Cowbirds

Cowbirds
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

With the arrival of warmer weather, we took the opportunity to put our solar powered fountain back out. This has always been a huge draw for the birds, and sure enough we were inundated with them.
Even when I am outdoors, sitting at the patio table, the birds will happily come and drink from the fountain just a few feet away from me!
So while in the garden one day, I decide to draw the fountain and any birds that visited.
Of course THAT day, the kids stayed near me and no birds would visit while they wriggled around, so I drew the pair of brown-headed cowbirds that had visited the day before :)

I can't say that cowbirds are my favourite bird, they are notorious for their bad behavior- they are the cuckoos of North America!! The females lay their eggs in other birds nests, usually at the expense of the other bird's own offspring!

Red Winged Blackbird

Red Winged Blackbird
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

I had to get some more photos of birds recently- so many of my others were not quite good enough- the bird was not in a good position or there was snow in the way... so yesterday, when this fellow appeared, I grabbed my camera and got a few good shots.
He has not got his summer plumage yet- his 'epaulette' is still kind of yellowy, with just a flash of red at the top.
Since it was warmer, he is not as puffed up as my other birds, and his glossy plumage was certainly challenging to capture :)
A mockingbird and some starlings accompanied him on the feeder- although I like the mockingbird, I was not too thrilled with the others (or the squirrel that seems to think I have provided him with a free lunch).
I am definitely looking forward to some spring!!

Pine Warbler

Anniversary Pine Warbler
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

This is not a certain identification of the bird by any means- but this bird and the previous one are new visitors to our feeder. This one actually comes every winter, and was initially mistaken for a goldfinch because of it's bright yellow colouration.
we eventually figured out that it was not a goldfinch changing it's feathers, but something else- and it was at the suggestion of someone else that I think it is a warbler. I keep mis-calling it a 'siskin' but checking it in my book it most definitely is NOT!

Myrtle Warbler (Feeder bird #3)

Myrtle Warbler (Feeder bird #3)
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

Or at least that is what I have tentatively identified it as. It and the pine warbler are not regular visitors to the feeder under usual circumstances, but what with the snow recently, these two are seen somewhat regularly!

Cardinal

Cardinal
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

I am planning a series of pictures of birds at our feeder in the snow... this is the second bird- the cardinal was below the feeder.
I have seen quite a few new birds with our recent snows. Two warblers (a Pine Warbler and a Myrtle Warbler) are not common feeder visitors at all!!
I have plans to draw them too :)

Bluebird

Bluebird
Originally uploaded by Spinneretta

It's that time of year again- the bluebirds are house hunting!
Two males visited our feeder this week- and were unable to get the food in our 'squirrel proof' feeders. I was upset- the place we bought the feeder from had assured me that the bluebirds would fit. Not so people!!
So I adjusted the feeder a little, and in the meantime got a number of photos of the birds- allowing me to draw them :)

We have had quite a bit of snow this winter- which means my bird photos have been quite good- I'll be back later to share some :)

In the Garden again

After a hot start to the month, the weather cooled a little and was merely 10 degrees F too hot, rather than 25 or so!
I am still waiting for my tomatoes to ripen (it will be soon!!), and watching those pomegranates. They look promising, but at least one has been pulled off by the unknown fruit bandit.

There are pawpaws high up in a tree... I am still hoping to get those! I should draw them for posterity though...

And a fig on my new fig tree... amazing because I had not expected it! I DID draw that when I found it!

We got some potatoes this last weekend... delightful because I harvested them, added them to the ones I got at the market last Saturday and sauteed them with a little Olive oil and butter, lightly seasoning with Mrs. Dash.

The birds have been visiting the feeders... and the new fountain we got.
They treat it like a birdbath, which is good because that is what I wanted! It has such a nice soothing sound!

