Birds in the back yard

[HD]

must like the offering's you put out!!!

Pretty sure you nailed that one Mikey! 
A few weeks ago, I was cleaning out the barn. I found several bags of old duck/turkey/goose feed pellets. Jr got them for free and was going to add them to his bear bait. Welp, he forgot about them. So I asked him if I could feed the wild turkeys with it, and he said "go for it"
 

[glenn57]

Lots of chickadees, red poles and finches. A couple cardinals and bluejays. I haven't seen any grosbeaks yet, which is strange. But, even more strange is this guy is still hanging around 🤔

HD.....are you referring to the pine and evening grosbeaks??????? if so i think they only come down from Canada when the going gets tuff up there.  thats what i've noticed at the cabin anyway. usually when they get piles of snow and cold!!!!!!

[Dotch]

Saw a Coopers hawk here yesterday on one of my return trips from the field. Today, no hawk so far & lots of bird activity. More goldfinches & lots of chickadees.

[LPS]

Had a magpie hanging around the other day.  Haven't seen one in a while.  We put dog food in the bird feeder when we first moved here and they magpies showed up big time.  Scared all of the other birds away so never did that again.  There used to be a lot of sheep here.  Heard people cus the magpies saying they would peck the eyes out of lambs. 

[glenn57]

Don't see magpies around home, but do up north  ut seems like only in the fall and winter??

[LPS]

I think they will poke the eyes out of little calves too. 

[Dotch]

None in these parts so can't verify that they'd peck the eyes out on a lamb. Had lots of magpies around the Little House on the Prairie where I lived in ND. Hadn't seen many near the buildings until I started dumping duck & goose guts out in the slough amongst some of the old farm equipment parked there. The magpies would have a party soon afterwards. 

[Bobberineyes]

How'd ya like to have the name " Magpie" I'm gonna look them up, not sure what they look like..lol.

[glenn57]

big black and white bird!!!!!!! 

[LPS]

Real long tail.  Nice looking bird. Kind of like a crow with a long tail and white on its breast.  They look black but pictures show it is real dark green. 

[Dotch]

Been a fair amount of bird activity again after a lull during the warm temps. Yesterday the goldfinches reappeared as well as a large group of house finches. Don't recall seeing that many house finches in a group here before. The chickadees & nuthatches have been busy. Look like they have a relay going between the sunflower feeders & the bushes, back & forth. Plenty of woodpeckers including a flicker. Lotsa almost leghorn-sized blue jays. Suckers are huge! Pair of cardinals appear daily early and late but occasionally will be some during the day mixed in with the ground feeding juncos. Poppy's been keeping an eye on her squirrels & exercising them when they clean up under the feeders.

From the oval office, have been watching a hole in the elm tree getting larger over the course of the fall & winter. It's enlarged to a about 3" wide and 4" tall. Haven't seen just who's doing it but they're doing a nice job. Wondering whether the wood ducks might take a look at it this spring if the wetland gets refilled. They've come up to the yard several times over the years to check out potential spots in the soft maple that weren't really deep enough & didn't provide much of a cavity. If they decide to check it out, be tempting to put a piece of aluminum flashing above and below the hole so the cats, raccoons, possums, squirrels, etc., can't mess with them. Would be fun to watch them while I'm doing paperwork.     

[LPS]

We have had a lot of little birds here lately.  Siskins, house sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches etc

[glenn57]

havent had Jack........fer birds lately!!!!!!

[roony]

Sparrows, cardinals, starlings, red bellied woodpecker, finches, flickers, both hairy and downy woodpeckers and a soon to be dead bunny rabbit.

[tangle tooth]

      Not a lot of variety at my feeders, either. Sparrows, dark eyed juncos, nuthatches and the occasional woodpecker.

[Bobberineyes]

Lottsa birds here, especially them dam sparrows.  They sit on our railing a chit all over. If I park in the driveway they use my wheel wells as a hangout.  Quite a few finches both varieties and what must be a family of 4 mourning Doves that hangout quite a bit. 

[glenn57]

You fellers with the sparrows must be feeding cracked corn or some type of millet seeds. I don't feeding that and have no sparrows. 

Them bastages seem to know when I  open the bluebird houses though!

[roony]

Nope, wrong again Glenn. All we feed is suet and sunflower seeds. And some ear corn for the squirrels. Come spring we will feed thistle seed also.

[glenn57]

Corn is attracting the sparrows. Wver notice what kind of birds are on a pile of spilt corn on a road!

I worked at a grain elevator
/ feed mill during high school and we weren't seeing bluebirds around dumped corn or feed.

[roony]

Sparrows don't go near the ear corn. They eat itty bitty pieces of the sunflowers off the ground. Wrong again.

[glenn57]

Sparrows don't go near the ear corn. They eat itty bitty pieces of the sunflowers off the ground. Wrong again.

whatever....not gonna argue.....go take a nap!!!!!!!

[Dotch]

House sparrows are very adaptable. When we moved here 40 years ago, I could get by with feeding straight sunflower seed and they left it alone. After a few years, they figured it out and began emptying the sunflower feeder daily, tossing most of it out on the ground. I switched to confection sunflower (striped) and that seemed to help for a while but again, they figured it out and same result. Safflower was about the only thing they wouldn't eat but aside from the cardinals, lot of the other birds didn't like that either. Thistle seed was fine for finches but again, not a universally liked food. So, what to do?

Got to the point where I'd let the sunflower feeders large numbers had easy access to run out and remain that way when they got to being a nuisance. The smaller feeders they couldn't monopolize easily remained full. It seemed to help. Something else that helped especially when we had deep snow, I was feeding the pheasants corn screenings &/or cracked corn. I spilled some cracked corn in the driveway the other day and noticed all the bird tracks in the snow surrounding it this afternoon, guessing it was sparrows. They didn't bother the sunflower feeders nearly as much as they do somedays and it puts them out in the open where Cooper's or sharp-shinned hawks have a shot at them. The sparrows don't like the squirrel proof roller feeder very well and the other squirrel-proof feeder is adjusted light enough so if more than a couple are on it, it closes their access to the seed.

I worked at the elevator in town here back in the day for 3 years. I remember the sparrows used to get in the bay where they parked the feed truck over the weekend. They'd crap all over everything. The feed guys got sick of it so they'd put a feed pan full of ground corn laced with Furadan out for them on Saturday when they left. Bad chit. There were dead sparrows all over the place come Monday morning! Trouble was, all the sudden there were also dead cats all over town so they had to discontinue that practice.     

[LPS]

I made a huge mistake when talking about the birds here.  I hate house sparrows and makes good target practice.  House Finches is what I meant.  The reddish ones.  They are nice birds.  I only feed sunflower seeds and thistle seeds.  We also have a suet block out. 

[glenn57]

i dont have sparrows at no feeders. i feed sunflowers, safflowers and thistle seeds.

like i said before the only time they seem to show up is when i open up the bluebird houses..... to each  there own i guess!!!!! this is just what i see here in little old Cold Spring!!

[roony]

I've thought about getting the trusty old Crossman Pumpmaster out and shoot the sparrows and starlings that are visiting the feeders.

[roony]

If'n its ok with Glenn that is.

[glenn57]

If'n its ok with Glenn that is.

have at it,  just don't shoot your eye out!

[roony]

 

[Dotch]

I'll mail glenn some of our sparrows roony. That'll learn him...

[LPS]

We had a nice big healthy looking male and female Pine Grosbeak show up yesterday and they are still here.  Been awhile since we have seen them.