Today At The Watering Hole!

Omigawd!!!!!!!!! Be still my heart!

and another

I don't care if I don't have snow or ice. I'm getting one of those bowls!!!

LOL! Ceejay...that is what I was thinking when I saw them! A little Goldfinch is on the left waiting!

LOL! I wish we would have had some sunlight but I'll take what I can get!

Those are awesome photos through a car window!! Just showed DH, and he is just dazed. I wonder if they carry heated bowls here. Maybe they would like their water warmer. Whatever their little hearts desire....
Thank you for this beautiful thread. I am SOOOO envious! But delirious for you!

This is what the set up looked like...see the feeding frenzy going on on the left!

I think I'm loosing my mind...that last pic was posted twice!! (can't take too much excitement here)

Edited cause I'm wacko!

This message was edited Jan 25, 2008 7:05 PM

Thanks Ceejay..I had to make adjustments on Picasa and can't really tell what the pics look like on my computer. They look different in AM and PM light! The bowls turn on when them temps get down to 40 degrees I think so the water isn't really warm but in this area water in general is sometimes hard for them to find.

OMG!!!! Your'e killing me here, I swear! Those are fabulous.

Yep, gotta get one of them there bowls!

And then there was one!

Great pics Rose!!!

That Goldfinch looks so sad.

Thank you Nanny and Pelle! And yes the little GF does look sad...doesn't know that I set that whole thing up for the BB...he thinks it is all for him!

OMG Rose, that is just incredible!! Congratulations, you've got every reason to be ultra excited!

Thanks Sadie...and guess what I've got worms!! 10,000 of those little crawley buggers!! LOL!

I keep telling myself that I need to order some, hopefully I'll get that done next week.

Mine came earlier than I expected...so be prepared! I put half of mine in a large plastic storage container with corn meal and oatmeal and drilled holes in the lid. The other half is still in the package and box and in the garage. They say they will last for weeks that way but we will see. Good grief...what in the he** was I thinking? LOL! I hope those BB show up to eat soon!

I think we got ours the next day after ordering. Max two days. Thank goodness it was cold here - sat on the porch for a couple of days. I brought it in today, opened the bag, and mealys crawling all over. Closed it real quickly, and put it in the fridge. Shudder. Poor things were probably hungry, so sent DH out for wheat bran. HE can feed and count them.
LOL!

I found mine in the car this morning!! They must have been delivered last night and it was probably an 11 degree low. I thought they would all be dead but they are wiggling all over the place. I guess I'll put some apple peelings in there tomorrow and see if I can keep them alive long enuf to get them fed!!

Such vivid pictures, I love them, what's attracting them to the water? the bowl ? is the water warm from the heater you have in there? wonder if it's warm water that they like.

I'm going to get one of those bowls too.

Hi Kathy Ann..and thank you! The water isn't actually warm it just doesn't freeze. It has a regulator that comes on when the temps get below 40 degrees. I also have a pump I put in it so I don't know if it's the water, the color or the sound of running water! I am clueless and lucky!!

Rose

Very, very great series of Bluebird pictures.

Rose, you have to post those pics on a separate thread but on this forum, so others will see them. That is too fantastic for words!!!! How georgeous they must have been in person! I am so envious of the bluebirds. We have some in the country, but haven't ever seen them close in to the city.

Rose, you could just make another thread that was titled Bluebirds (or such) and link it to this thread, so you wouldn't have to repeat your downloads. Sheila has a good point there. Everybody should see them. (I've been telling everybody I know...)

Thanks for sharing about this thread, Ceejay.

I am in absolute awe over these photos! We don't get Bluebirds out here in the Pacific Northwest, so I myself am a bit green with envy!!!! Rose, these are a delight. Thanks so much for sharing.

It would be a great entry in the next photo contest too!

You have to keep us advised step ny step on the mealies! I just don't know if I could deal with those crawly thing things sitting there!!!!

Oh my goodness...thank all of you so much! I must admit seeing them is like seeing a dream...almost not real...like you're "seeing things"! My first instint was to adjust my glasses...LOL! I took about 19 pics yesterday all of them equally as bad/good as the ones I posted yesterday. I may start a new thread as you suggested, what a compliment! I just found out I saw a Yellow Bellied Sap Sucker yesterday and I still haven't gotten a pic of the Bald Eagle or the Cedar Waxwing Does the fun never end?!!

