BIRDS

[SwampDonkey]

Hard to beat that . Dude has more patience than me. I'll give em a minute or two and thats it.

Yep, I hear ya. :D

[Magicman]

 


Here are 4 Humming Birds perched on my hand. 

[Walnut Beast]

Wow! That's awesome. I haven't seen a hummingbird in years

[KEC]

Believe it or not, as we speak, there is a Rufous Hummingbird in Baldwinsville just North of Syracuse and it has been there since October. I saw it earlier this month (January 2021). Some homeowners are keeping feeders up for it. Apparently, they are a relatively hardy hummingbird and summer in Alaska, arriving in the spring when it is still cold. It was uncanny to see it in the winter here.

[SwampDonkey]

The hummers buzz me often when I am out at the road and hard hat on. Plus the fact I hang pretty ribbons. :D Must be a few wild flowers around for nectar, but often unseen. I'm just looking at fir and spruce trees all day. :D

Magicman the hummer whisperer. ;)

[KEC]

Swamp Donkey, in some areas Ruby-throated Hummingbbirds will follow Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers around and pirate the sapsuckers' sap wells. Probably because heavily wooded areas don;t have so many flowers. I once watched a hummer feeding at sapsucker holes in an elm tree. I don't recall seeing elms with sapsucker holes, which are in horizontal rows.

[SwampDonkey]

@KEC Yes, I've read that before. I've never seen it. But we do have a lot of sapsucker buzzards around here. ;D

Had a red pine and a larch that were both being hammered by sap suckers in the yard. I've got other such trees and they never touch them like that. They do pick on basswood though.

[KEC]

I scratch my head sometimes, wondering why sapsuckers drill heck out of one tree and not others. A few years back they really worked over a mountain ash in my yard, then after that year they leave it alone. If you hoot like a Barred Owl near a sapsuckers' nest or babies the sapsucker will come in and say unspeakable things at you. And, sometimes they will have a hummingbird in tow as though towing it around with an invisible string about 4' long. Must see to appreciate.

[Jeff]

I was out with the dogs a minute ago and heard a bluejay yackin. I looked up for him and found him going through a grey squirrel's nest looking for food I guess, because he flew from that one, to the next one just a tree away and started doing the same thing. Probably after the bird feed the squirrels hoard out of the bird feeders in the hood. I'd never witnessed a Bluejay raiding squirrel houses before.

[WV Sawmiller]

Jeff,

    Were those leaf nests the blue jays were raiding? I never knew the squirrels would store food in them. I know they will store it in knotholes and cracks and such. I think most of their food around here they bury and they must plant millions of trees and grapes and such every Fall digging a little hole 2-3 inches deep, dropping in a grape, acorn, hickory nut, walnut, beech nut or such then covering it up and repeating. They are frantic when the nuts are falling to collect and bury them all. I put a half a grocery sack full of wormy chestnuts outside in Quantico when I was in training up there and we watched one grey squirrel grab one, run 100 yards away, bury it, come back and grab another then go 6' away and bury it. I thought they buried them in the same area so they would know where to look later but this one had no rhyme or reason to where he planted them. He did not stop till he had that whole back emptied. It was fun to watch him. With their high mortality and such I bet the squirrels never retrieve 5-10 percent of what they bury.

[Jeff]

Leaf nests. We see the squirrels raiding birdfeeders all the time milling their mouths with corn or sunflower seeds, then retreating back to both nests and tree holes. From my living room chair I have a great view of a bunch of squirrel infested trees.

[SwampDonkey]

Put out a handful of peanuts in the shell and see who gets them first. I bet it ain't the squirrels. ;D

[KEC]

Maybe the Blue Jays hid seeds in the squirrel nests, I'm quite sure that they take food and hide it for later as do some other birds. I've been enjoying having Common Redpolls coming to my feeders almost daily lately. A Cooper's Hawk is keeping the birds on high alert, especially the Mourning Doves. 

[Walnut Beast]

 

 The birds found the seed that I threw on the snow pile that got covered by fresh snow. I found out a woodpecker is the king around the other birds. 14 Blue Jay can be around feeding and when he comes in they scatter 

[SwampDonkey]

We've been getting a flock of tree sparrows this winter going from the tall weeds where they get seed then up by the front door where they pick up gravel. I keep it cleared off enough there for the sun to melt the snow and ice away. Stopped putting feed out here as there are about 30 pigeons around here that want to move in and leave their crappy card on the roof. So better to leave some tall weeds for the little birdies instead. ;D

[KEC]

I sort of fiqured out to leave some mature weeds around the yard as a food source for the birds too. And what's not to like about less yard work. Seriously, I'd like to see more people leave the weeds to go to seed for the birds.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 
I reset my homemade box trap on the front porch to catch any possums or coons coming at night to steal Sampson's food. I heard the door drop a little bit ago and told my wife the birds had set it off. They come regularly and steal the dog food and I figured one had lit on the trip stick and set it off. Turned out this male cardinal had gotten inside and bumped the trigger stick. I took this picture and got a couple of nasty nips for my trouble then turned him loose. 

[Crusarius]

He looks less than pleased. did you at least give him a snack?

[WV Sawmiller]

   Does a chunk out of my left pinkie count as a snack? :D

[Hilltop366]

All depends if he swallowed it or spit it out.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My pain and suffering remain the same either way. :

    I must remind you all that no Cardinals were harmed in the making of this photo - or thereafter. I cannot say that for the photographer. :( Actually, I feel no ill-will towards the bird who was just doing what comes natural when he was caught, photographed and released. (I may wear a glove if he returns. :D)

[Crusarius]

or a hard hat

[KEC]

A wildlife rehabilitator friend of mine told me that someone was holding onto an injured Great Blue Heron trying to help it when the heron drove it's bill right through his eye and into his brain and killed him. Can't be too careful. Critters have a strange way of showing appreciation when you help them.

[Walnut Beast]

A wildlife rehabilitator friend of mine told me that someone was holding onto an injured Great Blue Heron trying to help it when the heron drove it's bill right through his eye and into his brain and killed him. Can't be too careful. Critters have a strange way of showing appreciation when you help them.

Rare incidents but yes things can happen 

[woodroe]

Got a flock of about 20 turkeys spending the night in my pine stand beside the field.
They were scratching around under the bird feeders late this afternoon and happened
to catch one in flight heading for the Pines couple hundred ft. away.
So with binoculars I could see 1/2 doz or more up in the trees getting in position for the night.
Don't see that very often .
They don't like crows either, seen some goings on in the field between them when the
crows are cleaning up table scraps and stale bread . Turkeys get aggressive with them, chase them off.