Z-Cam & Radio Sabina,
I haven’t posted about the feeder lately.
Here are a few of the latest shots.
It is cold and snowy here. As a result the birds are eating a great deal.
When don’t they eat a lot?
There are lots of Chickadees around right now, which is fine by me. They are my favorite visitors.
Here is a wind-blown Junco.
They are usually ground feeders, but I have one which likes to hang out on the feeders and, from time to time, sit and stare at the webcam.
The Mourning Doves are annoying. Red-Breasted Woodpecker 1 Annoying Dove 0.
Getting a different perspective.
I have nicknamed this fellow “Ray”.
Ray’s space is being invaded by, you guessed it, the annoying Mourning Doves.
Feed the birds! It takes more than tuppence, by the way. A lot more!
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But Father Z,
I love Mourning Doves. They have such a beautiful coo. Have you trained these little creatures to pose for your camera? Thanks for the pictures. I hear the Chickadees, but cannot see them. However, today it is about zero F, so nary a bird is around….I did see three Bald Eagles right above my apartment a week ago. They come to the Mississippi River where I live, as the ice breaks up here first, and catch fish.
When I was able to have a feeder, there would be the usual cardinals, nuthatches, chickadees, mourning doves, tufted titmouse, and blue jays. My least favorite were the blue jays that took over a feeder and chased off the other birds, followed by the house sparrows who didn’t eat at the feeders but did a dandy job of scattering all the seed they could on the ground. That in turn attracted the annoying squirrels. I broke the squirrels from climbing up the steel pole the feeder was mounted on by spraying the pole with PAM once or twice a week.
I can’t have a feeder now because the bears take it as invitation to a snack for them.
Stysmith2009,
Bear meat is really good as “sweet and sour”.
Thanks for sharing the pictures of your feathered friends. The Cardinal stands out against the white of the snow. That is one fierce Woodpecker. Ray makes my neck hurt just looking at him!
It is nice to see your birdz again.
Well, Mourning Doves must be close relatives of the Dodo bird. They are as dumb as the corvids are smart (and that’s saying a lot!). But, for their size they’re kind of defenseless. The one smart thing they do is try to stick around human habitation, for they know that even the meanest corvid will shy away from a face-to-face with homo sapiens.
Supertradmum, there are a lot of bear hunters here in my neck of the woods. I am sure I would be able to procure a bit of bear meat for “sweet and sour”. I am primarily a deer hunter, a grouse hunter, and a flyfisherman (that’s fishing for trout for those in Rio Linda). I took the bird feeder down, mostly because I do not want a bear to be needlessly killed. One or two people in the area have a bad habit of feeding the bears. It takes the bears out of their normal habits, and makes it too easy for the bear hunters (I have to work to get my deer, let them work to get their bear), and has resulted in a few bears being struck and killed by vehicles. Feed the birds yes, but let nature take care of the rest.
One can avoid feeding the bears via the birdfeeders by running the feeders on a high wire between trees (although that makes replenishing the feeders more of a chore).
Another thing I forgot about Mourning Doves: then tend to be ground feeders unless the ground is covered in snow. They prefer millet and cracked corn, so if you have a ground feeder (or tray feeder on top of the snow) with that mix, they should take it over the other usual fare at feeders.
Our little household helper just bundled up to head out with step-ladder and seed to take care of the birds of our neighborhood. Something about a plan to see whether the birds will come to him if he hold out an old cake of suet in his outstretched hand…
We are fortunate that my wife can stay home with the kids and this Christmas she asked to have a feeder hung outside the kitchen window so she’d have some entertainment while working at the sink. So now we know that the goldfinches hog the perches on our sunflower feeder and mostly just toss the sunflower seeds to the ground. (The squirrels love them for that!) I wouldn’t mind but we gave the finches a sock feeder of their own but they still hang out on the tube feeder. We see lots of chickadees, juncos and cardinals and have a downy woodpecker and titmouse or two around as well. Last week the neighborhood hawk discovered our little buffet line and grabbed a bite to eat on the wing.
I used to have a feeder, but it was a pain in the neck to go out into the backyard when the snow was up to my knees and replenish it. But when I did have it, I liked watching the birds, especially the cardinals [always called them ‘Your Eminence’] and the chickadees. Blue jays were real pests-so were the squirrels!
Mourning doves? They are the dumbest birds in the bunch. If I approached one while driving, it would stand there until I was nearly on it before it flew away! I’d always say, ‘Hey-move before you become squab!’ I like their cooing sounds-very soft and sweet. But they had little tiny brains instead their little tiny heads! Never knew when to move out of the way!
Your cardinal pic is cute, Father Z-love the way his head is cocked!
Fr. Z,
I just wanted to let you know that I am almost never able to view the images on your blog, either in my Google Reader or directly on your blog. Every once in a while I can see one, but most of the time I can’t. For instance, I can’t view any of the pictures in this post.