calling all wild bird feeders!!

[sourland]

Do you ever get painted buntings? I've seen two in my lifetime - that's a long while.

 

[duluthralphie]

Do you ever get painted buntings? I've seen two in my lifetime - that's a long while.

I have not heard of them I will have to look them up.


I just looked them up they are WAYYYYYY south of us.

 

[Highcotton]

Baltimore orioles have returned.  I will get to see an Indigo bunting every couple of years or so - beautiful birds.

Yes they are. I saw one at my feeder 2 years ago. We have Cardinals at the feeders year round.

 

[Highcotton]

 
Do you ever get painted buntings?  I've seen two in my lifetime - that's a long while. 

I have not heard of them I will have to look them up.


I just looked them up they are WAYYYYYY south of us.

I have not seen them. The local Audubon society reports then occasionally. They are more plentiful along the Georgia Coast. I really would like to see one.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

A couple of people on the Minnesota thread are putting up hummingbird feeders. I am trying to resist the urge as I think it is too early. There are no flowers here yet, and we had a few "pellets" of snow here in central Mn.

When do you guys fill your hummingbird feeders and what latitude are you at? I am about 40 miles north of Minneapolis.

I put up my hummingbird feeder in fall, when the hummers start "asking" for feed- they fly up to where the feeder usually is and hover. This is usually in September?? I think. They are very demanding.

I leave it up all winter (we have Annas Hummingbirds which do not migrate and can often starve to death in our area without help). They drink from it heavily.

We take the feeder down in the spring when the fruit trees start blooming. There are mosquitos for them to eat as well by then. I usually get buzzed a few times until they get used to the idea that it isn't there anymore.

No feeder in summer. I don't worry since there are blooming flowers and bugs.

I had a weird bird here today, It looked like a starling except it was covered with white spots.


I looked it up and it is a starling!!

Amazing, I have never seen one looking like this..

Wow that is a pretty bird.

This is a true story and it is ongoing.

I suggest you not read this if you are at all afraid of ghosts.

My DW and I are being haunted. We know it.

Some relative, friend or worse yet enemy is haunting us in a reincarnated form.

The person haunting us has come back as a chickadee. A male chickadee. Now I know
some of you are thinking there is no way a chickadee can be a threat. Let me tell you, you are wrong!

We have two windows in our dining room, one on the west, a small older style window, and a large picture window with sliders on the north. The chickadee will hit the window on the west and try to sit on the horizontal diveder between the upper and lower windows. He sits there and pecks at the window. Staring at us while we eat, have coffee or work on computers. It is unnerving. At first we thought it was cute.

After we failed to be suitably unnerved, he moved to the front/north window. He hits the window and sits of the bottom sash and looks in at us. Worse yet, I have a wire hanging about a foot out from the window all the way across the window that I hang hummingbird feeders on, the bird will fly to the wire, and if we do not pay attention to it, it flies into the window making a thud and flying back to the wire to stare at us.

This has been going on all day long for over a week now. I thought it was not happy with its feed and wanted something else, I ran to the store and got it more variety of feed for it. I must have not gotten the right thing as it not only kept up the haunting but has increased his activity.

Yesterday, we decided to take grandpa naps in our bedroom. We have a large picture window/slider that looks to the east into the woods in our bedroom. The bird saw us in the bedroom and started hitting that window, sitting on the screen and pecking the window. Did you know it is impossible to sleep when a bird is pounding on the window?

This is when my wife an I at the same time decided the bird was the reincarnation of someone we ****** off somehow. We are now afraid to close our eyes in the bedroom. We are wondering if we need an exorcism.

BUT it got even worse, last night we went to watch TV and the bird attacked us in there. We have a north and east window in the living room. He attacked us in both rooms. He sat on the screen and stared at us for over an hour, occasionally hitting the window.

Whatever room we are in he hits and stares at us. What do we do? How do we stop this? We have thought he might want in, but are afraid to let him in incase he is a vampire chickadee. We do not want to let him in, go to sleep and wake up dead by pecking. Help us!

This very same thing happened to my parents once with a male Cardinal. I believe he was trying to assert his dominance, kind of like a rooster does.

My guess would be that you have been accepted as a "bird" and you are being asked to leave his domain. He wants to move into your home and have you leave. This would be my guess.

We have a male woodpecker that does this with me every year. He glares at me through the window and will land on the deck and look in at me, pecking the deck rail. He then moves to another part of the house and pecks there. He actually made a hole in our siding one year which we had to spackle. He almost did move in!!!

I go outside on the deck and wave my arms at him (to look like I am flapping my wings) to let him know that this is my house. We have done this for 3 years now. He then flies back up the rail and glares at me again. Eventually after a few days he finds somewhere to nest I suppose.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

We have noticed for the first time, a pair of Band-tailed pigeons.They are quite shy and fly away if you go up to the window to look out.

Also I saw a Ring-necked Turtle Dove for the first time here a few days ago.

We usually have some Mourning Doves around and I love them because they waddle like bantam hens.

I have been seeing Goldfinches, Cowbirds, some Starlings, Steller's Jays, Scrub Jays, and of course our Red-Tailed Hawks and Bald Eagles which are always around.

Also some sparrows with delightful songs (they look so plain but then when they sing it is amazing), Orioles- I believe they are, and some other small birds.

The Steller's Jays knock seed onto the ground for the doves and other birds that prefer to eat on the ground. The chickadees are constantly flying to and fro.

We have some swallows that live in houses we put up and they swoop around as well catching bugs on the fly.

I read the whole thread and am enjoying it immensely.

 

[keesmom]

I got pictures of the Grosbeak and the Indigo Bunting!

I'm jealous! I see grosbeaks here sporadically, but never an indigo bunting. This past winter was the first time I had ever seen any type of bunting (a flock of snow buntings).

 

[duluthralphie]

I find if amazing you feed hummers a winter. The hummers we have leave the first week of Sept and do not come back until June.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

I find if amazing you feed hummers a winter. The hummers we have leave the first week of Sept and do not come back until June.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...rd-lover-flew-it-down-texas-180953457/?no-ist
You have to click to skip the ad, unfortunately, with this link.

You may enjoy the above news story if you didn't hear about it already. A hummingbird received a private jet ride down south after it failed to migrate in time for winter!

 

[Highcotton]

I find if amazing you feed hummers a winter. The hummers we have leave the first week of Sept and do not come back until June.

It is recommended that we leave the feeders up during the winter. We have a number of migrant birds in the winter.