Bird Feeder as Snow Fell 12/29/12

Snow began to fall about 11:20 on Saturday, December, 29. The temperature hovered ± 3ºF freezing. The snow accumulated at a rate of 1" / 25mm per hour for the first two hours.

Several species of birds visited the feeder. Of course the squirrels had their nosed in there, too.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Bird Feeder First Anniversary

January 2012

Christmas day it was one year since I hung my new hopper bird feeder with integrated suet cages. I've placed close to 120 lbs/ 54.4kg of sunflower seed chips into that feeder over the last year. 

December 2012

Plus the +/- 8lbs/ 3.6kg black nyjer seeds I put out just for the goldfinches and the few suet cakes for the woodpeckers. In total I probably spent in excess of $300 in bird seed. A small price for the wonder of such beautiful creatures.

source:American Museum of Natural History

Besides, they are my closest link to dinosaurs. 

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Woodpeckers at Feeder

I placed a new store bought suet block in the bird feeder on December 2. 17 days later I saw a Red-Bellied Woodpecker at the feeder. I have never ever seen a Red-Bellied Woodpecker up close before. It is a beautiful animal.

What I think attracted the woodpecker was that new suet block. I purchased it at Lowe's along with shelled sunflower seeds that I use in the main hopper of the feeder. I like the shelled seeds because there are no shells blowing around the yard or being tracked into the house on damp shoe soles. I digress. 

I must confess. I didn't actually see the woodpecker with my own eyes. I captured photographs of it on my time lapse camera secured to the inside of my breakfast room window. The Brinno TLC 100 is held onto the window by Fat Gecko suction cup camera mount. Any reflections on the glass are because the camera is mounted inside the house. Last year it was mounted outside and there were no reflection. This year I am lazy. The batteries need to be changed everyday and I don't wish to go outside to do that.

Above you will see several clips of Downy Woodpeckers at the feeder throughout the day. Individual photographs were taken at 5 second intervals and are played back at 50% of full speed. All of the clips on this post were taken on 19 December 2012.

At one point a Downy Woodpecker is feeding at the same time as a squirrel. That is the only bird I have ever seen at the feeder with a squirrel. I think that bird is either brave or hungry.


LINKS
All About Birds - Red-Bellied Woodpecker
All About Birds - Downy Woodpecker
Lowe's Woodpecker Suet



©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Innocent Beauty

The first day of Spring, I found a bird in a large flower pot just outside my sliding glass patio door.  There, on the door at my eye level, were several tiny feathers cemented to the glass.  The innocent little creature must have flown into the door and bounced into the pot. 

 It was dead.

Four weeks later.

The cycle of life goes on.

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Most Active Birdbath Spring 2012

Wednesday, 28 March, the day began with freezing temperatures and the water was frozen in the birdbath.  Temperatures reached the 70ºF / 20ºC today and it was the most active day for animals in the birdbath.

Images captured at a rate of 1frame/5sec and slowed to 25% of normal replay rate of 30frames/sec

What a difference a day makes.







©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Cleanest Bird In My Garden

Robins have to be the cleanest birds in my garden.  Below is a compilation over several days of time lapse images in my backyard birdbath.

March 20 through March 25, 2012

©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved

Are Bird Feeders Selfish?

Is it a selfish motivation to put out a bird feeder?  For many years I felt birds should fend for themselves.  They should forage for their own food.  Isn't that the natural way?  I felt providing food for birds, even in a severe winter, was akin to giving a beggar money, making them dependent on handouts.  I feared I was doing the birds an injustice, making them lazy, shiftless and demoralizing them.  As I age, I have changed by thoughts on the matter.  My reasons may be selfish, but I want birds in my garden. 

Available from Lowe's via mail order item# 335583

My youngest daughter gave me a bird feeder, including bird food, for Christmas.  I had my eye on this feeder for some time.  It has a central hopper for seed and four holders on two sides for suet cakes.  I filled the hopper with sunflower chips. 

Available at Lowe's item # 215668

Lots of birds like sunflower seeds, like titmice, chickadees, finches, wrens, nuthatches, cardinals and bluejays.  I placed a suet cake in the feeder.  The suet will attract woodpeckers.   I then hung it outside my breakfast room window.  As I stood admiring my new feeder, feeling good inside, I wondered how long it would take for the birds to find the feeder.

I turned to my son, who was standing in the kitchen, and asked, "How long do you think it will be before the birds find the feeder?"


"Three weeks," was his reply.


Three weeks?  I was hoping it would only take three days.  


One week later, early morning New Years Day, I sat at my iMac writing this blog.  I looked out the second floor window into my back yard.  I saw several crows on the grass.  They were the first birds, of any kind, I saw since I started to look for birds on Christmas day.  I hadn't seen birds in the trees, bushes or even flying in the sky, until these crows.  I thought, maybe, there was some sinister force at work.  Some animal eating all the birds.  Or maybe, some kind of cataclysmic natural disaster about to happen, that only wild animals could sense.  More rationally, I was beginning to fear my timing was too late in the season for this feeder.  I began to doubt the value of my actions.  The mercury level began to fall on my confidenc-o-meter.


Late that afternoon, I had my first visitor to the feeder. 

Damned squirrels!  They will do anything to get food.  I have seen them chew through plastic feeders, leap 20 feet from an overhanging tree branch to a small suspended feeder to get to food.  Squirrels are tenacious critters.  This feeder is all metal.  I think it will survive the squirrels. 

Source:Junco

The next Friday, I was at home all day.  I noticed several birds near the feeder, but none at the feeder.  I saw several Juncos and two House Finches, and a woodpecker in a nearby tree.  

Source:All About Birds

I don't think I will ever see Juncos at the feeder.  They only eat off the ground or a low platform feeder.  I don't know how they find enough food.  I didn't see the House Finches at the feeder, but I may have startled them from the feeder when I approached the window.


Whilst looking on the web for bird images for this post, I found a site called Project Feeder Watch.  They have a program for ordinary citizens to count birds at their backyard feeders and then report their numbers to Cornell University for statistical reasons.  Their counting season is from the second week in November through the first Friday in April.  Although I put the bird feeder out almost six weeks later than the beginning of feeder watch season, I joined and will receive tallies and member supplies within the next three weeks.  That will leave me all of Feb and March to count birds and add my findings to the data base at Cornell.  I will enjoy adding my data.


I want birds in my garden.  I enjoy watching birds.  I think they are beautiful.  For those reasons, I put out a bird feeder.  Some people may call me selfish.  I can live with that.


©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved