Northeast birds pt 2

No. Cliffie likes to play with the wild animals, though I'm sure they don't know it.

I am determined to grow more animal and bird-friendly plants this year! Maybe even install a bat house.

That's the way Winston is, he watches the birds and squirrels at the door...at least that's what I keep telling myself as he is drooling!

Bat house is a good idea since we are short on them now. Death to mosquitos.

The other day in the snow

Love the cardinal's 'do'!

funny, right?

80's spiked 'do rocker cardinal.

Went to Florida for Easter. Had a wonderful visit with the local neighbors.

Have a great day,
John

Ok what the heck is this one? Right by the bird feeder.

Whoa! Too close to the gators........sneaky fellows. Sherrie, that looks like a junco that is a partial albino......weird!

Exactly

Not wild, but at a zoo today where they just walk around free

Beautiful!

Not that I'm cutting down all of my mullberry trees, cause I'm not, but everything I read about planting to attract birds is very contradictory. The Bringing Nature home web site says mulberries are overrated as a food source for birds and rates them low, but my library books list it has high for many east coast bird species. It also claims more than 500 species live in the oak trees and thousands of them pass through the oaks (much higher than I read elsewhere), and not many in beech trees or tupelo. It is very hard to learn whose ecological research is the most reputable.

I also don't know if the juncos will nest in Norway Maples which are quite plentiful in the neighborhood. Books just say they like "maple."

Everyone agrees that oak, birch and dogwood get high marks for supporting birds and wildlife.

Norway maples are a 'junk', invasive tree for this area. Wish for fewer & more native maples. a lot of birds are quite adaptive & juncos usually go further north to nes.

True....juncos nest in Canada....they have their winter vacation in New England!

That explains everything. I have rarely seen one, and that was in winter. They don't have a good selection of native maples around here. I took a walk in the local woods with our dog, and they grow predominantly white pines, with oaks and beech thrown in, sometimes wild cherry, and a lower layer sometimes of sumac or wild grapes, different in the exposed rocky areas.

The juncos are on the ground under our tube feeder all winter. they travel in small flocks.

I'm always glad to not see any Juncos, that means spring is really here!
Saw a cowbird yesterday.

Cow birds. grackles and starlings....i'm being invaded!!!!

I'll say. Maybe you could use a big ole hawk to take up residence in the tallest tree. I have a redtailed hawk in our ash tree and also a hawk across the parking lot, visible from my office. That's the only clear possibility I know for our birds staying away. It must be a chupmunk smorgasboard here.

Wow.....had a small flock of goldfinches yesterday.....getting yellower by the day.....

Off the subject of birds, Rosemary. As you are lucky enough to have an ash tree, keep your eye out for the ash borer (its green) & get help for the tree if you spot it.

Our arborist told us there was nothing we could do to stop the borer once it arrived, and that it would be in our area in the next few years, so we preemptively took down two relatively small ash trees (our only ashes) to reduce the inevitable cost of removing them once they became infested.

Before that it was the "yellow ash disease." We took down some of our less desirable ash trees a few years ago, too. The remaining ones overcame it, and they are now quite lovely and no more dying branches. Neighbors took all of theirs down, so perhaps that will be a little better for ours(?)

It is about the birds as well as for the enjoyment of us people. It's best to have an upper canopy, a middle level and some shrubs and groundcover.

Every year, I'm trying to start some slow growing, useful, tall trees near all the taller ones for about $10 each. If the big ones all go at once, then I guess I can plant some poplars.

I read there's an oak fungus killing the oaks out west, too. Hemlocks get infections. My spruces seem to have a 30 year lifespan. So, no wonderful tree is really safe.

Living organisms, no matter their size, are not immune to disease & dying.....

Just had my first flicker of the year....he was in the gardens I just raked off.......

Nice sign of spring, Marilyn! Sigh, no doubt the ephemeral nature of our pets' live makes the temporariness of it all very clear.

This week my suet feeder is picked clean. I did see a cute downy woodpecker. I can hear lots of birds in the neighborhood but they're not showing themselves. The Canada geese are on the move too.

Another flock of Blackbirds have arrived.

Have a great evening,
John

Today's nature column in our newspaper reported on the many phoebes....which I've seen.... Savannah sparrows, pine warblers, & a palm warbler all in my area which I most definitely have not seen!

This robin did not seem impressed with the snow this morning. It looked right at me as if to say "WTH Lady?!" like it was my fault. :(

Poor baby! Glad they are hardy birds....can't believe a flock winters over in the pasture next to my son's house.....even I don't want to winter there!

That's one disgruntled bird. Dinner will have to be "leftover" seeds until the worms come out.

ROBINDOG, I've been watching the goldfinches get gold-er, too! In patches. I've have at least three pairs here at times, though the house finches have been here to compete with them lately.

John, I have a small troop of blackbirds here. I'm a few blocks from salt marshes, so most of them will probably stay. Why do some of the Red-Winged Blackbird males have pure black bodies while others have a tracery of brown, especially on their backs? Are the latter first-year birds?

A week or two ago I had a record high of 5 male Eastern Towhees. No good pictures, though. Every time two of them got too close together there would be a chase.

I haven't seen a towhee in years....once in awhile, I'll hear them.......saw 19 different species at Hammonasset yesterday, the biggest surprises were 2 glossy ibis.....

So glad that you hear the towhees. We have not done so for years & they used to be in our backyard.

Towhees need leaf litter to scratch around in......up the road there are some lightly wooded areas....that's where I could hear them singing....

We are fairly wooded, plenty of litter here. People around us have manicured lawns--may be a problem.

We have leaf litter when I can stop the lawn people from blowing the leaves (and the groundcovers, and some of the perennials) out of the borders with those 90-decibel power blowers. I throw some birdseed into the leaf litter to make the towhees' scratching rewarding. Saw one female today.

saw a brown headed cowbird under the feeder today. First time that I have seen one. Always thought they were more open field birds. I would rather have the towhees.

Cowbirds aren't welcome here as they lay their eggs in other birds' nests.....thankfully I only see them passing through this time of year.....my friend on the other side of town has pasture, and the cowbirds lay their eggs in the bluebird nests.....