 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Somebird became a meal Within The Fence early this morning. Not sure who or by whom, but there were a lot of tiny feathers and one spot of blood, and I has a little sad. Nature goes on, though, I know. I couldn't find any prints of who-dun-it - too much hard ground to leave any traces. However, I have to say, that I was fascinated when I could see from my window, one tiny feather that seemed to be marching along the driveway. No other feathers were moving, but this one definitly had an agenda. Since one of the window feeders had fallen and I managed to drop my Trusty Stick (tm) out the window last night, I used that as an excuse to investigate. There was a tiny ant determinedly moving the tiny feather. No other ants that were nearby had any interest in any of the other feathers. Just this one. It took him quite a while to move it a foot, as it was quite unweildy and kept tipping him over. It was worse when he got it to the lawn and had to try and manage it around grass and leaves. He didn't seem to be trying to take it to the ant hills nearby, which would have been even more fascinating, because the ant hill opening was smaller than the feather. I had a mental image: "Wow! Won't the queen be impressed with THIS! A softie for her to lay on! I am so clever! I am so thoughtful! I am so.... IT WON'T FIT!!!! WOE!!!" And all of the other ants laughing at him. ...as you might be able to tell, I have had neither breakfast nor coffee yet this morning.... Tags: bird watching, within the fence
Current Mood:  indescribable
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
So I'm puttering at my computer and all of a sudden, I hear a lot of twittering out Within The Fence. There's been a growing number of moulting goldfinches over the last couple of days, who have just discovered the birdbath, and I thought it was them and quickly leaned over to watch them. They've been exploring leaning over from the lilac branches to drink and the bolder ones have been learning how to grasp onto the metal edges without taking a dunking. Although the goldies were around, they weren't the ones making the noises! It was a small flock of BLUEBIRDS!! I have never even seen bluebirds before, much less in my yard. They had found the bath and were having A BLAST in it. There were about ten of them, several either moulting or young'uns with juvenile fluff. At one point, there were five in the bath at once, splashing and having a grand time. It was one of those rare moments when I could grab the camera in time and not only snap a couple of pictures, but even remember that the camera can take some video! So here is my second attempt at video - pretty rough... but I'm getting there. </div> The first minute or so are the bluebirds with the occassional goldfinch dashing by. After the blues leave, if you look carefully above the bath, there's a goldie munching on lilac berries. He's lost most of his mating plumage, so he's pretty hard to see. Then as the camera pans to the right and up, there's a tufted titmouse who is wondering why he got left out of all the fun, and just at the end, the camera pans up to catch a chickadee right above him. And here are a couple of stills of the blues:    I had been determined to seduce indigo buntings this year, but with Tiki's illness, I didn't have any energy for bird luring. However, what a delight these guys were! They covered my whole lilac bush like ornaments, even if they were a little moulty. If I couldn't have buntings, these were certainly a good offering instead, and I never even tried for them! Tags: bird watching, within the fence
Current Mood:  surprised
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spring has definately sprung! So far, the baby count is: At least two baby downy woodpeckers, although I am pretty sure there are more. Two baby white-breasted nuthatches (eee! so tiny! I was sitting out between two trees, and one was perched on each tree trunk, so I was hearing "quah quah quah" in stereo!) One baby hairy woodpecker (Big Daddy and Big Momma's off-spring!) At least one red-bellied woodpecker, although I haven't seen it up-close yet. The nest is right near my yard and I've seen the parents ferrying food to and fro for a couple of weeks now. The baby just came out for the first time this week, but hasn't quite made it to my yard yet. Several baby grackles. Two baby robins, who get left in my feeding area several times a day now by Momma, who comes back and checks on them often, but as soon as they start squawking, she flies off again. They are definately getting "weened". One baby cottontail, who has done several "drive-by rabbitings" and I also saw him in the middle of the patch of wild strawberries behind my house, torn between sheer delight in having all that sweetness to himself... and looking very tiny and "please don't eat me"-ish. All I could see was his face from the eyes up and his ears over the tiny strawberry plants. Two baby grey squirrels, brought around by Momma today for the first time. It was hard to tell just who Momma was, because there were EIGHT squirrels here for breakfast, but I have my suspicion that it was Gimpy. Tags: bird watching, cottontail, squirrels, within the fence
