Birdies

[eyeguy 54]

nice to see quite a few finches around again. Been pretty slow for birds.

[monstermoose78]

I tried to get a flock of swans but I could not see them in the picture. I do not have fancy camera so it was the best I could with the eagle

[eyeguy 54]

always fun having a fly over

[Sturg]

Only a few finches here, mostly juncos, had a morning dove until late last week. It has been a slow season.

[Dotch]

Plenty of woodpeckers (downy's, hairy's, red-belly's), juncos, blue jays, an occasional white-breasted nuthatches, one mourning dove recently, a pair of loyal cardinals, and way too many house sparrows. A rooster pheasant sails through the yard about once a week. Haven't seen a goldfinch in about a month and chickadees have been no-shows all winter. No house finches either. Has me scratching my head.

[eyeguy 54]

lotta house and gold finches again. have not seen a cardinal in a month.

[eyeguy 54]

dotch, do you put millet out? sparrows love millet.

[MN Shutterbug]

Dotch must put out a real buffet. About 1 1/2 weeks ago, right after a couple inches of snow, I had 3 pairs of cardinals, (new record for me) 5 blue jays, 2 crows and tons of sparrows and finches and chickadees. Other than that, I always 1 pair of cardinals, lots of sparrows and finches and a few chickadees.

[Dotch]

dotch, do you put millet out? sparrows love millet.

Nope. I have used it to bait them though. I mix black oil sunflower & safflower in the feeder the sparrows empty, and in the Roller Feeder, I add sunflower hearts & pieces to the mix. They haven't caught on to that one, yet. I have 3 thistle feeders and a couple suet feeders. I also have an ear corn feeder I stick a couple ears on every day to appease the squirrels.

I trap sparrows in the barn with a repeating sparrow trap. I must catch only the dumb ones as they've wised up to it. The sparrows I do catch are kept frozen and donated to some folks with raptors. The sparrows also have access to water here due to the livestock. Now the weather has warmed, will try the scorched earth policy: Discontinue filling the sunflower feeder they empty. Some night after dark, take the spotlight, pellet gun w/non-toxic shot and kill every one I find in the outbuildings or sleeping in bluebird houses. Done it before. It's time consuming and unfortunately, a little like shooting coyotes. Depresses their population for a while, then they repopulate.

Sounds like you must have quite spread for them to consume too Mike! Love the cardinal.

[MN Shutterbug]

Thanks Dotch.

Actually, I just throw a cheap mix on a hanging feeder and ground feeder and sunflower seeds in a few other hanging feeders. I cease putting safflower seed out after the mourning doves have left for the winter. Once they return along with the dreaded grackles, I'll quit putting out the cheap mix and just put safflower seed in my covered feeder and sunflower seeds in the small protected feeders that the grackles can't get at. It sure cuts down on the amount of sunflower seeds I go thru and the cardinals are fine with the safflower seeds.

[DonBo]

Here in the metro, my sunflower seeds are drawing bunches of chickadees and nuthatches, a few mourning doves, a pair of cardinals and the occasional bluejay. Also have a suet feeder with deer fat. The woodpeckers absolutely love the real stuff.

[eyeguy 54]

I just put out black sunflower and suet. Sparrow hit the feeders down the street.

[BrianF]

Had an interesting encounter at our cabin in N. MN last weekend. Wish I had a photo, but the event was too spontaneous. I'm still super pumped about it though.

We have found that the chickadees and red breasted nuthatches around our cabin are quite tame. They will readily fly across the yard and out of the trees to eat seed out of your hand. Others perch on your shoulders waiting their turn. While doing some chores outside last week, I realized the birds were collecting in the trees around me and we're getting rather noisy. That usually means they're hungry. So, I stopped what I was doing to take few minutes to hand feed them. I had at least a dozen or more birds taking turns eating from my hand.

Suddenly, a flock of birds I wasn't quite familiar with flew into the tree branches above me and we're obviously watching the goings on. I wondered if they too would take seed from my hand. In no time, the flock flew down into my hand, onto my shoulders, and onto my head. One was in my hand, shucking and eating the sunflower seeds for probably three minutes. That's a long time for a wild bird! A part of me was actually getting tired of holding my arm up and wished he would fly away, but I stayed dead still and milked the experience for as long as possible. I had a bird on each shoulder and one or two on my head during this whole event. All at once, for no apparent reason, the entire flock flew away together.

I later looked the bird species up. What I had in my hand, and on my shoulders and head, for that three minutes was a flock of Pine Siskin. That was the first for me...though I hope not the last. It felt like a very special encounter and I feel privileged to have had such an intimate experience with them.

Below is a link to a YouTube vid that I took showing how willing the local birds are to the idea of being hand fed.

Brian

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iOxcv0sXdrc#

[eyeguy 54]

cool! I have tried it here but no luck yet. I have had chickadees land on me while bow hunting. Pretty neat!

[MN Shutterbug]

That would be a cool experience. You must be a bird whisperer.

[eyeguy 54]

lottsa finches this morning

[eyeguy 54]

sneaking in for a bite