Birds in the back yard

[Dotch]

Every night when I feed the bottle lamb, these two are perched on the extension cord. They're making progress on a nest already.

[LPS]

Those darn barn swallows are pretty birds but as a kid I hated them diving at me when at my Grandmas.  lol  Well we have a male oriole at the hummer feeder yesterday but no hummers yet.

[Dotch]

I've always had a soft spot for barn swallows. Watching them almost effortlessly sweep the lawn and pasture for insects can be almost mesmerizing. Sure, their nests can be messy but they eat a lot of bugs especially flies. They get a pass on the mess as long as they limit their nesting to the barns and granary. 

[roony]

I like to watch the barn swallow dive at cats.

[Jerkbiat]

Those darn barn swallows are pretty birds but as a kid I hated them diving at me when at my Grandmas.  lol  Well we have a male oriole at the hummer feeder yesterday but no hummers yet.

I could hear an Oriole this morning when I went out to leave for work. I will get the jelly out today when we get home.

[LPS]

The swallows were in my Grandmas car port nesting between the rafters.  We had to walk through there to get in the house.  They dive bombed the heck out of us kids.  Was pretty funny now that I look back on it. 

[glenn57]

  the dive bombing experts where the purple martins..... mom and dad had a bunch.....holy sheet.........

[Dotch]

I saw Barry's faves, the cowbirds, were back over the weekend.

Letting Poppy out at lunchtime when the Mrs. is working is OK but I cuss when I have to feed the bottle lamb. Just as I was starting to get the bottle ready, I spied an odd looking bird with reddish blotches on it. At first I thought it had caught glenn's rash but after looking at the bird longer, I could rule out a cardinal or house finch. Very tanager-esque, but lacking the dark wings of the scarlet tanager & more olive colored between the red blotches. Out of its normal range but it appeared to be a young molting male summer tanager. Others have been seen in MN over the past 5 years. It went from feeder to feeder & settled on grape jelly. A definite first & doubtful I'll see one here again.

My attempts to photograph it were unrewarding. Attached photo from Cornell Lab looks very similar although the one I saw was probably farther along in the molting process. The one here at the ranch was definitely redder.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Summer_Tanager/id 

[LPS]

Very cool bird.  We have bright yellow goldfinches now.  Man what a difference.  Oh ya it was in the bird feeder so I say it is on topic.  I got pine squirrel number 8 today.  That is way above the normal 3 or so that we usually get.  I threw it by the fox den when the dogs weren't watching.  At least I don't think they saw what I was doing. 

[Dotch]

Saw the tanager yesterday but a no-show today. Appears all the migratory sparrows have moved on. One newbie today: a male pine siskin. They appear from time to time here but no numbers during the snow-free months. Winter irruptions are a different story but it's been a while.

[roony]

Wren got your Tanager. Bummer

[Dotch]

🤣

[mike89]

seen a hummingbird today!!!  it was checking out the apple tree blossoms!!!  and they are really opening now too!!! 

[LPS]

One male and two female cowbirds are here.  Just read up on them.  They used to follow buffalo herds and were called buffalo birds.  Leaving their eggs in other nests allowed them to just stay with the buffalo herd.  Then when buffalo got scarcer and cows were introduced they switched to being with cows, hence now being cowbirds.  They are protected so it is illegal to take their eggs out of nests and of course to kill the birds.  So just let them be seems to be the norm as it has been going on for many decades.  In some areas their favorite bird nests to use, that bird species is becoming scarce.  I don't know what nests they prefer.  It didn't say. For a long time we thought they were female red wing black birds.

[tangle tooth]

      Saturday, 11:44 AM, our first Ruby Throated hummingbird of the year,

[Jrasmussen]

So still no humming bird sighting, mentioned it to the wife and she says there was a few orange birds checking it out the other day. So off I went to FF and got a jelly feeder set up. You guys put out fresh oranges too?

[glenn57]

So still no humming bird sighting, mentioned it to the wife and she says there was a few orange birds checking it out the other day. So off I went to FF and got a jelly feeder set up. You guys put out fresh oranges too?

some do......i dont....i eat the oranges!!!!!!!

[Jerkbiat]

We have put out oranges in the past. Haven't don it for a couple of years. When we had the redheaded wood peckers around they would devour the oranges. After they disappeared seems like the orioles don't eat them as much.

[mike89]

seen it done too, seems not so many do it now

[fishwidow]

Lots of colors at the feeders today. House finches and gold finches pushing each other around, an evening grosbeak, an oriole, and a bully grackle. Plus the usual assortment of chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers.

[LPS]

I eat the oranges my self but if we get a bad batch I give them to the birds.

[Gunner55]

Neighbor said the hummingbirds showed up at his place on Sunday. So, our feeders will go back out as soon as we get back up there, which looks like it might be Thursday.

[mike89]

got to watch a green heron this morning, cool birds!!! 

[LPS]

Had two male rose breasted grosbeaks here today.   

[Dotch]

Female orioles must be in nest building mode. When I replenished the feeders this a.m., there were some long, coarse, horse hairs from the mane or tail stuck in the jelly dishes. We don't have any horses but the neighbors do. Also appeared to be some Corgi hair. Don't think Poppy can jump that high so guessing they were picking it out of the backyard after she was brushed. 

[fishwidow]

Left here late afternoon yesterday and spent the night in the cities. On the way back today a bear crossed the road in front of me just north of Big Sandy. Got back home about 6:30 and planned on filling the bird feeders, but one of them was gone as well as the branch it was suspended from. No sign of it anywhere nearby.   Friggin’ bears—#!%#*#!!!!!!.

[LPS]

The lady at the eye clinic in Bemidji said there are bears all over around there too.

[tangle tooth]

The lady at the eye clinic in Bemidji said there are bears all over around there too.

More than usual?

[Gunner55]

Put our feeders out 1st thing Thursday morning when we got here & it didn't take long for the hummingbirds to find them. Only seen a couple males so far, when we were over having a little HH with the neighbor yday.

[LPS]

Seems like it.  They don't give out as many hunting permits as they used to.