Posted on 01/24/2014 1:20:45 PM PST by Doc Savage
Many, many years ago I worked as a hospital representative for Merck & Co., Inc. and I covered every inch of Hunterdon County. It was unspoiled back in the early seventies. Wish I’d had money to buy land there. I’d be Donald Trump today!
Several different but similar wrens. I’d say a Carolina but the very long white arching eyebrow is the give-away.
This is the first year that I’ve had a Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker. I nearly lost my mind the first time I saw him. HeS a regular now, haven-t seen a female though.
The brown-capped nuthatch is endangered in my area, I have a pair that are normally regulars but haven’t seen them for a couple of weeks. I also get the Northern Flicker, red wing blackbirds, grackles, Cooper’s hawks...
That's not unusual anymore, we have year around robins here in Michigan.......
Here in East TN our feeder is full of cardinals and bluejays. Have seen a couple of red-bellied woodpeckers (no red-headed woodpeckers yet this year), which we’d not seen before.
For about a month, once in a while a big ol’ owl has taken to sitting in the back yard — on the ground — for a couple hours a day. He watches the deer and turkeys wander by but doesn’t move. Interesting.
My guess is that they create a scent line or something that begins before the first snowfall then continue to use it throughout the winter
There is a lot of movement under the snow. When the weather is decent my dog kills lots of moles, voles and other rodents. I think he mostly finds them by sound.
Wow, those are cool pics of the turkey.........Looks like it’s found a permanent home.
Really? What's the purpose of that law?
What was funny was that when I got home Mom was telling me about the turkey’s first visit... and how she wanted a picture but the digital camera my father has was to complicated to use... and she couldn’t figure out how to use the cell phone camera... she was really upset that her old film camera had been thrown out... so as a protest piece she sketched out the scene of the sliding patio door with 2 grey kitties cats perched at the door watching a turkey outside the door.
She then put the sketch on the fridge as a big FU to all the technology being shoved into her face to no benefit at all. The sketch... is hilarious. I wish I thought to take a picture of the sketch to show everyone... my mom is just... awesome.
In late February the red-winged blackbirds will show up and hang around until early May, when it gets too hot for them and they head back up north. I love those little birds for the short while that they’re around. They have a sweet, piercing song that just makes me feel good. I keep a bird feeder hanging off a limb of my oak tree, and I put raw corn on the cob around to keep the fat, greedy gray squirrels out of the bird feeder. After the red-winged blackbirds leave for the summer, the local mockingbirds try to imitate their song. But it’s just not the same.
Nothing unusual at the feeder, but we had a flock of fifty or so robins around here in south Jersey just last week - wonder where they are in all this cold and snow....
I think the purpose is not to have extra seeds on the ground that may encourage mice, squirrels and other critters to the feeding area.
My guess is that it started as an argument between two property owners, and one complained, loudly, to their city councilman.
This used to be a great town, 38 years ago. Now, not so much.
I'd like to see the robin dumped as Michigan's state bird and nominate the chickadee as its replacement.
The robins head south for the winter and those that don't are just plain stupid......The chickadees are here year round, and no matter how cold it gets, they happly flit to the feeder......
They also have manners. They don't swarm the feeder gorging themselves and knocking seed to the ground like a pack of ill mannered sparrows, instead, they pick one sunflower seed and fly off to a tree branch to eat it. Then they return for another one.......
It is my understanding that non-hulled seeds have a very low germination rate. It cuts down on the number of weed sprouts growing in the ground at the bottom of a feeder.
I have no experience with the non-hulled variety of seed myself. I do know that I am a very busy ‘weeder’ during the warm months of the year. I pull all the millet seedlings and such but let the sunflowers go to town. It’s so much fun watching the goldfinches and Baltimore orioles feed on them.
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