BIRDS

Chuck White · May 14, 2019, 09:19:18 PM

SD; I had a pair of Brown Thrashers in the back yard just yesterday!

We've had quite a few Common Flickers now for quite a while!

clww · May 14, 2019, 10:01:43 PM

We've got a mother Robin sitting on her nest for the past 8 days in one of the oaks in our front yard. Been raining for most of the past 4 days, too. I know she's tired of it because I am (and I live under a roof).

thecfarm · May 15, 2019, 05:43:15 AM

I have to check out the tractor shed for some bird nest building action.

SwampDonkey · May 15, 2019, 05:46:24 AM

Yeah them flickers have been busy around here to. The robin is trying to build a nest under the porch by the wood pile. We have a lot of little sparrows scratching around in the seeded down lawn dirt. I can't imagine getting any nourishment from a seed 0.4 mm wide, tinier than a pen dot. :D

SwampDonkey · May 18, 2019, 02:27:18 PM

Bath time, after it had rained all night. :D

Jeff · May 18, 2019, 03:26:36 PM

Ive currently got several species of black birds coming in and monopolizing the feeder. I could shut it down but then all the desirable birds leave as well.

hacknchop · May 18, 2019, 04:01:31 PM

we've got the same birds here this year more color than usual red winged blackbirds,yellow breasted blackbirds ,finches and gros beaks evening and red breasted gros beaks like the one in the picture you had posted .

Chuck White · May 18, 2019, 04:31:54 PM

We now have 2 pairs of Rose Breasted Grossbeaks coming to the feeder.

SwampDonkey · May 18, 2019, 05:28:23 PM

I've got about 40 white throated sparrows (white striped morph) on the new lawn. They love the brush on the property edge. But with them all crowded up as they are like a flock they do not sound like the white throated sparrow in the woods. They start out like the normal call, but then stop mid-stream. I would assume this is migratory vocalizations. It's the only bird that fits with the yellow patch by the eye, white throat with light grey breast, black and white striping on the head. Can't see the yellow around the eyes in the photo, but I could with binoculars.

https://youtu.be/WitVBR0kEW0

The little buggers sure blend in well with the grey rocks. :D

Nice to listen to the birdies from the porch.

Chuck White · May 18, 2019, 09:03:42 PM

SD, what you have in the pic is the "White-Crowned Sparrow"!

We have lots of them here!

They make a sweep across the yard, always working as a group!

WV Sawmiller · May 19, 2019, 12:06:36 AM

Here is a nest of nearly grown robins nested over the door of my boathouse. I did not spot the mother making the nest in time to break it up till the eggs were laid and the young birds hatched. I don't care for them there but once hatched I don't have the heart to destroy them. They are about ready to leave the nest any day then I will remove the nest. We had a small wren or such with a ground nest at one of our pasture gates. The last I saw there were 5 eggs but my wife checked today and they were all gone so either a snake or Sampson got them. Probably a snake as Sampson would have probably been scared of them. :

Did I ever mention he is not the worlds bravest dog?

There are at least 3 in the nest but there could be another in the back of the nest.

SwampDonkey · May 19, 2019, 06:21:44 AM

Hi Chuck they don't nest or winter here, they go to the Arctic. These ones here have a spot of yellow near the eyes. And there are two color variants of the white throat. But I did search for the white crowned sparrow song and they do sound like those after all. So maybe that is them and they are either on there way north or the range has shifted. Still can't figure why they have yellow though.

We also have a lot of song sparrows and chipping sparrows in with them.

White-crowned Sparrow | Audubon Field Guide

Fits more with the colors of these white throated and range here in New Brunswick. Has that yellow patch by the eye.

White-throated Sparrow | Audubon Field Guide

curved-wood · May 19, 2019, 07:06:13 AM

Quote from: WV Sawmiller on May 19, 2019, 12:06:36 AM
Here is a nest of nearly grown robins nested over the door of my boathouse. I did not spot the mother making the nest in time to break it up till the eggs were laid and the young birds hatched. I don't care for them there but once hatched I don't have the heart to destroy them. They are about ready to leave the nest any day then I will remove the nest. We had a small wren or such with a ground nest at one of our pasture gates. The last i saw there were 5 eggs but my wife checked today and they were all gone so either a snake or Sampson got them. Probably a snake as Sampson would have probably been scare of them. : Did I ever mention he is not the worlds bravest dog?

There are at least 3 in the nest but there could be another in the back of the nest.

Just curious : why destroy a robin nest ?

WV Sawmiller · May 19, 2019, 01:41:44 PM

Because they crap all over the wood and they draw/introduce mites. You can knock a nest down and they will rebuild it and have eggs in it 2 days later if you aren't careful. I like the birds - I just don't like them nesting in my buildings.

Chuck White · May 19, 2019, 05:45:30 PM

Couldn't see the yellow spot near the top of the beak, but if it's there, they are the White Throated Sparrows.

I agree with Howard, they are just NASTY, The little Phoebe are the same way!

They're both persistent builders! >:(

WV Sawmiller · May 19, 2019, 08:11:40 PM

These have already left the nest. I knew they were close to leaving. I guess me getting the mower out from under them and mowing and trimming in the area was enough to encourage them to move along. I removed their nest and another one on the ridge pole 7-8 feet away today.

Jeff · May 20, 2019, 07:45:54 PM

This redheaded woodpecker was pulling worms like a robin. Never saw a woodpecker on the ground pulling worms. I had just put the dirt in and raked in the seed to try and fix the winterkilled lawn.

Magicman · May 20, 2019, 09:21:52 PM

Remember that we also watched a Hawk pulling worms in front of the Cabin.

Jeff · May 20, 2019, 10:06:37 PM

Yes! I thought about that right away. I thought I had video but I can't find it.

SwampDonkey · May 21, 2019, 06:53:10 AM

And I have seen grackles catch and kill mice out in the yard.

Anything can be food if you can overtake it. :D

And crows eat earthworms here all the time in the bare fields and on the paved road after a rain.

Chuck White · May 21, 2019, 01:59:52 PM

I think the most hated and threatening birds around here in the Summer are the Sea Gulls!

Lots of times when the farmers are cutting hay, the Gulls will circle over the fields and moving equipment and all of the sudden they would dive! We assumed that they were feeding on mice or pieces of mice, NOPE they were feeding on baby birds that were evicted from their nests as the hay was mown! They would just grab the little birds and swallow them whole, and alive!

We ended a lot of that by carrying a 12ga in a scabbard on the tractor and dropping a few of them in the hayfields, then later the Turkey Vultures would come in and feed on them!

thecfarm · May 22, 2019, 05:00:55 AM

No sea gulls at my place. But 15 minutes away they are in the small mall parking lot,100 feet away is McDonalds french fries. :D

Hilltop366 · May 22, 2019, 08:49:05 AM

The movie The Lighthouse (Willem Dafoe & Robert Pattinson not the UK one) was filmed a few miles from me last year.

Story goes that they needed more seagull footage but the seagulls were not cooperating so a local women mentioned that they needed McDonalds fries so they sent her into town to get some, she became the seagull wrangler for the movie.

SwampDonkey · May 22, 2019, 05:17:53 PM

We get seagulls here in the fields in the spring time and after harvest. But they hang out in the parking lots in Woodstock, our largest town in the county. Fast food joints down there. ;D The Saint John is a wide river, I suppose they think of it as an inland sea. It actually was eons ago ;)

And yes to the french fries for the gulls. :D