BIRDS

[Mooseherder]

There was a Chokecherry tree there and we tried that but she didn't bite.  Other riders must be bringing her food.
I didn't research what they eat.

[SwampDonkey]

I forgot all about it, but one of the fellas I work with discovered one of them pet grouse. Him and his boy seen it along a woods road I think. Had some video he did on his phone. This was a few years ago.

[Jeff]

There was a Chokecherry tree there and we tried that but she didn't bite.  Other riders must be bringing her food.
I didn't research what they eat.

Here is what this one was eating. Highbush cranberries. He had a crop full


 

 

[SwampDonkey]

No wonder grouse taste so good. :D

They also eat birch catkins a lot, by the way.

[doc henderson]

sawyer looks a little nervous.  It will be interesting to see if he behaves better.  The first time I killed a chicken with a hatchet (sorry @Southside )  my chocolate lab Norman Rockwell spread his front paws apart and looked stunned.  i thought he was going to pass out.   :(

[Jeff]

 

 Sawyer's first grouse. - YouTube

[Magicman]

Looks like he is denying being an accomplice.  :D

[doc henderson]

he listens really well.  he may worry that this is what happens if you misbehave.  that was what i imagined seeing the look in my dogs face, when he "witnessed"  the "murder"  of one of our chickens years ago. :D

[thecfarm]

chokecherries    That was a smart bird not to eat them. Them things will pucker you up. :D

[KEC]

Regarding the Ruffed Grouse, there is a long history of ones  that will act tame; I don't think anyone knows why. Here is a photo of an Eastern Screech-owl in a roosting/nest box in my yard. I had one a few days ago. I knew the owl was inside earlier in the day because the chickadees, a nuthatch, a Blue Jay and robin were putting up a fuss. The chickadees would land right at the entry hole, peer inside and quickly fly away. The owls are my idea of natural biological mouse control.

  

[WV Sawmiller]

   Great picture! I love screech owls. They look like grumpy little old men. Very few people ever see one. I hope he sticks around.

[SwampDonkey]

:D :D I had chickadees that were using two bird houses to store ironwood seed for winter. Other birds will hide seeds in tree bark. I suspect the chickadees do to. The yard here has 4 ironwood trees and they had thousands of seeds this year. :D I think the chickadees were trying to de-thrown that owl from their stash hideout. :D

[KEC]

Chickadees  are well-known for mobbing owls so if you hear chickadees and others making a big fuss, check it out. Crows often mob owls and hawks. So, if you hear crows putting up a big fuss, check that out too. Oftentimes it will lead you to a Great-horned Owl or Barred Owl or others.

[Jeff]

Ive not caught it on video, yet, but we have a pilated woodpecker that pecks away at the suet, then he flies a few feet to the flag pole where he wipes his bill back and forth on the flag rope like a knife on a steel.

Two redheads.


 

[WV Sawmiller]

    Thanks for sharing. We have several living on the back side of my place and I hear them every evening when I am hunting up there and usually see them off in the distance but rarely close enough to get a picture of them. They are one of my favorite birds.

[Hilltop366]

Crows often mob owls and hawks. So, if you hear crows putting up a big fuss, check that out too.

Seen two hawks getting harassed by crows this week.



 



 

[WV Sawmiller]

   Good shots. I like it even better when a pint sized mockingbird gets back at them and chase the crows around.

[Hilltop366]

A couple of eagles around the camp this weekend as usual, the never seem to come over to my side of the river but they did Sunday and I was able get a half decent picture of one through the trees.

 

[Roxie]

Nice shot!  They are such magnificent birds. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yep, I see them once in awhile soar over the farmland out here away from the river.  Any deer or moose ponce around here left behind from hunting will have an eagle on it.  And the ravens and crows will stay at a distance.

[WV Sawmiller]

   We have lots of eagles on Bluestone Lake here where the New and the Bluestone Rivers merge and where I go catfishing. Lots of times I take my photographer wife and we will go run the lines and sometimes stake out our catch and pick them up on the way back then go up river several miles till we hit the shoals and too shallow for safe motoring. We see 3 distinct groups with this years young with black beaks and feet and no white on their head or tail. Many people mistake them for golden eagles or hawks. (We even had one at the Zoology Dept at AU when I went there someone had originally identified as as golden eagle then one of the ornithologists got to checking and confirmed it was a young bald eagle.) The juvenile birds will have yellow beaks and feet but no or little white on their heads and tails and finally the adult birds with completely white heads and tails. I have seen captive 5 y/o birds with white heads but they still had a few trace brown feathers in the heads if you looked close. It takes them over 5-6 years to get the completely white head and tail.

  Eagles around here hunt the mud flats and such catching fish in the shallow water. They also steal fish from the ospreys and even the herons if one of them catches a fish to big to immediately swallow. (We spotted a blue heron in the Everglades several years ago with a largemouth bass that had to weigh at least 1.5 lbs. He kept tossing it up in the air and catching it till he finally got it pointed right then he finally choked it down but if there had been an eagle around he could easily have lost it.) I watched an eagle crash into an osprey about 70 yards from me one day fishing up there. The osprey dropped the fish he was carrying and the eagle swooped down and picked it up in the shallow water near the bank. The osprey followed him about 10' behind as they flew out of sight. I doubt he ever got brave enough to try to take it back and likely was hoping he would drop it.

   I love to watch them. Many around here will stay on the perch while we drift under them taking pictures. Several time I have seen and we even photographed them landing or taking off from a dead limb and it breaking under them. They have to do some fancy flying in those cases to keep from falling. You don't think about things like that happening but if you are out there and watch them enough you will see it. I even saw a dead turkey stuck in a fork in a tall tree in PA while working up there. I don't know if he got spooked and flew off the roost at night and broke his neck or why he misjudged and broke his fool neck.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, used the watch the bald eagles steal salmon away from the ospreys down on Hearts Island in the St John river near Fredericton. We used to fish salmon from canvas back canoes, back in the good old days. ;) Grandfather and Arthur 'Art' Eastwood would see who could top the other with a good fishing or hunting story. Come Halloween and those molasses candies come out, grandfather used to give him a bag and watch as he tried chewing with no teeth and the juice running down his face. A couple old poluses.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

If you recall, last winter the video I did of the 3 ruffed grouse out behind the house walking ever so carefully under the spruce. Well this fall there have been 4 of them walking up along there almost daily. But today they were darting up along behind one another. They must like brush because that is my snow fence of tree brush in under those big spruce. :D ;D

[WV Sawmiller]

   I was sitting in my upper shooting house today and got a visit from my 3 neighborhood turkeys and then this pileated woodpecker paid me a nice visit. I love to watch them.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   A pair of hairy woodpeckers flew into the shooting house with me but left when they spotted me sitting there. I have several Red-bellied woodpeckers visiting and stealing corn from my feeder. they don't take much and scatter a few extra grains of corn with every visit so I like to see them too.

[KEC]

It's great to watch the birds and critters while on a stand. I was at a spot once where I planned to stand till the end of shooting hours when a Pileated Woodpecker came around acting a little irritated by my presence. It went from tree to tree fussing and I had a hunch that it wanted to enter a tree cavity to go to bed for the night. Sure enough, after a while it went in a hole about 40' up in a Beech tree and looked back out and, apparantly, decided that I was no threat, then went insided and stayed. Stuff most non-hunters will never see.