Nanny, those squirmy little worms don't bother me at all...of course I shoveled cow dung for 26 years! LOL! You can do it Nanny!!

Thanks again Trois, Sheila, Ceejay, Murmur and Nanny!

Rose

I'll be putting some information about meal worms in the Sticky very soon.

Really Rose their very small and its not a big deal at all. Honest! :-)

When their in the fridge their dormant and not moving.

Oops, I meant nanny!

This message was edited Jan 26, 2008 8:39 AM

Beautiful pictures. You even caught the fluttering wings of one bird.

I'm just happily observing this thread and having a wonderful time.

June

We're living vicariously through you.

OH, my gosh!!! I can't believe those latest pics of your blue water bowl visitors!! Gives all of us blue bird hope! Be still my heart!!

and dellrose FYI-- it seems you've started raging fad throughout the birding world-- I went to Tractor Supply this morning to buy some heated blue 'pet bowls' for a blue birdy watering hole and the manager said " Geesh, we had a whole bunch of them on the shelf here just last Wednesday and now they are all gone!" I had to laugh! mmmm....I wonder where they went...?

I did buy a couple of blue bird houses and some fence posts to mount them on--my DH said I'd better buy them today 'cause they will sell out fast with all the interest in the Blue bird bowls!

p.s. I received one of those heated beige plastic 'mounted heated bird baths' as a gift last year. We have it mounted on our deck rail and have seldom seen a bird stop to drink from it. Certainly no bluebirds!

(Also, one more thought while I'm dreaming of blue birds-- I bet a clever person could make one of those $100 natural looking cement water dishes for the birds spending only a couple of dollars using some 'hyper-tufa'...there are all kinds of 'lessons' on how to work with hyper-tufa on the DG 'Container Gardening' forum or just do a search... I think I'm going to try it...

One hypertufa link: http://davesgarden.com/cookbook/printentry.php?rid=1306 )

Just amazing, Rose! Like Tabasco said, gives the rest of us hope to attract them to our yards as well.

I'll definitely be going to WBU next weekend!!

Congrats to you!!

Pelle...I am looking forward to the info on the meal worms! I think I may be raising them in the near future!!

Thank you June, Ceejay,Tabasco, and Indiana Lily...you only add fuel to my fire! LOL!

Tabasco, I have a piece of cement that was used to hold a corner post...I used it for a planter last year but this year want to make a waterfall out of it. If you do something out of hypertufa I'd love to see it. Do I dare take up another hobby? LOL!

I was given 3 birdhouse for Christmas but will have to check and see if they are for Bluebirds. We have lots of posts for houses but I will have to do a lot of research and be sure I put them in the right spot and also the right time. I'm so darn clueless!!

The BB were back again this morning...unfortunately the pics are terrible..it was early and very overcast and I didn't have my camera on anti- shake!! Darn the luck...but I hope to be all set up for them tomorrow and waiting when they arrive. I hope they don't keep me waiting!! If I get anymore good pics I will start a new thread...keeping my fingers and toes crossed!

This is the first time I have seen equal parts Male and Female!


.

This red bowl is holding the meal worms I set out for them! I'm not sure if they ate them or not!

The Goldfinch were just driving them crazy and eventually drove them away. I didn't realize they (GF) would be so aggresive...grrrr! Anyway I moved the seeds they were eating away from the watering area so hopefully they won't bother them as much tomorrow!

When I returned from walking the dogs they were back but could only get a few pics...this is one of them! I hope you can see it.

One thing I forgot to add..they showed up at dawns first early light today and the very first time I saw them in the back patio it was about 2 or 3 o'clock. I checked late afternoon about 4 o'clock and saw 2 males but when I went for my camera they flew off. By the time I returned from the dog walk everyone had gone to bed except for the Cardinals and White Throated Sparrows!

For those of us (like me) thinking of putting up Blue Bird Nesting Boxes--here's the link from 'Sialis', the national Blue Bird Society's home page, on the 'Do's and Don'ts' for placing boxes--


http://www.sialis.org/basics.htm

Have fun!

Tabasco thanks for that great link! Lots of good info there so I may be gone for awhile taking notes and gleaning as much info as I can! According to one of the articles I have 2 BB houses! Thanks again!

The BB returned again this morning and I got a few pics...but the lighting is so bad so will have to see if any are worth showing. Off to the lake... see ya all later!

Rose

I went to TSC on thursday afternoon and they were all out too!! lol