Rain

We had rain four days in a row, so I didn't change the memory card in the bird cam. There were 830 pics on the card when I checked it today. This didn't even make one GB, only 628 MB. I would really hate to fill that 4 GB card! Unfortunately, when I checked the pics, most of them were blurry from all the rain that we had. Of course the platform feeders were filled with mush. I washed them out, and washed the tube feeder in hot water and vinegar. If you are curious about how much rain we had, here is a rain chart for New Holland.

The forecast on Friday mentioned a chance of snow, and today we have a freeze warning, so I replaced the birdbath with the one that has a built in heater. This is the middle of October, right??

The other day I had a birder moment. I went walking around the corner, towards the tube feeder, and saw a male HOFI sitting on the perch. I stopped within ten feet of him, and he just sat there looking at me. I whistled at him, and he chirped back at me. We repeated this routine a few times, I whistle to him, he chirps back. After a bit, I smiled and decided to let him be. I feel like a hypocrite! I do not wish for them to get too used to people, but I do enjoy when they let me get close, and even feel like I am interacting with them. I often whistle to the chickadees, and they always seem to respond. Guess this is the payback that we get.

Since I am feeling chatty... when I saw this chickadee, it reminded me of how my uncle used to entertain us as kids. He would look through magazines for pictures, then draw a chick into the picture. This chickadee looked like one that he would have drawn. He was an artist, and my mom claims that he painted chicks into all of his paintings. I thought that he only started that in his later work. I have several of his paintings, and I can't find one chick. Sadly, he isn't around to ask anymore.

Sundays are usually pretty laid back for me, and I like to watch the tube feeder. I saw this female cardinal, a chickadee, the ever present HOSP, HOFI and doves.

This male downy kept showing up at the hanging platform feeder. I still see no activity at the suet feeder. I swapped out the suet twice, thinking they didn't like what I was offering. Perhaps the downys only eat suet when it gets cold?

So here are some pics from the platform feeder. Doves are almost always present, along with HOSP. I started out seeing a couple of starlings, but more and more kept showing up. That shot is blurry from all the rain. I had bought some peanuts for the squirrel under glass, but the squirrels refused to go into it, so I started putting the peanuts in the platform feeder. The jays love them! Here is one holding a peanut. They usually grab a peanut and fly off, but here is one tearing a peanut open.

Fall

As a follow up to last month, hanging the hummer feeders from the tree did not work. When I went to check them, they were filled with bees. Apparently, the bees could get in, but they could not get back out. That is it for these feeders. They look nice, but they do not work.

Before I moved the Bushnell Birdcam away from the birdbath, I caught one last pic of the swim party. I also moved the Wingscapes Birdcam. Looking through the pics from that camera, the only interesting ones were this one of the female cardinal and one of a nuthatch. The cardinal looks younger than the one that I had been seeing. I have been wondering all summer if there were two, but I still do not know for sure.

It is getting to be that time of year again, so I put the suet feeder back up. Last year I didn't get as much activity as years past, so I moved it back to where it used to be, which is near the tube feeder. So I checked the suet feeder today and saw no sign of activity. Later, I was looking at the web cam and spotted this downy. I have seen them at a seed feeder before, but hey!, the suet feeder is close by!

Finally, I saw this link on Birdchat, Sure They Sing but did You Know They Compose? I thought it was pretty good!

Tube Feeder Back in Place

Well, the vegetable oil did not work as an ant trap. So I got some stiff wire, wrapped it around the mouth of the feeders and hung them from a tree branch. They look nice, but I still have not seen any hummers. Very frustrating! This is the second year, I don't think I'll be trying again next year.

The birds never seemed to like the new feeder too much, so I put the tube feeder back up. Of course it did not take Skip long to notice! He sent me this photo, said that I finally got the focus right. The thing with the focus is, I can either take my notebook outside and try to see it in direct light, or I can stand on a step stool and peer through the window at my monitor. Neither way works well. In other words, I got lucky with the focus. I was watching the web cam for a bit today, I saw a goldfinch, a chickadee and lots of HOSP and HOFI. I had to laugh, there was a male HOSP playing king of the hill, chasing off any other bird that landed. After a bit he got tired of it and flew off.

Looking through my recent pics from the bird cams, I saw this pair of jays. This pic shows that the bird bath is getting popular again. I am not sure, is this a juvenile male HOSP? And, what is this? And finally, this cam isn't the greatest, but it caught me on the porch.

Note, to view the web cam, go here Sign in with nhpa and the pass is birder

Winding Down

It is hard to believe that this is the end of August! Since the grackles left, I started filling the fly through feeder, put the hanging feeder up and changed the counter weight on the anti-grackle feeder to allow all birds. It didn't take long for the doves and blue jays to notice the counter weight change.

I really haven't been getting many pics from birdbath, but here are a couple. This is a un-bird visitor, and what the heck is this dove looking at? There were a couple more pics of this dove looking into the water, so there must have been something down there.

Today when I walked out to the feeder, all I saw was wings, as a million doves flew off! Guess they like that I am filling their feeders again. I saw something fly away from the hummer feeder. I am pretty sure that it was a chickadee, since they like to drink out of the ant trap. Speaking of ant traps, someone said that ants will not cross vegetable oil. I plan to buy some this week and test that. Since the hummer's Fall migration has started, I will put those new hummer feeders back up. They are the ones that stick in the ground and look real cool to me. That is important, since I never see any hummers.

