Birds in the back yard

[Bobberineyes]

I can't keep up with the golden safflower,  the way the gold finches are hitting it you'd think winter was around the corner.. oops was that out loud 

[Gunner55]

 The hummers are keeping the neighbor & I pretty busy here too, Bobber. He's got 3 smaller feeders & we have 2 that are quite a bit bigger.

[glenn57]

yea the hummers are crazy here too!!!!!!!!!thinking there getting a bit hungry at the cabin. they'll be fed good the next 3 weekends!!!!

[mike89]

your bother will be there to feed them!!! 

[glenn57]

your bother will be there to feed them!!!

yea that aint gonna happen. i dont see him going up there till first week of Oct. he could care less about bird feeding. i'm headed up next weekend. my kid is there labor day weekend and i'll be back up the weekend after.

[tangle tooth]

      Where did all the robins go? Usually, after I mow, there all over looking for a meal or nest repair material. I haven't seen one in some time, now.

[glenn57]

      Where did all the robins go? Usually, after I mow, there all over looking for a meal or nest repair material. I haven't seen one in some time, now.

Roony probably hates them too!!!!!!!!1

[roony]

Nothing tastes better than the first spring robins.

[Steve-o]

      Where did all the robins go? Usually, after I mow, there all over looking for a meal or nest repair material. I haven't seen one in some time, now.

Good point.  I'll keep a lookout for 'em.

[Dotch]

Was in a holding pattern yesterday so cleaned out the hummingbird feeders. They are nuts right now between the cannas, the planters and the feeders. The 4 o'clocks are just getting cranked up so they'll have even more to choose from. Hadn't seen any orioles for a while but filled their jelly feeder just for laughs. It was empty for a week or two. Could still hear the occasional catbird so thought what the heck. This morning there was a fully-colored male Baltimore oriole feasting on it. This is the first year I've seen these big, nasty black wasps on the jelly. They were back too. The goldfinches are starting to taste test the sunflowers as they ripen. They're also plucking a few sunflower seeds out of the feeder. This last batch of sunflower seed I got from the feed store at Hope was open & we wound up with a whole bunch of Indian meal moths flying around the garage. The silk threads the larvae leave behind tend to make the seed bridge up and not feed through some of our feeders.     

[LPS]

We had an adult female Evening grosbeak and a juvenile female at the feeder.  She was feeding the juvenile sunflower seeds.  Seem late for juveniles isn't it?

[Dotch]

Still a couple male orioles on the jelly feeder this morning. Hummingbirds are busy as well. 

[Jerkbiat]

Bees got so bad I quit filling both of them.

[Dotch]

I've gone to filling the feeders around dusk when the wasps go to bed. I'd like to know just what kind they are. They also seem to be feeding on ground fall apples or pears when I don't get them picked up quickly. Poppy got stung by one of them the other nite. 

[glenn57]

i have a few wasps around the feeders. i also have 2 wasp traps out and away from the feeders. i really believe they help keeping them from the feeders.

i just fill them with the hummingbird juice and they flock to it. i usually end up cleaning them out and refilling them about every 3 days between evaporation and filling up with wasps!!!!!!

[Steve-o]

My coopers hawk was back.  I watched 'em kill and eat a young red squirrel.  I was really surprised at how long it took him to kill it.  It wasn't very aggressive.  It just passed it from claw to beak, and dropped it, and picked it up again, and repeated until the critter expired.  And then it spend over 15 minutes slowly picking it apart and eating it.  This is all that is left.

[mike89]

a good red tree rat!!!   

that would have been interesting to watch!! 

[LPS]

It's a cold cruel animal world.

[Dotch]

Way cool, Steve-O. I don't like to see them hit the songbirds but if they take out sparrows, starlings, grackles or the occasional dove, that's fine by me. The fox squirrels here might be a little more than they bargained for. Orioles still chattering this a.m. yet. Usually Labor Day here is about the last we see of them. Following glenn's lead, think I'll take one of the sticky traps we use for rootworm beetles, smear it with some grape jelly and see if I can capture some of those big wasps to ID them. Prolly put the trap in a plastic grocery bag, place it in the freezer for a day, then see what they look like. Not taking any chances of getting stung after seeing Poppy get nailed. 

[Steve-o]

I did get some grainy, Zapruder film-like video of the incident, but the quality is so bad that it isn't worth sharing.  I really didn't want to get close and interrupt his meal.   
Which is to say I wanted him to eat the whole thing and not scare it away and let the dogs find what was left.   

[Dotch]

Still orioles feeding at the jelly feeder altho the wasps (think they're actually murder hornets  ) are doing their best to dissuade them. Actually, I got a closer look at them this a.m. and think they're baldface hornets. Fits the visual and behavior descriptions. Put the sticky trap out smeared with jelly but so far no takers on their part. They're not as dumb as they look.

[LPS]

We get bald face hornets and yellow jackets here every year.  Mud daubers too.  They all hurt too.

[glenn57]

with those wasp traps the hornets, bees are pretty minimal at the feeders!!! sure doesnt seem to stop the hummers from coming to them. i have to refill them about every 3-4 days. yesterday after i cleaned and refilled the traps at least 4 times i watched a hummer feeding out of them!!! i also am seeing alot of flies in them traps!!!!! good friggin riddance to!!!!

but dang all the other type of birds are scarce!!!!!

[mike89]

https://dashboard.birdcast.info/region/US-MN-153?utm_source=Cornell%20Lab%20eNews&utm_campaign=b6e0b49189-Cornell-Lab-eNews-August-2022&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_47588b5758-b6e0b49189-345775613

the bird migration map is already going!!   

[Dotch]

Kewl! 

Still orioles here battling the hornets to get at the jelly feeder. Some of the orioles don't take any crap off of them. Sharp beaks and hornets can't sting thru their feathers very easily. Will keep filling the jelly feeder at nite when the hornets go to bed.

[Dotch]

After forgetting to fill the jelly feeder last nite, dodged the hornets & plopped a couple spoonful's in the cups. Didn't see any before I started mowing. Now there's what appears to be a younger male plucking some jelly out then retreating when the hornets get too aggressive. Hope the orioles stay a while but pretty sure these are migrating thru. The hornets can leave any time.   

[mike89]

asked my company who are from Worthington Mn if they were seeing robins and they haven't seen any for a bit too... 

[Bobberineyes]

That's a neat migration deal ya got there Mike!  We have them bald faced hornets at the cabin, the neighbor nuked the nest cuz he wanted to take the little boat out. The nest is upside down after we rolled the boat over and ran! There nasty! We have 2 honeycomb nests with wasps above our deck but they don't bother us like those hornets. You can see one on the bottom left.

[Dotch]

asked my company who are from Worthington Mn if they were seeing robins and they haven't seen any for a bit too...

They're still coming thru here. We have abundant chokeberries (aronia), nannyberries, American cranberry and crabapples for them to eat. Pretty sure they peck at the apples and pears while they're at it, judging by the icky Asian lady beetles feeding on the fruit. 

[mike89]

ya know I wonder witht the lack of rain if that makes a difference for getting worms??