YardCrap BIRDS

Bird Motel

I have many bird houses of different sizes and types.  In Winter I empty and clean them with bleach. Some house Flying Sqirrels and normal squirrels. (I leave their house keeping to them).

This year I plan to 're-do', and to do a better job.  Some houses have been out 15 years and were not done as good as I can do now.  I know more now.  I made most of them.

The deal is to provide a safe comfortable place.  "Safe" is a hard deal back here in the woods.
Many critters raid bird houses in my yard.
- raccoons
- possums
- sqirrels
- snakes
- other birds
- insects
- chipmunks
- flying squirrels
At my place the hardest to deal with are raccoons and snakes.  'Coons are fun critters, but I now hate all snakes.  No snake is welcome in my yard.  The other critters are more of a hit or miss thing.

Keeping all birds safe is too much, but I can do better.

One safe and productive place has been on my dock where Blue Birds took over the four houses I put up for Martins.  They only use one at a time, but every year raise three broods.  More than a hundred of the guys have safely fledged from there.  I now look at these guys more a part of my large  'water bird' flock.

I am leaving their main house just in case (which is a very simple $10 job) and adding a much better one.  To that end I scoured the web for the best so I could copy it and make a few.  I narrowed it to two and ordered them.  I found a 'WINNER'.  I am not going to even make more, just order more.  I highly recommend this one:
ebay
Amazon

It has a large rain over hang, metal hole guard, plastic viewing window, raised nest level to keep it dry (less insect problem), and very good ventilation.  It is made solid, will last decades with an occasional coat of stain.

On a post you need a large pole guard.  Even then, 'coons are a problem.
'Nailed to a tree' is easy picking, and that is where most of mine are.  

My home has a two foot over hang (live in a round house) and will hang some round ones there out of sight of each other as I have had good luck with one of those.  A hanging bird house is safer than any pole or post mount.  I will try that from some tree limbs also.


I find that hole entry size is not relevant to my birds.  It would be safer if the small birds would choose those with a tiny hole, but nope.  A Nuthatch will nest in an owl house.  My Wrens will nest - well anywhere.  Bird experts have it figured out, but birds don't agree.  I had Golden-crested Flycathers every year in an Owl house.  I closed up the hole some to protect them this year, and they did not nest there.  I replaced my main  Screech-Owl house with an incredible upgrade, and they avoided it so far.  They prefer the couple old ones I made from left over wood from when I built my Bride an outhouse.

Before Spring I will have a new bird-motel system in place.  My birds deserve the best as I need a lot of birds to entertain me here on the porch.

Birds, Beer, and Music make me happy.

Carolina Chickadee

Not much going on out here on the porch right now except the many Humminbirds I have at my dozen feeders.


I did just get a quick "check in" from this guy.  This is surely the "cutest" of birds.  It is a tiny, but brave and boisterous little bird.

John James Audubon named this bird while he was in South Carolina.
If like me, you are a backyard bird watcher, this tiny guy is your friend.  Any new feeder you put out will probably be visited first by this bird.  
In Summer they mostly eat insects, and in Winter about half vegatable.  At my place they eat every type food I put out.  Put it out and they will come.  They get very tame and pay little attention to me.  Mine like JAZZ, as do I.

They flock up in Winter with Titmice, Kinglets, Nuthatches, Creepers, and Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers. These flocks are led by the Carolina Chickadees.  They can keep you busy and entertained in Winter.  All the above like suet.

Birds And Byrds

Two bottles of Warsteiner Beer and and Clara Ponty on the music system.  Life on the porch is good.
It is 90 degrees and a fun Smmer Storm looks to be headed my way.
For many years I have run a weather station from my dock that uploads to the internet every 2 minutes.
YardCrap Weather  There is an active map so I can see the weather coming.  Mostly it goes past Memphis to Alabama, curves up through Atlanta to my house.  That is due to the Blue Ridge Mountains and jet stream.

So, what birds are about as the storm approaches?
August is a down time as to back yard feeders in my area.  There is just too much fresh food in the woods.

Carolina Wren
Titmouse
House Finch
Chickadee
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Cardinal
Fish Crow
Blue Bird
Downy Woodpecker
Gold Finch
Hummingbird
Indigo Bunting
Dove
Canada Goose

Not too bad for two bottles of beer.  Buy your self a Clara Ponty album - birds love it!!
She has a few and looking at Amazon, my favorite 'Embrace' is rare and pricey.  Don't buy the mp3 crap.  Go to ebay and find a used CD.  She sings on one CD and has a nice voice, but it is my least favorite.  I like the others better.

