BIRD WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE: BIRDS WITH A “B” IN THEIR NAME
Well, if the “B” doesn’t have to be the main B in the bird’s name, then I have a few more birds! Red-Bellied Woodpeckers and Rose-Breasted Nuthatches. I have to ponder this a while longer. The Bs seem to have gone missing from my addled old brain or maybe they weren’t there in the first place. These days, it’s hard to know for sure.
Black-Capped Chickadee
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Black-backed Gull
Brown-headed Cowbird
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Brown-Headed Cowbird on the fence
Blue Heron
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Categories: #Birds, #gallery, #Photography, Blackstone Valley, Wildlife, Woodpeckers
THE HUNGRY CREATURES 
GARDEN BIRDS AND SURVIVAL 
ONE HAIRY WOODPECKER 
BIRD WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – STRIPES, SPOTS OR FRECKLES 
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
These are fantastic, Marilyn! I love your Rose-breasted Grosbeak. I saw one on my feeder a few weeks ago one time and haven’t seen any since. 🙂
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A pair of them came and stayed for a few weeks, but they haven’t come back this year. I don’t get all of our local birds every year. This year was dominated by our orange Cardinals, Goldfinches, and Downy Woodpeckers. But we had one day when a murder of crows descended on our deck, stayed half an hour, then left. No idea what THAT was about because it was the first time I’d seen any crows.
Now the usual cast of characters is back. Each year is a little different. This year we have almost all Red Squirrels who are typically uncommon because the Eastern Gray Squirrels are more aggressive and push out the Reds. It interesting how our little patch of wildlife keep changing.
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It is interesting to see how nature changes from year to year. We had more bluebirds than ever before this year. I saw a Purple Finch on the feeder twice and that is uncommon. We have had a bunch of Palm Warblers at our feeder this year. Never had them in the yard before. Last year, we had 50-60 White Ibises, teaching their juveniles how to feed. They were in the neighborhood 3 weeks ago, three streets over but they never came down our street. Don’t know! We have at least 15 species coming to our yard every day right now because, like Halloween, we have the good stuff! Didn’t do Halloween this year because of the pandemic. 🙂
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Cornell’s Ornithology Lab says that there weren’t enough seeds in the north because of the long summer drought and that we all may see birds we don’t usually see as a result. If you see something really unusual, you might want to let them know. I think “Merlin” is the name of the group and anyone can join.
We got more birds when we had feeders that were bigger and had longer perches for big birds, but the raccoons liked them too. They broke two of them in just two weeks and stole one. We found it in the woods a few hundred feet from the house. The pulled it off its hook and literally carried it away. At that point, I gave up on the really big feeders. We have a small flat feeder and a good-sized wire feeder and the bigger birds do eat from the big wire feeder.
The big feeders were not only very attractive to more birds AND raccoons, we also had dozens of flying squirrels who emptied out as much as 10 pounds of seed every night. I loved having the flyers, but I couldn’t afford to feed so many creatures. Also, the only way I saw them is when we mounted a night camera on the deck. It didn’t produce great pictures, but finally I knew what those flying white critters were who were showing up on the deck at night.
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I understand about not affording the food. We have baffles on our feeder poles so the squirrels or raccoons can’t get to the perched. The whole system is far enough from the roof that the squirrels can’t leap off into the feeders either.
Merlin is the ap that helps birders identify birds. I’ve been using it for years. I log birds on Cornell’s site called eBird.org. Been doing that for about 8 years now. I think. Times goes by so quickly.
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Oh I see, it’s a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak…..
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They aren’t even polka-dots. They look like abstract drawings. I swear this bird looks like an American flag. Really interesting bird. Big, too.
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What is that one with the polkadots?
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