Bird Watchers

[lunatic59]

I'd definitely wear a hard hat strolling through your woods in the evening.

 

[Clementine_3]

That's in my yard, not really close to the woods! It's almost at the start of the back yard, between the fence and garage. Chipmunks live under the garage and I have mice and moles so the owls eat well.

 

[Unforgiven]

Well, the squirrels pushed me over the edge. I have one of these arriving on Tuesday...

...will post videos when I have them. For those that don't know what it is, here is a sample video

 

[lunatic59]

That looks both cruel and hilarious.

 

[Unforgiven]

That looks both cruel and hilarious.

It's only as cruel as the squirrel's determination to hang on and try and eat of the feeder. And FWIW, I *HAVE* squirrel feeders in the yard about 100' feet away from my bird feeders. They hoard the peanuts and sunflowers from there, then come raid bird feeders because they prefer the black sunflower seeds to the cracked corn.

 

[Deleted User]

I think that's a brilliant design. Squirrels are resourceful little animals, but that feeder has beaten them.

 

[zuben el genub]

Fall migration. The immature Black-Headed Grosbeaks have come through.

 

[Clementine_3]

I've not seen any migrants yet and I haven't seen any hummingbirds in a few days either. Sigh. I hate it when they leave...

 

[Clementine_3]

The chickadees and tufted titmouse are coming to the yard/woods in goodly numbers now. They are not happy that their feeders are not there yet. They are landing on the pole and screaming at me. I don't fill them 'til the snow flies so hopefully they have a long wait!!

 

[lunatic59]

We usually get Orioles in the summer, but I haven't seen any this year. Either the hunting is better elsewhere because of the wet summer, or the deer ate them. Big brown pests.

 

[zuben el genub]

We usually get Orioles in the summer, but I haven't seen any this year. Either the hunting is better elsewhere because of the wet summer, or the deer ate them. Big brown pests.

Deer are rats with hooves.

We managed a couple of Bullocks at the nature center.

 

[zuben el genub]

Steller's Jay back at feeder. One year had all 3. Blue Jay, Scrub Jay and the Steller's

Steller's like more wooded areas, last time we had any was after a fire on the west side of the Springs.
From Wikipedia:

 

[lunatic59]

We usually have a good population of Blue Jays, but we haven't seen too may since last winter ... that is until the past two weeks. It appears they have returned from wherever they flew off to.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

I saw two young Red Tailed Hawks chasing a Crow until the odds turned around when the flew over the area of Norfolk Park and all the crows that hang out around there started chasing the hawks. That was about two weeks ago.

 

[lunatic59]

Crows, blackbirds, grackles ... they're all nasty, mean birds. Just ask Hitchcock!

 

[zuben el genub]

Crows, blackbirds, grackles ... they're all nasty, mean birds. Just ask Hitchcock!

We had a large flock Turkey vultures migrating through the neighborhood a couple of years ago.
Every damn member of the Corvidae was chasing them. Add some Brewer's blackbirds (Icterids) and you can imagine the racket.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Turkey Vultures don't seem to like the well developed flatlands of the Boston Basin, I have yet to see one; But Turkeys now... We get tons of Turkeys lately right in the middle of the city.

 

[Clementine_3]

Saw some turkeys the other day, they were blocking the road...silly birds.

More fun though is I'm hearing the Great Horned owls calling, I love that.

 

[lunatic59]

My security cam caught this picture. Anybody care to guess?

 

[Clementine_3]

That's seriously cool. Sort of looks Cardinal/Blue Jay-ish near the front but the tail is, umm, confusing me.

 

[lunatic59]

That's seriously cool.

Right?

I've seen both Jays and Cardinals around lately, but this is coming from under the porch roof and I usually only see wrens, sparrows and finches on the window sills.

 

[Clementine_3]

Yeah, I was sort of thinking it would actually be a smaller bird. Jays and Cardinals are pretty big and would be huge in that shot.
Tufted Titmouse? It looks like it has a head thingy lol

 

[lunatic59]

Tufted Titmouse?

Oooh, there you go. I was seeing the same thing. The smaller wings ... yes, that could be it.

That would explain the tail, too.

 

[Clementine_3]

It's certainly a puzzle!

Still seriously cool though!

(I'm sending to the kid for a second opinion, he'll like seeing it)

 

[Shotgun84]

I saw a nice bird earlier but she flew off when I started shaking my phone suggestively