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Gary350
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Re: Bird Houses, what birds do you want in your garden?

3 new bird houses facing EAST. When we lived n town bird house facing east had birds others did not. I found a picture of bird house apartment complex. LOL
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Ha! I wouldn’t have been too surprised if you had said the bird apartment tree/complex was YOUR creation and is occupying your front yard. :lol:

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Gary350
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applestar wrote:Ha! I wouldn’t have been too surprised if you had said the bird apartment tree/complex was YOUR creation and is occupying your front yard. :lol:
I wanted to do something like that bird apartment complex to my tree but did not have enough free wood to build 100 bird houses and did not want to spend a week or 2 building them. I put several bird houses around my tree like steps so cats can get to the top easy. First 3 pictures gray color cat is on top sleeping. I did not notice any birds living in these houses this summer but end of summer 3 houses have nests inside. I assume anytime we were setting on the patio birds stayed away until we were gone that is why they were never seen. It is not often I set still more than 15 minutes I am on the go all the time. Even if my back is hurting I only need to set for 2 minutes until pain is gone then I can go another 10 minutes before I set for another 2 minutes.
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Year after year birds get more friendly. Does anyone know if the same birds return to bird feeders year after year?

I notice a month ago birds seem more friendly. Birds come to the feeder 20 ft away from me they are very quick to come get food and be gone is less than 1 second.

Last week birds were coming to the feeder 20 ft away and staying longer 2 to 5 seconds. Then started coming to the feeder that is 10 ft away long enough to get 1 seed then be gone.

This morning I am setting in a different location 6 ft from 1 feeder & 10 ft from another feeder & 12 ft from the other feeder, birds are coming for food and don't seem to care I am setting closer. There are 4 birds at 1 feeder, 2 at the feeder near me, and 3 at the other feeder, several birds of feeder roof waiting their turn. Even the chick-a-de and Red birds and Blue jays are coming. I was so funny this morning several birds came to the feeder 6 ft away look right at me and sing. Blue jay did a whistle song at the bird feeder looking right at me, I was hearing that same song up in the trees yesterday and wonder which bird is doing that. Mocking bird sings several songs last summer this bird would never stop singing. Red head wood pecker came to bird feeder too I did not know they eat sun flower seeds. Chick-a-de comes stays long enough to eat 8 or 9 seeds. Titmouse is even coming to feeder 6 ft away but only staying long enough to get 1 seed then fly up into the trees with it.

It is fun to watch about 10 birds so close up. This is the first year birds have let me be this close to them. When I lived at the other house a Wren use to land 3 ft away on the table that I was setting at look right at me then sing over & over for about 30 seconds to 1 minute. I always felt like that bird was trying to tell me something.

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There are three birds species around here that I HATE. Wrens, Phoboes and Cowbirds. Wrens and Phoboes are total pests and Cowbirds are evil and destroy other birds eggs.

I would love to attract more doves, 'cause they're sweet and adorable birds. Is there such thing as a dove box? Will doves nest in boxes?

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Okay, doves can't be as bad as geese but they're messy!

I enjoyed having pigeons for about 10 years - Rollers. They were fun but messy. A backyard laying flock was bad enuf. I guess that I did okay with the Rollers, DW says that it would be nice to have them in the yard, again.

That being said. I'm putting dove feed in the backyard just as soon as I see doves in the neighborhood again :D. The English sparrows dang near drive me crazy and, at least, the neighbor with 8 or 10 birdhouses for them has moved away. Another neighbor who feeds them has been very conscientious about food supply recently. The neighborhood hawk appreciates that, I wish that he would take them somewhere else to pull them apart than in my backyard tree.

Okay, back to the doves. I have safflower seed especially for birds other than English sparrows and starlings (if I've got that story right about starlings :? ). Also, I know the squirrels don't like it. There are chickadees, song sparrows and house finches that are supposed to like it. I tried the feeder last year and the squirrels stayed out of it.

We are right at the northern boundary of house finch territory. They only show up some years. I've noticed that the English sparrows will keep the house finches on the power lines and even pester them there. Doves don't seem to like to be in confined backyards. I've come up with an idea: put a rope around safflower feeder and hoist it to the peak of the neighbor's garage. His garage wall forms a boundary along the backfence. I recently put siding on it just the way that he wanted it done and put a device to hold the rope to hoist the feeder. I told him that it was my intention and he is the guy with the bird feeder on the other side of that garage :wink: .

Steve

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Actually, probably only the cattle egret. They only come after I mow the grass to catch whatever was exposed. Do do catch some of my lizards. But, at least they leave afterward.

Mynah's do snack on insects, but they are loud, noisy, and messy.

