Bird Watching Club

Natalie3

WOW !  Auntienance, it sounds like you live in a bird watchers paradise !!

I will usually see a couple of Catbirds in the summer.  They are so pretty.  Sleek grey and the males have a little Black "hat" ?  I never noticed the red mark, will have to look for that.

Very cold here, so I am putting out extra food.  I have these new "suet pellets", they are high in protein and fat.  AND high in price !  

I had a pair of Bluebirds last week when the temp was in the teens.  Poor guys, I don't know how the few "stragglers" make it through the winter.  That is about it.  Going through lots of bird food, but so far it is just the "usual" .  Lots and lots of Woodpeckers this year (Downy, Hairy, Red Bellied, and Flicker ).  I have gone through 50 packages of suets !   $$$

Chickadee

Natalie you might want to take a stab at making your own suet. Cheapest Peanut butter(chunky), lard, oatmeal, dried cranberries and raisins,sunflower seeds, and general birdseed.



Over moderate heat melt the lard and peanut butter then add all the other stuff until its a gloppy mess. Scoop into a container(s) about the size of your suet cage and chill until firm. I imagine you could break it into pellets if wanted.

stride

I hope you will all forgive my avatar. I live on the East Coast and have been seeing flocks of robins. This is a new phenomenon for me. I used to live farther north and never saw them gathered in such large groups. I still think of a solitary robin dancing around in the front yard as a sign of spring. 

pj12

Stride,



I am hoping your flocks of robins are my flocks of robins moving up the east coast. I do hope they are not new flocks coming south! But given the weather reports, they are probably heading for warm climates.

auntienance

Natalie, we have recently discovered the suet pellets too. Boy are the titmice and chickadees wild about them. They sell here for about $3 a large bag, but they sure don't last long. For some reason the woodpeckers prefer the cakes, so we feed those too. We do live in a good bird area. I live in a rural area north of st. Louis. When we lived in the city, we didn't get nearly the number or variety that we do here. We used to have two shetland sheepdogs who were the love of our lives. When they died three years ago (a week apart) they left a pretty big hole that my husband has been trying to fill with birds ever since. Nothing is too good for his "Birdies".

gillyone

Hello - I'm not a birder. I really know very little about birds in the US having grown up in England. Anyhow, we put out bird feeders at Christmas and are not getting anything to come and feed. I live in North Idaho so it is very cold. Any ideas about how to attract birds?

Chickadee

Hi gillyone, find out what birds are common in the winter for your area and what they like to eat. Also whether they eat from a feeder or a flat platform or even if they prefer it scattered on the ground. Be patient. Sometimes it takes time for them to find the food. Once they do, it seems they shout it out to the bird community and then you'll be moving forward. Things may pick up as spring arrives.

coraleliz

Here's a bird that lives at a nearby beach,the Snowy Plover. I live on California's central coast & access to certain beaches become restricted during breeding season due to this little bird's dwindling numbers. 

coraleliz

Here's a couple of fun Redtail Hawk shots from last summer. These juveniles are quite noisy but fun to have in the neighborhood.

Just playing in a puddle on trash collection day.

pj12

Great photos, cor aleliz.

auntienance

Wonderful coraleliz!

coraleliz

gilly-I've also heard it takes time for birds to find feeders. You might also try putting up a bird bath when the weather warms up. I prefer this to feeding them. When I've tried seed feeders, I attracted rats(or maybe they were large mice?). Although I do have the hawks & owls(& the neighborhood cats) to help me out. I tried to put up a nyjer seed feeder(nyjer seed doesn't attract rats). The birds attracted to this type of feeder are limited. But I couldn't get the goldfinches in the area to find my feeder.

I would love to see bird pics from others. The cropping tool is a favorite of mine for editing. I purchased a SLR camera(that came w/a couple of lens) from Costco about a year prior to BC. But since my BMX & starting Tamoxifen, I've found it much harder to hold the camera steady. Got a tripod for Xmas & haven't quite figured it out.

luvmygoats

Coraleliz - One trick to use with goldfinch feeders is to hang something yellow on them making birds think other birds are there.  I usually use a good length of package ribbon.

I saw a house finch the other day the ones Peterson says looks they been dipped in raspberry jam.  Don't have them often.  Went walking over the weekend just up and down our cul-de-sac.  On the second trip I scared a blue heron out of a stock tank. Can't see the water due to the angle even if it were quite full and was surprised there was anything in there the bird wanted to fish for.  The rain we had 2 weeks ago did little to add to the water table.

Loved your hawk pictures.

auntienance

We don't have nearly as many purple finches or house finches this winter. The purples will migrate come spring but we have house finches all year. They love to eat the grape jelly and oranges that we feed the orioles in the spring and summer.



I gave my DH a birdcam last year and he's gotten some pretty good bird pictures at the feeders. I don't have them posted anywhere though so I'll have to do that before I can put any up here.

elimar86861

Can any of you tell me if the birds are getting drunk on my crabapples?  They sure act like it.  For the last week, I have had about 5-6 fat robins fly into my picture window every day.  No fatalities...just THUMP!

SoCalLisa

Hi all, I have just gotten into bird watching and taking photos of them...

a flock of white pelicans stopped by on their way south

a few days ago..

SoCalLisa

We live near the coast so have many shore

birds coming by

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa

curveball

@coraleliz, you might try planting some catnip plants to attract the goldfinches. Years ago when I lived in the Bay Area in CA, we had a few plants in the back yard to grow catnip for our cat. But the goldfinches liked to peck the seeds out of the heads after the flowers were over. There are some quite ornamental types of catnip but what we had was the ordinary variety that gets kitty stoned out of his mind. I don't know whether the seeds of other varieties would attrat the goldfinches.

I like goldies too. There is a species here in WA, possibly the same species as in CA, but I don't see them often.

pj12

We have some wintering over goldfinches. They are pretty drab right now so a little hard to differentiate from some of the winter warblers. They seem to like our water bowls more than our feeders but will go to the feeders which area loaded with nothing special.



Yesterday there must have been huge schools of bait fish in the surf because the seagulls were putting on quite a show, diving and splashing. It was a beautiful scene.

Chickadee

Beautiful pics SoCal.

nesw

Love the shorebird photos Lisa!  We hang finch socks that really attract the goldfinches, but in the fall they go crazy over the seed heads from the coneflowers.  Catbirds are some of my favorites in the summer.  I'll sit out back and throw blueberries and they chase after them.  I also planted some native blueberries and the catbirds eat them before they're ripened.  I chose all of the native landscaping (northern NJ) specifically for wildlife, so the blueberries were meant for the birds anyway.  I just didn't realize they eat them unripened.  Same for the mulberries.  The crabapples though - they ripen, then get all dried and wrinkly and right about now I'm expecting cedar waxwings to show up and take them all.  That's what has happened the past few years anyway.  Such beautiful creatures.

curveball

cedar waxwings! they are so beautiful and I hardly ever see them. Maybe if I plant a crabapple it will attract them.

auntienance

We get waxwings quit often. I love hearing their high pitched whistle. they eat the tiny fruits of the Bradford pear trees. Love your pics Lisa.

SoCalLisa

SoCalLisa