Just Bluebirds

I heard the first bluebird singing in our yard this year on March 15th, but in just the last 10 days or so, I've have a pair hanging around pretty consistently and checking out the housing options. This morning when Sophie and I were on our walk, we noticed a pair checking out a woodpecker cavity in a birch tree at one of the neighbors up the street.

I was even more surprised when I got home to find that there was also a pair checking out a woodpecker cavity in the dead birch tree in my front yard! (The downy woodpeckers excavate these holes, but to the best of my knowledge, they have never used them for nesting.)

I had seen house sparrows going in and out of this hole earlier in the winter, so I hope the bluebirds can keep them away. It would be so amazing if they nested here because this dead tree is right outside the bedroom window and it would be extremely cool to wake up to the sound of bluebirds singing every morning!

Here's a nice shot of Mr. Bluebird.

Here's Mrs. Bluebird on a Gilbertson PVC house.

And here's Mrs. Bluebird waiting for Mr. Bluebird to come out of the tree cavity.

And here's one more short movie, because I just can't get enough of these birds!

And don't forget about the Minnesota Bluebird Recovery Program spring conference coming up this Saturday in Elk River, Minnesota. There's a link on my sidebar if you want more information or would like to attend.

A couple of backyard things

I hope everyone had a very happy Easter and had some fun times with friends and family. Mr. Johnson and I headed down to my parents for a family get-together and delicious Easter feast. Thanks again Mom & Dad for a nice afternoon.

We're still enjoying some pretty decent spring weather and although today was overcast and not quite as warm as yesterday, I decided to go out this afternoon and do some more yard clean-up chores. Last week I burned off part of the wildflower patch and since it wasn't very windy and fairly cool this afternoon, I decided to finish burning the rest of the patch. It's been quite a few years since I burned the entire patch, so it was way overdue.
I had the garden hose ready and watered down the grass around the trees and shrubs within the area to be burned so that none of these would get burned. In the center of both pictures you can probably make out my big ol' brushpile. The bunnies and possums live under it and the birds use it to escape from the Cooper's hawk, so I took special precautions to make sure that the brushpile didn't burn either.

I'm glad I got this project finished up today because I just heard on our local evening news that there's now a burning ban on for our area until Friday! Once we get some rain later in the week, this burned area will green up really fast. And I'm hoping that my wildflowers come back rejuvenated and with less weeds.

The other exciting thing in my backyard was revealed to me this afternoon when I came in the house to make supper. Out the kitchen window, I spotted this cute little Brown Creeper -- a first in my backyard! Can you spot the bird in this picture?

Here's a little bit better view.

If it weren't for the bird's white underside, it would be extremely difficult to spot them. They "creep" up the trunk of the tree, using their long, slightly curved beak to excavate beneath loose bark for insects.

Have a good week everybody!

Caption Contest #2 Winner

Thanks very much to everyone who contributed entries for my recent caption contest.


The winning caption for this cute house finch photo was submitted by Aleta. Congratulations Aleta! Please e-mail me (rjknits at msn dot com) your US Post Office address and I'll get your prize (1,029 Backyard Birding Secrets) mailed off next week.

Goethite WMA

I decided to take advantage of my part-time work schedule this Friday morning and go on a little birding trip. After reading several of Troutbirder's blog posts about Goethite Wildlife Management area in southern Fillmore County, I felt the need to check the area out for myself. Mr. Johnson and I used to pheasant hunt this area in the late 70's and early 80's, but I've never been down there specifically for birding.

Goethite WMA is south of Spring Valley, Minnesota (about 30 miles from my house). After I turned off the main highway, I traveled past several ponds close to the road, and managed to spot these Greater Yellowlegs at one of the ponds.

A couple more miles down the road brought me to my final destination. I didn't remember this area being so large!

(If you're interested in learning more about this area, Troutbirder did several posts in June of 2008 that you might want to look at. I'm feeling lazy tonight and since he's already done the research and written about it, I didn't see the need to duplicate the information and would rather send you over to his blog -- I hope he doesn't mind!)

Here's the first view I saw after parking and getting out of the car -- a big pond that was an open pit iron ore mine back in the 20th century. No waterfowl on this pond, I guess I must have missed most of the migrating ducks and geese that Troutbirder saw last week when he was down here.

Since I was wearing my boots that were made for walking, I took off down a fairly well traveled trail to see what kinds of birds and other cool stuff I could spot. While watching a pair of Eastern bluebirds, I happened to notice this sweet little goldfinch nest that had survived the winter. Isn't it neat how they can fit their nests into little trees like this?