Current Mood:  sore
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Yesterday, my next door neighbors told me that the robin had set up an nest with three babies in their shed. They weren't all together that happy about it, but they were letting it stay until the babies were grown. Every time they walked in, three heads would pop up over the edge of the nest with their mouths wide open, squealing for food. Today when I went out, there was a bird sitting by my front steps. He didn't move as I went closer, and I thought.. oh, great, another sick bird. But then when I got really close, he started squawling and hopping around, and I could see he was a baby robin. No tail yet, and fuzzy feathers. He wasn't flying, and not too good at the hopping yet either... but he had the squawling down real good. "Mom! Mom! Ugly human-thing after me! Mom! MOM!" And here came Mom, hopping across the yard, bee-lining right for him, and then he REALLY started jumping up and down and squeaking and flailing like a little muppet. Mom did what momma birds do best. She shoved something into his mouth and hopped away, with the baby stumble-hopping after her still squawling. And everytime she got too far ahead, he'd squawl louder, and she'd come back. Instant flailing and hopping, appearing over the top of the tall grass with every flail-hop. And she'd stuff something else in his mouth and keep going, with the little one stumble-hopping after her, squeaking with every hop. I couldn't stop laughing. Tags: bird watching
Current Mood:  giggly
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I have spent most of the last month and a half trying to convert my window-birdbath into a fountain birdbath. Some of you might remember that my window birdbath was a heated deck mount bath that really wasn't meant to be in a window, nor was my window meant to hold a bird bath. But after many frustrating attempts, a few trips to the hardware store, bashing my head against the wall a few times, I managed to get that much accomplished and it survived the winter very nicely. So of course, I decided that if I could do that much, I could put some sort of pump in it and get it to do splashy things. Three bath basins, two bath basin frames, and three pumps later... I still don't have what I had envisioned, and most birds aren't really thrilled about coming to it at all even to drink from it, much less BATHE in it. However, it does make splashy noises, which is very nice to listen to when my window is open, and it has attracted more birds to my pedestal bath. So I decided to give up while I was ahead. My main problem was finding a submersible pump that would work in such shallow water, since my first window bath was only about 1/2 inch deep. When I tried a deeper basin, I feared that it was too much weight on my make-shift window ledge. Plus, my tiny birds HATED that basin. I finally found a pump that would work in 1/4 inch water, but it would splash all the water OUT of the basin, thus defeating the purpose. I was dumping more water in about every two hours. Finally I found a deck mount bath that sloped in to four inches in the middle. Unfortunately it is very small in diameter, so I have to have the pump barely on, or it will splash all the water out. I unplug it at night, and occassionally throw another bucket of water in during the day. Other problem is that the suction cup feet don't like the resin surface, and the back end keeps popping up. Tried to weight it down with rocks, but the vibration of the pump shakes them off eventually. But... it's about as close as I'm going to get, I think, without spending a lot more money. Which I don't have any of. When out garage-sale-ing last weekend, I picked up two battery-powered table-top fountains. Got 'em really cheap - one for $3 and one for $2. The $2 was incredibly noisy, to the point where I couldn't hear the water, and which is usually the problem I've found with tabletops. The other one was larger and more hopeful... until I read online reviews that said it was an incredible battery hog. Oh, well... only spent $5 total. On a whim, I put both of them outside and turned them on. Found out that when the little noisy one is put on my squirrels' rotting-out-wheelbarrow-playground... hey, it isn't noisy anymore! Who'da thunk? Went back inside and a little later, looked out. There's one of my chickadees sitting on top of the larger one, on the top tier. There's one who is always extremely curious about anything new I put out and always has to check it out. Then he drank from it. "Silly birdie," I thought. "That's not for drinking. It's for making pretty sounds." Then this bird, who