2016 Backyard bird and butterfly (and dragonfly too) watchin

[applestar]

Early yesterday morning....

...and current temperatures.

Brrrr!

My pond had frozen over clear with black ice except near the edges where thin floating ice had been piled up and above the aerator disk where the bubbles had made a circular pockmarked white ice. A pair of cardinals edged out onto the ice and were drinking from the opening yesterday afternoon -- probably only open water around except where heated birdbaths are being offered.


... So what's going on in YOUR garden?

[applestar]

This morning, a Yellow Rumped Warbler was drinking from the hole in the ice. Beautiful bright lemon yellow markings on the rump and sides under the wings. I wish I could take photos, but it's too hard when I'm peering between frosted panes on the window.

I did go outside and take photos of the frozen pond

[HoneyBerry]

I looked up 'Yellow Rumped Warbler' because it is not a familiar bird for me. Very pretty bird. Thank you for enticing me to look it up.
I love birds with yellow feathers. I sometimes see yellow goldfinches in my yard. They are extra special because they don't show up very often. I'm going to put out a special bird feeder just for them this spring. They like a particulr kind of seed.
I see a chickadee out in my yard this morning. It's nice that the chickadees stick around through the winter.

[pinksand]

@BirdLover - Is the special seed you're referring to the nyjer thistle seed?

My parents live about 5 miles from us and never get finches so I bought my mom a thistle seed feeder for Christmas. Both the feeder and seeds were very well rated on Amazon but my mom hasn't had a single finch visitor while the house finches dominate my feeders. Her yard is often visited by juncos, chickadees, cardinals, titmice, and a redbellied woodpecker... so it's not like her yard isn't attracting any birds, just not finches. I'm hoping when the gold finches come back once it's warm they'll find her thistle feeder.

[rainbowgardener]

If your thistle feeder is being dominated by house finches, get an upside down one:


https://www.duncraft.com/common/images/p ... 99_300.jpg

the perches are above the holes instead of the other way around. Goldfinches can hang upside down to feed; house finches cannot.

That's not my picture, but our upside down thistle feeder looks just like that, with lots of gold finches and no house finches. Before we got one, our thistle feeder would be mobbed with house finches too.

[ccar2000]

I am trying to keep my bee hives in mind with yardening. It may not be much in the eyes of the bees that forage in a two mile radius but I am trying... They love the Chasima, Chaste and fruit trees too. I have a wildflower meadow in the front yard but the tall grasses are fighting me.

[LIcenter]

My parents live about 5 miles from us and never get finches so I bought my mom a thistle seed feeder for Christmas. Both the feeder and seeds were very well rated on Amazon but my mom hasn't had a single finch visitor while the house finches dominate my feeders. Her yard is often visited by juncos, chickadees, cardinals, titmice, and a redbellied woodpecker... so it's not like her yard isn't attracting any birds, just not finches. I'm hoping when the gold finches come back once it's warm they'll find her thistle feeder.

I'm sure this will be the case. To put one out this late in the season will probably yield very little to no activity. Three years back I had not one finch coming into my yard, but with proper plantings in the following two years, and a couple of good finch feeders I can't keep them away. I've roughly counted at the least 30 gold finches at any particular time gathered around the feeders. Downy woodpeckers also like to stop and nosh at those feeders as well. Who needs television when nature abounds out ones window!

[applestar]

If they were out there, I couldn't see them....

[applestar]

I saw a wren hopping along the fence and thought it was too early, then realized it must be a Carolina wren which over winters here sometimes, not the House wren.

For those of you who said you like them, the Redwinged Blackbirds are back. I haven't actually seen them except as treetop silhouettes, meaning I couldn't see the red in their wings, but their squeaky call is unmistakable. I'm not particularly fond of them because they seem to generally travel with with Boat-tailed Grackles which DH has dubbed "winged tree rats' for the way they flock and swarm all over the trees and try to empty the bird feeders as soon as you fill them. They also bring along Cowbirds who travel with them, and they go around ousting baby birds and eggs out of finch and Cardinal nests to replace with their own eggs for the hapless parents to raise. So Redwinged blackbirds (who are the most vocal and easily recognized) are like the heralds for these two unwelcome birds.

