The Zen Birdfeeder

Time to Clean the Eliminator Feeder

There comes a time in every feeder's life that it has to be cleaned.  Ideally, that is every few weeks or so.

Why take the time?  Clean feeders are better for the birds. We feed the birds to watch and enjoy them, so it is our responsibility to care for the birds by providing a healthy birdfeeding station with clean feeders.

I don't clean all my feeders at once.  I have more feeders than I have openings; this allows me to clean feeders one at a time and I'll typically have a clean feeder to immediately replace the dirty feeder.

Today's the day to clean the Eliminator feeder. The Eliminator is part of our woodland APS® setup, I fill it with WBU Choice Blend (black oil sunflower, striped sunflower, safflower, sunflower chips, and peanuts). Surrounded by so many trees, this squirrel-proof feeder is the way to go.

The Eliminator comes apart fairly easily to access the innards where seed can tend to compact and accumulate.  I take it apart and give it a good hosing off outside to get rid of the larger debris.

BEFORE

Then it comes inside for a good soaking.  I soak all parts in a weak bleach solution (9 parts water to 1 part bleach) for about 1/2 hour.

Rinse next, scrubbing or wiping to remove any remaining debris or scum.  Today, just the soaking took care of just about everything.  Rinse very thoroughly, rinse again.  Then air dry.  In today's bright sunshine, that should take no time at all. 

AFTER

Reassemble, fill, and hang

It doesn't take it long for them to use it (less than 1 minute!!)

Cleaning your feeders does not have to be a time-consuming ugly task.  Clean each feeder every few weeks and the feeder will be easier to clean; clean one at a time and the job will be less overwhelming.  Your birds will appreciate it!

American Goldfinch Fledgling Call

Listen to the call of an American Goldfinch fledgling.

Still Keep an Eye out for Young Birds

As we near the end of summer, keep looking as there are still plenty of youngsters around.  Here's some immature birds that visited my yard recently:

Young hummingbirds (notice the faint lines on the throat of this immature male on a Parasol feeder)

Young Mourning Dove (the wing and breast feathers are edged in a buff color and they lack the black spot near the eye).

Young male Rose breasted Grosbeak enjoying safflower seed (some pink on chest, red wing linings, brownish tail and wings, some brown body feathers).

Young Evening Grosbeak (like the female, mostly gray and lightly washed with yellow, with black wings and tails touched with white and pale yellow).

And yesterday, I spotted my first young American Goldfinch of the season.  Goldfinches are late nesters! 

Besides its persistent fledgling call, described by Stokes Nature Guides as "chipee, chipee", this young bird exhibited wing quiver behavior and tended to hold its wings in a lower position.  Listen for the fledgling call; once the goldfinch young are independent, you won't hear it for another year!

A Little Hummingbird TLC

There's always a lot of squabbling that goes on at our hummingbird feeders and this morning's interactions all seemed pretty normal.  I commented about the good activity at the feeders and for some reason, went outside to check the area where a lot of the hummingbird disputes were taking place.

There on the ground lay a stunned hummingbird.  He was still alive, thank heavens, but pretty out of it.  No sign of broken wings, beak intact, no blood - all good signs.
 

While he recuperated, we had him sign some release forms for the ensuing photo session.

The faint streaking on the throat identifies this as a juvenile male.  Hummingbirds have started migration with adult males leading the charge.  Come to think of it, I haven't seen an adult male in a couple of days.

Bird banding studies have determined that there is a steady wave of hummingbirds that visit your feeders and flowers during migration.  The hummingbirds you see on Friday will be totally different hummingbirds then you saw on Monday.

After sitting for a few moments, our hummingbird took off, only to fly in a small circle around us, get hounded by another hummer, then land back on the house.  (That's a bit of spider web in the photo).  We offered him nectar, which he didn't take, but he did perch on a finger again, only to soon take off to a nearby tree.

I hope he's a little more cautious on the remainder of his journey south!

Sapsucker Young, 52 days Later

My Yellow bellied Sapsucker Yard Class of 2007 was introduced to you in my June 28th post when the recently fledged young were still following their parents and begging for food.  By my calculations, their eggs were laid in mid-May and hatched in early June.  They were in their nest cavity for almost a month before venturing out. 

Sapsucker young will remain with their parents for a time, even when not dependent on them for food.

The newly fledged sapsucker is brown, and on this individual, you can see just the very slightest shade of red on the forehead.

The yellow bellied is a common breeder at higher elevations in the state (we are at 1,300 feet in the foothills of the Adirondacks).  They are migratory, but I can look forward to seeing them around for at least another month or two.

The following photos were taken 52 days after the ones in my initial post.  By my estimates, the sapsucker young are nearing 3 months old. 

This immature male is showing signs of molting his juvenile plumage.  Much more red on his forehead and the beginning of the red on his throat. He's losing his brown feathers and showing much more of the familiar black-and-white plumage. 

