February 2009

GBBC

Once again it is time for the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 13-16. The Bird Count and participation is down for the first time in five years. I am sorry that I do not have time for it, kudos to those that do!

The hanging feeder sort of took the fun out of the birding pics thing. In the first two full days, I had pics of almost all my fav species. Since then, I have been getting hundreds of pics a day, mostly similar to this. When I see these pics, I keep trying to find something new, like Pine Siskin. They are similar to female house finch, and they show up with goldfinch, but so far I haven't seen any. Sometimes doves fill the feeder, and sometimes sparrows. I have been using a fruit and nut mix with seeds, but I tried Trail Mix, a Waste Free feed. This is advertised as inspired by the Peterson Field Guides, so I assumed it should be good! Well, it attracts too many starlings. I have three bags to use up, I will not buy more. I hadn't seen the Carolina wren lately, but it showed up here. The titmice and cardinal still visit and the chickadees make the occasional stop. The goldfinch started to get their golden color, and the male HOFI have turned a dark red.

I wouldn't be surprised to see robins show up soon. I am thinking about getting a ground feeder with a roof. The one I have is not covered, and the suet went bad before anything ate it. Duncraft wants $79.95 for this one. That seems kind of steep to me.

Lots of Pics

I saw a page about house wrens. They take over the nests of other birds, such as chickadees, nuthatches, bluebirds and others. They destroy the eggs, which will wipe out the other species. I panicked, knowing that wrens started showing up here. Luckily, the wren that I have been seeing is a Carolina wren, which is not destructive to other nests. The Carolina wren has a stripe over the eye.

Continuing my trend of never getting a good pic of a junco, here is one, and here is another. Late this afternoon I saw what looked like a fat HOSP. The lighting was not good for trying to get a pic. Here and here are a couple of heavily edited pics. I'm not sure what it is.

I've seen quite a few pics of titmice. Here and here are a couple. I always see the titmice and chickadees together so it is a mystery why I don't see more chickadees in the pics, but here and here are a couple.

One thing I do see is a lot of goldfinch. I thought they liked nyjer seed, but I don't see them on the nyjer sock. Here is a goldfinch posing. seven goldfinch, eight Goldfinch, can't even count the goldfinch!

I haven't seen many nuthatch, but here is one. And here is a downy. And finally, a pair of jays. Phew! Glad that's done!