I tried to find these in the bird book but can't find any this color. They appear to be winter goldfinches ( from the white bars on their wings)
First visitors to the thistle sack
Yep, those are Gold Finches, in thier winter plumage (I almost said foilage LOL)
Nice picture! Now that the sack has been discovered...the fun begins!
They will make wonderful entertainment for you all winter, and by spring will sport their bright new plumage.
I'm all excited about them! ( My DH thinks it's a little silly). This is the first bird picture I took. They certainly are 'fast' birds.
I plan to collect some old Christmas trees,as we cut down the huge maple that the birds used to sit in to come to the feeders. I also have aproblem of not having a nearby shelter for them to dive from to the feeders. Someone suggested this on another thread.
I hated to see the maple go, but it was rotton in the main crotch and threatened to fall on the house or garage. We have been hit with some high winds these last 2 years from the hurricanes - this is unusual in our area.
There is a line of overgrown privit type bushes on the neighbors property which houses about 50 sparrows. I am trying to get a shot of them sitting in the bush with their heads sticking out. It looks like the bush is growing birds.
Oh, that's a great pic and cute birds. You are quicker than I am to catch them in a photo! Good luck with the Christmas tree idea and too bad about that big maple.
Se_eds, Will nuthatches come to a 'sock' too or is that just a finch thing?
I have never seen anything but finch (several kinds) on my thistle socks.
Those socks draw finches mainly. I am surprised that they know enough to sit on something like that for food.; LOL
How does the nyjer seed sock stand up in the rain? I am asking because I bought the exact same sock and I am located in the pacific northwest where we get a lot of rain....
Also, the gal at a bird store I talked figured the goldfinches would have migrated already and no one would use it until spring unless there was a finch population was staying around for winter in my area but then they would have a food source already....so my sock was up for a couple days then I took it down as I just moved into this place this year and just started feeding the birds here......any comments on that?....i am quite new to birding.....thanks
Sandy
This message was edited Dec 6, 2004 8:19 AM
The one I used was out there for about a week and a half before they found it. During that time we had some pouring down rains so I guess I didn't hurt the seed. They continue to eat it. It is getting so cold here that I doubt it will mold before they consume it.
I have occasionally had niger seed (thistle) seed ferment in the socks, usually over a winter with few finches frequenting it. The seed is so cheap, I just dump it, wash the sock and fill it again in spring.
thanks for answering Darius and se_eds.....maybe i will hang the sock back out for a longer period and see what happens......can't hurt!
Sandy
Sandy130, I don't live too terribly far from you the way birds might fly straight across the mountains. i have been a birdwatcher for far more years than you are old I am certain. It is good winter entertainment when outside weather not too good. Here of course just south of Osooyos, I don't get as much rain as you do. The goldfinches stay here all year round. i feed them with the upside down feeders, as goldfinches and pine siskins are the only ones who can do the upside down bit.
I feed birds all year. This morning I put one of the bird feed blocks ( they are quite large, 10 x 10 x10 inches or so and quite heavy. I don't know what is used to hold the seeds together , it is blackish color, maybe some type of molasses?? Anyway I have not seen any Ring Necked Pheasants in the yard this summer, I heard them a time or two. Three hours after I put the seed block out on my brick path I saw 2 pheasant hens eating seeds from it, actually one hen was an older one and she wouldn't let the younger one get more than a seed or two and she would chase the immature one away. Then just a little later two beautiful large males showed up to get a snack. It has been lightly snowing today, so the ground was white. Even tho the blocks are rather expensive I buy a couple every winter, the quail and other birds also eat at it. Donna
A lot of those bird blocks are held together with gelatin...
I have a long thistle sock ( Some are long, some are short) and I use a large squirrel baffle above it to help protect it from the rain and bad weather. I have at times seen nuthatches and chickadees on the thistlesock.
Se-eds, Nice photo, Now that they have found you feeder, I'm sure you'll get more! There are times here when I have seen at least 30 finches on the feeders, They are so beautifull in the spring/summer when they get there deep yellow plumage! ~ http://www.wtv-zone.com/irislynx/Gold-Finch/Gfinonbranch2.jpg
Yep, gelatin in the "glue" in many of them. My grandfather used to make them at home...just as good as the ones you buy but far less expensive. Just mix up some unflavored gelatin (1:2 ratio water to gelatin), mix in whatever seeds you want to use to attract the birds you want (the mixture should be mostly seeds with the gelatin just coating them), spoon this into a baking dish at least 1 /2 inches tall and let it firm up overnight. If it doesn't come out of the dish easily, just dip the dish in a bath of hot water to loosen the gelatin on the outter edges from the dish....then turn it over and it should fall right out in a block. One tip I'll add is that Grampa used to put a foil divider in the center of the dish if using a rectangular cake pan...creating 2 blocks of seeds that are easier to handle than one long one which usually cracked in the center anyway before trying this step.
Grampa put these in open "gazebo" type covered bird feeders, so they were pretty well protected from wet weather, and eliminated a lot of waste that you get from just loose seed in the feeder. I plan on doing something like this in summer since our summers are completely dry. I think our winter rains would pretty much turn a brick like this into mush very quickly if not in a completely enclosed feeder that the birds have to climb into...which I hope to construct anyway.
Recently Magpye posted a recipe she uses for suet seed mix if you're interested in that too.
-Julie
Hi Donna,
Yes i am familiar with Osoyoos and have been there quite a few years back so not really that far from you.....thats good to know those goldfinches and pine siskins eat your thistle all year round....i have a few more years i think to get to be even past the newbie stage of birding...lol...just love watching those little creatures eat like crazy in the backyard......I will have to put the sock back out and maybe invest in a proper feeder also to protect the seed from the rain or get a baffle as Iris referred to in her post too.....that is a great idea also.....Your pheasants are lucky to get fed also in your backyard.....they must be a sight to see eating......that would be very interesting to watch them.....
