Birds of the mid-Atlantic (and other critters too)

The pure suet that I keep pushing does not melt in this heat, in the shade at least.

Poor little creature. A number of Blue Jays come by my yard for sunflower seed. There used to be a wild gray cat a few years, but I have not seen it this year. A few cats occasionally walk by. I keep the feeders so the birds can see far.

Robin chicks get regurgitated food at first, then graduate to bigger pieces and then whole worms/bugs once they have feathers. Feeding older ones on occasion is fun, but doesn't really give the parents a break as they watch, all concerned. You'd think our porch robins at least would know by now we mean no harm, but they go flapping off in alarm every time we step onto the porch.

Rick, a local feral came by once this summer to show me her kittens, then disappeared again, despite attempts by myself & another neighbor to feed and hopefully trap them. Maybe your grey kitty is hanging around unseen this year. I'm going to try to take advantage of our local TNR (trap, neuter, release) program as a way to keep down numbers and also get feral cats basic vet care & vaccines. keeping my eye out...

You're w ise to be sure there's no cover for a stalking cat right by your feeder,

Jill--You wrote:
Rick, a local feral came by once this summer to show me her kittens, then disappeared again,



How does a feral cat, which usually is not all that friendly, show you her kittens????
I am curious on this.....G.

She appeared on the landing, and when I went out on the back patio, she came out from under the deck, although not closer than maybe 8 feet from where I sat. One at a time, her 3 curious kittens came out from under the steps, staying well behind mama.

I've put food out for her a few times in bad winter weather but never had her hang around long enough to try trapping her (to get her to the vet).

I've sighted her a couple of times in the neighborhood, running across a lawn, but nobody has seen the kittens since.

I really think she wanted to show me her kittens. :-)

AWwww---that is so sweet! G.

I figure that the best way you can help bird parents feed their young is by stocking the bird feeders. I think the babies have to be fed regurgitated insects, worms, slugs, etc. (yum!), but the less the parents have to forage for food for themselves, the more time they have to find food for their babies. It's kind of like keeping the fridge and freezer stocked for parents of human newborns.

Gita, I just wish she had come back... I'd really like to have fostered the kittens and gotten her vetted & neutered.

Muddy, that's a great analogy re. feeding the parents of newborns of whatever species! But every kid should have the chance to feed a worm to a fledgling... although helping a calf at the dairy chug down its big bottle of milk is a close second! (South Mountain Creamery invites kids to help feed the calves every day, at 4 pm.)

I barely even see the fledglings in my yard; I'd never be able to get close enough to feed them!
They all hang out in my hillside bed by the fence, where they're completely hidden by plants.

what can I say; robins are dumb. but that makes for some fun opportunities!

LOL Jill, I have fed the newborn calves at South Mountain Creamery, and was as thrilled as a kid probably would be :)

Definitely not just for the kids. David and I have had a ball feeding them, and my older daughter and various grandchildren have had fun too. Plus some ice cream to help build back your strength doesn't hurt the experience! They have the best ice cream.

ooh, going to put that on an itinerary with a visit to Catoctin or something!

I've never heard of South Mountain Creamery, but it sounds like a fun place!

I saw a Goldfinch sipping water from my Cup Plant today, the first time ever that I've seen birds partaking of the water in its "cups". The Cup Plant is a monster this year! I was thinking about getting rid of it because it takes up a large amount of space and the flowers aren't spectacular IMO, but now that I've seen that birds enjoy it...

Muddy, South Mountain Creamery is in Middletown, which is just outside of Frederick. It is a fun place to visit. They also have an extensive home delivery service - hey deliver in WV, VA, MD, PA, and DC! I have been getting milk delivery from them every 2 weeks for several years now. Nothing beats cold milk in those glass bottles. They also deliver all kinds of dairy and meat products. Check out their website.
http://southmountaincreamery.com/home.php

I haven't put out birdseed in over a year, but I still see gold finches perch on the pole where the empty feeders are almost daily. Wonder what keeps them coming back to that spot?

