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Post by gakaren on Feb 12, 2015 14:22:01 GMT -5
A pair of blue birds have been going in/out of one of our blue bird houses for 2 days now. Looks like the nest building has begun! Officially!
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 12, 2015 14:23:55 GMT -5
Lucky you!!!!
Haven't seen any visiting our boxes, but have heard the males warbling every morning this past week. Spring is definitely in the air.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 12, 2015 14:31:24 GMT -5
Ah.... spring really is in the air.
How fun to see them starting to nest. Can't wait for it to start here.
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Post by prunella on Feb 12, 2015 14:51:59 GMT -5
I wait every year for the arrival of the Cedar Waxwings ( Bombycilla cedrorum) to the berry-laden privet tree in front of my shop. It's fun to watch the tree shake as 20+ birds attack to eat every berry. Then a day or two later, tree stripped, they fly off and are not seen again until the next year!
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 12, 2015 15:09:26 GMT -5
They are so beautiful and I love them too. I only ever see them once a year when they dine on my crab apples which are really just the size of berries.
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 12, 2015 15:12:54 GMT -5
We call them "Bandit Birds" because of their masks, as well as the way they laugh at us as they pick our dwarf sour cherry tree dry as we approach.
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Post by binnylou on Feb 12, 2015 16:45:25 GMT -5
We rarely see Cedar Waxwings in our area, but one spring, they were on our yard in huge numbers. It was about the time when the brown covering on the new growth tips of our Norway Spruce was starting to come off. The Waxwings were in our spruces and appeared to be harvesting something from the new growth tips. Possibly a dew or nectar of some sort?
And I THINK I heard a phoebe a few days ago.
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Post by desertwoman on Feb 12, 2015 16:51:12 GMT -5
They winter with us and will leave soon on their way to you northerners.
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Post by SpringRain🕊️ on Feb 12, 2015 16:59:43 GMT -5
Steve, those are beautiful photos, with really good clarity of the berries. If you sketch, they'd be an interesting subject.
As to winged friends, they'll all still in hiding here. I haven't seen any for weeks.
Even the little hopping critters are hiding somewhere.
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Post by prunella on Feb 12, 2015 17:26:44 GMT -5
Steve, those are beautiful photos, with really good clarity of the berries. Well, I don't sketch what I can photograph. For those shots, I pulled my car up next to the tree and put the window down; Presto!, a blind! I usually shoot flowers or butterflies, so this chance for bird close-ups was a treat.
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Post by gakaren on Feb 12, 2015 17:40:07 GMT -5
Beautiful pics Steve. I didn't know they liked the privet berries....but now I know why they hang out in our area. We have INVASIVE privet on the back of our land in the creek area...it's thick back there in some places. But I often see flocks flying around and sometimes they will land/roost in one of the trees in our front yard, but not often.
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Post by lilolpeapicker on Feb 16, 2015 20:21:57 GMT -5
All those birds are beautiful! Something we don't see here too often...I am hoping some to the fancier birds come to my feeders but it isn't gonna happen soon. The most I have here are Juncoes at this time along with some regulars...been working on putting out different foods for different birds; it was great getting goldfinches to this yard for the first time last summer in 3 years that I have been here.
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 17, 2015 10:00:44 GMT -5
I definitely run a birdie buffet hanging off our deck railing here: Black Oil Sunflower seeds in a hanging tray feeder, two suet block feeders, two seed block feeders, one small hanging feeder with Finch Mix, a hanging cage feeder with more Black Oil Sunflower seed, a Niger/Thistle seed feeder, & a large 3-compartment hanging feeder containing a No-Squirrel Safflower Mix, a Woodpecker large-seed/peanut mix, & a premium general bird-seed mix (Purina Picnic Mix is what it's called, I believe). Also have a large old clay saucer set on the deck with the Purina Picnic Mix in it for those birds that don't tend to visit hanging feeders.
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Post by prunella on Feb 17, 2015 11:01:03 GMT -5
... it was great getting goldfinches to this yard for the first time last summer... FYI: when finches surprised me by finding some seed heads just outside my office window, I started buying Nyjer seed to encourage more visits. That worked out well but was getting expensive! I decided to limit the cost of weekly refills by deciding blackoil sunflower seeds for bigger birds, let the finches watch! To my surprise, they simply turned to eat sunflower seds. II mentioned this to my seed source lady and she doubted the liitle birds could handle the bigger seed! Well,I said as I paid for another 40# bag, they can. Since then it's been all sunflower seeds for my visiting birds. And of course the spill then produces a nice display of pretty flowers. I noticed that there must be some critter invading the garden when I started seeing holes in the sunflower leaves. I watched for some leaf-munching bugs, only to catch the finches in the act! Yes, they perch on the leaves to enjoy a salad bar. PS: Just to mention, as Breezy said, finch food is often sold as "thistle" seed. It isn't thistle at all, it's seed of a composite, Guizotia_abyssinica. tinyurl.com/2cqetl4 . It's so expensive because it's shipped from Africa and needs special processing to sterilize the seed to keep it from growing rampant here! And Breezy, your deck sounds like a prime destination for your local birds! Good job.
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 17, 2015 11:38:32 GMT -5
Steve, it's so funny but at a previous location in PA I used to buy thistle, back when it was called Niger, not the politically correct Nyjer. I put it in a sock feeder and the gold finches absolutely loved it. I was refilling it all of the time.
Well I bought a sock feeder and some Nyjer last year and my gold finches would not touch it and it got moldy. I couldn't believe it but they preferred the black oil sunflower seed in a tube feeder.
Now this week with all of the brutal cold, I decided to buy some mixed seed with white millet so that I could offer some variety and I threw it on top of the snow. I was watching through binoculars and the house finches were eating that in preference to the black oil sunflower. I don't get too many gold finches here but the house finches really liked that little millet and it's cheap too.
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