BIRDS

[SwampDonkey]

We have hummers here now a couple days after mother put the feeder up. 

Those tree swallows were like a bunch of bats this morning, chirping and flying around at 4:00 am.

[WhitePineJunky]

We got all the birds now. Hummers, tree swallows, cardinals, tons of goldfinches, rose breasted gros beaks, even a brown headed cow bird 😯 

[Old saw fixer]

I finally hear quail again, but still nothing from the whippoorwills. 

[thecfarm]

I was so excited to hear a whippoorwill the other night I started a new thread. Forgot about this one. I click onto to this one just about each time I see something new.
I have not heard one of those for years. 
We saw a Scarlet Tanger. I have never seen one of those. We had to look it up.
No Orioles here yet. A couple years ago we had them here just about steady. We found out cheap grape jelly kept them here. But last year we never saw a one. 

[aigheadish]

I just learned what the brown headed cowbirds were a week or so ago, to find there are a bunch of them around here. Their weird gulping noise is cool, it's like a robot drop of water hitting a puddle!

[Chuck White]

The Brown Headed Cowbird is my least favorite, because the female will enter other birds nests and remove some eggs, then deposit some of her own, letting the original owner of the nest raise her babies!

[aigheadish]

That's some Horton Hears a Who stuff. 

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Momma Cardinal let me snap a pic this morning.

[SwampDonkey]

Saw my first scarlet tanager about 30 years ago, have not seen many since. It's uncommon here. I never see anyone post photos of any on the regional bird Facebook site.

I thought I may have heard a bobolink the other day. The grass isn't tall enough for them to nest in yet. Been seen the yellow of the goldfinches here, but they never leave here. They loose the yellow in winter. They don't nest until the thistle heads are gone to seed. Another name for them is 'the thistle bird'. I have heard a couple of white throated sparrows in the last week. Saw a blue heron a week ago. The ospreys have been back about a month. Lots of them nest on man made platforms. I know of 8 nest sites all around here.

The brown thrasher showed up last weekend.

Not heard any bitterns dropping their stones (breeding call) yet.

[woodroe]

Saw a black and white warbler the other day.
Unusual but not unheard of. 
They act like tree creepers so that's what caught my attention
circling up and down a tree trunk looking for bugs.
Striking streaky colors .

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-and-white_Warbler/id

[aigheadish]

I didn't know what a Scarlet Tanager was. I saw this bird in the tree back behind the barn, a couple hundred feet away, only long enough to snap this very zoomed in and blurry shot. I was wondering if I'd seen my first Oriole in the yard but looking it up proved me incorrect. About one minute later I was perusing a different social media site and one of my buddies, in Illinois (I think) posted, 4 minutes earlier, what had to be the exact bird I saw. Red/orange head and body with black wings. His picture was crystal clear of a Scarlet Tanager and it is really neat! The Merlin app, for what it's worth, didn't even suggest that as an option.

[WV Sawmiller]

  (This gallery still ain't my friend and just ate my last post (Yeah - not the gallery but my fat fingers - but I'm getting closer so here we go again.)

    I was push mowing the back yard because my big mower is in the shop. As I passed the pasture gate I checked the bluebird box mounted on the gate post. It has been there several years and I have raised many clutches of bluebirds in it. I lifted the top and sure enough there were 5 chicks hunkered down in there.

  I was not sure it was bluebirds as they have very young feathers with no distinctive color yet. Later I walked to the upstairs bathroom and looked out the back window and spotted an Eastern Bluebird hen about 10' from the house on the cable line and the rooster was about 10' from the box. In the past they always liked to light on the cable line then dart down into the box and back to the cable line after they leave. I watched and sure enough the hen darted in so it is definitely bluebirds.

  In years past later in the year when the bluebirds had their second and third clutches I would see 4-5 adult bluebirds on the cable line. Each would have a grasshopper, grub or other tasty tidbit in their mouth. One right after the other they would dive down and feed the chicks. This was when I learned the older siblings help raise the hatchlings. It is pretty neat to watch.



  ( I'll save this and come back and try to add pictures but make sure I don't lose the thread again. Okay - with a few extra cautionary steps that worked. )

  BTW - I love my bluebirds!!!

[Magicman]

Nice bird story and pictures.  Congratulations on your newfound skills !! 

[WV Sawmiller]

  Those bluebird boxes are dirt simple to make out of scrap lumber. Front is a 10" rough 1X6, Sides are 2 rough 12" 1X6 cut at an angle to 10" on the front and 12" on the back. The back is another rough 1X6 anything over 14-15 inches long as it is going to be nailed to a post anyway so there is no need to cut off extra length, I do angle cut the front of the back board so the cover fits flush. A roughly 1X4 is custom cut for the bottom. I cut the corners off and have no problems with a gap of 1/8" - 1/4" as the gap just allows more air flow and less mildew problems. The top is a 1X12 (Can get by with a 1X10) with 4 short 1X1 stickers about 4" long nailed/screwed down next to the top of the box to make a cap that can be easily lifted off to remove old nests (Bluebirds may build on top of an old nest but prefer to just build a new nest so I'll remove this nest when these hatchlings graduate) This cap style top is very secure even in strong winds. BTW - I orient the grain of the top board up and down to help shed water better.

