Yesterday afternoon I was looking at the bird feeders that are, IDK, 50-60' away from the back porch. I thought there weren't any birds either on the feeders or on the ground. Then a flash of color caught my eye on a tall cube cake feeder. I got my binoculars and could see the tip of a bright orange tail sticking out. Then I could just see a head sticking out on the other side. I actually thought it was two birds there and watched for 5 minutes or so until he worked his way around for identification. Then it was "OMG, OMG, OMG", it's a Baltimore Oriole. Those normally don't winter in this area, and I can't remember the last time I saw one even in summer. Sorry for the crappy pictures but this is from my cell at 10x (and some cropping). The first picture is showing that the tail is orange all the way. Someone on FB suggested it was a towee because I posted the 2nd picture in which the tail is turned and blends in with the post
My mother has a feeder like one for hummingbirds that you can screw an upside down jar of jelly onto, the Oriole’s love it!
Not sure if it's better to feed them and make em come out into the windy blizzard conditions or not but they are eating. Sent from my SM-S536DL using Tapatalk
They will hunker down when the weather is too bad. You aren't "making" them come out - they will venture out anyway. You are giving them a source of food they can easily get to, so they are wasting less energy finding food in the wild.
Satellite dish for the birds? Nope, the squirrel baffle the wind blew up and over Friday night. Look carefully and you can see the duct tape where it sits on the pole. Usually happens when we have very windy conditions here.
I got out and leaf blew a path to the feeders. Snow was light enough. Seed in feeders was mostly froze solid. No wonder they were out there all day yesterday. . Obviously i put out new food. Have saw lots of Junco, a nuthatch here and there, plus 3 pair of cardinals at once today.
Puffed up mourning dove sunning itself in the cold yesterday morning. It was around 20* at the time. Zoomed pic so a bit blurry.
A female bluebird stayed long enough for a picture. We've had multiple bluebirds visiting the suet feeder every day for over a week. In addition to hairy, snowy, and red bellied woodpeckers, a flicker has been visiting. They are as skittish as cardinals. I'll be trying to get a picture of it.
Bird feeder bandit strikes again! Notice the empty feeder i just put a little in yesterday. (Picture taken after I chased her off.)
Anyone know much about nuthatches? I watched this one yesterday and it looks like it's back again today. It does laps to the feeder. Most times i can't see where goes. Yesterday i could see it going to the feeder and a nearby tree. One time i saw it carrying a seed to the tree and once on the trees bark it bounces around a couple times until it finds the right spot. It then looks like the nuthatch sets the seeds down in the bark and cracks it! Pretty cool operation. Now my question is; is the nuthatch cracking the seed or hiding it? I've seen on a couple of my trees dotted rings around the trunk where woodpeckers burry seeds in the bark for later use.
Here's a downy woodpecker. The smallest that we get. Not sure if there's any smaller. Then a cardinal came in. Picture was full zoom and shot through a window. Playing peekaboo on the seed feeder.
Downy is the smallest TTBOMK. Our suet feeder is hanging off the rain gutter and 3' from our view at the back window. Just snapped these of a male. Red bellied and the rare hairy woodpeckers visit too. Chickadees, titmice and nuthatches are constant regulars. There is a wren who visits too. I have seen a snowbirds try to eat some too.
