What's at your birdfeeder?

“A beautiful Sunday morning here in the Wisconsin Northwoods, and with it the arrival of our first rose-breasted grosbeak of the season. Absolutely gorgeous male.

The grackles, however, are being a pain in the a$$. A redwing blackbird male just arrived, and a male house finch was in earlier, its rosy head and chest glowing. Some evening grosbeaks have made visits, stunning golden birds. And our downy woodpeckers can be heard most days on the dead section of our big maple, sometimes at the suet bricks.”

“The cat.”

“Damn squirrels.”

“Not much right now. I hear them though. We do have a robin's nest in small apple tree. Peter can look into it by climbing on the wall between yards.”

“This Robin made a nest on my front porch and yesterday was the first day I saw the chicks stick their precious little heads up and out of the nest. It's cool how it looks like the nest is empty, then when you make a noise, the chicks stick up their heads with their mouths wide open to receive Mom's food!”

“Red-Bellied Woodpeckers, Titmice, Blue Jays, Carolina Chickadees, Purple Finch, Northern Cardinals, last week Indigo Bunting. Ground birds include Carolina Wren, Northern Mockingbird, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Common Ground-Dove and Ringed Turtle Dove
Occasionally "dead" Boat-Tailed Grackle and Squirrels”

“male and female painted buntings, mourning doves, cardinals, tufted titmice but the best was last month I had atleast 17 male indigo buntings, they were beautiful!”

“Poisoned snares.”

“Ninjas with blowguns.”

“Father Goose, you stole my response. Otherwise there are pigions (sp?)and mourning doves.”

“on my hummingbird feeder. They've taken out 3 hummingbirds so far.”

“So I was out in the back yard building a bird feeder and this flock of birds flew overhead and splattered me good with their dropings and it got me to thinking.

You know, I don`t actually like birds so, I cut the bird feeder pole down to a foot and a half and now it`s a combination bird feeder and cat feeder:)”

“Birds what else......8)”

“Pretty much Pemsit's list, without the indigo buntings. I'm still trying to identify some of the birds that showed up this weekend. I've never seen such variety here. Of course, I'm still trying to kill the squirrels. No offense, Kleetn!”

“Hey they got to eat too!

8)”

“I have a squirrel feeder. They regularly get in brawls over it, and my Redcat just waits with gleaming eyes right below...although he's only caught 3 over 5 years. Not very good odds.”

“Teach and train the cat to KILL them!!!!

But make shure you get it on VHS tape.

8)”

“The squirrels share with the grackles at our array, focusing on the sunflower seed feeders. The mourning doves must love the grackles, since the latter scatter so much of the other seed as they pick and choose the best for themselves. I'm tempted to get a BB gun to pop the grackles and starlings, but can't work up enough anger.

A few chipping sparrows have been around, and nuthatches (red and white-breasted) and chickadees are with us all winter. Only one cardinal has come by, that a couple weeks ago. We had some thrashers last year for the first time. Hope they come back.”

“The feeders have come down for the season. We do have ducks stopping in almost every night to waddle around the yard and dip their toes in my little pond. You'd think they'd move on to something bigger...you could easily find larger puddles in our area.”

“Sorry about that, stump. You can have it back. I'm done with it.”

“American Goldfinches, House finches, Robins, Cardnials, Blusjays and I had about 40 Cedar Waxwings visit my crabapple tree a couple weeks ago - first time ever
I have nesting Mourning Doves and squirels.”

“I know my dads house has lots of nesting birds in his trees I think its real cool to see them make there nests!

8)”

“A fu nway to control the squirrels (when you have time to kill) is to sit real still in a lawn chair with a garden hose and sprayer set on the "jet" setting. Squirrels learn to stay away when the hose is out.”

“I have done that with my dog but she likes it.

8)”

“Flock of cedar waxwings in our Apple tree.