  The opening is a 1.5" hole bored near the top. Its okay if the top cover dips down a little below the top of the hole as the birds dart under it anyway when entering. Do not add a perch as this only encourage predators birds.  I score 4-5 cuts 1/2" apart parallel to the bottom just under the opening hole to make a ladder to help the young birds leave when it is time. I don't know this is necessary or not but it doesn't hurt.

  Mount them 4-6 feet high around a short grass area like a yard or pasture. I find the adults like a power line or limb near and over the front to perch on before and after entry.

  Adult bluebirds can be very protective and aggressive and will swoop at you when you get near the eggs or young.

  I see lots of artistic bird houses for sale at shows and flea markets but none have proven as successful as these. These boxes look more like an old fashioned woodpecker hole in a hollow fence post like the bluebirds are looking for in nature.

[SwampDonkey]

And I find height off the ground is important to. Around 6 feet. I have a taller box that the swallows always go to. 

I wrap my posts in a critter deterrent that is a roll of mesh with spikes that no cat or coon will climb. The spikes are not sharp like thorns, but do the job. We have a lot of neighbor barn cats that prowl around here night and day. I have some small framed garden beds near the nest box and I see cats have been in the onion patch like a litter box. :D

[Peter Drouin]

First time I saw this happen. One of my cats going 100 miles an hour by me with two bluejays chasing it 

[thecfarm]

The bird finally built a nest above the light on the OWB. It has a dome on it and had a hard time building it. I kept finding nesting material on top of the door. I have no idea what kind of bird, but there is eggs in the nest. It's kinda of a good place, except for the smoke when I open the door.    The nest is under the eaves. 

[SwampDonkey]

The barn swallows used to put the run to the cat around here. You could almost hear them clip its ears as they swooped down. Some people say they've seen a cat snatch one out of the air. I never have, and the barn swallows used to be thick around here before disease or cold weather wiped them out in May 1996. Always been cats around here.

[Chuck White]

@thecfarm  My guess is that the nest on your OWB belongs to a Phoebee family!

[WV Sawmiller]

   On the cats and birds topic when I was a kid we had a litter of 3 kittens that were all about half grown. One was solid white, one solid black and one was a black and grey striped tabby. Many times we'd watch them in the yard and the black and white cat would be laying n the sun or going about their business with no problem. The tabby would walk up and the mockingbirds would tear him up. All we could guess was that he looked more like a bobcat and the birds naturally hated him

   I saw my bluebirds send a big fat fox squirrel packing a few years ago when he climbed up on top of their nest box and tried to eat a cicada while there were babies in the box. He may still be running for all I know.

   In NW Fla it was a common sight to see mockingbirds tearing up a crow. The crow was much bigger and stronger but the mockingbird was faster and more agile. 

   I once saw several hundred crows flying a big circle up in N. Ala and just raising Cain. Finally in the middle we spotted a hawk. I don't see how the hawk survived that many enemies and don't know if he did or not.

[thecfarm]

I bet you are right.
One year they built a nest in the tractor shed. I kept track of the eggs and when they hatched.
I was building a Women Cave for the wife and I was working on the floor on my hands and knees. A bird flew right by me, kinda going up and down. I thought that was odd.
Then I realized what it was and I went and checked the nest and they had flew the coop. The nest was empty!!!

[WV Sawmiller]

Brightly colored dad ready to enter the box and duller colored mom with a green worm or grub in her mouth which she promptly fed the babies after this picture was taken

[SwampDonkey]

Been a lot of goldfinches here this spring. Never seen many last year. They are eating the dandelion seeds here now. Hard to see them in a sea of dandelion heads. 

[WV Sawmiller]

   We are seeing our share of them here too. My wife just refer to them as "Those little yellow birds"

   My grandkids are helping name the bluebirds. So far we have one named "Mellow", "Shakey" and "Bob". I haven't heard yet about the last 2.

   My GD thought it was neat when she saw them because there were 5 of them and she is 5. I am sure there is a direct relation, I just don't know what t is. She called earlier today when she was out on an adventure walk with her Dad in Charlotte while her brother was at a friends BD party. Now she is noticing birdhouses. I will get her to help me assemble some when she comes up here again and make one for her to donate to her new school.

[WhitePineJunky]

To anyone else that's familiar with tree swallows and chickadee calls, do you notice the tree swallows have a exact same call as the chickadee(not all their calls but this one), it's a high pitched gurgle sound best I can describe it