Bird Migration and Misc Birding Thread

[CascadeClone]

Slightly off topic maybe but I scared up a bald eagle from the tree line mowing today. Didn't know he was there until swooped down in front of me and flew across the yard, got as low as 10 ft and then lifted up and lit in our big pine tree. Sat there a while, I got within about 50ft got some pics.

ple good pics. Will

 

[Frog]

Spend a lot of time and money on the birds LOL. We mix our own seed by adding our own ground corn to sunflower seed to keep as may sparrows out and of course have safflower, finch and suet food with several feeders. We have wren houses, blue bird houses, and a martin bird condo near the pasture.
Only thing real special is saw our first Blue bird Saturday. Saw our first Hummingbird this afternoon - Ruby-throated.

 

[Frog]

Any of you bird feeders have wasp problems? My favorite bird is the Oriole and we have a family or two every year living in the wooded creek area behind our house. We feed them jelly. Our feeder is on our deck rail and they do come to eat there during summer long. A couple years ago these aggressive white and black wasp looking things showed up eating the jelly. Wasps and bees don't bother us but these things are aggressive. Looked them up and called bald faced hornets. Never seen them in my life until they showed up a couple years ago. Haven't seen one yet but sure they will come back. Anyone know of a good wasp trap? We bought a couple that haven't worked too well and we wasted money on a fake nest thing. I know we can move our feeder but last resort. Thanks

 

[AllInForISU]

Anyone have any good suggestions for what to put in my backyard for getting a diverse array of birds? One of my kids loves watching birds, and we did a hummingbird feeder last year. Will continue to do it this year, but wanted to maybe do other things as well.

I have 0 idea on anything relating to this subject. Pretty much all I know about birds has come from my 7 year old, and when I fact check it, it’s generally accurate.

 

[Frog]

Anyone have any good suggestions for what to put in my backyard for getting a diverse array of birds? One of my kids loves watching birds, and we did a hummingbird feeder last year. Will continue to do it this year, but wanted to maybe do other things as well.

I have 0 idea on anything relating to this subject. Pretty much all I know about birds has come from my 7 year old, and when I fact check it, it’s generally accurate.

Great! Humming birds are so cool. We sit on our deck and they will come to our feeder only a couple feet away if sit still.
Lets start with where you live. In country, small town, city, any woods near by? Houses all around or open area at all? That will tell us what birds you will get. Regardless where you live you are going to get cardinals which of course are good pretty birds and will come to your feeder year round. You will definitely get invasive house sparrows which are nasty birds but people like to look at.

I assume you have a Menards some what close to you? They have a great selection of feeders and food at good prices. For instance we buy a 50lb bag of black sunflower seed pretty reasonable each time we need food and add our own course ground corn. What I suggest is get a standard bird feeder that you and your child like the look of. They have a big selection and if the birds can get to the food you will have birds. You can hang it from a tree, Tall Sheppard's hook of off a deck rail. Get some wild bird food to start. Once we know what birds you would draw you could add a suet feeder for woodpeckers and/or tube feeder for finches and such.
I suggest a bird house too. Wrens are small birds that sing very loud and live everywhere. They eat bugs so obviously wont see them at your feeder but they nest twice a year in the same house so they are fun to watch coming and going from house to feed the little ones quite a long time. Make sure you get a dedicated wren house and can get one at Menards for less that 10 bucks. You can hang that from a tree or off your gutter for that matter. Just a suggestion. We have one Wren house about five feet off the ground in a Japanese maple tree in our front yard about 15' from our front living room window for instance.

 

[ianoconnor]

Anyone have any good suggestions for what to put in my backyard for getting a diverse array of birds? One of my kids loves watching birds, and we did a hummingbird feeder last year. Will continue to do it this year, but wanted to maybe do other things as well.

I have 0 idea on anything relating to this subject. Pretty much all I know about birds has come from my 7 year old, and when I fact check it, it’s generally accurate.

If I had to choose just one type of feeder it'd be this: https://www.menards.com/main/pet-wi...t-holders/38111/p-1642874315557943-c-7874.htm

Hopper feeder / suet combo.

 

[2122]

We had around 300 American white pelican hunting/feeding at once last week in the lake bay we back up to.

 

[cydnote]

If you can find a deer carcass (usually along a major highway), throw it on your lawn and before long you will hear the melodic "caw caw caw" of the crows

 

[Kinch]

Anyone have any good suggestions for what to put in my backyard for getting a diverse array of birds? One of my kids loves watching birds, and we did a hummingbird feeder last year. Will continue to do it this year, but wanted to maybe do other things as well.

