The Zen Birdfeeder

Top 5 Tips for Feeding Common Redpolls

Trust me on this one: it's only a matter of time until Common Redpolls start arriving in our area.  Here's how to make sure they make a stop at your feeding station this winter:

1) Offer fresh niger seed

Make sure your niger seed (aka thistle or Nyjer) is fresh (less than 3 months old, whether it's in the feeder or in the bag).  Also make sure the seed is loose and dry in the feeder.

2) Hang multiple finch feeders

Redpolls are VERY gregarious.  Flocks can number over 100.  Having multiple finch feeders for them will allow you to host more redpolls.

3) Use a mesh finch feeder

Most finch tube-type feeders limit the number of birds on it at one time to the number of perches it has.  A mesh finch feeder allows more redpolls to cling on the feeder to eat and the sight it amazing - it looks like a busy beehive.

4) Keep your feeders and feeding area clean

Redpolls are susceptible to salmonellosis, and because of their flocking behavior, they could easily spread it to others in the flock.
Help them out by cleaning your feeders often with a weak bleach solution (1 part bleach to 9 parts water) and by cleaning the area beneath the feeders as well.

5) Watch for the rarer Hoary Redpoll

Within any sizeable redpoll flock, you might be able to pick out a Hoary Redpoll, a frostier-colored cousin of the Common Redpoll.  Read up on the Hoary Redpoll so you can be ready to look for one!

Related articles

• Top 5 Tips for Feeding the Pine Siskins
• Are We In for a Great Birdfeeding Season? I'm Thinkin' So!

My Thanksgiving Wish to You

Have a great Thanksgiving and
may your birdfeeders be FILLED with bird(s)!

Wordless Wednesday - Jay with a Cropful

Birdfeeding on a Budget - Bring Clay Birdbaths in for the Winter

Dollars are tight - we know that.  But giving up birdfeeding is something we're just not willing to do!  Not with all that the birds add to our life!  Whether we're enduring the shortest of winter days or the sweltering summer heat, birds add color and sound and life to our lives and to our yards.

In our Birdfeeding on a Budget segment, I'll provide hints on how to be able to continue feeding the birds in this tough economy.  I'll help you make smart decisions so you can continue to feed the birds.  Note that I said SMART decisions, not necessarily CHEAP decisions, since cheap decisions can sometimes cost us more in the long run, and that just doesn't make sense.  Let's Feed the Birds!

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One of the best ways to host the birds on a budget is to take care of the hobby products you already have.  That is why we recommend that you store your clay birdbaths if you live in an area where freezes occur.

Clay is a porous material and can absorb moisture.  When temperatures are below freezing, that moisture also freezes and expands and will likely crack the surrounding clay.

While some folks have had luck just turning the bowl over, we recommend bringing the entire birdbath in for the season.  Replace it with a heated birdbath if you have one.

In the Company of an Ivory-billed

During our visit to Cornell Lab of Ornithology in September, we took a tour that included the Museum of Vertebrates housed there.  I was on the hunt for a Passenger Pigeon specimen to photograph for my post "Too Many Doves", and to tell you the truth, wasn't even thinking of seeing an Ivory-billed Woodpecker.

 

Ivory-billed Woodpecker and Passenge Pigeon specimens at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

But there it was, a female Ivory-billed Woodpecker specimen, face-to-face with its partner in extinction, the Passenger Pigeon.

 

She was skinny and faded, showing her age, just a shadow of her former magnificent self.  But to be in her presence was amazing and humbling, and not without a hint of shame.  I had nothing to do with her extinction, but I do share the consumptive habits of earlier generations that did have a hand in her demise.  I do accept responsibility.

 

Perhaps her mate was one of the males laid out in the nearby specimen tray, stretched out, chin up, wearing a faded tag reading Campephilus principalis.  Both males called the Florida Keys home; one last foraged there 116 years ago - his tag marked the date: November 29, 1896.

 

In another area of the lab, I stood in awe of a metal canister.  Not just any old tape canister you'd find in grandpa's attic, but a canister holding an audio tape of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker.  It was recorded in 1938 by none other than Cornell Lab of Ornithology founder Arthur A. Allen.

The hubbub surrounding the Ivory-billed Woodpeckers' rediscovery in 2004 has died down, and despite hundreds of search teams and countless hours of video and audio recording in the inhospitable habitat the bird called home, more scientists are (reluctantly?) joining the camp labelling the woodpecker "extinct".

But my fascination with the life and demise of this magnificent bird will never die and the honor of having been in its presence is an experience I'll never forget.

All photographs were taken at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates housed at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Have your Bird-friendly Coffee and your Keurig Too

A couple months ago, my sister gave me a used Keurig® brand coffee maker.  These coffee machines have intrigued me for years but three things kept me from investing in one.

First and most importantly, I have committed to drink only Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center certified Bird-friendly® coffee whenever I can.

Bird-friendly coffee is shade-grown coffee that has earned certification by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center because the manner in which it is grown helps protect and preserve the winter habitats of many migratory birds.  My bird-friendly coffee of choice is Birds & Beans™ coffee, which we sell at Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs NY.  I love the Chestnut-sided Warbler roast, but it is not available in a K-cup, nor is any other certified Bird-friendly coffee that I'm aware of.

My second reason for avoiding the Keurig system is the tremendous waste involved.