Oh cool, what's this? It looks like a beaver dam on one of the ponds. You probably can't tell from this picture, but the dam is almost 5 feet high and if you click to enlarge it, you might be able to see just a little bit of the pond on the other side (right in the middle).

I could see that the pond on the other side was right to the top of this beaver dam and I wondered if I could get across this little stream by following the deer trail. That little stream isn't very wide and it doesn't look too deep either, does it? OK, let's try it......it's too wide for me to jump across, but maybe just one quick step through the middle of the stream should be OK.

Shee-it! That water was WAY DEEPER than it looked -- and really COLD too! Oh well, I had my wool socks on, so at least my foot didn't get cold (and my pant leg was just about dry by the time I got home!)

So here's the beaver dam from the other side, with the pond right at the top edge. I didn't see evidence of any recent beaver activity, so I'm not sure if they're still present in this area, but it was nice to see that their sturdy dam is still intact.

I was glad I made the crossing to this area because while I was over there, I had the great fortune to spot two sandhill cranes walking around in the tall grass. I tried to sneak up on them to get some pictures, but had no luck with that. I did however, spot this large raptor (juvenile red-tailed or juvenile bald eagle?) with a red-winged blackbird monitor nearby.

I continued to wander around this area looking for birds and I hoped I was traveling in a big circle and would eventually find my way back to the road. After coming out of a little woods, I was relieved to spot the car right where I had parked it (of course, that huge pink arrow in the sky was a big help too!)

Now that I knew for sure where I was, I could continue with my explorations and not worry about being lost. I watched this Canada goose for awhile....I thought maybe it was injured or something because I've never seen a goose lay its head down in the water like this, have you?

After a few minutes, I walked a little bit closer and the goose finally perked up after seeing me and eventually flew away with no apparent injuries. I breathed a little sigh of relief seeing that.

Because Goethite WMA was once an iron mining area, you can still see chunks of iron ore while walking around here. Some are small, like this piece I found on the trail.....

and some are pretty huge, like this big chunk near the parking area......

(I would love to have this chunk of ore somewhere out in my backyard landscape!)

Here's something I've never seen before in the wild: Pussy willows! There were several large plants around the edge of the pond close to the parking area, so I cut a few sprigs to take home.

Some of the pussy willow shrubs had these really large growths that looked like buds on them. Does anyone know what these are? I tried "googling" pussywillows, but couldn't find any information on these large growths. Some of the plants had them but others didn't. I wondered if they were some sort of indicator of a male vs. female plant?

Update: I sent an e-mail to WinterWoman and she confirmed that this growth on the pussy willow plant is indeed a gall--a Willow Pine Cone Gall (Click here for the link she posted on insect galls to learn more about it). Thanks for your help Jennifer!

Back at the car, I watch a black-capped chickadee checking out a possible new home across the road.

Finally around noon, I decided it was probably time to head for home. I could easily have spent most of the day here at Goethite WMA, and I left knowing that what I didn't explore today will still be there next time I come down for a visit.

Here's a list of all the birds I saw (or heard) this morning:

Tree Swallow

Eastern Meadowlark

Common Merganser

Song Sparrow

Golden Crowned Kinglet

Eastern Bluebird

Bluejay

Black-Capped Chickadee

Eastern Phoebe

Greater Yellowlegs

Belted Kingfisher

Red-Winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Canada Goose

Mallard

Red-Tailed Hawk

White-Breasted Nuthatch

American Robin

Killdeer

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

Sandhill Crane

Ring-Necked Pheasant

American Goldfinch

American Crow

Eastern Wild Turkey

What to do about blackbirds?

Is this scene similar to what you've seen in your backyard recently?
It must be spring when the "blackbirds" return, right? Many people are trying to deal with this problem right now and I wanted to do this blog post to give you some ideas and solutions that have worked in my backyard.

Blackbirds are generally lumped into one group, but usually consist of several different types of birds: common grackles (iridescently colored black feathers and yellow eyes), brown-headed cowbirds (as the name implies, they have a brown-ish colored head--most easily seen in bright sunlight), European starlings (mostly black with lighter colored speckles and a long yellow beak), and red-winged blackbirds (I think you can figure that one out!)

Except for the non-native European starling, I believe it's illegal to kill the other 3 species as they are considered native, migratory songbirds and I believe in most towns and cities, it's probably illegal to discharge a firearm anyway -- even a BB gun. So here are several solutions that you might want to try in your backyard.

If you're really desperate, you can just stop filling your birdfeeders or take them down and eventually the blackbirds will move on. Of course, you will deny yourself the pleasure of seeing all the other spring and summer feeder birds, like rose-breasted grosbeaks, indigo buntings, chipping sparrows, etc., but that is the best alternative for ridding your yard of black birds.