We caught sight of a bald cardinal at the feeder the other day. I suspect it is in the middle of a summer moult... cardinals seem brightest in the winter, and I often see them looking kind of threadbare in the summer!
My beebalm just bloomed, and I have hopes that the hummingbirds will come for a visit! I'll let you know when they do... and when the tomatoes are in ;)

While I was Cooking...

...I watched the birds outside my kitchen window, and I saw:

A red bellied woodpecker (female) pecking at the suet. You can't see her, but there is also a little female goldfinch behind her ;)

Then along came the male goldfinch, and chasing off the female and another goldfinch, he eats his seed.

Then there was a downy... first a male (above) then a female. At one point the two woodpeckers (downy and red bellied) were on the suet at the same time.

And finally, just as I was about to put the camera away, along comes a recent addition to our regulars, a mockingbird. This friend is another suet eater, and is constantly looking around. Probably for the neighbour's cat, whom I caught chasing birds yesterday!

Birding... and Gardening

The birds have been attacking the feeder today... probably because it has been pouring with rain. I drew a quick sketch of a downy woodpecker, who had come to our suet block to feed. She was quite confrontational earlier, seeing off a cardinal on the black sunflower seed feeder. I was surprised, until now, I had only ever seen the downies on the suet!


In the meantime, I have been garden dreaming. I have plans for my garden this year...I want to provide myself with the vegetables I use. Unfortunately I have no idea HOW to do this ;) I eat most vegetables. So does DD, while DH and DS prefer beans and corn. And potatoes. I have the secret weapon though... John Jeavon's intensive garden plan. I have yet to use the double dig method, and I own that the thought of it terrifies me! But I really want to accomplish this!

The Bird Feeder

This weekend, I took the advice of some friends and went out to purchase some different bird seed… I picked up a mesh sock of nyjer seed and some Harvest bird seed mix. I also got a small, new tube feeder to put the latter in!

I was amazed, the birds quickly found the feeder… and quickly decimated the food supply! I have to refill the feeder once a day at present!
This morning, the feeder (which I filled yesterday) had a bunch of seed.

A couple of hours later, the thing was almost empty! You can see it towards the top of the picture ;) (see the goldfinches munching on the nyjer?)

This is certainly successful, I am wondering what to get next… I think I will get a bird bath :)

And yes, I am still having garden dreams…

Second Snow

Which the kids are out enjoying... well, trying to recreate Snowflake Bentley's experiments :)

Action shot of the cardinal trying to stay on the feeder!

There is not really much snow, and the weatherman said that it should turn to rain later... but when the kids are eager to catch a snowflake, what do you do?

I love shots of cardinals sitting in the snow :)

Then there are snow angels... my 3 year old (almost 4) has never had the chance to make one!

Two male cardinals at the feeder.

The birds have been coming to the feeder in droves. We have hopes of seeing more now the kids are in, but I have been listening to birding friends with LOTS of birds, and soon I hope to improve our setup! You can click on my pictures to see them a little larger ;)

Birding: Nature Journal Entry #2

I sat by our 'bird window' today, and drew the birds. We set our feeder up here, almost a year ago, and I have not regretted it since.

The birds were busy today… all the regular cast of characters were there, including the relatively new addition of the red-bellied Nuthatch. They only started coming a few months ago!

Today at the feeder:

White throated Sparrows, both the tan variety and normal,
Juncos
Downy Woodpecker (female)
Cardinals (male and female)
Flickers
Red Bellied Woodpecker
Mourning Doves
White Breasted Nuthatch
Red breasted Nuthatch

Some of these were ON the feeder, some below it eating the spilled food.
I also observed some other birds in the back yard, including a Rufus Sided Towhee.

Nature Journal Entry No. 1

I sat by the window, watching the feeder today, and as part of my art plans for the year.

Seasons Come...

And seasons go…

With the end of my growing season, I have not done much in the garden. I should have, but I became rather dispirited because this was just NOT a good year to grow things! After a drought, and some VERY hot summer temperatures, my plants just did not fare well.

