calling all wild bird feeders!!

[duluthralphie]

Yesterday I was sitting on the front porch when not 1 but 2 pileated woodpeckers flew up and stopped right on the tree closest to the porch. I've never seen 2 of them at the same time. Just as I was picking up my phone (the only camera I had nearby), it rang and they flew off. My mother always knows the worst times to call.

SIS!! I was wondering where you moved too!

 

[N F C]

SIS!! I was wondering where you moved too!

Oh great, now I have to go into hiding again. The whole family has found me.

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Jest thought you guys mighten like to know...if'n you got grit for the birds you care for...

​

Think about putting a pan of it out for the wilds too!

​

Yesterday I finally remembered to put a rubber pan of granite grit out for them grousies! And have a closer l00k see...

​

Babies under a Spruce

​

And Momma in the Dolgo watching diligently!

​

Rick runs grader and HATES, ABHORS that he clears off the gravel roads and the wild birds flock to it for the grit it uncovers...why would he be so negative? Because often the grouse get smucked up by vehicles during their hunt for the coveted gravel grit. Sigh.

​

Did not want our family of five grouse (one is a male that shows up and drums his widdle heart out) to meet with the same kind of dangers...so pan in Dolgo and voila...first day and being used already.

Adore it!​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[N F C]

@CanuckBock in all the years I've fed birds, I never thought to put out grit for them. Thanks for giving me this "DUH" moment!

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

These photos are the results from a roadkill which happened by my patch of paradise...unintentional wild bird feeders, eh?

How did I know something zigged when it shoulda zagged? I knew because my two Australian Cattle pup gals were not interested in playing with the toys I was tossing out in the front pasture AND I kept hearing Bald Eagles calling...and ravens croaking and magpies squawking...that's how I knew one of the Bambies from the subdivision was no longer.

Pups are on high alert...ignoring tossed toy...



Patrolling their perimeter to make sure the scent was not coming from within our place!!​

At the crossroads...scavengers of the winged type in the tree tops!




Mature Bald Eagle and a Hawk



Mature Bald Eagle and a Magpie




Hawk


Not completely sure this IS a hawk but maybe someone here knows better??
I almost got fooled into thinking an immature Bald but nor the right form.

Bald Eagle

​

I am glad the death of a deer is not going to waste...the only real wobble I have is that I hope no winged scavengers fly up and get mowed down by the passing highway traffic.

​

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[duluthralphie]

Nice pictures and I can see how that could fool you into thinking you bald eagle. While I cannot make out the colors well. The silhouette in my highly uneducated mind is that of a hawk,

 

[N F C]

Great pictures @CanuckBock ! You have some great looking dogs there too.

 

[CanuckBock]

Nice pictures and I can see how that could fool you into thinking you bald eagle. While I cannot make out the colors well. The silhouette in my highly uneducated mind is that of a hawk,

Yah...glad to amuse!

I figured the shape screamed HAWK! but the colouration screamed IMMATURE BALD EAGLE!...

When relying upon our poultry bird educations...since any shape (breed) may be any colour (variety)...my own highly UNeducated mind went hawking.

​

This photo above shows the Bald on left and the potential "hawk" on right. In this ***click***...I am right back to being unsure...oh well.

Great pictures @CanuckBock ! You have some great looking dogs there too.

Glad you liked...

I could have done much better with one of those tres expensive monster lenses (my SIL is a professional photographer and has those lenses you need a stand to hold up along with a formerly HUGE bank account to buy!) but I do the best we are able with what we got. I doubt I could wander about playing dogs with one of those monster lenses chained to my neck. This was an 18-135mm and my Pentax (nfi) camera is heavy enough with that setup as it is. Sheesh.

I do enjoy we get the Balds here in winter and during spring calving season (clean up, aisle nine! <<oh major blick!>> ).

When we use to live on the WEsT Coast in another lifetime--there were bazillions of the Balds for the annual salmon runs...and in the spring time there, we had a nesting pair in a huge spruce we could see from our front door. Purdy kewl.

I recall one day thinking, "Eagle...there are eagles in the backyard??," and it was a Stellar's Jay mimicking the pair of Balds. I am betting the Jays were hoarding the horn of plenty feeder spaces Rick had in the backyard. "If'n we sound like Eagles...,"the Jays figured they would scare off the competition! Silly ingenious birds.

POINTERS?? Watch them dog tails pointing out potential trouble!

And yes, the pair of girl pups are my stars when it comes to keeping me in the know by rousting up that I need to pay attention to the locations of the wild birds. I do appreciate them and their higher senses as I age. Flushing the grouse, smelling or hearing trouble, and investigating the source.

Nice rewards for keeping them dougals well FED and able to be on their best games, eh?

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[CanuckBock]

Heel low:

Oh the HORROR...<<not>>...the horror of having to decide what the heck is coming to visit this winter...in the land of the plenty of offerings to attract the free-loaders. Oh the horror of it all...grumble grumble

​

So I am torn...is this Cassin's finch (Haemorhous cassinii) or Purple finch (Haemorhous purpureus)?

CASSIN'S FINCH

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassin's_finch:

:

​

Issue I am having the purple finch is too heavily coloured in purply reddish...and this one is more streaked. Only have photos of the male and not even sure he should even be here right now but with the stunned winter we have had (unseasonably sans snow and warmer...not good things at all!). finally last night, got decent snows (probably what we have had in the whole winter has FINALLY fallen last night and getting much better winter weather, probably a good four days of minus 30 C...about time, eh!

​

Now the SECOND query...got two males and a female coming in close...boy the males sing sweetly too!

​

​

Another one to confuse me...at first, am thinking WOW...got a cross bill but then again.

​

Now that I have BETTER PHOTOs since we tamed them (takes most species that show up here about two weeks to begin to ignore Rick and I...I would take it personally but hey, being ignored as NO threat is a good thing if'n yah wanna click the pics!).

See the beaky...the tip?​

Pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_grosbeak:
The pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) is a large member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. It is found in coniferous woods across Alaska, the western mountains of the United States, Canada, and in subarctic Fennoscandia and Siberia. The species is a frugivore, especially in winter, favoring small fruits, such as rowans (mountain-ashes in the New World). With fruit-crop abundance varying from year to year, pine grosbeak is one of many subarctic-resident bird species that exhibit irruptive behavior. In irruption years, individuals can move long distances in search of suitable food supplies, bringing them farther south and/or downslope than is typical of years with large fruit crops.

Two-barred Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_crossbill:

A pair...a pair of ??​

We have larch in the area, we have rowanberry (Mt. Ash) we planted by the fish pond/waterfall...and spruce of course! So moi was thinking from the clicks at a distances of the males...yeh, cross bill, but as said, give them two weeks to under appreciate our presence and the dang things begin to land on us...had one land on me the other day..."Hey, I'm alive here and I could most certainly snap you up and sell you on the black market as a bonafided "purdy birdy" in a widdle cage yah blighter...jest funning! Liken I wanna have MORE captive birds I gotta care for...NO tanks, eh!

​

Happily, when the male hit the snow covered but seeded board, he cleaned his bill off...

​

Close ups of the male... dirty bill in this one below

​

Close ups of the pair...

​

​

​

Cleaned up bills and I am leaning towards...

Pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator)​

No matter what these birds are, we can concur I suspect, they are purdy!

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada

 

[N F C]

Very purdy!