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New Baltimore Oriole Feeder

June 9, 2010 By Elizabeth Leave a Comment

The guys (and gals) in the Gera Old Tractor Club gave me a $50.00 gift certificate to Wild Birds Unlimited in Frankenmuth as a thank you for building their website.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted until this Spring. I really needed a new hummingbird feeder and an oriole feeder.  Steve and I went to the store a few weeks ago and picked out the feeder.  Today was the first day that I had an opportunity to get pictures of a Baltimore Oriole using the feeder.  This thing is a mega-Oriole buffet. It is super easy to clean and maintain and they love the covered seating for the jelly.

Baltimore Oriole

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White Breasted Nuthatch & Woodpeckers

April 17, 2010 By Elizabeth

 

We were in the yard playing with dogs and I was able to snap a couple of nice photos of woodpeckers and Steve’s favorite bird, the white breasted nuthatch.

Downy Woodpecker      Nuthatch

White Breasted Nuthatch

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A storm of ducks

February 25, 2010 By Elizabeth

We had a winter storm here on Monday night.  Tuesday morning I was leaving for work, and 4 ducks were in the end of the driveway. We are about a mile from the river and other sources of water. We see waterfowl flying throughout the year, but rarely in winter.  Most of the water close to the house freezes over in the winter, so it was odd to see the ducks.

4 Ducks

They came up by the house and walked all around. Steve’s friend had snowplowed these trails through the deep snow and they just walked all around the trails.  Steve was home and took a bunch of pictures of them.

What a lot of changes for one week?!  A new dog and now four ducks! 

It was hard to keep the dogs away from the them. Quincy did chase after them and caught up to them once.  She seemed curious about the and smelled them. That’s how we learned their wings were clipped. They couldn’t fly away from here.  She just sniffed them though and went into her play stance like she was going to play with the ducks!

They came just a few feet from the back door!    

We did give in and feed them some corn eventually.  They seem to be staying here, thIMG_1268ey’ve been here for a week now. 

We are trying to find a home for them.  They are just camped out in the front of our house by the road. We have a stand of trees near the ditch and they are somewhat protected against the wind.  I don’t know how long they are going to stay, but so far they seem to be doing okay. You can see them here marching right past our feeder area.

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Steve took the picture to the right. I really think it turned out nice!

Filed Under: BirdWatching, Winter Tagged With: ,

My First Hawk Picture

January 16, 2010 By Elizabeth

This photo is taken through the window, so it’s not the best. This hawk sat in a tree right behind the red shed for quite a while.  I didn’t have the camera handy though, so by the time I was ready, I only had time for one shot!  You can very clearly see the markings on the chest and the talons, though, so I’m not too disappointed.

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Long time no blog

January 4, 2010 By Elizabeth

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged.  For New Year’s I thought I should write some kind of blog and get back on track with this. 

 

Update on Shadow (my found Plott Hound):  We ended up not keeping Shadow. No one ever contacted me from the Michigan CoonHound Rescue despite my repeated emails, phone calls, facebook requests and Tweets trying to get their attention.  I wasn’t really impressed by that. I honestly needed some help with that dog and I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her. I think she was mostly a Plott Hound.  My Dad used to breed Walker Hounds and one of his buddies is still really into hounds of all kinds.  He ended up taking her.  He was all set up to have the hounds. He had 3 in his pack already.  He hunts Bear, Raccoons and Cats with them.  She turned out not to be into Bear or Cat hunting, but he is going to keep her around for the raccoons.  At least she is well fed, cared for and safe.  I never could have kept her from running in our unfenced yard.

 

Update on Quincy (My beautiful Basset Hound):  Quincy has been doing really great. She is completely housebroken and spends all of her at home days now free of the crate.  We ended up taking the crate out of the house and she hasn’t seemed to mind. She still gets some crate time at Doggie Day Care.  Steve and I are considering getting her a new basset hound friend in the spring from the same breeder (if at all possible). 

 

Update on the House:  Steve and one of his friends covered the crawlspace in a 6 mil plastic.  They used spray on adhesive to adhere it to the walls of the foundation and allow any moisture to run off and prevent it from getting stuck under the plastic. This completely solved our moisture problem in the house. It is now almost too dry!