Every single cup of coffee, tea, or hot chocolate brewed using a K-cup in a Keurig machine adds a plastic cup, liner, and foil cover to the landfill.  The cups are NOT recyclable plastic and are not biodegradable. 

Back in 2010, a NY Times article stated that Keurig "expects to sell nearly three billion K-Cups, the plastic and tinfoil pods that are made to be thrown away — filter, grounds and all — after one use."  That's 3,000,000,000 little cups going into landfills each year, and I bet that number is growing as the popularity of the machines grow!

The Third reason is cost

Each cup of coffee using a K-cup costs over 83 cents (48-pack at Kohl's).  Even on sale, it is nearly 73 cents per cup. Sure, it's cheaper than a cup at the corner shop, but read on...

The Keurig "My K-CUP®" Saves the Day!

There is an accessory you can purchase for your Keurig maker (except the new Vue model) that lets you "use your own gourmet coffee" in your Keurig machine.  It's a 3-piece unit composing of a filter, holder, and lid. 

To use it, you remove the filter basket of the machine (the part with the needle that punctures the cup) and insert the My K-cup that has been filled with (preferably) Bird-friendly coffee.  Brew as regular.

When done, you're able to compost the grounds, then wash the unit before the next use.  I have two of them at home so one is always clean.

The Benefits of Using the My K-Cup

If you love your Keurig machine, by switching to a My K-Cup and drinking certified Bird-friendly coffee, you will:

1. Save money
   The cost of a cup of Bird-friendly Birds & Beans coffee using the My K-Cup is just 37 cents per cup.  You get almost 2 full cups of delicious shade-grown coffee for every 1 cup made from a pre-filled plastic cartridge.
2. Create less waste
   Don't add to the THREE BILLION cups being added to the landfill each year!!
3. Compost the grounds
   Though you can compost the grounds in a pre-filled K-cup, most people do not.
4. Help migratory birds
   Drinking certified Bird-friendly coffee in your machine will help preserve the habitat of many migratory birds.

 

Look for The My K-cup accessory where you buy Keurig machines.  Right now at Wild Birds Unlimited - Saratoga Springs, we have a limited number available for purchase. 

And next spring, when you see the brilliant orange & black of the Baltimore Oriole or hear the ethereal song of the Wood Thrush you can be proud that you have taken a step to help their survival.

Please take a moment and think about this and join me in brewing Birds & Beans coffee using a My K-cup accessory in your Keurig brewer.

Wednesday at the Watering Hole - 2, 4:30, 7, 8:30, and 11

5 Tips to Attract Red-breasted Nuthatches to your Yard

Red-breasted Nuthatches are on the move this fall and it's easy to host them in your yard. 

In winter, these nuthatches eat seeds, especially seeds from conifer trees.  When those natural food sources fail or are inadequate, they migrate in search of better cone crops.  That's what is happening this year and why you might see this feisty little bird in your yard for the first time.

Here's 5 tips for hosting them in your yard:

1) Red-breasted Nuthatches love peanuts.

Offer peanuts out of the shell (unsalted of course) and you will be offering one of the Red-breasted Nuthatches' favorite feeder foods.

2) Offer Suet.

Red-breasteds will also eat suet, especially those that have peanuts in it like Bark Butter, Peanut Butter & Jelly or Naturally Nuts suet cakes.  And for suet logs, Bark Butter Plugs and PB&J plugs will satisfy their suet cravings.

3) Offer Stackables or cylinders with nuts.

Nutty for Nuts cylinders or Stackables.  Filled with nuts...'nuf said.

4) Consider hanging a mesh peanut feeder.

These mesh feeders hold peanuts out of the shell.  Nuthatches (and other birds like chickadees and titmice) will cling to the mesh while pecking at the nuts to get them the right size to pull out.  You'll get better views of this handsome bird as they spend more time at the feeder.

5) Try feeding Red-breasted Nuthatches from your hand.

Red-breasteds are extremely approachable and have been known to take food from an extended hand.  I'd use peanuts (no surprise there considering items 1-3!)
 
The good thing is that if you do these things, other birds like chickadees and titmice will also take advantage of these offerings!  Enjoy the nuthatches this year, especially if they are a new visitor in your yard!

And They're Off - Project FeederWatch Counting Begins

Today I started counting for the 2012-13 Project FeederWatch season.  This is my 8th season counting in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology citizen science project.

 

Common Redpoll

Evening Grosbeak

I think we'll have a great PFW season, especially with the possible irruption of Common Redpolls and Evening Grosbeaks.  I'll be keeping a eye out for Pine Grosbeaks and maybe even some White-winged Crossbills in the conifer trees.  I've even reviewed my field guide just in case those crossbills show up!  My everyday birds are already busy at the feeders, even on this unseasonably warm day that kicks off the season.

 

I hope you'll join me in counting the birds this winter.  Find out more at the Project FeederWatch site.  It'll be fun!

 

Window Strike!

This shadowy image is what was left on my window after an unknown bird hit a window while fleeing a hawk.  I saw the hawk leave the area after I heard the strike, but this time, the intended prey escaped his attack.

Mourning Doves often leave very powdery marks on a window they come in contact with, and the size was about right for a dove.  I was fascinated how the body, face, left eye, and left wing are all clearly evident. 

Unfortunately, even when birds fly off from a window strike, they sometimes die from the internal injuries they sustained.