Bulbuls are a rats with wings.

I do like the Sharma, it is a beautiful songbird, but they are not common sightings and they prefer to stay where the trees are so they are rarely in my yard. I do see them at the botanical garden.

Java rice birds, society finches, cardinals, ring necked doves. and mejiro hang around and they like seeds and fruit. I have gotten volunteer tomatoes, papaya, peppers, and cutting celery, and weeds. They also nest in the trees and like to nest in my walls. Not so nice, and hard to get them out, they come back every year. I used to keep a bird feeder in the yard mainly to entertain the cats in my house. Doves and cardinals also will patrol my seed bench so I have to keep seed trays especially of peppers covered or they will eat the seeds out of the pots.

Sparrows used to be commonplace, but now they are rarely seen as well as the other birds have taken over.

The cattle egret was imported by the plantations for pest control in the fields. The other birds were pets that were let go and all of them are alien species.

There are very few native birds living in urban areas. Many of Hawaii's native animals and plants are endangered due to habitat loss, and competition and predation from alien species.

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Calm before the storm, 30 mph wind stopped so I put sunflower seeds in the bird feeders. Before I could get set down in my chair birds were already coming. About 3 minutes later I though Indigo Bunting has arrived but this is a much darker solid blue bird with no marking on, breast, wings or head. Bird is very deep dark blue its head is so dark blue it almost looks black. I am not finding online pictures of any such bird but I found a pic that is very close but still not dark blue enough. Maybe this is indigo bunting? I hope storm goes past we need warmer weather & no rain. 64 feels very cold in 30 mph wind.
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Aww, what a cute little blue bird! Looks like an indigo bunting to me. I've got those little blue sweethearts around here to.

@Gary, how much would you sell me one of your bird houses, I'd love to give one to my mother, she loves Bluebirds. I have no idea what to get her for Mother's Day....

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How to identify birds.
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Yesterday was 71° sunny & nice. Several times I sat on the patio & enjoyed watching the birds. I notice Blue Birds search for food and eat the same food as Robins. Blue Birds will not eat anything in the bird feeder they are meat eaters. Blue birds stand in the grass looking around when they see a worm they jump over there pull it up and eat it, identical to Robins. The most amazing thing Blue Birds set on a tree limb 15 to 20 feet above the ground looking for worms & bugs then bird dives down grab the worm and eats it. There is no way I can see a worm or bug from 15 feet away in the grass, I wonder if birds have some type of telescopic vision so they can zoom in on small things far away?

Blue Birds are still setting on eggs, online says 12 to 20 day incubation. I think it has been about 2 weeks so far. From 10 feet away I use my spot light to see there is a Blue Bird setting on the nest. I think birds probably take turns setting on the nest but I never see them trade places. It won't be much longer Blue birds will both be very busy feeding babies. :)
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Blue Birds have that blue color from eating butterflies.

Kidding!! They and the American Robin are thrushes.

We have the Townsend Solitaire thrush here in the forests. They aren't red or blue but are a pretty gray bird, anyway.

The Robins weren't here in January this winter as they were in our very mild January, 2020. At that time, I thought "What's the matter with them?!" They were in flocks eating the Mountain Ash berries. They soon disappeared and returned about their usual time. It was months before it occurred to me that they may not have been coming north in January but may have been kinda over-wintering in the valleys. Finally, they decided that they should get the heck outta here, flocked together, and this was just a stop along the way.

Some years, I see a few Robins during the winter but not 2020-21. I've seen 3 so far over the last week!

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Husband is a late 'carpenter untrained' and makes lots of items with Wood. Birdhouses being one of them. Here in S W France we have Hoopoe's and they arrive around April and nest nearby as they are regular visitors to our Garden..have some photos from last year....so looking forward soon for there arrival...
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I want a Barn Owl to eat all of my gophers:

Image

Image

Image

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No one has moved in yet, but I definitely have a Barn Owl in my neighborhood. Here s/he is, about 30' away from that box:

Image

And here s/he is flying a bit:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=accL9JdGwOo

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Well, maybe she can Get

Those

Varmints!!!
:roll:

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I would like more hawks and owls around my house to eat up the nasty pests like wrens and mice.

But I don't want my whippoorwill eaten, it's too cute. 😊

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:21 pm
I would like more hawks and owls around my house to eat up the nasty pests like wrens and mice.

But I don't want my whippoorwill eaten, it's too cute. 😊
Wrens are your organic garden friends, they eat their body weight in bugs every day. Wrens are so funny they will land 10 ft away then look right at you and chirp their lungs out light they are trying to tell you something.

