopper feeder with a Blue Jay peeping around the corner or the male on a seed cylinder. I've even had one clinging uncomfortably on a suet log.

I've also enjoyed watching males purposefully utlizing their namesake red wing patches.  Most of the time, they are hidden.  But if another male enters to picture, inevitably one of them will flair out their red patch, warning the intruder not to mess with them!

Another thing I've really noticed is how often they flick their tail.  When they do, it covers a wide range-of-motion, and is often accompanied by their check call.

Some people that feed birds complain about Red-winged Blackbirds at their feeders.  I find them to be pleasant feeder guests, they don't come in big gangs, they're considerate of other feeders guests, and they don't spray seed around like some other birds do.  Red-winged Blackbirds are welcome in my yard anytime!

Pileated Lookin' for Chicks

Pileated Woodpeckers are in the area around my home, but they are a rare visitor to my yard.  But the other day, I did catch a male pileated at the top of a power pole on the road, pounding away to announce his presence. 

Perhaps it was to claim his territory, but I think he was letting available females know he's around and avaialble.

He would pound out a short drill, then move to the top of the pole and look around (and preen a little too - gotta look good!)  Here's a very short video of that sequence; not the greatest angle, but you'll get the idea.

 

Are Birds Telling Us "Spring is Finally Here"?

Just when you think winter will never end, the birds give you hope!

New birds and new sounds are starting to float through my yard, birds that announce the arrival of a new season with their presence, uttering songs and calls that start the process of renewal and new life.

Shiny black with an occasional flash of red, the arrival of the Red-winged Blackbird foretells the coming of spring.  "Konk-ler-eeeeee!  Konk-ler-eeeee!"  Like many migrating birds, the "he" arrives before the "she" to scope out and establish territory.

 

The sound of "Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk! Honk!" makes me look high in the sky to see a skein of nearly 90 noisy Canada Geese.  They're headed in a northwesterly direction to locations unknown.

A Song Sparrow arrives, scratching food out of the hardened snow.  Not in the singing mood...yet.

 

The distinctive low-pitched "cr-r-ruck" of a Common Raven alerts me to a dance going on high above the pine trees.

Everyday it seems, a change takes place as spring incrementally moves in to upstate New York.

Nuthatch Got Attitude

I was going through pictures and found this one of a pretty roughed-up Red-breasted Nuthatch.



I went to the Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America by Ted Floyd because it is the first guide I pick up when I want to know how many molts a bird goes through each year.  This bird was pretty raspy looking so I wondered if it was perhaps molting.

The first thing the guide told me is that red-breasteds have only one complete molt a year, so no, I don't think it was molting.  As I looked at the date on the picture, it told me the timing for a molt didn't seem right either (it was June) - many birds don't molt during breeding season because of the energy required to carry out each activity.



So I think it was probably just a kind of scruffy-looking individual, most likely a female considering the dull colors, who may have been starting to show the wear-and-tear of breeding activities.

Anyway, I got a chuckle out of some of the descriptions of the nuthatch in the Smithsonian guide.  "All nuthatches are ovoid and pot-bellied..."  I felt sorry for these little guys being called egg-shaped, like Humpty-Dumpty with wings!  And pot-bellied too!



The guide continues, "All vocalizations nasal and petulant", which Merriam-Webster defines as "insolent or rude in speech or behavior."

                Male Red-breasted Nuthatch (August)

The poor little Red-breasted Nuthatch.  Defamed in such a manner and only a tin-horn yank-yank to defend its honor!  So it's a little round through the middle and got a little attitude - sounds like me to tell you the truth.  But these traits are why the Red-breasted Nuthatch makes it on to many birdwatcher's favorite birds list.

Not My Everyday Summer Visitors

Besides my "regular" visitors, I've had a number of other avian visitors this summer.  Some have been here before, some haven't.  Some cooperated for pictures, others not so much.  So regardless of the image quality, I'm going to share them with you anyway.

Eastern Phoebe
An Eastern Phoebe nested under the eave of a neighbor's home, but spent a lot of time singing and visiting my yard.  I'm thinking of adding a nesting platform so they move to MY house next year.

 

Scarlet Tanager
I've seen both a male and female Scarlet Tanager this summer, but I only captured this blurry in-flight image of the male.  He was just a gorgeous flash of red over the yard.

Common Yellowthroat
"Witchedy-witchedy-witch".  I don't know many warbler calls, but this one I do!  I'm glad I heard it so I could go look for this guy out in the shrubs.

 

Canada Warbler
This Canada Warbler flew right up into a nearby tree, sat for a few minutes, then flew off when it realized I was nearby!  I believe it is either a female or an immature bird (clarification appreciated).

Ovenbird
We regularly have Ovenbirds on our property, though not this spring.  We missed the teacher-TEACHER-TEACHER!! call coming from their typical haunt, the wooded west side of our house.  But over the last few weeks, an Ovenbird has been around and we're lucky that this more-often-heard-than-seen bird often works its way up the slope towards the house.  The disadvantage is that it is almost always deeply shaded here, so good images are hard (for me) to capture.

Chestnut-sided Warbler
Warblers are a big challenge for me, especially in fall.  Why else would there have been a page entitled "Confusing Fall Warblers" in the earlier editions of the Peterson Field Guide to the Birds?  (It was renamed "Selected Fall Warblers" in the latest edition.  They can rename it but fall warblers are STILL confusing!!)

I saw my first Chestnut-sided Warbler with a fantastic birder, Barb Putnam, who helped me learn its call, "please please pleased to meetcha!"

No song this time of year though. This immature Chestnut-sided Warbler was spotted just flitting around actively in the trees and shrubs, checking the underside of leaves for insects, at a height no more than 4-5 feet off the ground.  There's no chestnut sides, but the yellow/green cap and shoulders, yellow wing bars, white breast and belly, and eye-ring helped with the ID.  This was a new yard bird for me, number 90, and the 3rd new yard bird this calendar year!

With fall migration starting, I hope to catch a few migrants and maybe even another new yard bird!

Focus on Fledglings 2010 - 9

Two members of the sparrow family have raised young in my yard who then fill it with energetic little chips and trills.  I highlighted my junco family in an earlier post and today I show off my Chipping Sparrows.  They're seasonal residents here but I know that good people like my blogging friend Lana in Louisiana will provide a safe winter home for them soon.

CHIPPING SPARROW

First fledgling sighting:  July 18  

Look for these behaviors and physical characteristics to help identify young Chipping Sparrows:

    * Watch for 2-4 young following the adult bird, constantly chipping as they beg for food
    * Streaked head vs. the adult's smart cinnamon cap
    * The Chipping Sparrow eye stripe is there, just not as distinct as in the adult
    * Streaking on the breast.  The adult breast has no streaking.
    * Characteristic Chipping Sparrow behavior of feeding on the ground and their namesake "chip" call

Look for the fledgling hiding in the grass