Help the Tiny Bird

In my neck of the woods HummingBird breeding is over.  We have just the Ruby-throated in SC.
As always in early Summer, people ask me why there are few Hummingbirds this year?  I have been accused of hoarding them.

I believe HB are kinda territorial, and a bunch don't breed on the same acre.
Once the young fledge, all boundaries are off. These birds do not just live on sugar water, but eat a lot of insects.  They need a lot of bugs for the new babies, and forage for that.

Then they return to sugar feeders with a vengence.
I put out 5 pounds of sugar yesterday, and it will last maybe 4 days. A month ago, 5 pounds was good for a month.

At the end of Winter, I put out about ten 8 oz feeders to draw in migrants and welcome the old crowd back home to my yard.  I change it at least once a week and by July not much is being eating as i slip back to fewer feeders.

Now I have out all the 8oz feeders and 6-32oz feeders. It does not last a week.  No big deal as sugar is cheap and Hummingbirds are a gift from GOD.
These guys keep my deck full of energy.  My cats no longer pay them attention due to frustration as these guys are fast.

If your feeder is not full and fresh, shame on you.

These little guys are an inspiration to us all.  The round-trip ordeal they endure to get to us is more than any human will come near in the Olympics.
They are special.

Right now they fight at the feeders.  My thinking is that this ritual helps make the kids strong enough for the trip.  They don't actually ever touch each other, and all will get a full belly if you help out a little.
The ones who will survive the journey must put on a lot of fat.  Help them out, do your part.

Your reward will be that the very same bird who is with you now will fly thousands of miles and find your home in the Spring -> the same tiny bird.  All he needs from you is a little sugar and a few mintes of your time.

 

Summer Tanager

This bird just showed up at the pond.

One might say it is a Scarlet Tanager, but I know different as I see the male from time to time.

They stay in the treetops, hidden among the leaves.  They are hard to find.  They do come to water and some berries.

My yard is like a jungle.  My neighbors don't understand why I don't have a nice lawn.  Almost everything I have planted over the years is in some way bird related.  This Summer I am kinda layed up from my guts busting out, and Nature is taking over my yard.  I like that!
Soon Winter migration will begin. Many bird visitors will drop in here to entertain me, not to the well manicured lawns of my neighbors.  I guess it is all about what floats your boat.

The Summer Tanager is the only completely red bird in North America and a relative of Cardinals.  It is a good reason not to be lazy with the binos as Cardinals flutter about.  You may have seen one and passed it off as a Cardinal.  The males stand out, but catching that female in the above photo makes my day!

(not my photo, too lazy to hunt one right now)

Food is foraged high in the trees. Insects are caught in-flight. They eat bees, wasps and berries.  This bird has no fear of stinging insects, often raiding wasp nests and occasionally becoming a minor nuisance around beehives. I like bees, but their sting is deadly to me.  I am a fan of Tanagers

They migrate to the middle of South America each Winter, but they breed right here in my SC yard each Summer.   They like old trees and streams.   My yard is perfect.             Maybe I will get a photo soon of the young which are always a motly colored mess (like Cardinals).
Birds have many different looks.   They are not stamped out all the same.  ID can be often be a fun puzzel.

Swainson's Warbler

Swainson's Warbler

I was laying on my fat ass watching my birds out the bedroom window. I have a dense growth of privet there that the birds use to raid my window feeder.



I saw a new bird, did not know it. I could see it plainly, but had no camera. A search through my bird books found it.

Swainson’s warbler is a migratory species which breeds in the south-eastern United States and winters in Central America and the Caribbean.

One of the most secretive and least observed of all North American birds, the Swainson's Warbler is a skulking bird of the southern canebrakes and rhododendron thickets. If it weren't for its loud, ringing song, the presence of the species in many areas would go completely undetected.

Breeds in southern forests with thick undergrowth, especially canebrakes and floodplain forests in lowlands and rhododendron-mountain laurel in Appalachians.

I saw this recent article in the news as I googled it:

http://nypost.com/2016/04/28/this-li...-central-park/

“This is a bird that makes you drop all of your plans,” Bate, who is president of the Brooklyn Bird Club, told The Post. “It’s another ‘birders are losing their s–t’ moment.”

This is the first new bird I have seen in just over one year, so I am quite happy. I have not seen it since, but I suspect I will, so keeping a camera at the bed now.