Finally, here is another 'awe moment'.

Grackleless

I re-pointed both the Birdcam, and web cam at the new feeder. Since it is in shadow most of the time, and with the overhang on the feeder, it makes for poor photography. I lightend (is that a word?) the web cam for viewing, and it is mostly OK. The feeder is getting more visitors than the caged feeder, but still not as much as I had hoped. Maybe it will take them awhile. Skip sent me a pic of the female cardinal from the web cam, and here is one from the Birdcam. Here are a chickadee and a goldfinch from the Birdcam. As you can see, the Birdcam doesn't work well at this feeder. So I moved this camera to the new birdbath. After a couple of days I realized something- the birds are not using the new birdbath! I can think of a few of reasons:
One- The grackles left.
Two- The water level may be too deep.
Three- We have been getting a lot of rain lately.
I started to put only one gallon in the bath, so we will see if that helps. A did see a visitor at the birdbath. This is from the other Birdcam, you can see the birdbath in the background. Also, I don't think this attempt was very successful.

And finally, I never get tired of looking at the male and female cardinals!

Caged Feeder

My birdbath has a built in heater, so it doesn't freeze over the winter. The problem is, it holds less than a gallon of water, and by the end of the day the grackles splash it all out. I was looking for one that holds more, plus one with a solar fountain. The best price I could find was for the Portsmouth Solar Bird Bath Fountain at birdbaths.com, for $109.98 . I found a $10.00 off coupon, and with the free shipping, my total was $99.98. I just looked at this site now, seems like their price has gone up. You can still find coupons, though, here is one page. Before I bought one, I looked at the comments people left for it. The main complaint was, it doesn't hold water?? I suspect these people never had a birdbath before, because I clean and fill my birdbath everyday, as you should. The second complaint was, it has to be in direct sunlight. I can confirm this, it is because the solar panel is submerged. The only solution is to have a separate panel which you stick in the ground- something to move before mowing! No thanks. So I am happy with mine. One other thing, it claims to hold two gallons of water, but holds less than that.

The other night I was sitting the living room, talking on the telephone. I saw a series of flashes which lit up a corner of my bookshelf. What in the world? I looked outside, but saw nothing. The next day, I checked the memory card and saw the cause. This is the first that I have seen any of these at my house.

Speaking of the caged feeder, I can't say that I am all that pleased with it. The birds don't seem to use it much, and it is not designed well. You have to take it apart to clean the bottom, and the cage is held on with metal flaps. This is not going to hold up to repeated cleanings. I believe this is a Duncraft exclusive. They can keep it. The goldfinch do use it, and lately, chickadees, too.

I do like the Heritage feeder. This blue jay has figured out how to beat it. It flaps it's wings so the feeder does not close off. I've seen it do this a number of times. I hope it doesn't teach the grackles! Lately I have seen robins in my yard, and I think it is because there aren't nearly as many grackles. So, I decided to buy another Heritage feeder, to replace the caged feeder. I bought the first one through Amazon, but decided to buy directly from Ace Hardware Outlet, and save a bit. My total price was $54.10. One final pic. Hey you closed it off, no, you!

Grackles

I have been cleaning and filling hummingbird feeders for one and a half seasons, and I still have not seen one! So, I thought I would try something different. HummZinger are the most recommended feeder, so I bought a HummZinger Mini. This takes one cup of nectar, which is easy to make, without having to store any. I don't waste so much nectar this way. In a moment of weakness, I also bought a couple of Habita MiniBlossom Hummingbird Feeder Folklore Blue Leaf on Stake by PARASOL These look nice in with my bushes, but unfortunately, they got covered with ants. PARASOL also makes hanging feeders, which you could use with ant traps. I don't know of a way to add an ant trap to the ones that I have.

I do not see the squirrel anymore, so this may be the last bungee video. If I see it return, I will try for more.

I really do not wish to feed grackles, so I bought a new feeder. It is a Heritage Farms 7533 Absolute Bird Feeder, which I bought through Amazon for $54.75. This is similar to the feeder which I had before, but that perch was kept open with a spring, while the new one is balanced. The spring on the old one closed halfway easily, but took more weight to close it off. In other words, it did not work for grackles. Here are a couple of shots of the new one, open with a cardinal, and closed by a grackle. The tube feeder did not work real well, either. I tried a number of times to adjust the setting for grackles, some times it worked, some times it did not. So I replaced it with the caged feeder. A goldfinch was the first to try it out, the wind has it blown sideways.

With these efforts, the number of grackles has dropped off quite a bit. They still hang around underneath the new feeder, waiting for a smaller bird to drop some seeds. After the grackles leave, I will probably put the tube feeder back up, and start putting feed in the fly through.

Yesterday, while I was mowing the yard, I saw the barn swallows flying around me. This is the first that I saw them this year, I wondered where they were. I counted six of them, and they did not buzz me, never getting within ten feet. Last year I almost dove off the mower when one got within a couple feet. When they are going that fast, and coming right at you, it is quite an experience!