But never mind, I have a new plan of attack.

First up, I am getting one of these for Christmas. I have wanted one for a long time… since before I saw Elizabeth had one or Mary Ellen (really, I am not just being a sheep… my interest in herbs goes back YEARS).

I have also gotten some new garden books.

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits: (And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) by John Jeavons

And Food Not Lawns by Heather C. Flores.

I have read the Jeavons book before, but wanted my own copy… and the Flores book was a new one I picked up because she had some interesting stuff in there about turning your suburban yard into a vegetable patch :) Hopefully these will help me grow some more food... I have already signed up for seed catalogues, which I have received a few of :)

This coming year, I plan to produce more heirloom varieties (or tasty varieties anyway LOL), and I will try to focus more on my true love... herbs :)

I have been feeding my mind with Real Food by Nina Planck, which nicely supports Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon and even French Women Don’t Get fat by Mireille Guiliano. I think butter and lard will be working their way back into my pantry (much to DH’s delight!).

But now, as I watch the first snow of the season, I am thinking about making my little bird friends some treats. I loved Dawn’s idea of a ‘solstice tree’ for the birds, celebrating the return of the light of the world. Right now the little juncos and other winter feeder birds are going mad, looking for food. The weatherman assures me that it will warm again next week, but this is the bird equivalent of the bread and milk run to the grocery store every time it snows (central Virginians get a bit snow-mad… caused by the fact that occasionally an unforecast snow will leave them with several feet of snow to deal with and they are all unprepared ;)).

Harvest Waning

Indeed, the season of plenty in my garden is drawing to a close. The corn died an unhappy death as we had another year of 'not-quiet-enough-rain' to keep it going. Of course I could have watered it, but I prefer nature to take it's course.
I did enjoy a couple of peppers from my plants, but the tomatoes were just not happy campers this year!

In spite of that, we have been observing in the garden.
First there were the ants. Indeed, we did not have to go to the garden for this, as they were quite happy there in our house for a while, but we stopped that.
A day or two later, DH discovered these ant 'volcanoes' in the garden... a veritable city of them!

Then there are the baby birds which have been visiting the feeders. I managed to capture this mother and baby on top of our feeders... but excuse the blur, I had to do it through the window without disturbing her!
There were pawpaws ripening on our pawpaw trees this year.
See... I even have proof! But unfortunately, some bandit animal took them. Again. We never have yet managed to eat the pawpaws ourselves!
And the hummingbirds have been visiting, I swear. They often get close to us, they are very friendly... BUT they are SUPERFAST and I never have had my camera ready!
Soon the autumn season will be on us, and I have different plans this year... including the nature table. More about that another time... once I have started!

Spring...

I am sure I saw my first sign of spring this morning... bright and early before the weather bested the freezing mark!
A GOLD goldfinch... yes, a finch that was somewhat yellow, rather than drab olive with a yellowish tint. This one was YELLOW.
OK I am not sure it was a goldfinch... I realized just today that 1/2 the 'goldfinches' at my feeder were in fact PINE SISKINS... stripey with a yellow dot near the wing and tail. Goldfinches in winter plumage are NOT stripey. But, they too were at the feeder! Plus the house finches, nuthatches, wrens, titmice, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers and chickadees.
Our feeder is becoming quite popular and DH and I enjoyed watching the birds from the couch :)

A Pretty Good Day at the Feeder

Oh the triumph associated with finally capturing those woodpeckers on film.

The pair of red-bellied woodpeckers are daily visitors to our house… the male with his read poll and the female with her red nape, are notoriously camera shy, disappearing as soon as I got my camera into position every time.

I finally captured them this morning… followed later by a visit from a male downy woodpecker. The downy pair come, but not quite so often as their cousin… and it was this visit that made it quite easy for me to determine that they were indeed DOWNY and not hairy woodpeckers :)

Here is a female red-bellied woodpecker. This is a good shot of her rusty coloured belly that gives her the name. Of course, you can't see it well because I had to shoot through a window as well as hold the venetian blinds out of the way... just so I wouldn't scare her away!!