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Gary350 wrote:
Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:53 pm
TomatoNut95 wrote:
Tue Apr 27, 2021 10:21 pm
I would like more hawks and owls around my house to eat up the nasty pests like wrens and mice.

But I don't want my whippoorwill eaten, it's too cute. 😊
Wrens are your organic garden friends, they eat their body weight in bugs every day. Wrens are so funny they will land 10 ft away then look right at you and chirp their lungs out light they are trying to tell you something.
I would happily send you my wrens, Gary; they're pests that build their nests in the STUPIDEST places, sometimes tearing up potted plants to do it, attracting snakes and I am not fond at all of their high pitched shrill song, especially right outside my bedroom window at the crack of dawn. Give me cardinals or blue birds anyday!

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Wrens arrived here May 15. They have been building a nest every morning but no where to be seen the rest of the day. Yesterday wrens are flying quick between 2 different bird houses they appear to be build a nest in 2 places, typical for wrens. I am not hearing any of that fast, chirp, chirp, chirp, chrip, GET OFF MY LAWN, type sound from these wrens??? Wrens are too quick for my camera to get a picture. These wrens are not all brown color they have a white brown stripe on their wing. They have the typical streamline body & head with long pointed beak. They act like wrens too birds will land only 10 ft away and sing a very nice song. I can not find wren pictures online of wrens with a white brown stripe on their side?

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I think you have Carolina Wrens rather than the smaller, all brown House Wrens. Carolina Wrens have a white streak behind the eyes and I think somewhat striped belly? About size of sparrows.

They are more timid than House Wrens. House Wrens are bold — they are excellent “Guard Birds” and warn me when there are stray cats in the garden, off-leash dog has crossed the front lawn to the backyard fence... or when they spot the snake, they follow it around chittering at it ...sometimes, Cardinals (male) will join in harassing the snake.

...Of course, there might be another plumage pattern on the House Wrens in your area — I once saw an artist’s sculpture of a House Wren that was different than what I’m used to....
Try here :arrow: Similar Species to House Wren, All About Birds, Cornell Lab of Ornithology

@TomatoNut — when the weather gets hot, it works out better if I get up at the “crack of dawn” While the temperature is still cooler. I can be more done before it’s gets too hot. :wink:

@TheWaterbug — have the owl moved in? I sometimes hear Great Horned Owls hooting at each other across the woods — it’s a wonderful haunting sound and I love it when I wake up to hear it. But I’ve never seen one, any kind of owl around here. So fun that you have a chance to offer a house for one. :D

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This looks like the wren I see. It has some white color on wings. Photo says, house wren. Very bold little bird with a different song that I have never heard.
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Water is a very big attraction for birds. Our small cement bird bath attracts mostly small birds, water is perfect depth for little birds to splash & drink too. The larger trash can lid attracts larger birds, water is the correct depth for larger birds to splash & drink. We set and watch 16 ft from the large bird bath & 20 ft from the smaller bird bath. I let poke berry plants grow up near the cement bird bath birds seem to like that. I am not cutting grass very close to patio it is 12" to 15" tall and catnip on left is about 30" tall. Birds feeder has black sun flower seeds in it. Humming bird feeder attracts a few birds. Sweet potatoes are growing in big pots only for plants birds seem to like plants better than naked cement patio.
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I found Wren nesting boxes on Audubon Society. This is the easiest thing I ever built it only has 6 pieces cut from a 1x6 board.

Real dimensions are,

5½" x 6" = roof & back.
5½" x 4" = front.
4" x 6" = both sides
4" x 4" = bottom

I want to build nesting boxes with 5" bottom and 6" bottom for larger birds. Maybe birds will like nesting boxes better than houses. Some birds will not nest in anything but bushes & trees. Nest should be removed after every tenant.
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I remodeled 5 bird houses today after finding some very good information about bird houses. Floor of smallest bird house should be 4"x4" square for, blue birds, chickadee, finch, wren, other small birds. Door should be high up enough to make it very hard for babies to escape too soon before wing feathers have grown to almost full length. Door should be wider than it is high so it will be easier for birds to build a nest. Door should be small enough larger evil birds can't get in. House should not face west. House needs air vent cracks & holes. Houses should be 5' to 8' up from the ground.

Door opening is 1.125" high x 2.500" wide.

Doors are 3.500" up from the inside floor.

Perch is 1" below door.

Most of the floors are 4" square. 1 floor is 5" square. 1 floor is 6" square for sparrows.
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My neighbor has an issue with doves. Not the large mourning doves but the smaller species. They are roosting on her front porch at night and are pooping on her front steps. She likes her doves but she's sick of stepping on and cleaning up their poop. What can she spray, sprinkle or put on her front porch to keep them off without keeping them out of her yard entirely?

