Birds of the Garden

sanderson wrote:How has the species managed to survive with their crappy nest-building skill?  My two fledglings finally fell victim to a cat.  The parents were really sedate the next morning.  This happens every year.

Very interesting…but they do manage to survive.  They must have multiple litters (I know, not the right term) of kids.  I love them!

The Bluebird of Happiness left an egg on the raised bed between the Swiss Chard and Bok Choy. Apparently she couldn't make it to the nest which is about 100' away.  

Oh my gosh!  That’s something else, OG!

The Killdeer has four eggs in her makeshift nest in the gravel driveway, in exactly the same location where she raised four babies last year.  Don't know how they survive with vehicles driving over the nest every day, but they do.

Isn’t that amazing?  I remember one year when one of the kids was playing soccer, a Killdeer had made a nest on the sideline of the field….kept acting like it had a broken wing when the kids were in the vicinity to lure them away.  I finally put my chair over it, and the ref came up and said something, I just said—“Look”.  He said, “got it”.

Yes, they have quite a routine to try to get you away from their nest. The male sits at the end of the driveway near the road, and anytime anyone approaches the driveway he goes into his injured routine to get them to follow him. The FedEx driver came in today, and he wanted to know what was going on in the driveway with the birds. I explained to him the Killdeer nesting in the driveway, and they were trying to get him out of them. So he said he'd be careful going out.

I may have found my permanent home at the SFG. It will take me a couple of hours to get through all 7 pages. I am so happy to have found this section. I feel like a little kid at Christmas about to open a present.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Robins are like the bouncers.  They are insect eaters, so do not populate the feeder.  But they are really the enforcers when it comes to bullies.  Large and in charge.

Blue Jay's rule the roost in my bird yard. Even the doves and squirrels give way. Saw something I had never seen before, this morning saw a Blue Jay clinging upside down on an empty suet feeder. When I replaced the cakes, he wasn't able to hang on to the cage any more. I have seen them fly up and bump the feeder and then land on the ground and eat the crumbles that fell. Have seen them do this 3 or 4 times until they get full.

The only bird the Jays were scared of was when the Pileated Woodpecker came to visit. Only happen twice in 20+ years. Big beautiful bird, really loud, reminds me of the movie "Drums along the Mohawk" I see an occasional one at the farm in Livingston Co.

OhioGardener wrote:The Killdeer has four eggs in her makeshift nest in the gravel driveway, in exactly the same location where she raised four babies last year.  Don't know how they survive with vehicles driving over the nest every day, but they do.

I worked on locks and dams and several bridges in my  time. Always lots of gravel and Killdeers' around. We would flag the nest as we found them. Most of the operators, but not all, would avoid the nests. We had to keep the big bosses unaware of what we were doing. Most of the foreman knew and as long as it didn't interfere with their work, they were agreeable.

Just came in from watching the birds, was watching a red breasted woodpecker that was on one of the feeders when a sharp shinned hawk came swooping down after the big woodpecker. It sounded like a covey of quail flushing. They both flew right over my head. No time to react and not a bird in sight. In about 10 min the hawk flew back across the street and into the woods. About an hour later, the woodpecker came back. Was really glad to see him.

I had 3 hummingbirds fighting around my backyard feeder tonight!  They are so territorial!  I have not seen one at the front yard feeder….

We have 3 feeders on the front porch and one under the Bradford Pear out by the birdbath. Normally we fill them every two days, but not this year. It's been really slow for some reason. Ours are extremely territorial and fight like cats and dogs. I usually find an empty nest a couple of times a year.

I love this thread, too! I have five birdfeeder set ups scattered around my yard.  I regularly have a red headed woodpecker, indigo bunting, and many, many bluebirds. A couple of weeks ago I had a flock of red crossbills eating at the tray feeder.  Apparently a very rare sight in my area.  Pileated woodpeckers are ubiquitous here in NW Arkansas.  And recently I saw a prothonotary warbler checking out the nesting box in the yard, but she didn't decide to use it. 

I farm mealworms for the bluebirds, and have a pair working on their third brood in my nest box this season.  The second brood was taken out, probably by a raccoon, about a day after the eggs hatched.  The pair immediately got busy making another nest.  Now there are four eggs in it.  But I made a BIG mistake and left the heater on high in my mealworm closet. . . .I came back and the closet was 140° and all the worms and beetles were dead.  :-(  Now starting over, but I won't have worms for another month or so.

My feeders are clumped fairly close together. I too have 5 and some old platform feeders that I need to replace. I have several feeders that are worthless and no longer use, fought squirrels for a year until I found the squirrel proof feeders. Best investment I ever made. i think they are made by Brome. I've had so many of the tube feeders where the plastic might last a month, if you're lucky. I will never buy anything other than a squirrel buster feeder from now on. 

I work in the garden a while and then sit and watch the birds a while. The leaves on my tomatoes are showing a lot of damage. Most of the tomatoes already have no leaves on the lower 12 inches. 

For some reason, the bluebirds are using my bird yard as their feeding place. It may be earthworms they are after. They sit in the Pin Oaks, swoop down and back to the nest they go.