Posted on 05/20/2019 6:40:41 PM PDT by Chipper
I hope everyone has been able to enjoy Spring migration, when it finally decided to become somewhat Spring-like.
Lifer Golden-Winged Warbler
American Redstart - male
Bay-breasted Warbler
Trumpeter Swan
Blackburnian Warbler - male
Eastern Screech-Owl - red-morph
A week later Eastern Screech-Owl - grey morph in same cavity. Someone else photographed both in the hole together shortly after.
I love to hear the owls. One time I heard one during the day while working in the yard. Mostly we hear them at night.
Cool! The birds are very happy in the bear-free sanctuary!
Yes, he was. Took me away for a few minutes
I live-trapped a lot of woodchucks a few years ago. The young ones were a little cute but the adults were another story. I relocated them and they didn’t come back. About 8 of them.
Forgot to add Bald Eagles to my list. We see them all year here because there is a river at the back of our property. They fly right over the house. I sometimes catch sight of them as I sit in our fireplace room which has windows on 3 sides.
We more often see them perched in trees along the river about a mile down the road from here. Just saw one on Sunday morning.
Hahaha...I was told you had to drive them at least five miles away, so that is what I did...
As I passed the five mile mark, I saw one of those Lefty community gardens, and thought “This would be the perfect home for my trapped woodchuck! Woods, water, and lots of fresh vegetables!”
Scrreeeeech! Out ya go!
Yeah, we hear them around dusk, almost never see them.
Great pic. Had a skittish one show up briefly around here on Sunday.
That’s a great idea, and some great birds. I need something like that for the raccoons around here.
Black Tern in full-on breeding plumage
Trumpeter Swan on left, Tundra Swans on right. You can see the difference in the eye positioning.
Perfect drop off location!
Man, I love it.
I have a boatload of different creatures that congregate outside my window with the feeder, but there are three that have a particular fondness for peanuts.
Squirrels.
Blue Jays.
Turkeys.
I don’t include the Tufted Titmice, because they won’t compete for them. But the three listed above, do!
The two most common are Squirrels and Blue Jays. The squirrel will win almost every time when they bolt for the thrown peanut and it is close.
I think the squirrels will bite the Jays because of the skittishness of the Jays in that situation, and how they quickly bail out to avoid an altercation. Once in a while, an athletic, hungry Blue Jay will swoop in just ahead of a racing squirrel, and the Jay nabs the peanut on the fly without stopping, and manages to abscond with its booty, the squirrel coming to a stop in obvious frustration and anger.
The squirrel is smart. It knows I prefer to feed the Blue Jays, and appears to be uninterested, focused on looking for seed fragments under the feeder.
But as soon as I throw it, it bolts. It is watching me and pretending not to. Very interesting.
It also takes the tack of hiding under the window, so when I glance out at the Jays lined up in the trees, I don’t see the squirrel and lazily throw it out.
The squirrel darts out and grabs it. I try the fake throw and then throw the peanut the other direction for the Blue Jay, but squirrels never fall for it. Smarter than some dogs, apparently.
So, what I do is toss a peanut to one side for the squirrel, and then throw another peanut in the opposite direction for the Blue Jay.
Funny thing is, everyone knows the rules for this game. The squirrel will go towards the thrown peanut, but as soon as I toss the other one in the other direction, it spins around and goes full tilt for that one, but the Blue Jays usually have a head start, and fail only if they lose their nerve, which they sometimes do.
It is hilarious to watch.
And then the Turkey shows up. EVERYONE avoids the turkey, the squirrel, the Blue Jays...all of them.
But what makes me laugh is when I wave a peanut...
The squirrel sits up on its hind legs facing me squarely, or it splays out, ready to run in any direction.
The Blue Jays hop to better positioned branches, and turn their heads sideways to me so they are only looking at me with one eye.
The Turkey walks right up under the window, stops and looks up.