Towhees (sp?), scarlet tanager, Balt Orioles . . and the rest of the usual suspects.

Looking for indigo bunting, rosebreasted grosebeaks”

“A pilated woodpecker just knocked a squirrel off the feeder. Good bird!”

“A second rose-breasted grosbeak male made an appearance in the company of the first last evening. I looked out and it was a momentary tableau of black, white and red as the two grosbeaks were joined by a pair of downy woodpeckers.”

“Well, I do now have a box turtle eating the fallen food. That's a new one for me. It usually hangs out back by my compost pile.”

“I don't have a birdfeeder and it wasn't in my backyard but I just saw an American Kestrel. They are really pretty up close.

I had some rabbits living back by the compost pile once. I think that counts as a birdfeeder because they attracted a redtail hawk. He would even perch in the yard and watch for them while I was out there!”

“a B B gun waiting for some crows to steal the others eggs!!”

“I hate it when that happens. We have a bluejay family that sets up house in the neighbors pine every spring. Every year the crows eat the babies. I can't stand the noise the babies and the jay mom and dad make while it happens. Poor baby jays.”

“Bluejays eat plenty of baby birds so...”

“I don't know about baby birds being eaten around here, but I do know when the cardinal's chicks have hatched. The parents catch lizards and bash them to death on the paving bricks in my front yard.”

“cool, bash it bash bash!!!!”

“A house finch set up her nest in a hanging plant on my deck. First, there were 2 eggs and now there are 7 eggs. I can't believe that many eggs came out of such a tiny thing.”

“we have a purple finch and family in the xmas wreath that we never took down from the garage”

“First goldfinch, a vibrant yellow and black male, just showed up. Earlier this afternoon our first oriole came in. The orange coloring was "faded" looking, but the markings were clear. Whether it was a male still developing its bright plummage, or a variant female (which the guidebook says may have the black around the head, too) was hard to say.”

“Guess it was a female oriole, because the one that just showed up is definitely a male -- man, can't miss that flashy BRIGHT orange and black combo.”

“Well, now I'm back to calling the "faded" oriole a male, because a clearly female oriole came a few minutes ago, right after I hung up some orange halves. The bright male had been in earlier at the fruit-imbedded suet block. Maybe the faded one is a young male as I suspected.”

“The cat's still there. The old girl's pretty slow these days though. I don't think she'll get one.”

“Now there's a pair of male orioles -- man, what a gorgeous sight! Stunningly beautiful birds.”

“I though you were giving the cat back to me! DRAT! Mine's left”

“No, just the line. Scooter's 20 years old, so I doubt you'd want her. Besides, I'm kind of attached.:)”

“Do think Scooter would tolerate my wife's neurotic 12 year old miniature schnauzer? We are beginning to think it has "doggie alzheimer's!" If I send it, you think they would get along?”

“Probably. I think Scooter's senile, too. She'll stand in the middle of the house and start howling for no apparent reason, wild-eyed, like she doesn't know where she is (come to think of it, I've done that too). Gets pretty annoying in the middle of the night. The cat, that is.”

“Definately not at my feeder BUT...Tarabull, Smiley and I saw the neatest bird ever this weekend while we were out doing our training walk. We were on a Rails-to-Trails trail in W. Bloomfield (suburbia) that has a blue heron rookery and we got to see a great horned owl with two owlets. Probably never see that again. It literally made my day. =)”

“Way cool Sass!!!!

I love great horned owls and for that matter all owls.

They are my favorite birds!

8)”

“let's see, as i gaze out my window i see a blue jay, dang annoying birds... orioles have been coming and going all day long, few ugly birds... sparrows, grackles, and some other things, been a woodpecker here earlier, robins... and some other birds... it's fun watching them... that blue jay is still sitting there, pecking at something...”

“Hey whats wrong with Sparrows I think they are cool I like how they move real fast!

8)”

“Our robins have hatched. Now to keep all the kids away from them!”