Yes, she ought to be more a red headed woodpecker, but believe it or not, there is a variety with a totally red head. They live here too… along with the downy, the pileated, and the flicker (red shafted). The flicker is another regular garden bird at our house, providing much amusement to the family, by kicking up all the pine needles under our tree. Apparently it must be a good spot for bugs, because that is where the skunk dug into that time…

Here is a good picture of the back of the woodpecker’s head, so you can see the red nape.

This one is the downy… it and its cousin the hairy woodpecker, are apparently the only two with a white back and the black and white bars.

The only differences between it and the hairy are the beak and its size. The hairy woodpecker has a beak about twice the length, and it is about 2 or 3 inches longer.

It is a cute little woodpecker… and like many of the woodpeckers we see, is especially fond of our pine trees.

He is slightly more timid than the red-bellied woodpecker, but I expect that to change soon. He appeared at our feeder first on Saturday, and I have seen him back there (and his mate too) quite regularly.

Finally here is a photo of a mysterious bird. Mysterious because the shot was so bad I couldn’t see what it was. It is either a female house finch or a sparrow with a chickadee friend. The only reason I suspect house finch is because I have seen a pair at the feeder a few times, and the female is a dull brown. Maybe I might get to see the bird’s face soon…

Today is a great feeder day… the weather is VERY cold (about 28 degrees Fahrenheit which is about -1 or -2 degrees Celsius) and as such the birds would rather visit my feeder and get food that try to fly around searching for it. The birds can be seen quite happily eating together and all fluffed up to keep warm. Sometimes I wonder what else the birds do on a cold day like today…

A Fascinating Day at the Feeder

It is a fact. All birds prefer peanut suet to apple suet. I am not sure why, but the peanut suet is almost all gone, while the apple suet, sadly remains.
This morning saw some serious feeder activity… in addition to the pairs of titmice and chickadees (and of course the wrens) we saw the red bellied woodpecker, a downy woodpecker, a pair of house finches, a pair of nuthatches and, away from the feeder, juncos, cardinals, blue jays and robins.
We made up a few pages on the computer and Rebel drew the wrens from life, and a downy woodpecker from the book. Wet weather kind of put a stop to the idea I had brewed in my head about making some peanut butter pine cone feeders… but maybe next week we’ll do that and also make a suet cake… or a bird bath…
The ideas just keep coming!

Feeder Action

The feeder has been busy this week… a pair of red breasted woodpeckers has shown a great affection for the peanut butter suet cake. Unfortunately, they are both somewhat camera shy!

Another new friend visited too… a nuthatch.

Although the wren at the suet tolerated him just fine, she was not so thrilled later when the woodpecker came and sat on the post scolding him.

Our old friends the chickadee and the titmouse are regulars… and their cheerful chirping often draws us to the window to see.

There is also a pair of cardinals who comes daily, as well as some sparrows and of course the wren. The biggest kerfuffle is made though, when the woodpeckers come… apparently they are a family favourite… I will try to get photos of them :)

I will apologise for the quality of the pictures... but I refuse to go out into the cold to scare the birds away trying to photograph them. This is through our window... at my favourite settee perch where I can watch the birds all day :)

Nature Study with the kids:

Take a look… we started a bird feeder project… special finch seed mix, one apple suet cake

And one peanut butter suet cake.

The squirrel liked it a bit, but the seed is not to his taste (he hasn’t been back since)

But the wrens LOVE it!

And so do the children... it was a little wet and chilly the day we put it up, but they love to watch out the window daily :)

We also read Moon of the Winter Bird by Jean Craighead George... HIGHLY recommended! You can read more of our day to day school over at the Jacobite Rose.