Creating A Bird Sanctuary In Your Yard

March 5, 2005 | sweetliberty

[sweetliberty]

"You are tempting me to get an Oriole Feeder."

I came close to getting one yesterday. I was in Little Rock and went to the Wild Bird Store. I got too overwhelmed trying to decide what to buy so I ended up not buying anything this time.

[GodBlessUSA]

Hi Dysart
I only see the Grosbeak, once a year passing through. I think the angle of the shot of the Chickadee makes him look a bit bigger. The northern Chickadees are larger than south. It's a unique preserve. I have to check and confirm but I think the Chickadees learn from the parents to take from hand. People always go there. We almost had Titmice take seed from our hands but they chickened out. :)

[MamaTexan]

I have short term visitors too! Wish the Goldfinches would hang around longer. They usually are around for a couple of weeks, then disappear again until the end of summer. Maybe the Texas heat is just to much for them!

I saw another ruby throat this morning. Hopefully I'll get a few Rufus hummers this year too! Spotted a house finch yesterday, and of course the trees are just noisy with all the Cardinals around here!

Saw a Heron flying over a few days ago, too. Not that unusual since we're only a few miles from the lake, but no bodies of water on the property to entice them to land.

[cbkaty]

Of course, if global warming keeps encroaching on us, we may soon find Alaska overrun with Parrots and Flamingos, but, I digress.

The "sky is falling" crowd never wastes an opportunity to make any article a politcal statement......

[sweetliberty]

My comment was meant to be sarcastic, but maybe I misunderstood your post.

[cbkaty]

My comment was meant to be sarcastic, but maybe I misunderstood your post.

My comment was directed at the article/author.... I should have made that clear... Not directed at you.

[sweetliberty]

Well, actually, I did write the post, but that particular line was meant as sarcasm.

[BykrBayb]

This looks like a nice thread. Just scanning briefly through it, I get the idea that bird-watching Freepers are very different from the bird watchers I encounter daily during certain migration periods.

I live at the edge of a swamp where several species of birds stop off during migration. Yuppies come from miles around, carrying cameras, tripods, binoculars, coolers, fast food containers for throwing into the creek, and bad attitudes. They come flying into our driveway, block our vehicles, abandon their vehicles, and wander off onto our private property. Sometimes they park directly in front of the sign that says "Private property. No parking. Violators will be towed at owner's expense." Then they act all suprised when they come back and can't find their vehicles. "I don't understand. I parked it right there by that sign." I want to tell them "That's my sign. Here's your sign." And hand them a "Stupid" sign.

We have a large parking area to accomodate my husband's tractor/trailer. A couple weeks ago, we awoke one morning to find about 30 vehicles parked in our driveway and on our lawn. My husband managed to catch them before they wandered off. He told them they'd have to leave. A woman stepped forward, and insisted they had permission, and it was all planned out in advance. When he asked her who gave them permission, she named the @itch that lives two doors down from us. She continued to insist that they had permission to park there, and they weren't going to move just because the owner of the property said so! He told them "Fine, but don't expect these vehicles to be here when you get back." They moved, darn it. I've never had that many vehicles towed at one time.

If the bird watchers around here were anything like Freepers, they'd ask if they could park here, and I'd let them. Duck hunters ask if they can use our boat ramp, and park their pickups and boat trailers on our property. I haven't said no to one yet. But then, they always ask, and they never litter. The bird watchers all litter, and then call the EPA to complain about the unsightly rock pile that blocks their view of the birds.

I should start looking up their tag numbers to get their addresses and phone numbers. Then maybe I could get some Freeper bird watchers to contact them, and explain the etiquette of bird watching.

Or, I could just get some of my biker buddies to show up at their houses with binoculars and cameras.

[sweetliberty]

"I want to tell them "That's my sign. Here's your sign." And hand them a "Stupid" sign."

Perhaps you should have some made up.

Sounds like the kind of bird watchers y'all get are the liberal, envirowhacko variety with no regard for rules that inconveninece them and certainly none for other people's property.

This is a nice thread, by the way. Welcome. Hope you stick around.

[BykrBayb]

As long as you're inviting me, thank you. I'd love to stay. There's some really cool pictures here already, so I don't need to bring a camera. I promise not to throw McDonald's wrappers on the ground, in the creek, or in the swamp. I'll just wander around, looking at the pretty birds.

[sweetliberty]

"I'll just wander around, looking at the pretty birds."

There are lots. We are having fun expanding our birding horizons and sharing our experiences.

Y'all welcome BykrBayb to the thread.

By the way, I saw an awesome purplelish colored bird at the feeder this morning. I think it was an Indigo Bunting, but I wouldn't swear to it. The color was right...a dark indigo, not the brighter blue you see in some of the pictures. I don't know of anything else that color.

I also saw another new kind of bird today (2 actually) in the area, although not in the yard. I saw what appeared to be a Pelican flying overhead right near the turn to my house. And then, I saw these funny little birds when I was driving home this evening. They were pretty small, their bodies about the sisze of a Mockingbird, maybe smaller. They had black and white rings around their necks and long legs. Underneath their wings was white. They were running instead of flying, although they could fly. Made a cute little noise too. I'm going to see if I can find a picture and figure out what they were...then I'll see if I can get some to my yard.

[BykrBayb]

Except for the size, that sounds like a killdeer. Does it look something like this?

[sweetliberty]

Yeah, it did. How big is that bird?

[BykrBayb]

Um, about half the size of a robin, maybe a little bigger. Here's a baby. He's a little bigger than a golf ball. Maybe two golf balls.

[sweetliberty]

Sounds about right. Here's one I found. They are comical. But I don't know what they're doing here. I've never seen one before, I don't think. Sometimes I think birds get imported inadvertently by Walmart. Last year when I was at the garden center at Walmart, there was what looked for all the world like a Kiwi. It was certainly nothing native to this area.

.

[BykrBayb]

We have them in our gravel driveway. It looks like the gravel in this 1st picture, with just a little bit of lighter gravel like the 2nd pic. We have to put cones around them to keep from running the eggs over. Even when you walk right up on them, you can't see them.

[Dysart]

Killdeer, I think. I've seen them too, running. lol They do have interesting calls.

[BykrBayb]

I like when they do their "broken wing" routine. Such fakers!

[Dysart]

Oh, and welcome to sweetliberty's thread! We are a smallish crowd on FR but that's okay.

I certainly don't fit in to the typical birder category. I would never consider embarking on any far-flung excursion for the sole purpose of spotting various species with a group of other ppl. Just not my thing. I derive enjoyment from them visiting me in my yard, their sanctuary. I especially appreciate "getting to know" the regular visitors, some of whom, have been coming round for years. Watching them raise their young is my favorite spectacle.

An update on my Mockingbird pair: they have returned after vanishing for a couple of weeks. I think they chose to nest further away this year due to the Grackle colony in my front yard but they haven't forgotten the hand the feeds them, after all! :)

[BykrBayb]

I'm just glad the stupid robins have quit building their nest in our flowering plum tree. I used to have a great view inside their nest every time I walked past the tree. It was about 5 feet above the ground. The neighbor's cat used to eat their eggs every year. Sometimes she'd wait until they hatched, and then eat them. After about 5 or 6 years of this, they finally managed to raise one bird to adulthood. That's been about 3 years ago. They haven't built a nest there since, thank goodness.