calling all wild bird feeders!!

[duluthralphie]

This morning I was loading dogs to go to the club when I heard the 'hollow' sound of hammering in the distance. My brain finally kicked in and said, "That's not hammering." About 30' away working on a dead branch on one of the white pines that line my drive was the Pileated woodpecker. I watched it for a bit until it decided that it had better places to go. Neat experience. By far the closest that I have ever been to this bird.

They are so neat, but very reclusive,

We are lucky enough to have one come to the feeder right outside my window. Maybe 7 ft from where I am sitting now. I made a feeder just for him last year. It actually does bring him in, he is not a regular but is a frequent visitor.

Today is a slow day at the feeder, we have very little snow here and I think that is allowing birds to eat other places this year. I have a few chickadees, nuthatches woodpeckers ( downey and Hairy) is all today. I think I had a red bellied earlier this morning, but at my age that could have been yesterday too.

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

I don't feed the birds that visit my yard, but I do enjoy watching them! Last spring we had GOBS of pileated (sp??) woodpeckers. I guess it was mating season for them, there were males running around on just about every tree trunk and females sitting in branches all over the place. They sounded like a bunch of monkeys whooping in the woods. I wished I would have taken pictures, but I was just so taken by the sight of them that I didn't think about it. Maybe this spring if they come back!
Then, in the summer, my son and I were taking a hike through the woods and we found a nest of baby whippoorwills. I'd never seen one before, just heard them, so that was a very cool experience for my son and I. I did get a picture of those little guys. They're so ugly they're cute!


I think we have just about every bird imaginable around here, but those little whippoorwills were by far some of the neatest I've seen so far.

 

[Free Feather]

Alot of chicken keepers will not feed the wild birds because of disease, but I just cannot resist. In the winter I get hordes of what we call Snow Birds, real itty with dark heads and a light body, and a bunch of other little birds that I do not know the names for.

 

[duluthralphie]

Alot of chicken keepers will not feed the wild birds because of disease, but I just cannot resist. In the winter I get hordes of what we call Snow Birds, real itty with dark heads and a light body, and a bunch of other little birds that I do not know the names for.

Juncos

I am not worried about disease from my wild birds, they are going to be here no matter what. They will eat from the chicken feeders if I did not feed them at the house. Besides I enjoy them...lol

 

[sourland]

Hey, Ralphie, I forgot to mention the Chickadees - the tamest of the lot, and perhaps my favorites.

Great pictures of the nestling Whippoorwills. I think that I live a bit too far North for them, but I have seen and heard them in southern NJ.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I have a hummingbird feeder I put out in the summer and I got quite a bit up until I took it down the the winter! It always amazes me how they find the feeders!

I also have a couple of feeders in the front but haven't bought feed for them because I keep forgetting. When I bought black oil sunflower seeds, I had a wide variety of birds. My favorites were the goldfinches! The woodpeckers and nut hatches like the suet I put out. We also get some flickers occasionally. I've also seen lots of sparrows and finches, and sometimes tit mice or juncos.

 

[ivan3]

This morning I was loading dogs to go to the club when I heard the 'hollow' sound of hammering in the distance. My brain finally kicked in and said, "That's not hammering." About 30' away working on a dead branch on one of the white pines that line my drive was the Pileated woodpecker. I watched it for a bit until it decided that it had better places to go. Neat experience. By far the closest that I have ever been to this bird.

We're heavily wooded, here. They are around, but "scarce". A few years ago I caught a couple of them foraging on the ground and they were close enough to vid. through the window:

Probably the strangest thing I've seen was the evening "all" of the Ruby throated Hummers returned from Panama & thereabouts on a single evening in May. They are pretty used to us, after all these years, so setting up the tripod in close doesn't bother them:

 

[duluthralphie]

I have never seen that many hummingbirds together, up here they are very territorial. if there is one at my feeder, it will chase any others that get within 5 ft away. They are tough little fighters.

 

[ivan3]

I have never seen that many hummingbirds together, up here they are very territorial. if there is one at my feeder, it will chase any others that get within 5 ft away. They are tough little fighters.

That shot is from May 23 `12. They usually drift in, from late April through late May, in ones and twos. What we suspect happened was some weather event, down South, caused a pileup on the "hummingbird skyway". So the feeders ended up clogged, just before dark, on that evening. The usual battles commenced, as you mention, the following day... Last year, the "polar vortex" wiped out even mid May returnees: 5/16/14 & froze to death: Have only seen a few out of the ordinary fellas. "Moby Hummer" 09/13

 

[sourland]

Great Pileated video and interesting picture of "Moby Hummer" - how long did the bird stay around?