The milking area is just a few steps away from the building where they sell the milk and other dairy products and you're free to watch that, too. They are usually bringing in groups of cows from 3 o'clock on, possibly earlier.

They even have the milk that gets a blob of cream on top. Very nice place and very reasonable prices on their ice cream.

Pat--
SO--you get milk that is straight from the cow--and NOT pasteurized?
WOW!

If you let natural milk sit out and go sour--it will separate in 3 things. Cream, solids
and whey (the liquid at the botton). We used to drink this in Latvia.

"Little Miss Muffet
Sat on her tuffet--
Eating her curds and whey.....

The solids will go sour and congeal to the point that you can scoop it up in globs.
If you cook these solids--you get cottage cheese. The cream,, of course, gives you butter.

All this is from places without any refrigeration. Healthy too.

Here--if anything like milk goes sour--it is discarded. By now--I would do it too....

g.

I was having visions of never stepping foot in a grocery store again when I looked at that website! Their milk is cheaper than the organic milk we buy at Giant, too.

Aspen, maybe they're perching there while they look for insects.

Gita, all of the milk is pasteurized, but it's not all homogenized.

Yes, what Muddy said! It is not raw milk, and you have your choice of whole milk as one usually buys or the whole milk with the cream on top, or the usual 2%, etc. And as Terri mentioned, it is very refreshing.

We have a large herb plant just outside the front door, on a stand that puts the top about shoulder height (short person's shoulders). I went out to give it a drink the other day, and out flew a wren! I surprised her and she in turn surprised me. She has a nest in there. but it is not a bowl-shaped one but rather sort of like a cave. There were at least 3 speckled eggs in there. I've seen her several times since then with worm pieces in her mouth.

What fun! Can you see the nestlings?

Not yet. I'm not sure they have hatched yet. She does not go in and out much and I don't want her to feel unsafe, so I'm not doing a lot of looking.

Cool! Amazing to me how they will nest so close to the house... :-)

photo from a couple days ago when the porch robin babies were getting feathers... they are all feathered out now, fledging isn't far away!

Wow Pat!. I think I have read the proposal that house wrens are named that because they are so willing to nest close to people.

cute robins!

Toads are having a great year. I keep hearing them at night, and finding them/almost stepping on them.

Where are the katydids? Have I slept through them on those hot nights with A/C on?

The frogs sure are plentiful, too. We have a lot in our round pond, some in the pond David just repaired, and even one in the small pond where the lotus is. That last was sure a surprise.

The reason for that name makes sense.

Those robins are so cute!!! I see that one is a little straggler; it had better learn to get its beak right up there with its sibs!

I don't hear frogs around here at night and I haven't seen any in my pond since I've had fish. Before that, I would see some now and then. Sadly, they were usually dead. My daughter said I killed them by forgetting to de-chlorinate the water when I cleaned the pond : - (

I hear some insects quietly chirping away out there, but I'm not sure what they are. I guess I should google katydid sounds.

I top up the "pocket ponds" without adding dechlorinator, but I guess that's not enough additional of chlorine to matter, and it dissipates after awhile.

I thought our robins had started fledging when I spotted a baby out in the yard, speckled breast, all uncoordinated in a coltish way. But "our" 3 are still in the nest, so that fledgling was from another brood.

It could have been something else. My sister finds frogs swimming in her pool and it doesn't seem to bother the frogs.

Baby birds sure are fun to watch. I saw a juvenile blue jay at the peanut feeder yesterday. They're finally learning to help themselves rather than cry for their parents to feed them.

We got a better look today inside the nest and there are 2 hatched and 1 egg. So funny to see those big, open mouths, and one is definitely a day or so ahead of the other. They seem to be tended to by a single mom who also apparently has a full-time job as she is not around much.

