Very few birds when I returned home!! After three weeks of no seed and water I guess they were a little ticked off!! But duly supplied the rations and after a couple of days saw some new friends. Little grey/black birds with white breasts....lovely but must ID them!! Now the bad news.....I have a ground hog and he's eating my evergreens......but he's so cute!!! Any ideas?
Abandoned
Your little bird sounds like a chickadee, wonderful little birds that will sometimes eat out of your hand. We shoot woodchucks - they can really destroy a meadow or pasture and their holes are leg breakers. I know, that's not what you wanted to hear, but they will eat everything and have no positive imput as far as I can see!
Thanks Kathleen - woodchucks then are ground hogs I assume!! I wonder if I can just frighten it away says this wimp!!! Will try to get closer to the chicadees, love them!!
Ground hog, wood chuck - How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood??
All the same miserable rodents, and if you get too close, they will bite! My old dog Mitzi used to kill one a week in the summer. She would put them on the front porch and leave them there until some one told her what a good dog she was, then she would take them off and dispose of the bodies.
The chickadees here will also carry on a conversation with you if you dee dee back at them. Of course, I try to do that only when no one else is around!
The birds are wonderful,
but the woodchucks...baa-humbug!
I'm battling woodchucks right now myself.
Kathleen, I could use a dog like your
Mitzi!
Melissa
Oh, Melissa, so could I. She died 17 years ago. Right now we're working with an ancient dog, a dog who would like to play fetch forever and two pups, all Border Collies. Maybe the pups will get the idea!
There are smoke bombs that you can put down chuck holes and smoke them out. Around here now, it's mostly done with a 22-250 rifle, but if you're in town, that would probably be frowned upon!
Kathleen,
I was going to ask what kind of dog Mitzi was.
My husband assumed a Lab?
But hey, Border Collies are tops!
We had a beauty of a Border Collie (years ago)
named Fred. He was such a smart dog!
Actually, because we are out in the country,
my husband sometimes mows the lawn and has
his '22 with him (to nail those woodchucks!)
Louisa, you don't want woodchucks settling in
your property. They're really destructive.
Melissa
Got the message - over and out!!.........lol!!
black capped chickadees-they are so friendly! =]
So why am I just sighting them now?? Do they only visit this area in the winter or what?
I don't see as many chickadees in the summer unless I walk into the woods. I put up a small wren house without the perch on the front this summer and they nested in it, had 3 clutches(?). It was right at the corner of the house.
Chickadees and most birds you'd want to attract loooove black oil sunflower seeds. That's all we put out, except for the niger thistle in the finch feeder and a couple of suet feeders, and we get all kinds of birds at the feeders. The chickadees are quite territorial during breeding season and you won't see bunches of them together too much. But in late summer and fall, they start hanging out in droves. Same thing with titmice. They're so fun!
Whoopee!! My cardinals are back - they must have forgiven me!!!!