Yard bird #19
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Category Archives: Yard Birds
Flicker!
Meet yard bird #18* – this lovely lady Northern Flicker. She was foraging in the back of the yard by the fence, and when I first saw her I thought she was a robin! What a pleasant surprise!
Flickers are the only woodpecker known to commonly feed on the ground. We think she might have been after ants. There is a large anthill behind the fence at the back of our yard and they often make their way on our side of the fence – especially now that we have oranges and grape jelly out for the orioles. Isn’t she striking? What beautiful markings!
Before she left the yard, she had a nice shake on our fence.
* I had previously counted a group of Canada Goose loitering on the roof of the warehouse behind our yard as ‘yard birds’. Since then we’ve had a few other species fly over but I haven’t counted those on our yard list. Since no Canada Goose has actually been in our yard I am not including that species on our list anymore. Our yard list is therefore:
1. American Goldfinch
2. Dark-eyed Junco (slate-colored)
3. Black-capped Chickadee
4. House Finch
5. Mourning Dove
6. House Sparrow
7. Northern Cardinal
8. Red-winged Blackbird
9. Song Sparrow
10. American Robin
11. Downy Woodpecker
12. Brown-headed Cowbird
13. European Starling
14. American Tree Sparrow
15. Common Grackle
16. White-crowned Sparrow
17. Baltimore Oriole
18. Northern Flicker
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Feeding oranges to the…
If you want to attract Baltimore Orioles to your feeding station, you could offer grape jelly and oranges. One day after we put out our jelly feeder, we had an Oriole visit. The next day we put out oranges and found this guy partaking a short while later.
Later, we saw this curious House Finch having a look at the other half of orange.
He had a closer look…
… and then decided to try it for himself.
Hmm, that’s different. Juicy. Refreshing.
I do think I’ll have some more.
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Oriole!
I saw a bird perched on the hummingbird feeder close to the house this morning. It took my just-woken-up brain a moment to process what I was seeing and then I let out a huge GASP which scared Arthur and Arby both. A Baltimore Oriole! He flew back to the jelly feeder after a moment.
He knew just what to do. Yum! Enjoy, Mr. Yard Bird #18. Now go find a lady friend to bring over!
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White-crowned invasion!
Sibley says these are uncommon in eastern North America. Don’t tell these guys. I saw this gang of four White-crowned Sparrows in my parent’s back yard last week.
We even have a couple up here in our yard in Round Lake Beach. Check out the straddle action on this guy!
Lots of sparrows are difficult to identify (I’m looking at you, Vesper and Grasshopper. Or maybe I mean you, Lincoln’s and Savannah! Actually I have no idea, I can’t tell you guys apart. But I’m looking at you!). But White-crowned Sparrows are easy. Not to mention cute.
For more bird photos, be sure to check out the submissions at this week’s Bird Photography Weekly.
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Two new yard birds!
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Our low-cost birdbath
We picked up this cheap used birdbath at the Salvation Army shop last month for about $4. There was a small crack in the basin but otherwise it was in fine shape. It’s made of very lightweight plastic. The top screws off which makes it easy to thoroughly clean the bath when necessary.
To fix the crack, I got a tube of plumber-grade Goop for about $3.00. I applied half of the tube to the crack and let it dry for 24 hours.
We picked up four bricks at Menard’s for $1.00 to weigh the bath down. For less than $10 we now have a functional birdbath. I was very excited to spot the first customer last week: this Mourning Dove. Yay!
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Hang in there!
We’re getting ready for Arthur’s parents to visit us for two weeks. They’re flying in from the Netherlands tomorrow. We probably won’t do any birding during this time so I won’t be making too many posts here on the blog, except for a couple I’ve got scheduled (T-Shirt Tuesday must go on, you know!).
I was outside taking a few photos of our birdbath and as I approached the feeders this funky little American Goldfinch was determined to keep on the sock as long as possible. It was extremely windy and I was only about 15 feet away from him but he just kept hangin’ on, munching away.
See ya in May!
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Make your home BirdSafe!
Learn how you can prevent bird collisions with windows at your home by visiting the BirdSafe Homes registry from the Wisconsin Humane Society. You can even register your home as a Bird Safe Home. You don’t have to be a resident of Wisconsin to participate. Even if you don’t register, check out the great tips to make sure your birds won’t fall victim to a strike at your home.
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Hummingbirds are coming, hummingbirds are coming
I’ve been checking out this map every day to see how far north the migrating Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have traveled so far.
Every time I look at the map, I think about that Coca-Cola holiday commercial with the jingle ♫ Holidays are coming ♫ but I’m singing ♫ Hummingbirds are coming ♫ Hummingbirds are coming ♫
When I looked at the map this morning, sightings close to our home from the last couple of days were suddenly on the map! We just ran out to put up our feeder. According to previous year maps, hummingbirds typically reach our area in the second week of April.
Hummingbirds.net has a lot of great information on feeding hummingbirds and maintaining your feeders. Are you (going to be) feeding hummingbirds in your yard this year?
♫ Hummingbirds are coming! ♫ Hummingbirds are coming! ♫
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