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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Fri Nov 19, 2021 6:50 pm
My neighbor has an issue with doves. Not the large mourning doves but the smaller species. They are roosting on her front porch at night and are pooping on her front steps. She likes her doves but she's sick of stepping on and cleaning up their poop. What can she spray, sprinkle or put on her front porch to keep them off without keeping them out of her yard entirely?
Nashville TN TV News did a short News report several months ago about a certain area of town where people are having trouble with doves on their house an poop everywhere. The man bought a very good pellet rifle every day after work he shoots several doves and wife cooks them for dinner. Other neighbors started shooting doves too. Man said, Covid shortages & high prices no problem we have free food. LOL. We watch channel 2 look see if they still have it online with photos.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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TomatoNut95
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My neighbor does not have the heart to kill her doves, she's very fond of birds. Besides, these are SMALL doves, not the large mourning doves, they're hardly a mouth full. She only wants them off her porch.

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I have had fairly good luck with a child's toy:

A stuffed cat.

I put it somewhere inconspicuous but near and within view of the area I want protected from the sparrows. Then, I try to move it twice a day.

Steve

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digitS' wrote:
Sat Nov 20, 2021 1:39 pm
I have had fairly good luck with a child's toy:

A stuffed cat.

I put it somewhere inconspicuous but near and within view of the area I want protected from the sparrows. Then, I try to move it twice a day.

Steve
Cool idea! How realistic looking is your stuffed cat? Maybe I could find one similar online. But wouldn't the birds get suspicious if the cat doesn't actually smell like cat, or do birds not have a sense of smell?

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I don't know about a sense of smell.

The "cat" is a little smaller than a cat.

I have wished that it would move a little or that I could change it from lying down, to sitting, to standing. But, it's not made that way. Varying its location is the best that can be done with it.

Steve

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digitS' wrote:
Sat Nov 20, 2021 6:09 pm
I don't know about a sense of smell.

The "cat" is a little smaller than a cat.

I have wished that it would move a little or that I could change it from lying down, to sitting, to standing. But, it's not made that way. Varying its location is the best that can be done with it.

Steve
Thanks, I'll suggest this to my neighbor and see if I can't find a toy cat somewhere. Maybe there's such thing as a poseable one.

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North Carolina Blue Bird Nesting Boxes

I have learned the key to a successful bird house is, inside floor must be deep enough to hold babies prisoner until wing feathers have developed enough to fly up to the exit and escape. Once they escape they can fly and other animals can't catch them.

I also learned other birds like these nesting boxes better than bird houses. Wide entrance door makes it easy to build a nest. Put a perch on the front of the house then Titmouse birds like them.

If you buy a 1"x 6" board 8 ft long from Lowe's or Home Depot you can build 4 nesting boxes for about $3 each.

I have several of these birds have been checking them out for a week. Today I sat in a chair 30 ft from several nesting boxes watching several different kinds of birds go inside, stay about 45 seconds, then come out. They go in & out several times.

If you want bird houses with birds you need to put them up now.

Windows 10 is driving me crazy. All deleted files return once a month wow what a nightmare to delete all that unwanted stuff again. Updates happen want to or not & things change now I can no longer edit picture names unless I copy & paste to make a 2nd picture.
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TomatoNut95
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My neighbor has a blue bird house but the chickadees always nest in it once before the blue birds.

At my house the wrens are getting noisier, I need to start hanging balloons and shiny stuff around to help scare them off. I also wonder if a rubber snake might help deter them from potted plants and such.

Do birds see in color?

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Gary350
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TomatoNut95 wrote:
Fri Mar 11, 2022 10:32 am
My neighbor has a blue bird house but the chickadees always nest in it once before the blue birds.

At my house the wrens are getting noisier, I need to start hanging balloons and shiny stuff around to help scare them off. I also wonder if a rubber snake might help deter them from potted plants and such.

Do birds see in color?
I read online that Wrens eat 2 times their body weight in bugs every day. I want all the Wrens I can get for our garden. Wrens are funny birds they will land 8 feet away then look right at me and chirp their lungs out like they are telling me, GET OFF MY LAWN. Wrens are better than toxic poison bug killer. Ants are my friend too they eat bugs eggs before they hatch.

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I like wrens too. Wrens, particularly House Wrens are one of the easiest birds to attract to birdhouses — probably right behind House Sparrows.

House Sparrows can become a nuisance because the adults are seed and greens eaters and could raid the garden, and they are not as good house keepers (and they are just as likely to try to nest in cavities in the house or other buildings) but they can easily be excluded from a bird nest box by reducing the entrance hole size to fit wrens but not sparrows. However, making the hole too small could make it difficult for the larger somewhat more timid Carolina Wrens to use the box.

