Jan 26 2011 - since we've no place to go....

And here it comes! 2,4,5,6 or 8 inches heading our way depending on the channel.

Jan 10 2011 - Meat!!

Good numbers at the feeders today (all things being relative....) the Niger feeder is often full I'd Goldfinches (6) with sometimes up to 3 waiting. They still seem to find it hard to eat the seed on the table although a couple did for a while. Interestingly I'd a perch became free they soon went there even though plenty of see remained on the table. One bird even visited the large seed feeder. The meal worms that were put out had been ignored for a week however today a Song Sparrow slowly worked through the worms

Smile please!

A few shots from the around on a damp, cold Sunday

HF with bad eyes

Plenty of chickadee activity at the feeders today and the numbers of House Finch remain higher than last year. A few birds are showing the eye disease. Per Project Feederwatch


"House Finches (and to a lesser extent American Goldfinches and other species) are susceptible to House Finch disease or "mycoplasmal conjunctivitis." See the House Finch Disease Survey web site to learn more about the disease and how to diagnose it. If during a count day, you see a House Finch or an American Goldfinch that appears to have House Finch eye disease, please report the number of sick birds you see in the box provided on your checklist.
Unlike FeederWatch, the House Finch disease survey collects data on a daily basis. You may report any healthy OR sick finches that you see on NON-COUNT days by using the House Finch Disease Survey form on the House Finch Disease web site."

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New visitors

A new, noticeably marked Male house sparrow with white left wing primary and right wing secondary was feeding this afternoon. I wonder how many new birds arrive unnoticed.

Pine siskin :)




Not all together unexpwcted considering there are a lot around right, nwver the less a welcome visitor to the nyger feeders from late afternoon pretty easy to pick out :
Colder darker brown
Much smaller than house finch
Crisper clear wing bar and tertial/ secondary edging and all together more contrasting
Very suble greenish edges to primary edges up towards the coverts
Very thin and subtle supercilium behind eye
Pale border to dark ear coverts and 'face'
Fine black bill


The new feeder seems to be bedding in. Not on was it visited by this bird, it had a max of 5 goldfinch today. Also several House Finch and the occasional Sparrow :(.

(In)activity at the feeders

The new Nyger feeder seems to taking time o adjust to with only a Goldfinch and a House Finch seen so far. The old feeder is much more frequently used.

We seem to have a couple of female House Finch with the eye disease. One female has a fully closed eye and another has some disturbed feathering and a swollen partially closed eye (both right eyes I think from memory).

Slow day, mad day

As shown, sometimes even the sparrow and finch chaos subsides and the feeder becomes a perch.

30 mins or so later, Doves, sparrow, finches and Cardinals EXPLODE in all directions as an adult Coopers pays a visit to it's feeding station. This bird was a little smaller than the juvenile that visited the other day but nicely barred rufous.

Crowwatch - or not, 10/29/10

It’s COLD out here! 52 per the Weather Channel but brrr

17:59 few crows low over houses mainly Am, one/two Fi calling, circling
18:00 all quiet, few birds calling in mid-distance
:04 C.Chickadee wanting to come down but too scared...
:07 nothing substantial yet, a Fi calling out in the distance somewhere
:14 suddenly a cacophony from about 20 Am. (and 1 Fi!) in the trees to the left of the deck - raptor? - i dont see anything

:19 well it looks like no crow streams tonight, i wonder why? its been windy but not too bad, its been cooler but not too cold and there’s obviously some crows around, a puzzler

:24 all quiet apart from the occasional distant Am.

:25 Signing out,,,,

Lively afternnon on the deck

Busy afternoon on the feeders. Mostly sparrows but 3 or more Chickadee,a Cardinal, Downy on the fat, House Finches and the first Junco sighting for the season, a Song Sparrow also joined

More Crows

This morning there were 500+ crows circling over Sanger. Ave junction with Van Dorm just at dawn.

Tonight there is an amazing stream of American and Fish Crow over the community here at Hillwood. They are low, barely roof height and must have been coming over at 50-100 / minute for 15 minutes. Vast majority of the latter birds seem to have been Fish Crow

I've just taken a video of a minute or so of passage and the following is a frame from that.

537 crows in 1min 28! Even if we conservatively half that, that's about 3000 birds in 15 mins

Blue Jay visit

At the feeders today the female House Sparrow with the White tertial remains with the usual flock. A brief visit from a Blue Jay was unusual, but it was nervy and flew off after a quick drink.

The very bright red male house finch remains with 6 or so others mostly female or dull males.

End of feederwatch for a while...

16:03 I'd been watching the feeders on the deck for a while this afternoon and was just starting an article on differentiating American and Fish crows when this HUGE thing landed on the small table. I slowly looked up so as not to spook it and found a juvenile Cooper's Hawk about 12 feet away. It looked around , hopped up on the railing and then, after a brief visit next door was off.

I'm guessing we won't see any Dives for a while but a squirrel and Chickadee were back within 6 minutes

Deck birds, the season begins

I've been watching the deck for the last couple of days after putting the first food of the autumn out.

Nothing too unusual but good number of House Finch (6-8 at a time). I am trying to study Carolina Chicadee but even in this relatively captured environment they are darn fast! A White-breasted Nuthatch and Carolina Wren ass some variety, and the marauding horde of House Sparrows include a female with a white middle tertial on her left wing.
The fat block had attracted a downy (or 2), chickadees, sparrows and occasionally an ambitious (or forgetful) squirrel will take a bite of the chili flavoured suet