Friday, February 26, 2016

Birds at the Feeder

Both my efforts at attracting more birds to our feeders, and my efforts at taking bird pictures have been pretty well abject failures this winter!  I added both a niger seed feeder, and a suet feeder, but still very rarely see any visiting birds except the faithful group of Chickadees that seems to live in our Cedars beside the feeders, and a small flock of Goldfinch that visits regularly.

Mind you, this Goldfinch was at least showing that tell-tale hint of bright yellow that will become its summer plumage, an encouraging sign.

And I can almost always count on 2 or 3 Chickadees to be making their constant flights back and forth with seeds to crack open.  Compared to the Goldfinch that just sit on the feeders and eat, the Chickadees have to work hard for their sustenance!

But today we had a large flock of Goldfinch descend on the meadow, as well as the feeders.  There seemed to be dozens and dozens of them for about 30 minutes, stripping the weeds of their seeds as fast as they could go.

I think those dark seed heads are all the troublesome Spotted Knotweed, a tough invasive weed which I should get rid of, but the birds seem to like them.

And here they're eating seeds of the Evening Primrose.

I spotted several ground-feeding Juncos, and did see a Blue Jay once or twice for a few seconds.

And the day before a big flock of finches visited briefly and overwhelmed the feeders.  I had labelled this as a House Finch, but as you'll see in the comments below, Woody Meristem suggests it is a Purple Finch, a more unusual bird here.

Here's a second view of the same photo, cropped a bit.  Looking at my trusty Peterson's bird guide, I have to agree with him, the pinkish/red colour extending down the breast, and down the back as well.  And the small bird on the lower right is actually a Pine Siskin, showing a hint of yellow about the wing and tail feathers.  Interesting coincidence, but David Gascoigne left a comment suggesting I should look for them.



And that makes these two females Purple Finch as well, clearly streaked in brown.  Thanks Woody!

We have had a Downy Woodpecker stop by the suet feeder a few times.

And if I go all the way back to December we did have the bigger Hairy Woodpecker visit a few times.  I think I may have posted this picture then.

And that's pretty well all the birds we've seen this year, the last two days about as exciting as it's been!  Mind you, it's time to start watching for the spring migrants returning, so maybe that will make some more exciting birding!

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19 comments:

  1. Birds of any type make for good company.

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  2. Looks to me that you're not doing too badly. Pretty soon you'll have a few early migrants joining in.

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  3. It would be awesome to see these lovelies each day! The woodpecker is my favorite :)

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  4. Seems like you did pretty good seeing all those birds. We haven't had very many different kinds but I do enjoy watching all that stop by. : )

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  5. Glad you have at least some visitors to the feeders. Of course they are all exotic birds to anyone on this side of the Atlantic and there would be great excitement if any of them showed up here.

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  6. Hello, what a wonderful variety of birds. Great captures of your visitors. Have a happy weekend!

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  7. Lovely photos ! We are on the migration path down here so we are lucky to get all kinds of birdies stop by our feeders all year long . I to have 2 Nijar , 4 black oiled sunflower and wild seed mix feeders and 2 suet feeders and two flat feeders for the critters and I have to refill all every two days some times daily . In the summers I lessen the amount of seed feeders as they need to learn to hunt for bugs and add nectar feeders for the hummers and Oriels . I am sure the birdies will spread the word that there is good pickings at your house and you will get lots of different birdies just takes some time for them to find it all . Thanks for sharing have a good weekend !

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  8. Reminds me of when I used to feed the birds. I had a wonderful flock of goldfinch and chickadees, but I constantly fought the greedy English sparrow and finally gave up. I think your bird pictures are pretty darn good! :-)

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  9. Loving the woodpecker!
    Have a lovely weekend :)

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  10. Hello, I just wanted to stop back and say thank you for linking up and sharing your post. I always enjoy the birds. Lovely photos. Have a happy weekend!

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  11. The first picture looked poised! These are great.

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  12. Lovely to see all of these, thank you.
    Don't they just love suet!

    All the best Jan

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  13. Warch for Pine Siskins. They are on my feeders right now and they are heading north.

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    1. Thanks David - see Woody's comment below, and my revisions above. I will be watching more carefully!

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  14. I think you've sold your feeder short, in the seventh and eighth photos you've gotten purple finch (the male with his rosy hue and the females in brown and white stripes). They resemble house finch, but the males' color is more old rose while the house finch males are redder; the females' stripes are more sharply defined. The smaller bird on the bottom right of the feeder in the seventh photo is a pine siskin showing its yellowish wing bar. Don't mean to be a know-it-all, but ...

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    1. Thanks Woody! I think you're right when I look at the bird guide, and I've changed the text above to reflect that. Thanks for the lesson. I need to keep my binoculars and bird guide handy,j and be more careful! Now, if I could get sparkling clear pictures.....!

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  15. Pretty birds! I love the woodpeckers.

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  16. these are GREAT snaps!! so happy to see more birds here. you are doing a great job with your variety of seed and feeders!!!!

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