If you decide to leave your feeders out, one of the seeds you can fill them with is safflower seed. This seed looks kind of like a small, white sunflower seed.

It's a little more expensive than sunflower seeds, but you should be able to find it easily wherever you normally purchase your birdseed. It also has the added benefit of discouraging squirrels (they don't like the bitter taste either).

You will find that many other birds will still eat safflower seed, including house finches, mourning doves, cardinals, and rose-breasted grosbeaks. Oh yeah, it doesn't discourage all blackbirds either......I spotted this one silly red-winged blackbird eating it last week!

I like red-winged blackbirds, so I don't mind these guys hanging around the feeders close to the house.

Another technique you can try is to buy a less expensive seed or seed blend and put that in feeders farther out in your yard in an attempt to keep the less desirable blackbirds away from your house. This blend I use contains cracked corn, white millet, black sunflower seeds, and safflower seeds. This seed blend runs me about $19 for 50 lbs.

I put this seed blend in my open trays and ground feeder trays which are placed farther away from the house. Lots of different birds enjoy this seed blend including mourning doves, bluejays, cardinals, sparrows, juncos, and even indigo buntings. (Sophie isn't eating the seed, just checking out all the interesting bird scents around the feeder.)

You might find some possums or bunnehs partaking of the bounty in your ground feeder trays too!

This picture was taken last Sunday morning after our overnight snowfall.

Another alternative to discourage blackbirds from your feeders is to put your tube feeders inside "cages." I have my good "cardinal blend" seed in these tube feeders and the cage works for keeping the big, piggy birds and squirrels out. Chickadees, goldfinches, downy woodpeckers and other small birds can still get to the seed. The downside of the protective cages is that it also keeps the larger birds you want to feed (like cardinals and rose-breasted grosbeaks) away from the feeders.

Starlings and grackles also really like peanuts (shelled and in-the-shell), so if you're going to offer peanuts for your backyard birds, it's best to put them in a feeder that doesn't have perches. Grackles and starlings don't have good clinging abilities, although they may be able to hold onto a feeder like this for a few seconds or long enough to knock out a peanut or two.

Their love of peanuts also extends to suet with peanuts or peanut butter in it and I've seen them devour an entire block of suet in a day, so I generally put my suet away or inside a protective cage (like you've seen in past pictures I've posted on this blog).

Another reason we have so many common grackles in our yard is the habitat. When I planted hundreds of evergreen trees 20+ years ago, I was only thinking about how great they would be for windbreaks and sound barriers when they got big. What I didn't realize was that common grackles LOVE large evergreens for nesting in. And boy, do we have large evergreens now!

So for the next couple of months, I'll just have to deal with having a bunch of grackles hanging around the yard.

The nice thing that I've noticed for the past several years is that generally once the grackles have raised and fledged their first batch of babies, many of them depart the backyard in early July. I don't know if this is due to the fact that there are more food sources available for them in the countryside (oats and corn fields starting to ripen) or if they just begin their migration early, but I'm not sorry to see them go. A few will still hang around the backyard, but it's nothing like the huge numbers I'm seeing now in the early spring.

I hope this post has been helpful for you. Dealing with blackbirds takes a little bit of patience and perseverance, but if you make the choice to leave your birdfeeders up over the summer months, you will be rewarded with seeing a good variety of our spring and summer migrants and also the joy of seeing the young birds coming to your feeders and being fed by their parents.

Happy birdfeeding!

Bohus Stickning (Knitting)

OK, so normally I don't post knitting projects this frequently, but I wanted to show you this hat I finished yesterday. This is the Northern Lights Bohus Hat from the book Homespun Handknit (published by Interweave Press).

I was looking at the Minnesota Knitter's Guild website on Sunday afternoon and I saw some information there about a recent bohus knitting exhibit at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis (unfortunately, the exhibit ended on Sunday!) Anyway, I was intrigued as I continued to read the story and clicked on some of their other links for bohus knitting.

A little bit of history here: Bohus knitting was pioneered in Sweden in the 1940's by Emma Jacobsson and the Bohus Knitting Cooperative. The bohus style of pattern knitting uses purl and slip stitches along with color stranded patterns to give the effect of more than two colors in a row. In the close-up photo below you can see how this effect is achieved.

Like the other stranded knitting projects I do, the designs are worked from a chart and there are never more than two colors used in a row. This hat is my first attempt at bohus knitting and I'm really pleased with the results. I'm planning to try this pattern again with some different color combinations and the first one will be taking these same colors and using them in reverse order (starting with the yellow and ending with royal blue).