has disdained all other nice baths... starts tapdancing in the water. There's not even 1/4 inch of water on the top tier, but he's dancing in it. And then splashing and bathing in it. And having a BLAST. Then he flutters to the pedestal stand, gives himself a good shake, thinks a minute... and goes right back to it and splashes some more! I guess all he wanted was a bath just his size. Three basins. Two frames. Three pumps. More time and energy (and money) than I have to give. One $3.00 fountain garage sale purchase. Battery hog. (6-8 hours max). I didn't know whether to laugh or sob. I really didn't. It's been pretty hot, so today I turned them on again. Looked out, and there's a goldfinch sitting in the $2.00 tiny fountain. This time, I grabbed the camera. Had to take the pic through the screen... but here it is. Goldfinch in a fountain JUST HIS SIZE!  It's just not fair. Tags: bird watching, garage sale, within the fence
Current Mood: indescribable
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The catbird came back with a friend! A little larger one, plumper.. .maybe a female that's egg-heavy? The smaller one has been back several times today picking up various munchies and mree-ing back and forth with me (and occassionally with the Jazzi-kitty joining in), so it looks like I have new "neighbors". I'm rather excited - they are sweet-looking birds, and the little one is becoming braver and braver about venturing out for munchies without racing back to hide in the lilac bush. EEE! The first hummingbird JUST flew by and is going for the lilac flowers! He went up to the window first, so he probabl remembers my window-feeders from last year. EEEE! He's PERCHING on one of the lilac branches! I had dug out my feeders and bleached them and made sugar/water to put in them, since one of the garage-salers I talked to yesterday said she saw her first on Friday. She has one of those globe-water thingies in one of her red-flowered plants, and the hummer thought IT was a flower and bonked his head on it! I didn't put the feeders out yet though - ran out of energy, and we're under a frost warning for tonight anyway. Note to self: bring the fountain pump indoors! My male red-bellied woodpecker is grabbing some suet to go. He and his lady have a nest built in the birch tree in the road. Yes, the tree is IN the road - the road litteraly parts around the tree. It's a great landmark for finding my house. I watched them working on building their den for several days, and now they're filling themselves up with food. Both he and his lady are regular visitors now; they were here last year, too. It's so nice to have "friends" come back. The Phooka has come in and taken up his evening spot on the window seat/storage bins. He has been doing this almost every night, sometimes even if I'm not in the room. He and Tiki share the two large bins that are shoved together and have pillows on them, and Jazzi usually has the seperate bin to herself. Sometimes, he stretches out with his feet flipped, and sometimes he does the "roosting hen", with his chin pillowed on his chest. I've caught him doing flops occassionally, which makes my heart glow.  Tags: bird watching, the phooka, tiki
Current Mood: enthralled
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
OK, now this was just nifty. I was out back, picking a few dandelion flowers for The Phooka (who first thought they were suspicious, and really wanted to give them The Butt, but his nose gave way to the delicious aroma and he lipped a petal, then YOINKED the flower away from me and nibblenibblenibbled it away until nothing was left except a few petals to be hoovered up later), and I heard heard a bird singing, one I've heard before, but never seen, so I started whistling back, and it answered, and we duet-ed for a while, and pretty soon, I could narrow down where he was, and it was The Cardinal. He hopped from branch to branch of the small tree he was in until he was at the very top, and flung his head back and sang and sang and I whistled and whistled. And in the next yard, I could hear his Lady chipchipchipchip-ing just as loudly. And then all of a sudden, another cardinal joined in down the line of trees about the distance of maybe half a block away. I didn't even know there WERE more cardinals in the near area - I've only seen the pair. And a few minutes later, I could hear faintly another one joining in from quite a distance away across the fields. So we had this quartet going, with the Lady doing this kind of percussion with her chipchipchips, until I ran completely out of breath and couldn't whistle anymore. I just thought that was so cool. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) wendyzski said I had some kind of freakish Mary Poppins thing going. I figure they're just humoring me because they like the food. Tags: bird watching, the phooka
Current Mood:  artistic
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Previous
exhausted