I have 0 idea on anything relating to this subject. Pretty much all I know about birds has come from my 7 year old, and when I fact check it, it’s generally accurate.

How big is your yard? Part of it is what shrubs and trees You have. Other part is diverse feed. sunflower hearts, sun flower seeds, suet, cracked corn and meal worms. Put a wren house up. Jelly for cat birds and orioles, in addition to your feeder. Feed in winter, especially during and after a snow event.

 

[2122]

Anyone have any good suggestions for what to put in my backyard for getting a diverse array of birds? One of my kids loves watching birds, and we did a hummingbird feeder last year. Will continue to do it this year, but wanted to maybe do other things as well.

I have 0 idea on anything relating to this subject. Pretty much all I know about birds has come from my 7 year old, and when I fact check it, it’s generally accurate.

Water. We have 6 or 7 bird baths scattered around the property. I get the old concrete ones cheap at auctions. The birds appreciate them during dry stretches. Crow like to moisten their food in them sometimes. Bit of work to keep them filled. Also keep an old galvanized water trough that fills off the shed roof. The squirrels use it. We keep a log reaching out of it as a ladder so the squirrels don't drown.

 

[NWICY]

We had around 300 American white pelican hunting/feeding at once last week in the lake bay we back up to.

Was up that way on Sunday and saw that the Pelicans were back on the lake, never have saw them catch a fish though. I would think that would be neat to see.

 

[pourcyne]

"Our" mockingbird was doing whippoorwill calls in his repertoire last week (we used to have the real ones, haven't heard one for years). Haven't had any wrens or hummers yet.
Barn swallow air shows have commenced.

 

[2122]

Was up that way on Sunday and saw that the Pelicans were back on the lake, never have saw them catch a fish though. I would think that would be neat to see.

You should see 'em up close. They line up and drive the fish toward shore, the fish panic, the the pelicans hammer 'em! When you see them pointing their beaks up to swallow, they're scoring! Cormorants sometimes get involved in the action too.

 

[carvers4math]

Water. We have 6 or 7 bird baths scattered around the property. I get the old concrete ones cheap at auctions. The birds appreciate them during dry stretches. Crow like to moisten their food in them sometimes. Bit of work to keep them filled. Also keep an old galvanized water trough that fills off the shed roof. The squirrels use it. We keep a log reaching out of it as a ladder so the squirrels don't drown.

We have four bird baths. The problem we had last year was with severe drought, they brought in deer. Would not have minded if they didn’t decide to chew on the foliage on my tomato plants. First time we ever had to fence those and had to get creative with the fencing too.

 

[nfrine]

Summer Tanager

 

[cydnote]

View attachment 128535

Love the cardinals. Our kid gave us a gift certificate to Earl May for some occasion and my wife purchased a plush vibrant red toy cardinal from there that when you squeezed it would sing the familiar chorus we all recognize.
She stated the granddaughters would enjoy it but we found that if we held it out the window and squeezed it a protective male would show up immediately to guard it's territory and it would drive him nuts if there was a female in sight. Some 18 years later we still have it (and still tease the birds with it). We have an unattached garage aside from our house garage that we keep the lawn equipment in. One day after mowing I drove the mower in and pulled down the overhead door before noticing a cardinal fluttering around a side window looking for a way out. I captured him rather easily with the thought that I would show him to my wife. He immediately turned his head and locked his beak onto my hand. I was more shocked than injured but we decided it would be advantageous to both if we parted ways. My wife had several mirror colored "glazing balls' in her flower beds and the cardinals would see their reflection in them and begin attacking them feverishly. After they destroyed several of the glass ones she replaced them with metal ones.

 

[Kinch]

Some of the most beautiful migratory birds are ducks. Blue winged Teals are making their way across southern Iowa now.

 

[cydnote]

Certainly not beautiful in my mind but even within the "crow hunting season' in Iowa there is a closed portion because there is a similar looking bird that migrates during that time and they don't want populations to be affected.

 

[carvers4math]

We’ve had more cowbirds than usual. They peck around a lot in the yard, I hope they are eliminating some ticks for us. They just hitchhike in on the dog and find his people.

 

[FallOf81]

Meeting at the feeder. Put up Bluebird house first time. Took about a month then lookers. Checked nest today and 2 eggs so that's pretty cool.