The smaller House Wrens are bold and clever. And they are good parents, from building the nest in the nest box to taking care of their babies from start to finish until they fledge, including fastidiously carrying out the poop packets to keep the nest clean.

As Garden Patrol, they are unmatched and their tiny size allows them to get into the tightest nooks and crannies that could easily be missed my us humans. For that reason, I don’t begrudge their fondness for soft bodied spiders. They are just as often carrying green or brown caterpillars and other garden pests.

I chuckled at @Gary350’s description. Wrens make good “guard birds” and fuss and make a big racket when there are intruders in the garden :lol:

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My wrens are pests. They don't eat the bugs from my garden, birds never touch my garden. Wrens main goal is to sing at dawn right outside my bedroom window (it may please some people to be awaken from a deep sleep by shrill, loud bird calls but not me) and tear up my potted plants to put their nests. They killed one of my dwarf tomatoes one year by pulling it out of the pot in order to borrow out a hole for a nest. They'll also find other dumb places to nest like up in the vehicle, or on ledges around the house, or in junky places. This attracts snakes in which I am not fond of finding. No other bird is such as pest in my yard as the wren. (Except Phoebe's). My other birds are normal and do not make nuisances of themselves. Cardinals, sparrows, chickadees, robins and other such are quite welcome in my yard. But NOT wrens. Or cowbirds for that matter.

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I went to 40° patio at 8 am there were 4 blue birds in the tree next to patio, they flew to the other tree 50 ft away. I am surprised blue birds can set on a tree limb 12 ft high and see worms in the yard grass. They fly down get the worm then fly up into the tree and wait for another worms. They fly down several times getting worms then fly to a bird house and go inside for about 1 minute then fly back to the tree limb to look for more worms. I can see 2" & 3" long worms dangle from the birds beak. Birds must have excellent eye sight I can't see a worm in the grass from 12 ft away. Next I see blue birds going in-out of a different bird house. Titmouse birds were at another bird house. 2 mockingbirds finding food in the yard kept flying up to the center tree of 5 every green trees for about 1 minute each time then return to yard to find food. There is no way to know if there are baby birds in the houses or tree it seem early in the season, I think it takes 3 weeks for eggs to hatch. It was 19°F yesterday morning, 40° this morning & 65°F at 3 pm. Red Head wood pecker is a fun bird to watch.
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

If we alter the topic title ever so slightly — “ Bird (in) Houses, what birds do you want in your ‘home’?” — it would be perfect for this morning’s excitement at our house :lol:

I stepped outside for a quick minute to grab a container of rainwater to give to the Venus Flytraps.

As I opened the storm door and stepped out, I heard some loud rustling among the leaves that always blow into piles on the patio.

I looked down and saw a stick, and assumed I must have kicked it, causing the stick to move the leaves about. Then I thought maybe it sounded more like a small animal, and yanked the slow closing storm door back open and gave a cursory glance around the kitchen floor, but didn’t see a mouse, vole, or a chipmunk.

Then I heard an unusual bird call, very close … and immediately scanned the nearby trees and shrubs, hoping to see and identify the bird… but I couldn’t spot it.

I heard my hubby yelling about the bird from inside — I yelled back that I didn’t recognize the call, and didn’t know what kind it was… but it was somewhere near the house….

He yelled something more… his voice was muffled, but I thought I heard him say “the bird is IN the house” :shock:

Not quite believing, I opened the door again — “did you say IN THE HOUSE?”. “It’s in here, WITH me.” :eek: Sure enough, there was a Carolina Wren sitting on the light fixture in the Family Room. :lol:

He didn’t want to have anything to do with it. I eventually managed to open a window and the screen, and chased it out. :wink:

..

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Gary350
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7396
Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

We have a Brown Thrasher bird it has been hanging around making loud clicking sounds for a week. Never saw a Brown Thrasher in TN before but there were lots of these in Illinois 50 years ago. Bird goes click click click click click click click click click click click click click over and over every few seconds, it sounds like someone smacking a quarter against the kitchen counter top and suck a soda straw in an empty soft drink cup at the same time.
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applestar
Mod
Posts: 30514
Joined: Thu May 01, 2008 7:21 pm
Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I haven’t seen a brown thrasher around here in over 8 years at least, I think?

I vaguely remember those sounds, but what first got my attention was the way they hop back and forth in piles leaves to scratch up the ground, looking for whatever it is they are looking for.

So I guess their habitat/winter-summer territorial regions have shifted?



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