 

Update on The Backyard: We’ve been keeping up with the feeders, but I haven’t had time in my schedule to participate in Feeder Watch (no 2 days in a row to be able to watch).  We are seeing the usual suspects.  Also, we were observing at least one bat every night until pretty late in the fall, so I am pleased to report that our local bat population seems not to have changed.  Steve and a couple of his friends saw a mole in the backyard above ground this fall.  That was our one notable sighting.  Squirrel numbers are down from last year (only about 4 – 6 per day instead of 10 – 18).  I have still been seeing pheasant and turkeys, but not in the backyard, just in the neighborhood.

 

Update on Steve & I:  I am going to rededicate myself to this blog and some outdoor photography.  I’ve been admiring a lot of other people’s nature photos on Facebook and resolve to take more of my own.  We also are going on a New Year’s diet and hopefully going to get a little more active, hopefully that will include spending more time in the backyard.

 

So, how have your new year’s been?  Any new interesting winter bird sightings?  More posts to come (with pictures!).

Filed Under: BirdWatching, Dogs, Fall, Winter Tagged With: ,

Northern Flicker in the Yard

July 2, 2009 By Elizabeth

We saw a Northern Flicker in the yard exhibiting some weird behavior. It was eating ants, it hung out for over an hour.  However, sometimes it would lay its wings flat across an ant hill or something that it had found in the yard.  Here’s some photos.

IMG_1082 In the picture to the left, you can see the flicker spreading its wings. 

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You can see the red patch on the head in the picture to the right.

IMG_1088  Here he is digging into the ant hill.

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Above you can see a little better image of the Northern flicker.  It is eating at ant hills. 

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We also saw this rabbit in the same area, it eventually scared off the flicker.

The Northern Flicker was in the yard for over a half hour.  It was very neat to watch.  It was really focused on getting the ant hills. I was glad to be able to watch it for so long.  We’ve usually only seen them fleetingly. It seemed like it had yellow underneath the feathers, but I really wasn’t sure if it was the Yellow Shafted or Red shafted variety.

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What do you feed the birds in your Backyard?

June 27, 2009 By Elizabeth

I thought I’d ask around about what types of seed other birders have success with.  Here is what we feed in our backyard and where:

We have a pole that has a few different feeders on it:

A 12 Seater Medium Sized Bird Feeder – Filled with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

A 4 seater Cottage Style Bird Feeder – Filled with Black Oil Sunflower Seeds

A Wire Mesh Peanut Feeder – Shelled Peanuts

A small Platform Feeder – We mix this one up.  Right now it has a mixture of Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and Shelled Peanuts

A Single Suet Cake Feeder – I typically keep all season High Energy suet in this feeder

We have a large Hopper Feeder on a 4 x 4 Post – This gets a mixture of at least Black Oil Sunflower Seeds and Peanuts and sometimes Whole Kernel Corn, Safflower Seeds or a Mixed Seed

We also have a platform and a flat stump that we feed shelled peanuts, Black Oil Sunflower, sometims Corn, Safflower or whole peanuts.

Steve puts out 4 – 6 Cobs of corn in various places in the yard for the Squirrels

We have a double suet feeder that normally contains a flavored suet and a Birdola Seed Cake.

We also have an 8 seater Thistle feeder with a rain shield. We currently have this filled with a high energy finch mix containing Nyjer seed, sunflower hearts and one other type of seed I think.  The finches do not seem to care as long as it is very fresh. 

The above are in place all year.

For the summer, we additionally have one hummingbird nectar feeder, one oriole nectar feeder (4 seater), and a hanging tray with grape jelly.