Female sapsucker young develop their red forehead later in the fall.  My thanks to Tom at Mon@rch for info on juvenile plumage.  Check out his informative sapsucker post including more cool images of banded sapsuckers, some that were painfully obtained.

I'll conclude with some writings on the Yellow bellied Sapsucker from a text dating back to 1914:

"On several occasions I have seen a Sapsucker so gorged with fermented sap that he allowed himself to be picked up in the hand and I have seen one alight on the clothing of a bird student and climb up his outstretched arm without seeming to realize that he was on a man instead of a tree.  It is evident they become tipsy on the sap in the same manner that thrushes frequently become stupefied by feeding upon fermented fruit." 

Birds of New York, Elon Howard Eaton, 1914.

WBU-Saratoga Celebrates 4th Anniversary

August 15th marked the 4th Anniversary of Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs.  We celebrated last Saturday with a number of activities.

We started with seminars on selecting & using binoculars and digiscoping.  Then, Dave MacDougall joined us to sign copies of his new book, "A Field Guide to the Karner Blue Butterfly".  You can pick up a copy of the book at WBU-Saratoga and we will donate ALL profits from the sale of Dave's book to the Wilton Wildlife Preserve and Park.

Beth Bidwell of the Wildlife Institute of Eastern New York returned, this time with her most popular program, Local Wildlife.

Here's Beth with a Black Rat Snake,

an American Kestrel,

an Eastern Screech Owl,

and a Great Horned Owl.

Lots of good friends and customers joined us for the day.

Thanks to you all for your support and business over the last four years!  It's been fun!

Red breasted Nuthatch

Red breasted Nuthatches are approachable, friendly, fearless and bold. 

Just wanted to share some images of a very cooperative nuthatch.  Click on any image to enlarge. 

I hope you enjoy - this little sweetie is the latest wallpaper on my laptop.

More Bald Blue Jays

Another bald Blue Jay at the feeders the other day.  Here's some facts from Cornell Lab of Ornithology about bald birds.

The Birdchick blog also recently had a post and cool pictures of bald cardinals.

Finish this post:  "Two bald jays walk into a bar..."

UPDATE 2008:  Mid-August 2008 brought another batch of bald Blue Jays to the feeders.  Check out some new photos of bald jays in the Late Summer Yard Observations post.

UPDATE 2009:  Here's a link to pictures of 2009's bald Blue Jays!

UPDATE 2012:  Here's 2012 pictures entitled "Blue Jay Style".

The Dripper was a Bird Magnet!

A few days ago, I moved my dripper/mister to a birdbath on the shady, wooded side of the house.  I had been using it as a mister in a sunny spot, and changed it to the dripper function when I moved it.

And yesterday, that moving water and sound paid off with a fantastic show at the birdbath.

Can you tell what this blur is?

Here's another in case you didn't get it the first try.

Yep, a Northern Flicker really soakin' it up.

Next?  This one's easier.

And another one just 5 minutes later.

In the meantime, a wet little Chipping Sparrow in the bath out front.

Back enjoying the dripper, a male Purple Finch,

goldfinches,

Red-breasted Nuthatch,

then the best surprise of all, a Scarlet Tanager.

The last time we had one was back in 2005, so needless to say, I was thrilled.

Not using the bath, but enjoying the habitat, a Black & White Warbler.

What an afternoon it was! 

Think about some moving water for your birdbath - it's like a bird magnet!

Blue Jay Behavior and Molt

We have so many Blue Jays and their fledglings this year that it's been easy and interesting to observe their behaviors.

In my Hungry Baby Birds post, I had images of the Blue Jay fledgling begging behavior - wings out, fluttering, and following the adult with whiny calls. 

That behavior is still going on.  These young birds are not small, either, and seem able to feed on their own.  The adult behavior towards them urges them to become independent.  Today, I observed an adult who fed on sunflower chips, returned to the perch of a whining young bird and totally ignored him, even turning its head away from the young bird.  The adult eventually flew off, followed shortly by the young one.

In mid-July, I saw an adult exhibiting dominant and aggressive behavior toward a young bird.  This fledgling approached the adult on the top of an Advanced Pole System® set-up, begging.

As the adult stared it down, the young bird cowered.

It then turned its back on the adult,
 

who flew aggressively at the young bird,

and then gave it a good talking to!

All that took place within 1 minute and was caught in the burst mode on my digital camera.  The quality of the images aren't great, but you get an idea of some interesting jay behavior.

Jays are going through a complete molt at this time of the year. 

I've recently seen a couple jays that have lost all their head feathers at once. 

Notice the ear opening below and in back of the eye.  These openings are usually covered by specialized feathers call auriculars, or ear coverts.

The feathers do grow back but until then, this guy looks like a little blue Turkey Vulture!