Good Morning Kossacks and Welcome to Morning Open Thread
We're here every morning between 6:30 and 7:00. Feel free to volunteer to take a day - permanent or just once in awhile. With the autopublish feature you can set it and forget it. Quite often the diarist de jour shows up much later, that's the beauty of Open Thread...it carries on without you! Just let us know in the comments.
Now about the birds, well my birds.
I am a bird watcher, not the kind that goes out and hunts down as many different species of birds as I can. I am not a bird photographer like some of the very talented folks who post to the Dawn Chorus diaries. No, I am a just watcher of the birds that come to my feeders. But they are my birds and the feeders allow me to share in their comings and goings. Follow me over the squiggly, curlicue little thingie below and let me tell you a little bit about my birds.
Our yard is naturally a great place for birds. The previous owner had planted the exterior borders of the yard with lots of shrubs and trees. It not only provides a lot of privacy, but also many places for birds to sit and to nest. The house has a deck that sits high off the ground and the previous owner had planted a large tree next to the deck to shade it from the afternoon sun. This tree provides a wonderful jumping off spot for the birds to come to my upper bird feeders.
Right now I have two feeders that hang from the eaves of the house, and two pole feeders, one sitting on a pole extended out from the deck and the second that sits on a tall wooden pole set into the ground below. I also maintain one hummingbird feeder.
The large metal feeder, pictured below with a cardinal in it, is the one that is set into the ground on top of a large wooden pole. This feeder was a special surprise Christmas gift from my good friend, eeff, several years ago. Eeff is also responsible for my being here at dkos and for me doing the Wednesday morning open thread. What many people do not know is that eeff is a metal fabricator by trade and he designed and made three of these feeders for friends and family. I was very honored that he chose to send me one.
This bird feeder will long outlive me. It was designed to last and it is extremely functional. I have yet to see a squirrel figure out how to open the hinged lid on the top. While no bird feeder is squirrel proof, because the squirrels still can get in it to eat from the tray, they cannot raid this one. In addition to the squirrels, the birds that come to this feeder include cardinals, blue jays, towhees, song sparrows, and mourning doves. The song sparrows, towhees, and mourning doves are normally ground feeders, but the tray on this feeder allows them to get in and feed as if they were on the ground. I use a basic all purpose seed mix in this feeder.
The two hanging feeders are pictured below. These are very cheap bird feeders that I bought at WalMart. I used to have two much nicer ones, but both were destroyed by squirrels when we were away for the day and I had forgotten to take them down. So now I just use these cheap ones and if they get destroyed, it costs very little to replace them.
The near feeder is reachable from the deck to fill. The far feeder hangs from a line that can be raised and lowered from the deck. To refill it, I lower it a ways and then use a long pole with a hook to bring it to the deck to refill. I fill these two feeders with a higher grade songbird mix which consists mostly of black oil sunflower seeds, plus safflower seeds, dried fruit, and peanuts. I have tried various mixes, but like the one I get at WalMart because it has the peanuts in it. The nuthatches, woodpeckers, and titmice really love the peanuts and will search until they find one.
The birds that regularly come to these hanging feeders include cardinals, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches, house finches, gold finches, downy woodpeckers, red breasted woodpeckers, and blue jays. Occasionally a Carolina wren or a song sparrow will come, but not on a regular basis.
Both of these bird feeders are visible from the kitchen and are next to the window in the breakfast area where we eat all our meals. The first visitors in the morning, right before dawn, are usually the cardinals. Typically, they are the last visitors before dark too. The cardinals, gold finches, and house finches will sit and eat at the feeder, while the other birds usually take a seed into the tree to eat it. The nuthatches usually fly away from the area to eat and then come back. They often lauch from an upside down position which is neat to watch.
What is also fun to watch are the blue jays and the red breasted woodpeckers come to the hanging feeder. Because the feeder is not particularly large and is suspended from a line, the size and weight of these birds makes it awkward for them to sit on it. Usually, they will hang from the side using their tails as a counter balance on the bottom of the feeder. As awkward as it is, they come regularly and have even brought offspring to the nearby tree while they feed from the feeder.
In fact, most of the birds bring their young to the feeders. Right now the house finches are eating me out of seed like crazy. The house finches can have as many as three broods a year and all the young are brought to the feeder. They are very agressive birds and they like to camp out on the feeders which discourages other birds from coming. The house finches are probably my least favorite of the regular visitors.
Finally, below is a typical picture of my upper pole feeder. That's little "Red" (so named because his tail is reddish in color) helping himself to the seed from the upper pole feeder. It is more of a squirrel feeder than a bird feeder. I only put a little seed in it at a time so that occasionally the cardinals and blue jays will get some seed in between the squirrels raiding it.
I could go on and on how much I enjoy watching the birds, but this is an open thread diary.
So what is on your mind this morning?