I'm going to donate the hat in this post to the silent auction being held at the Minnesota Master Naturalists conference in May. The silent auction raises scholarship funds to help people who want to attend this conference but might not be able to afford the full registration fee. I was fortunate to be a recipient of one of these scholarships which will enable me to attend the conference this year, so I'm going to "pay it forward" by donating several of my knitted items to help raise money for next year's scholarship fund.

If you're interested in seeing more examples of bohus knitting, please check out Solveig Gustafsson's website for some inspiring and amazingly beautiful designs. (I believe all of the designs are available as kits, but I like them all so much it would be hard for me to pick just one that I wanted to knit.)

Caption Contest #2

It's time for another Nature Knitter Caption Contest. I hope that one of you can come up with a clever caption for this cute pair of House Finches (photographed in my backyard).



Please leave your caption in the "Comments" section of this blog. Entries should be posted by 8:00 PM (CDT) on Thursday, April 9th. The winning caption will be chosen by totally impartial judges (appointed by me!) and the winner will be announced on Saturday, April 11th.

The contributor of the winning caption will receive this copy of "1,029 Backyard Birding Secrets" published by our friends at Birds & Blooms magazine.

Good luck!

Some Finished Knitting Projects

I've finished a few knitting projects in the last week and thought I would share them with you today.

Now that winter is almost over, I finally finished Sophie's sweater. This is the Biscuits and Bones Dog Coat - a free pattern from the Patons yarn company. If you really love your dog and also really love to knit cables, you'll really love this pattern!
I had this sweater half done and found that it was way too large at the first fitting session, so I ripped it all the way back to the "armholes" and started over. As you can see in the photo below, it's still too big around Sophie's chest, but it's done now and she's just going to have to wear it that way (because she's just a dog and none of her friends are going to laugh at her at school anyway).

Here's one more picture, just because I love tormenting her with the camera! Silly dog--why is she so terrified of the camera?

Here's the completed "North Star Scarf" that I started a few months ago from the Donna Druchunas book called "Arctic Lace." This scarf is one of my "pay it forward" projects, but I can't send it to the recipient until the end of May because I'm going to enter it "photo/art/crafts contest" at the upcoming Minnesota Master Naturalists conference. I thought this might be an appropriate entry because Minnesota is the North Star State.

This scarf is approximately 8.5 inches wide and 64 inches long. It was knitted on size 2 needles with a fine laceweight yarn called Kinair. The fiber content is nylon and superfine goat hair. Because the entire project was worked from a chart, I know for a fact that there are 32,508 stitches in this scarf! Amazing! The other really amazing thing about this scarf is how light it is. And to prove it to you, I put the scarf on my postal scale -- it weighs only 1.3 ounces!

as compared to this kiwi fruit which weighs almost 3 times as much at 3.1 ounces! I have quite a few balls of the Kinair left in my stash and next time I use this yarn I'm going to knit something for ME!

Here's something I did knit for me--a ribbed beanie. This is just some Red Heart acrylic yarn, but I really liked these earth-tone colors and since it's machine washable yarn, I can wash and wear this hat for everyday. And it sounds like I'm going to get the chance to wear it for a few weeks yet this year!

This is the "Bobbles & Leaves" tam-o-shanter, from another Paton's pattern book called "Where Did You Get That Hat?" I've never tried this pattern before and it's knitted circular from the center out. I think it turned out really pretty and because it's a tam, I got to put my dinner plate to use again as a blocking tool.

I have another knitting book that has dozens of charts for Fair Isle knitting designs, so I took one of the basic "96 stitch" stocking hats and created my own design for this hat. Hats are a good way to try new patterns, use up those leftover skeins of yarn from other projects and they go pretty fast (all of the hats in this post took me about 6 hours to knit).

I'm starting to notice a "nature" theme in many of the things I've been knitting lately, either with the yarns (earth tones or natural fibers) or the patterns (leaves, stars, snowflakes). When I started this blog, I called it Nature Knitter because I was a knitter and spent a lot of time out in nature, but now it seems that even my knitting has taken on a nature theme. Hmmmmm, what's it all mean?

Oh yeah, here's one more thing......you remember this little shawl I finished back in November and then I decided I didn't like the way it hung off my shoulders and I was going to try and fix that with some beads or something? Well, that's exactly what I did! I found some pretty, clear glass beads in the shape of a leaf (nature again!) and sewed one to each point on the edge of this shawl. The weight of the bead is just enough to give the edge of the shawl a little more weight and this makes it hang much nicer, plus the colorless beads don't clash with all the other colors in the shawl.

So anyway, that's the latest on the Nature Knitter scene. I'm looking forward to another weekend of marathon knitting to take my mind off the "winter storm" the weather service is predicting for us (6 inches of snow?? unbelievable!)