Bird watching

[ShrekDawg]

Anyone here like bird watching? Whether that's going somewhere to watch or attracting them to your yard?

We get a lot of birds and different ones in different parts because of the varied terrain we have and I love watching them!!

Recently I've been feeding them too and I love it.

We have a fairly big tube feeder in the backyard, a 3 tier platform feeder type thing in the front garden, and then I just found another tube feeder for smaller birds and hung it up in the front on a tree. So far the birds seem to prefer the platform. Same feed. Just filled/refilled both of those and also tossed tons of black oil sunflower seeds all over various parts of the yard and woods etc (our yard is huge). I still need to refill the feeder in the back but I ran out of the other kind so gotta open the new bag.

Anyway, I find the BOSS tends to attract lots of bluejays which is cool and all but they can be bullies and loud. At one point a few months ago we had like 7 or 8 of them at once haha I find the front feeder tends to attract more of the smaller birds. Chickadees, nuthatches, finches, etc. We had nyjer/thistle seed out at one point which they loved also but right now we just used a leftover Christmas seed blend but I love having the feeders in different places and different types of feed because the small birds have a safe, protected place to feed away from the bigger birds. There's also tons of small trees, bushes, and shrubs in the front yard for them whereas the back is mostly open and pine trees with a couple small trees next to the house.

I also find the BOSS attracts chipmunks and squirrels which I love too. The dog is less than enthused. Lol

It even attracts deer! Found that put the last time I put it out and they came almost to the backyard right outside the dog's window!

So this time I put it on the hill way away from him but I'm hoping they come!

A month or two ago I bought a squirrel food mix which was just whole corn kernels, BOSS, and I think some peanuts and maybe something else. Put it down in the same spot. The animals hulled all the BOSS but left the corn. And I put corn down last winter too but cracked but they didn't touch it. Bag says it attracts deer, etc. But like I said they only ate BOSS. Apparently our animals are picky and only eat BOSS. I can't figure it out. Lol oh well.

Anyway, I'm just really excited about buying more bird food and refilling the feeders and wanted to share it.

I don't really know much about birds or identifying them, etc. But I'm hoping to learn more as I watch them at the feeder

Soooo....

Sorry I got so long winded but anyone else love birds/wildlife like I do?

 

[itsasmallfarm]

we have a few grouse around are area (ruffed) that i enjoy watching, and i love to hear the geese/ducks fly over the house in the spring, and the cranes flying over head during the fall migration, ohh i love that time of the year. behind are house there can be hundreds of snow geese on some guys land (still have no idea who owns the land) then we have all the song birds, blue jays, woodpeckers etc...

 

[ShrekDawg]

We don't have grouse here but we do get geese flying overhead during migrations! Drives the dog bonkers! Lol it's pretty hilarious when they start flying over, honking, and he figures out it's coming from the sky and starts chasing/barking at the sky

We have resident geese and ducks too at the ponds nearby.

We don't have snow geese though, jist Canadian.

We also get all the jays and songbirds and oh yes, woodpeckers too. Forgot about them. And we have a couple owls hanging around lately. We also have tons of Red Tail Hawks. I used to like them but not so much now with the chickens.

Also have lots of rabbits as well as occasional fox, coyote, and raccoon.

I love when the birds fly overhead

 

[itsasmallfarm]

We don't have grouse here but we do get geese flying overhead during migrations! Drives the dog bonkers! Lol it's pretty hilarious when they start flying over, honking, and he figures out it's coming from the sky and starts chasing/barking at the sky

We have resident geese and ducks too at the ponds nearby.

We don't have snow geese though, jist Canadian.

We also get all the jays and songbirds and oh yes, woodpeckers too. Forgot about them. And we have a couple owls hanging around lately. We also have tons of Red Tail Hawks. I used to like them but not so much now with the chickens.

Also have lots of rabbits as well as occasional fox, coyote, and raccoon.

I love when the birds fly overhead

we have the odd hawk and eagle plus an owl once in a while. with the chickens we fenced over the top of the run so i don't think we need to worry about them.

for other animals we have, quite a few mule deer around the place, skunks once in a while a ton of coyotes and raccoons (plan on trapping them for there pelts lol) the odd weasel, the very rare cougar and bobcat, i think i found fox prints a few months ago in the snow.

 

[ShrekDawg]

We don't have eagles but do have hawks and owls and there are osprey a tad further south/west that occasionally travel up here. Very rarely though. I only saw one last year for the first time.

My run has a mish mash of covers lol new run will look nicer but when they free range I worry about the hawks. I don't really free range much though. One almost got one over the summer but it just got feathers.

Wow lots of cool animals! I wish we had cougar and bobcat but I know predator wise they're not fun to have around.

I don't know how many coyotes we have but probably a pretty good amount but we don't like hear or see them all the time or anything.

 

[Isaac 0]

Glad to see some bird lovers on here.I have a Platform Feeder,Tube Feeder,Hopper Feeder and a suet feeder.Do you have any problems with the nyger growing in yard?

 

[ShrekDawg]

Wow you have a lot of different feeders! I'd like to put up a hopper feeder and suet feeder. What kind of birds use the hopper feeder and do you just put regular seed in it or a specific kind?

And nope! But it hangs from a tree in our garden which has mulch. Plus I'm not sure much gets spilled. But I haven't noticed anything growing

 

[Isaac 0]

Wow you have a lot of different feeders! I'd like to put up a hopper feeder and suet feeder. What kind of birds use the hopper feeder and do you just put regular seed in it or a specific kind?

And nope! But it hangs from a tree in our garden which has mulch. Plus I'm not sure much gets spilled. But I haven't noticed anything growing

We used to give them nyger until they started growing all around are yard.My birds feeders are right by a small crick with bushes and evergreens .We just feed them BOSS.We get Cardinals,Blu Jays,Red Bellied wood peckers.I could keep naming most big birds use it.

 

[ShrekDawg]

We used to give them nyger until they started growing all around are yard.My birds feeders are right by a small crick with bushes and evergreens .We just feed them BOSS.We get Cardinals,Blu Jays,Red Bellied wood peckers.I could keep naming most big birds use it.  

Ohhh okay. I guess maybe the mulch prevents that? And okay, that's cool I usually put the BOSS on the ground but maybe I should get one of those.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

We don't have eagles but do have hawks and owls and there are osprey a tad further south/west that occasionally travel up here. Very rarely though. I only saw one last year for the first time.

My run has a mish mash of covers lol new run will look nicer but when they free range I worry about the hawks. I don't really free range much though. One almost got one over the summer but it just got feathers.

Wow lots of cool animals! I wish we had cougar and bobcat but I know predator wise they're not fun to have around.

I don't know how many coyotes we have but probably a pretty good amount but we don't like hear or see them all the time or anything.

we only have had chickens this last year (well my grandparents raised them 20 years ago for meat not for eggs) but so far we have had no sign of cougars or bobcats around. i would hate to have them around as i really do like them i think there pretty cool. for coyotes every night there out howling around the place.