I just bought a lot of seed and I am going to monitor how much we are going through.  With this tough economy, I wonder how many backyard birders have been unable to fill their feeders?  I’ve found a few ways to save money.  Last summer I bought the prepackaged nectar for both orioles and hummingbirds. This year, we’ve been making our own nectar.  The birds seem to prefer the homemade nectar.  That has been a real money saver. I probably spend the most per day on the seed cakes and all season suet cakes. I really enjoy watching the woodpeckers and nuthatches, so I always keep these on hand.  I wish that I could find a place that would sell them to me at wholesale.  I have a couple of stores that will offer a pretty good price if I purchase a case. I try to buy the high energy suet from Meijer by the case when it is on sale.  My mom told me that I should consider making my own seed cakes, but it is so time consuming.  The Birdola ones attract a variety of birds and are very convenient. 

I also tend to view the peanuts as a splurge.  However, we seem to have a much better variety of birds around when we feed peanuts. 

So, sound off in the comments!  What are you feeding and how much? Any ideas on how birders can shave expenses?

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Back to Birdwatching

June 21, 2009 By Elizabeth

Well, I’ve abandoned this site just for a short period of time. I’ve worked the last 13 days in a row.  Today is my first day off.  I’m glad that little stretch is over and now my summer can really start.

UPDATES:

Steve has been seeing several toads regularly. We still haven’t seen “Porch Toad” from last year.  We also haven’t seen as many toads as last summer.  We also haven’t spent as much time outside at night.  We’ve both been pretty busy and a lot of early morning work days equals a lot of early to bed nights.  Luckily we haven’t seen any more toads with the same injuries or wounds as the toad we removed from the backyard a month ago.

 

Bird feeding has been going pretty well.  Steve has been keeping up with the feeding while my work schedule was making things really hectic.  He has even continued making his own nectar.  It has been a huge hit.  Yesterday, when I got home from the tractor show, I was able to observe at least 3 male orioles at one time.  The jelly feeder was a hotbed of activity.

I did miss the fledgling season for woodpeckers and that is so unfortunate. It is one of my favorite sights of late spring.  We have seen glimpses of the Eastern Towhee, but no new pictures.

Steve and Brian moved the stump away from the pole feeder. Squirrels had learned to leap off of the stump and get onto the feeder. We were able to retain the sod from the new location, so the yard still looks intact.

Our vegetable plants (in containers) are doing great.  I think that Steve has kept up with the watering (what would I do without him?). We have several peppers ready for harvest right now. The tomato plants are bouncing back. The dill is growing like crazy and I’m not sure what to do with it. 

Our daylilies are blooming today.  This should also help to get the hummingbirds more active in the yard.  Currently, they dart in for the nectar and then head back into the forest immediately. 

We’ve been seeing a LOT of rabbits lately.  I suppose that leaving Quincy in the kennel last summer kept them at bay somewhat.  She is such a house dog now that we haven’t put her in the outdoor kennel as much during the day.  The dog grows lazier by the day.  In fact, she is sleeping on the couch right now. 

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It is good to be back.  I’ll have regular updates coming now and will also begin a few more projects on the main site in addition to this blog. 

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First Brown Thrasher Feeds on Insects in the Backyard!

May 31, 2009 By Elizabeth

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This bird showed up at around 4pm this afternoon.  When I first spotted him, he was really rooting in the soil near the base of the bird feeder.  I had never seen any of the “usual suspects” exhibiting this behavior. It was slightly larger than a cardinal and with the long bill I knew that it wasn’t a bird I had seen previously.  I was inside doing dishes at the time, and I wasn’t able to get outside without the Brown Thrasher flying off.  He came back 2 other times. Steve had an opportunity to see him also.  Every time I would open the door, he would fly away nearly immediately.  He was really pecking away at the soil, presumably in search of insects. I don’t know that he ate much of our seed, but he was definitely feeding on the insects at the base of the feeder.  It was really interesting to see him do this. I haven’t ever seen one of these birds before in the Backyard. If they have been around before, it must have been during high traffic times and he got overlooked. Here are the other photos I snapped from the window.

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Filed Under: BirdWatching, Summer Tagged With:

A Lot of Happenings OUTSIDE of the Backyard!

May 27, 2009 By Elizabeth

So, we’ve been really busy lately, and I REALLY need to post some pictures. Here’s a run down of what’s been happening:

Toads:  We’ve seen several toads. Steve tucked on into the stump in the backyard birdfeeding area and it hung out there all day.  No toads have had any disease/wound similar to the toad we removed.  We did find a frog dried up and being devoured by ants, but I think it overheated and dried out in the sun rather than having died of some illness.