All of them will remain completely motionless until I throw the peanut.
The Turkey runs at top speed, unhesitatingly picks it up and swallows it, then walks towards the window again, observing to see if another peanut is thrown.
LOL, I wish I could do that all day, but...I can only do it when I take a break and stretch, once or twice an hour.
I keep the peanuts in a big Quaker Oats container, and when I put up the blinds first thing in the morning, I have had up to 15 Blue Jays just sitting there, waiting! As soon as the blinds go up, I open the window, grab the Quaker Oats container and show it to them. They all change posture immediately, turning their heads to look at me with one eye...I don’t know why they do that, but it seems to be a characteristic move that shows extreme interest!
I throw the peanuts out, and the Jays all have their own pecking order, for the most part. They can only get one peanut at a time, God knows they try like hell to pick up two...:) That is how I count how many are there.
Blue Jays also have an unusual penchant for absolutely having to pick up the best and biggest peanut. If you throw two peanuts in the same area, and one is obviously bigger than the other, it unhesitatingly goes for the bigger one.
However, if you throw out two close to each other that are similar in size, the Blue Jay will pick one up, assess it, hop to the other one, drop the peanut, and pick up the other one to assess. If they are close enough in size, I have seen a Blue Jay go back and forth between the peanuts up to five times, picking one up, dropping it, picking up the other, dropping it, going back to the first one...man, is that funny to watch! Talk about greed and indecision!
I know what I’m gonna do for entertainment when I retire!
Great story! Enjoyed very much!
I tried peanuts for jays for the first time last winter. The jays stayed in the woods but a lot of other birds loved them. I used a feeder called a peanut silo, shaped like a thistle feeder but with wire mesh.
I will try putting individual peanut pieces on the deck railing and see what happens.
Friend of mine recommended peanuts for jays but I only saw 2 all winter. They were shy about leaving the woods behind the house.
Tried having the feeder close to woods and then bring it near the deck but ran out of patience.
I moved here last summer. I am amazed at the number and variety of birds here. Never lived with woods so close before. Spring has brought out so many birds I rarely saw at my previous rural home. Scarlet Tananger at my hummingbird feeder the other day was awesome. Baltimore Oriole liked that feeder too. Then saw 2 Indigo Buntings while walking the dog last week. Getting used to seeing Eagles almost every week. Very awesome every time I see one.
On the last reroof of our house we went from tin vents, to ridge vent, which ended the ever delightful racket of the Flickers pounding on the metal vents. It didn’t last forever, but we always got a laugh out of their unusual use of our roof vents. They are some of our biggest birds that hang around the area along with blue jays, scarlet finches, gros beaks, sparrows, gold finches, along with the host of what my wife calls Sh&t birds, grackels, redwing blackbirds, and the yellow beak no tail bird whose name escapes me at the moment.
I have Western Tanagers eating at my suet again this year about 25 miles SE of Seattle starting up the cascade foothills.
Last year my Mother in laws cat cat killed one and the rest left.
Those, and the humming birds...and some Mallards have taken to a slow section of a little creek we are on.
I put a cow bell on that cat.
He only goes out for a few minutes each day, then she calls him in anyway.
A Red headed Sapsucker woke me up this morning, he was jackhammering on a drain pipe just outside my window.
I’m assuming that SWAMPSNIPER has departed to the Great Beyond?
The following thread would be the proof: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3432349/posts
FreeRepublic Memorial Wall can be found at the bottom of the FR homepage. There are many on the wall some notables but all great American’s who saw the value in a Free Republic. It is worth a trip down memory lane to cruise the Memorial Wall.
I hear ya-I understand why people enjoy birding...they are beautiful, interesting, and are one of the few wild creatures you can observe and interact with...most other creatures leave immediately when they see you!
I used to dislike Blue Jays, but what you observe them, their behavior can be a bit goofy and charming...their Blue Jay brains are always grinding away...:)
Ditto that!!!
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