"My" Birds

I just came home from a birdwatching trip. Now, don't get too excited for me though.
It was only in my back yard. Actually, it was in my front yard.
For some reason my birds never seem to get around back,
except for my pileated woodpecker, but I didn't see him today.
He did stick around for a while yesterday though,
giving us really big shew while we ate supper.

I had seen him only a couple of times in the past few weeks but this was a amazing.
He flew from tree to tree, like a party goer looking for just the right dress.
Then he'd be down in the dead leaves clicking and chirping, then back up a tree in a blink, then to another,
each short flight enabling us to see his beautiful white underwings.
I thought he saw us watching him so I got up to get a closer look,
but he flew off in a huff! What a magnificent animal!

Anyway, as for my trip today, it was great ... I didn't use one drop of gas. That's just one of the nice things about making one's home a welcome place for birds.
I also didn't go out of my way. I actually got some chores done on my trip - another benefit of backyard birding.
While I weeded my flower patch I watched my goldfinches jockey for position on their two feeders,
as if the seed at one position were better than another.
Every so often a house finch would butt in and the goldfinches all moved to the other feeder.

I raised my pocket binocs to get a better view, but something caught my eye in the background.
It was flying dead leaves, courtesy of my brown thrasher.
I should say, one of my brown thrashers - I have a least four. I saw all four at once last week.
The thrasher was living up to his name ... he was a-scratchin', an a-kickin', an, once in a while, a little eatin. Yum! Grubs!

You know, whenever I speak or write about birds I call 'em my birds, not the birds, or some birds.
Do you know why? They are my birds!
They live on or near my property, so that make 'em mine, right? Well temporarily anyway. Don't you agree? Possession is 99% of the law! :-)

If I walk slowly when I'm outside they get used to me being there. Sometimes I whistle, but it's always the same song so they get used to it. As I left the house today I dumped my saucer of raisins into a little plastic cup. I had covered them with water this morning so they were nice and soft by lunchtime. My bluebirds used to squawk when I approached their box, but now they know it's only the raisin delivery man. As soon as I'm 20 feet away they are on their dish checking out my offerings. I usually bring them mealworms, but they've been hard to get recently. The birds won't go hungry though. I watched today as the male brought a giant grub to their box. I could almost hear the nestlings joy as they sighted dad's hunting trophy.

I've noticed that only a few raisins were fed to them during my visits. Their good parents don't want to let them gorge on sweets before supper I guess. At the bend in my driveway two robins splashed and shook in the small puddles there.
I think about filling them in sometimes so the car doesn't sway when we go out, but where would the birds bathe? The robins were followed by two goldfinches. Their brilliant yellow standing out even in the bright sunlight.
It was almost like they said, "Let's do the same as those fat guys!" As I turned to see what else was about two male flickers were jousting for territory rights, just across my property line.
They approach each other with heads up, displaying their neck colors, then each jumped over the other like he was playing checkers. I guess they were trying to decide who got to keep my property, and who go to occupy my neighbor's.

Well it was time to head back toward the house. I passed by my woodpecker logs.
No one was dining ... until it was safe from the human. Then the starlings arrived, first one, then two more.
I wanted to clap my hands and scare them. Then I thought, "What do they do when I'm not here? It's useless."
In mid-thought my heros showed up! Two red-bellies!
Those mean starlings high-tailed it outa there. This is red-belly territory, I mused!

It was my nesting pair, and they were the bosses today. Oops, not so fast! What's that?
A female hairy! No red. She trying to take over a log.
The read bellies let her. She's soon joined by a downy.
He's on the opposite side. He shifts left and right on the log, spying around it to watch for ... what? I can't imagine. I'm weeding again. The rain has made it easy to pull them. I hear the catbirds down the lane.
Like their bluebirds cousins, they like to perch on the fence, and swoop down for creepy-crawlies.
The birds sing melodically as Evening sets in. Their song is interspersed with cat calls.
Cardinals, house finches, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, tree sparrows!
You're probably wondering where the heck I live to have all these birds around, and all at the same time!

Well, I live in a place that birds like. Really! In fact, that's exactly why I bought it.
It's a little woodsy here, a little meadowy there, a little brushy out front, a little wetlands on the west, some lawn around the house.
There's a little attraction for everyone. Even some flowers for the deer! :-(

I've been a bird watcher all my life. Well, not so much as a young adult ... for some reason I got away from it then.
But I've been in full form for some time now, and no matter how long I've been doing it the thrill of seeing a new bird never wanes.

In my neighborhood I'm an anomaly.
I never see the guy on the left unless he's tuning his dirt bike outside his garage.
The guy on the right has an obsession with his lawn.
He mows when it's reached 2 inches.
That's the way it is most places, I guess.
One out of ten of us is nature-oriented.

It's amazing that only the intelligent among us are concerned about the world around us, and
that others live in ignorance of the beauty, and the fragility, of our world.
That doesn't bode well for the future, does it?

The Thrasher

Brown Thrasher seen at Exit 11! These insect & fruit eaters have the widest repertoire of any N.American bird!

Pre-game Show in Amsterdam

After our wild bird store closed this Super Bowl Sunday I went out to a customer to help him set up his new pole system. He lives in the Amsterdam section of Holland, New Jersey that is!

Well we were so busy working that I never stopped to look and see what kind of birds, if any, were in his yard. It was a good thing I didn't! As I was putting my tools in the truck, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a pale blue and orange dot about fifty feet back along his paddock fence. I quickly reached in to my truck and grabbed my trusty small binoculars, which are always at the ready for just such an occasion, and, whoa! I not only saw one, not only two, but after quickly scanning the perimeter I counted four bustling blue bird beauties, flitting back and forth from the gutter on his horse barn down to the grassy roadway.

Now if I had known this before I started on our little project, I'd still be standing there gawking at this bluebird mini super bowl!

Wow! What a treat it was to see them, so at home there, especially at this time of year! My customer didn't react to my surprise. He simply watched them with me, slightly amused at my excitement. He mentioned that the prior owner had mounted nest boxes all along the fencing. They looked a little weatherbeaten, but if the blues liked 'em, who was I to complain. I asked him if he had any roosting boxes up. He didn't. I sure would like to have been able to stick around and see if any of his nest boxes had birds in them after dusk.

But the good comes with the bad I guess. He has a Downy wreaking havoc on the trim of his cedar clad garage. Oww!