Very busy at the bird feeder today! (1 Viewer)

[Bananafishbones]

Garden Life Bird No. 66 and 2011 Garden species - No. 54
Curlew

I am pretty chuffed with this one as I can often hear them in the distant at a local patch a mile or two away, however at last one has flown not only in garden view but straight over the house.... not a call or anything, I just happened to look up at the right time.... well chuffed

 

[bongofury]

Garden Life Bird No. 66 and 2011 Garden species - No. 54
Curlew

Very nice indeed.

 

[JeffMoh]

This is the quietest time of the year here - no migrants and rather hot for going out birding.

Lots of youngsters in our yards, though: Several male and female Northern Cardinals and House Finches, a couple of Blue Jays, a N. Mockingbird and today a Carolina Wren. There are more White-winged Doves and Carolina Chickadees than usual, too, and some of them must be young, although I can't ID them.

Yesterday we had several adult and young House Sparrows on our feeders. Much as I like them in the UK, I don't want bunches of them hogging our feeders and so I may have to discourage them.

At work, our Western Kingbirds have hatched only two young this year. In every previous year they have hatched (and successfully raised) 4. I suspect they've cut back because our continuing drought means there are fewer bugs around for food.

Also at work, we ended up with 20 Purple Martins this year, our highest total ever. But the youngsters are getting big now and I expect they'll all migrate any day now. BTW, our biology instructors helped the Martins by getting rid of some European Starlings that kept trying to take over the Martin houses. Sad but probably necessary.

The beach sites are pretty good, with lots of fledgling Terns around, all busy begging from adults.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[roger1234]

i saw a boeing 747 flying over the house,they are a big bird?do they count? :-O

 

[Bananafishbones]

Yesterday we had several adult and young House Sparrows on our feeders. Much as I like them in the UK, I don't want bunches of them hogging our feeders and so I may have to discourage them.
Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

Hi Jeff

How do you discourage a single species?

I get a little miffed with the hordes of Jackdaws, however I guess if I am willing to feed at all I expect to be inundated with some of the less desirables... it goes with the teritory.

Some people would bite your hand off over here for the declining Housesparrows though

 

[JeffMoh]

I'll afraid I'll have to do something like squirt them with a watergun! Cruel but they are causing declines among native species here.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[Bananafishbones]

I'll have to do something like squirt them with a watergun! Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

have you got any grandkids :-O

 

[bongofury]

i saw a boeing 747 flying over the house,they are a big bird?do they count? :-O

:-O

We had a turkey for dinner on Sunday....:'D

 

[JeffMoh]

have you got any grandkids :-O

Only one and unfortunately he lives in Barcelona, Dave. However, I have a rather nice water-machinegun! Got it for use on squirrels and cats in our yards. Should work well for House Sparrows. An alternative, of course, would be to run wires to the feeder perches and to put 110 volts through the Sparrows' feet when they try to land.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[roger1234]

Only one and unfortunately he lives in Barcelona, Dave. However, I have a rather nice water-machinegun! Got it for use on squirrels and cats in our yards. Should work well for House Sparrows. An alternative, of course, would be to run wires to the feeder perches and to put 110 volts through the Sparrows' feet when they try to land.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

shame news of world aint no more,we could have a world exclusive here!!!

 

[JeffMoh]

shame news of world aint no more,we could have a world exclusive here!!!

A shocking expose of cruelty to birds, Roger?

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[roger1234]

A shocking expose of cruelty to birds, Roger?

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

your headline jeff,not mine !!!

 

[will562]

Been having daily visits for the last couple months from a pair of bullfinches which is great, and yesterday a juvenile appeared which is great news too!

Also rescued a house martin fledging yesterday, it was on the floor and i picked it up and it couldn't fly, think it had left the nest too soon. I managed to put it back into a nest, which are above my bedroom window.

Went back downstairs and 5 mins later there was another or the same house martin on the floor again, so i repeated the process. Don't know what happened after as had to go to work unfortunately.

 

[JeffMoh]

The heat and drought continue here in Texas and it's tough on our young birds.

A juvenile male Northern Cardinal was sitting panting on our fence.

A young House Finch (with no tail?) was one of many birds drinking from our bird bath.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[Bananafishbones]

Lovely Cardinal image Jeff, Its a cute thing even while looking very downy and ruffled.

Its good to see the Gulls back over head. Lots of Black Heads but some Herring Gulls too.... it sounds just like the seaside!

 

[roger1234]

Lovely Cardinal image Jeff, Its a cute thing even while looking very downy and ruffled.

Its good to see the Gulls back over head. Lots of Black Heads but some Herring Gulls too.... it sounds just like the seaside!

The heat and drought continue here in Texas and it's tough on our young birds.

A juvenile male Northern Cardinal was sitting panting on our fence.

A young House Finch (with no tail?) was one of many birds drinking from our bird bath.

Jeff
dave,you would look downy and ruffled if you had felt the full force of jeff's water cannon!!! looks like the young house finch felt the full force!! (no tail left by the end):-O

 

[JeffMoh]

dave,you would look downy and ruffled if you had felt the full force of jeff's water cannon!!! looks like the young house finch felt the full force!! (no tail left by the end):-O

I promise I won't use the watergun on Finches. I wonder if a cat has been eating their tails, though.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[JeffMoh]

We are in a long hot drought and so our birdbaths are attracting a lot of birds. Unfortunately, this means that birds visiting our yards run the risk of catching infectious diseases from each other. House Finches are particularly vulnerable to avian pox and last week it was really sad to see that one Finch was extremely sick - its eyes and legs had been attacked.

If we stop providing water, "our" birds are really going to suffer. So the best course seems to be just to clean the baths every day and hope that this solves the problem.

BTW, the infected bird hasn't re-appeared lately. Given its vision problems, I imagine it fell prey to one of the neighborhood cats.

Jeff
www.jeffincypress.blogspot.com

 

[Bananafishbones]

maybe for the best as well Jeff, reduces the risk of further disease

Raining here but still lively...... Jeff I could do with your water pistol for the feral pigeons, getting chuffed off with the increase in numbers (17) yesterday

 

[Cheshire Birder]

62 - Lesser Whitethroat (only about the 5th garden record!!) feeding with the roving tit flock this morning.

CB