Hope she stays away from this guy we found on our hike Snake color and size seem like an unpatterned Northern Watersnake if that's possible
And baby toad. We see baby toads or frogs every time we walk there so far this year.

This message was edited Jul 12, 2015 2:14 PM

Sally--When I looked at the toad picture above--I thought there was another snake
under the toad. The legs sure have a snake-coloring--and they look "coiled"...!

Take another look......G.

I've been surprised by how many times nests are unattended. I thought one of the parents was always supposed to stand guard!

Sally, yep I'd say that is a Northern Watersnake. When I was looking for photos to ID the one I saw by Wolf Trap Creek, I found that coloration varied greatly.
http://www.fcps.edu/islandcreekes/ecology/northern_water_snake.htm

Toad hiding in pot.

He sure made himself at home! So funny to come across one that has settled in a pot.

Maybe 3 years ago--I had a plant in a 6" clay pot.
I would come out--and the soil would be all out--like in donner's picture.

I was like--"Those squirrels just keep on digging in my pots!"
So--I would put the soil back to keep my plant happy. And I would dig in
the pot with my shovel to get all the soil back in,

Next day--same thing--all over again. So, I decided to dump the soil out
so I can re-pot the plant properly. YIKES! There was a big toad in the
bottom of the pot! How it got in and out of the pot --I do not know--as I would
stick my shovel in there and did not feel anything??? I could have killed it.....
Toads would be welcome here, but I have, very seldom, seen any.

Once! I had this big, orange toad that lived for a couple days on my concrete
steps going into the basement. I even fed it some slugs. Then he disappeared--
came back once--a couple days later--and was gone again--forever....
I was a beauty--if you can call a toad "beautiful"......!

1--My orange speckled toad---it it's favorite corner on the steps -cool and damp.
Contemplating a slug I offered. When it decided to eat it--his tongue would
come out in a flash and the toad was gone! it took less than one second.

2--I even built it a "house" hoping he/she would hang around....NOPE!
Just checked it out and decided to live somewhere else.

G.

If I may--I have a question about an insect--which I encountered today.
Hope IT also qualifies as a "critter.

came across this big, long, gray patterned insect attached to a leaf. 1-1/2" long.
It was attached to a leaf on the soil in my bed. It seemed "dead"--as it was not
moving at all.
I picked up the leaf and took it to my picnic table and laid it down. NO signs of life!

Then I poked at it a bit--and it came to life. It spread its gossamer wings and
was trying to move around--but it was just going in a circle. May have been injured?
It even fluttered a bit as if trying to fly away. I took several pictures of it.

My thought were that it may have been near dying--having laid its eggs?
At one point--it fell to the ground and was trying to get under the leg of my heavy
patio chair.
I finally scooped it up with some leaves and put it under my bushes.
It can do what ever it has to do there--even die, if that is the next step in its life.

Here are some pictures. david--you are always good at ID'ing bugs.

1 &2--The gray bug as I found it. Still...lifeless...

3--After I put it on my table and gave it a nudge

4--Wings fully spread

5--Real close-up of it from behind.

What is it??? Thanks, Gita

Gita - I am almost certain it is a female Dobsonfly. With its head facing down I cannot see its mouth parts. A female Dobsonfly has short pair of pinchers for mouth parts. If I could see them the ID would be 100%. A male has long, skinny pinchers that would be evident in all of your photos, so it is ruled out. 98% sure of ID. See http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Dobsonfly

Thanks, david.

Here is another bug from today. It was on my Milkweed earlier--
and just now as i went out to see if I could find the Dobsonfly I dumped--
this same black wasp-like insect was still feeding away on the Milkweeds.
What be it? Thanks-- G.

Donner, of all the lovely places to burrow and hide in your garden, it's strange that the toad picked that pot. That must have been quite a surprise!

Gita, how nice of you to make a home for the toad. It's hilarious that it was trying to squeeze its big fat body under that board! I looked online to see if I could ID it, but I didn't see anything native to MD that looked like it.