Yard:  We planted some containers with vegetables and herbs.  Our earlier plantings in the flower beds are doing really great.  The vegetables have also really taken off. I’m feeling like I might have a green thumb this summer!

Bird Feeding:  We ran out of seed almost completely.  I just purchased some new seed. I was able to get Black Oil Sunflower seeds on a sale for $12.99 for 50 pounds.  Peanuts are still priced really high, about $39.99 for 50 pounds.  We started making our own hummingbird and oriole nectar for considerable savings.  It isn’t really that hard and they do seem to show a strong preference for the homemade nectar as opposed to the purchased nectar.  I also bought Thistle seed, a high energy mix that includes sunflower hearts. This cost $23.99 for a 16 pound bag.  I was able to get some suet and seed cakes on a pretty good sale.  So, we are now set on seed for a while.  I’m going to monitor how long it lasts.  I purchased this seed on Friday, May 22nd at Dotty’s Pet Center in Clio. 

Bird Watching:  We have seen several Wild Turkeys and I have some photos to share.  Wild Turkey That is pretty exciting.  We only had a couple of loners, not a whole flock.  Wild Turkey I’ve been spending a lot of time on various birdwatching websites. I’ve really been learning a lot.  We haven’t had any other unusual visitors as of late.  We have seen a lot of courtship and nest-building activity in various species.  We found a robin’s nest that was overturned during high winds.  All of the eggs were cracked and the nest was on the ground.  We also spotted 2 or 3 snakes in the area. I wonder if garter snakes are able to eat robin’s eggs? 

Dogs and Other Stuff:  We actually have spent quite a bit of time lately away from the backyard.  I’ve spent some time with the guys from the Gera Old Tractor Days Association trying to get them to come to the show at Steiner Tractor Parts.  Also, I am going to be attending their show in June to pass out catalogs and possibly deliver some parts.  We spent Saturday May 23rd at a dog party at our friends’ house.  They have a lot of bird houses in their backyard that are all occupied. I photographed one of the birds occupying a house and it seems to be a House Wren. These friends live only a mile or so away from us. I’ve never seen the House Wren before, but this really piqued my interest in putting up some bird boxes.  We also really need to hang our Bat House.  Here’s a picture of the House Wren. House Wren? It’s kind of strange, because I was trying to figure out what bird it was.  I never saw it hold its tail in the air.  I’ve checked the bird book though and I cannot really find any other bird with similar markings on the tail and wing. Also, the bill is very long and slender for the bird to be some type of sparrow.  If anyone else identifies this bird, please let me know what you think it is.  Also, There were 8 dogs at the party. I plan on doing a separate blog about the Dog Party.  It was a lot of fun.  For the most part, the dogs all got along.  Most of them know each other, but we haven’t had them all in the same place at the same time quite like this. 

Then, on Sunday, We went to the Frankenmuth Dog Bowl with some friends from work.  This was a lot of fun. I’ll do another post covering the dog bowl in greater detail.  It basically is a Frankenmuth festival where you are welcome and encouraged to bring your dog to share in the festivities.  They also have a variety of competitions and demonstrations. Quincy’s Dog Day Care, Key-Lore had a boot at the dog bowl.  Quincy was able to see her friend, JoJo, but they were both so tired, they couldn’t even really play.  We were able to see many dogs. Quincy was the only Basset Hound at the dog bowl and so she was a real attention grabber.  Our friend Andrew has 2 Italian Greyhounds and they were also quite popular with the crowds.  I really loved seeing the Mastiffs and Saint Bernards.  I forgot my camera, but my friend Suzette took a lot of pictures and I’ll be sure to post some photos of our crew later. 

Well, it has been a really busy week and it looks like the next couple are going to be equally busy.  I wish that I could relax like a basset hound.

Quincy, Our Basset Hound

Filed Under: BirdWatching, Dogs, Spring, Toads Tagged With: , ,
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