[LIcenter]

Just as you stated applestar, grackles, redwings, and brownheaded cowbirds showed up last week. I now put the main feeder out early in the AM (5:30 ish), and remove it no later than 7:00 AM. It then goes back out when I get home from work around 4:30 PM. The suet, and finch feeders are fine, so they stay out all the time. Before I leave for work I dump 2 cups of shelled peanuts on the ground, and everyone is happy, including my wallet.

[applestar]

I wonder if this is the same mourning dove as last year, or do the offspring come back and nest in the same spot?

This ridiculous excuse for a "nest" is no more than four feet off the ground....

The silly bird sits tight and I try not to look at her when I have to walk right by to get to the rain barrel.

[applestar]

Today, watching out of the upstairs window --

(1) a robin hopped into view with a few very long dry strands of grass in its beaks. I saw it take two more hops, then prepare to take flight... Except that the ends of the grass had tangled in one of its feet and it couldn't lift its head to pre-flight position. I saw it tug a couple of times, then look down and notice the grass, sort of kick and pull at the grass with its beaks until finally, it could look upwards and take the first jump to fly

(2) I saw a grackle gathering grass sloppy with mud and then fly off across the street. Then a little later, a grackle flew to a puddle a few feet away from where the last grackle was, with something in its beaks. I watched it dunk and eat whatever it was, then, still having crumbs around its beaks, it started picking up and dropping dry grass, a stick, bark... Then another grackle landed on a cobblestone, squawked, hopped down to pick up some grass sloppy with mud jumped back on the cobbled stone AND SQUAWKED AT THE FIRST BIRD. That bird then dropped the dry grass it had in its beaks and started digging for muddy grass.

[digitS']

... pick up some grass sloppy with mud ...

So, you think the first grackle intended to fire that mud and grass into bricks and the second grackle thought a house of straw would be sufficient?

Those grackles may be proud of their black feathers but I've noticed that they are all in favor of the current style of hair on their chinny chin chins. May the ones you saw live happily ever after.

Steve

[HoneyBerry]

That seems odd, the mourning dove nesting so close to the ground. She clearly is not afraid. Perhaps she scoped out the yard and decided it was a safe place to be. Birds are desperate for habitat. I was reading about how robins (my favorite bird) are actually forest birds that have adapted to living with humans.

[applestar]

Bluejay

[rainbowgardener]

We recently got a birdbath for our backyard. Yesterday I watched a robin plunk himself down in the very middle (deepest part) and proceed to spend about five minutes having a great time splashing around, hopping out for a few seconds then back in etc. After that he flew to the fence line right behind it and spent a couple minutes drying off, shaking all the water off his wings.

Today I saw a robin (no idea if the same robin or not, I know we have a few of them around) sitting on side fence line with a big fat Japanese beetle grub in its mouth. Flew off with it, so it probably has a nest with babies somewhere around. I told it it could have all the grubs it could manage to pull out of our lawn! Another version of Garden Patrol!

We have a pair of Eastern bluebirds that nested in a birdhouse our neighbor put up. But they spend a lot of time in our yard looking for stuff to feed their babies. Those babies must be getting bigger, because keeping them fed is getting to be a full time job. Both parents are constantly going in and out of the birdhouse.

We have a garden toad that I keep seeing, frequently under or near the deck. I made a hole in the side of a flower pot and turned it upside down. See if the toad will adopt it as a house.

[applestar]

Apparently, that bluejay and mate are nesting somewhere nearby. I've been seeing a bluejay in the garden quite often -- they all look alike to me ... Is there a difference between males and females?

Yesterday, I saw one pecking around the ground and gobble something up. Today, I saw one picking up gobs of something, then another one (or same one) getting a string all tangled up on one of the garden fences and some branches I had leaning there to be used as pea or tomato supports when needed. Later saw one NEATLY tuck a long string in her -- I'm sure it was a her -- beaks and fly off, followed by another bluejay -- no doubt her mate.

It seems that some of last year's cotton strings that I didn't get around to taking down -- too weak to be of any good for this season so I've been just tugging and ripping them down and throwing on the paths to be trampled into the mud -- have caught these bluejays' fancy as upscale(?) nesting material.v

[rainbowgardener]

Male and female bluejays look very similar. The male may be slightly larger, but you would only be able to tell if you saw them side by side. Your bluejay carrying the string may have been the male:

The differences between male and female blue jays are that males generally gather nest materials and food, while the females do most of the building of the nests and incubate the eggs. ... Blue jays are intelligent birds and maintain advanced social systems. They mate for life and form family bonds.

https://www.ask.com/pets-animals/differe ... 366e44f789

[applestar]

so, different dynamic than the grackles? Thanks!