Great gelatin recipe Julie..... that would be something to try in the summer i think.....birds would go crazy for it and not as much waste like you say.....thanks for posting that....
Sandy
This message was edited Dec 6, 2004 10:18 PM
salvia_lover, thanks for posting the ratio for gelatin for glue to hold seeds. I will try that. I think the commercial people must add something more, as the blocks I get are very dark, like almost black, and do hold together quite well out in weather. But as you said I could put under a roof to keep out snow. It is snowing outside now, and has been snowing for past two or three days, but very lightly and only about 1/2" snow on the ground, but the birds are really going crazy at my feeders, I can't keep them filled.
Sandy130 maybe if you get over this way you can come to my place for a visit. Would love to have you. And yes the pheasants are just beautiful, especially if the sun is out. Will try to get a photo. They are pretty leary of any movement. Donna
Hi Donna,
Thanks for the nice offer.....I dont get across the line too often but you never know.....It sounds like you have nice wildlife to watch there and would make for very interesting viewing......a pic would be great!
Sandy
Evenin' se_eds ..
Jes wonderin' if you've managed to fetch any more bird pics of late ...
Ya can't tell that I'm at all curious, about how you're enjoying that wonderful new camera .. 'ey ? .. (heehee)
- Magpye
Great Magpie -Nice to hear from you. the camera is doing fine. I've joined a camera forum and learned a lot, also am reading some books I got. I got a table top tripod and a larger one for outdoors.
The picture taker is sick. I need to take some vitamin pills and 'get over it'. Our weather is still open, no snow and mild temperatures. It takes snow to make the titmouse and juncos come to feed.
We have a large goshawk patrolling the place. He was sitting at the very top of a very tall locust tree. I saw three large black crows tormenting him the other day. I love watching their antics, but don't to go out at this point. I think we need some frigid weather to clear the air!
se_eds, I get titmouse here even lately when it's been around 60º days...
Great picture! They are gold finches.. Right now we have full of them on our sack of seeds. I need to take picture.. Our look much like yours lol..
Se_eds ... Hope to hear and 'see' ya gettin' better .. real soon !!
Take care of yourself ...
- Magpye
Thanks folks.
Darius - what are you feeding the titmouses? I have black oil sunflower seeds, a deluxe songbird mix and of course, Thistle seed. Do you know offhand, what they prefer?.
The chickens were pulling up half drowned worms in the field in back of our place today.
The titmouse here eat from the black oil seeds in the tube feeder. Not any of the finch feed (niger/thistle) seed. I have a deluxe songbird mix in a platform feeder and see titmouse until all the redskinned peanuts are gone... I also see them at my suet feeder, homemade mix.
Nice picture, I have a finch feeder and it stays moldy all the time, I'm ready to just throw it out, How do you keep the seeds from molding in the rain and such till the birds find them?
kathy_ann
I'll have to get some extra peanuts. The weather is supposed to turn cold, finally, so I will miss saving money on fuel oil, but welcome seeing more birds. Thanks for the info, Darius.
kathy_ann, my seeds go down very quickly. However, I have 4 sacks and when they look grungy, put up 2 clean ones and wash/bleach the other 2.
se_eds, you'll only miss under $10 from your fuel oil money. Don't put out too many, they can be piglets on the peanuts. Some chopped sunflower bits in the mix helps.
Sacks? my brother in law uses long tube socks, will that work, where do you get the sacks at?
kathy
Mine are a closely-woven synthetic net material that still lets the finch pull the seed out beetween the fibers... Got them at Lowe's or maybe HD
will have to check there, thanks
kathy_ann, a lot of hardware stores have them also. Any feed stores where you get dog, rabbit and bird food. They are inexpensive and seem to last forever, but like Darius says, they need cleaned and bleached once in a while.
kathy_ann, here are a couple of photos of finch socks... first one is a larger sock with flowers printed on it, I got it at an Ace hardware store
Here's the regular finch socks I use... on a homemade copper pipe stand
I must admit, I had given up on having any Goldfinches this year. I put up a sock filled with Thistle on Christmas Day, and all this time, there have been no Finches. Lo and behold, this morning there are two of the little guys...do they send scouts like Martins? Should I expect more of them? I guess I should have known they were out there, as the cat has been sitting in the window the last few mornings...the regular feeder isn't full, so there haven't been birds around, for a few days. (I was going to go and get more seed for them, today) there is also, one Junco out there, just One..I have always seen them in flocks of 20 or more birds, I guess this one got lost from the rest of the flock. He seems overwealmed by what I call the Sparrow Family, at the feeder, as those guys are very boisterous. The Junco seems to come around when the Sparrows are not there. One reason I haven't refilled the feeder...when it is full, the Sparrows come in a herd, and keep the other smaller birds away...there is some seed in the feeder...enough for a determined, hungry bird...but not enough to attract the Sparrows...
If it were not so cold, I would go and sit outside, and try to get some pictures of the Finches, hanging on the Thistle sock...but it is below freezing, out there...(cold for Texas, I know, I am a wimp!) Maybe I will bundle up, and brave it for awhile. I think I could be still enough for the birds to ignore me enough to be able to get some good shots. Who am I kidding? It is a bit too cold to be totally still for very long! But I may try it. Wish me luck!
Melva, if you had two finch, you WILL have more!
Thanks Darius,
That is what I thought!
Thanks darius
for the help
kathy
jperilloux, that's such a great pic! :-) You really have a popular bird restaurant there! :-)
-Julie