Category Archives: Yard Birds

We’re up to 12 birds on the yard list. I’ve seen American Robins playing in the yard for the last week or so. They mostly hang around the fences – I don’t see them scurrying on the grass too often.

I was really surprised to see a Downy Woodpecker in the tree behind the yard the other day. He had a look at our suet feeder but didn’t stay on it. He did, however, go to town pecking at the tree. Check out the video below.

I almost had a heart attack when I looked out the window last week to see three American Goldfinches on the nyger sock. That sock has been out there – untouched! – since we moved in. They stayed on the sock for about 10 minutes before taking off.

Any guesses what lucky #13 will be?

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Following the recent recall of a type of Wild Birds Unlimited bird food due to possible salmonella contamination, there has been some talk on the Wisconsin Birding Network regarding feeder sanitation in general. Here are some of the tips that were posted.

Keep an eye on the general health of the birds visiting your feeding station so you will notice if something is amiss (ie your birds are ill and/or spreading disease).

It’s important to remember that for the sake of your birds, feeders should be cleaned on a regular basis.

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Last night we saw a scuffle between four Canada Geese on top of the warehouse behind our house. Two of the geese were acting aggressive towards the other two, who eventually flew off. I managed to get a video of the incident.

The remaining birds stayed there for about 20 minutes before flying off. One of them appeared to lay down while the other stood erect and looked around the whole time. We wondered if they could be staking out a possible nesting spot. The roof is at a slight angle, so I don’t think it would be a good spot for them to nest, even though Canada Geese have been known to nest on rooftops (caution: that last one links to a cam. You have been warned).

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We’ve been getting Juncos and House Finches to our feeders every day. A pair of Chickadees comes by every couple of days (that we’ve seen) and so does our squirrel. That’s right, we get one squirrel here every couple of days. When’s the last time you had just one squirrel coming around?!

Anyway, this morning we actually counted three pairs of House Finches. I love the bright males. Plus these guys seem to be the only ones that understand the feeders. Unfortunately I didn’t get the camera in time to catch all of them, but it would have been a lousy photo anyway – we really need to clean the windows. Later on, we had our sixth back yard bird species visit – the omnipresent House Sparrow. Another species I won’t have to miss from Europe (like the Starling – love ’em! 😉 )

To make up for those, here are some great shots of House Sparrows I found on Flickr:

This reminds me that this blog got started because of a House Sparrow. Arthur and I had just started our own personal blog and I was writing a lot about the House Sparrow who was killed for dominoes. I was finding other interesting bird stories in the news so we decided I should have my own bird blog, and so MagnificentFrigatebird.com was born.

Last thing: our neighbors seem to have a problem keeping their dogs in their yard. Twice this week we’ve had a big scary brown monster in our yard (that’s our cat’s opinion, anyway). So in addition to the birds and the squirrel, we need to add Chow Chow to our yard list. 🙂

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