This one's for you, Lynne!
I left work early on Friday and while I was sitting at the dining room table sharing my McDonald's french fries with Sophie, I happened to spot this little Eastern Wood Peewee sitting on the branch I have attached to my birdfeeding station in the backyard. I've been hearing it singing in the backyard all summer, but this is the first time I've actually seen the little guy.
We've got an abundance of American Goldfinches in the backyard. I'm going through almost 10 lbs of Nyjer seed a week now. There are both adults and juveniles and I'm starting to notice the males are losing their bright yellow feathers too. I'm keeping an eye out for Pine Siskins mixed in with my goldfinches too, but haven't seen any yet.
The archery deer season opened today and we went out this morning. It was quite foggy and damp. I took a couple of videos that I wanted to share with you but Blogger isn't allowing me to download either of them. (Have any of the rest of you had problems trying to download videos lately? This is the second time this week I've tried and had problems.) I didn't see any deer, but it was a great morning for birding. Here's my list of birds for this morning (a few of them I only heard, but it's still pretty good for not quite 3 hours).
Crow
Bluejay
Cardinal
Chickadee
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet
Black & White Warbler
American Goldfinch
Song Sparrow
House Wren
Hermit Thrush
Swainson's Thrush
Mourning Warbler
Orange Crowned Warbler
Orange Crowned Warbler
Belted Kingfisher
Screech Owl
Great Horned Owl
Cedar Waxwing
Hope you're enjoying a weekend with birds and nature too!
19 comments:
That's a great list Ruthie! My feeders have been pretty quiet lately with mostly house finches, mourning doves, and the occasional nuthatch and Downy. Looking forward to some migrators coming through.
Goodness--that is some bird feeder set up you have. You tape extra branches to the feeders? WOW--you must be trying for a four star rating in the bird feeding guide book.
Nice flock of birds you've seen Ruthie.
I have had an abundance of goldfinches lately, and that nyjer goes fast.
Yes we have a lot of gold finches lately, but we have seen rose breasted nuthatch at the feeders again, they've been gone most of the summer. The blue jays were gone for a couple weeks but they were back today in full beauty and very, very noisy, I guess that's what I missed the most.
MOM
Thank you for the Turkey Vulture fix Ruthie! That is a terrific picture. I have so much trouble catching birds in flight too. That little Peewee is sure cute. I've heard one singing nea my backyard this summer too but was never able to find it.
Ruthie, I really like your feeding station. It shows some ingenuity! Lots of Goldfinches here, too. Quite a few Hummingbirds. I think we had the last of the Orioles Wednesday afternoon. No Pine Siskins, yet. I always enjoy the game cams. Hope you get your deer! Good Luck!
Hi Jayne,
I've got quite a few mourning doves too and I've even seen them on the ground under the Nyjer feeders! I hope there's a break in the hurricane action for a while so the birds can stay on their migration schedule.
Hi Donna,
I have a book entitled "Projects for the Birder's Garden" and I saw the branch idea in there. When I added this pole system to my deck a few years ago, it was too "industrial looking" for me and there weren't enough places for the finches to line up and wait their turn to eat, so I added a dead branch. I had such good luck with attracting birds to those feeders, that I added dead branches all over the place. I always shared that advice with my customers at Wild Birds Unlimited when they said they had trouble getting birds to their new feeders and was happy when they would come back and tell me it worked!
Thanks Lisa. According to my Stokes Field Guide to Warblers, most of those warblers should have passed through MN in August, but I guess those birds don't always read the book. ;-)
Hi Jan,
They're such fun little birds that I don't mind spending a little extra on the Nyjer seed this time of year.
Hi Mom,
That's cool news about your RB Nuthatch. I'll have to start watching for them again too. I started putting suet out again now that the grackles are gone and have seen lots more woodpecker activity too.
You're welcome Lynne. It would be interesting to know how many people there are out there who think of you when the see a vulture! ;-)
Hi Cindy,
When I worked at Wild Birds Unlimited, I did quite a lot with my feeding stations. The employee discount helped, plus I was able to share lots of advice with customers who were trying to attract birds to their backyard.
I haven't seen an oriole since Labor Day and that was late for me. Have you seen any migrating sparrows yet?
What a list! Sounds like a great morning, except for the fact that there were no deer. I hope you get one this year.
Hey Ruthie! Just dropping by to say hello. Hope your weekend was a good one.
I loved seeing the "goldfinch party" at your birdfeeders!
Hi Trixie,
We've got till the end of the year to get a deer. It was fun to be out there, but I'm glad I didn't get one yet--it was too warm and wet and there's still too much standing corn. It would be tough to track a deer in those conditions.
Hi Meggie,
A great weekend here--cool & rainy--good knitting weather!
Hi Shelley,
There's never a dull moment with goldfinches around!
That is a good September bird list. We are noticing travelling warblers around here. I gave up on Blogger videos and signed up at YouTube.
Ruthie, wow. You have the birds. Like Jayne, we're still looking at doves - whatever. Not too exciting here.
ENJOY!
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for the tip on videos. I guess I'd better try YouTube also.
Hi Mary,
A pine siskin and orange-crowned warbler put my 2008 backyard list up to 49 birds so far for the year. It's nice to be able to take some time and just sit at home and watch them.
Holy Cow-Goldfinchapalooza you've got there.-Ever since I've discovered window movie maker that was in my xp package all along, I haven't had video problems.-I don't know if you use a program that shrinks the file size of your videos ruthie-but that made all the difference for me.
Thanks for the tip Larry. I'll check and see if I've got the movie maker.
Sometimes on that large Nyjer feeder, every perch will have a goldfinch on it--that's really neat!
WOW, that is a pretty impressive list for one morning, I'm amazed!
I don't think I even know what some of those birds are :-)
Doncha mean upload? I will be uploading one next week and I'll let you know. I know it takes a long time but you can close out of the editor and it will continue.
I got some flicker shots which I plan to share soon and my first pic of a golden eagle. You mentioned you wnat an MP3 player. It's not an IPOD but I am giving away 5 of them at my Gizmo blog. http://www.todaysgizmos.com/contests/giveaway-2gb-mp3-player-with-thumb-drive/
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