It's so much fun to watch the birds this time of the year. Another one that I need to get used to is the Robin that is now sitting/squatting in my Emperor Francis cherry espalier by the gate. I keep forgetting and every time I approach, the darned bird takes off in a flurry with a screeching call.

Startles me every time, then carries on flying around and going from tree to roof to tree, while I worry that the eggs are getting cold.... We both need to get used to each other.

[HoneyBerry]

At first, I didn't see the blue jay, just boots with pond beyond.
I found the blue jay. Pretty bird. I get a few of them once in a while.
One time I came home early and caught the squirrels and the blue jays squabbling over some peanuts. They were stealing them from each other. It was hilarious to watch. It was the timing. I haven't seen anything like that ever since.

[digitS']

This week I saw:

3 Swallowtail butterflies

3 Sulfur butterflies, &

2 Blues butterflies

Now, it's possible that I saw any one of these twice because, you know how butterflies are.

Steve

[applestar]

Today, a fight broke out in the trees behind the shed, and a voice I felt I should recognize was cursing someone out in tones and cadence that I should recognize. Then the fight escalated into blows and I stood up to look, just in time to see a bright red and gorgeous blue forms come winging out of the shrubbery.

The male Cardinal was incessantly scolding the larger Blue Jay who remained (obstinately?) silent but retreated from the fierce attacks.

...I wonder what the blue jay did? probably stole the cardinal's string or something.

[applestar]

I'm getting mass sproutings -- dozen or more in a cluster -- of sunflower seed caches in my garden

[rainbowgardener]

You think that is from squirrels? I am having sunflower volunteers pop up individually in various parts of the yard. I think that is from dropped seed from the bird feeders which keep getting moved to various locations.

[applestar]

More likely chipmunks. These are probably double-cheekful deposits.

[pinksand]

I'm getting mass sproutings -- dozen or more in a cluster -- of sunflower seed caches in my garden

I've had a lot of random sunflowers coming up in random places as well this year!

I saw my first male ruby throat of the season! I was inspecting my trumpet honeysuckle because it’s getting attacked by aphids and I heard buzzing by my head. I got a good look at him before he zipped off to visit my Geum. The ‘Mai Tai’ variety I planted in the fall was one of my first flowers to bloom this year… way ahead of the other geums I have in the garden. The hummingbird seemed to enjoy them because he swooped around for a while!

[applestar]

Just saw a HUMMINGBIRD!

It was doing an odd swooping thing, but maybe it was because of the gusty wind. Looked wet when I saw it/her and sat preening on a wire fence for a long time. I thought she would head straight for the scarlet trumpet honeysuckle on the gate arbor trellis, but -- nope -- preferred meal were the white raspberry blossoms. I'm guessing the raspberry nectar is particularly sweet because I saw bumble bees FORCING open not- quite- open blossoms to rob nectar from a few days ago when they were only just starting to open.

Hawthorn and the orange and pink native azaleas as well as the white swamp azalea are in full bloom. Carolina Allspice is supposed to attract hummingbirds, too. Strawberries are blooming everywhere, also high bush cranberry, alternating dogwood, red osier dogwood, aquilegia... Yep, definitely about right time for the hummingbirds to arrive.

[digitS']

And, you had a very cold night - right, AppleStar? Male hummingbirds have that "swoop" they do during the breeding season.

I found a butterfly in the garden that was having trouble flying more than a few inches at a time. He really wasn't happy when I turned the sprinkles on! It was very windy so he might have been exhausted but I knew he had better not be struggling in the sprinklers so caught him, after repeated tries. He was moved to a dry board.

Looking online, I think he was a "Common Alpine." My first thought was that he was cold but with that name, I'm tending towards believing the problem was the wind.

Steve

[pinksand]

So many hummingbird visitors this weekend! I'm not sure if it was different birds or the same guy zipping around all day, but I definitely enjoyed seeing him/them. I put my feeders out just in the hopes of getting them to visit where I could see them from inside the house. Lase year I only seemed to have them visiting the flowers, which obviously is ideal... but it's nice to have them visit right outside my window when I'm confined indoors.

[Susan W]

Gotta ask, comment. Perhaps time to reset thread to 2016?

[applestar]

Why? Because the thread is at 16 pgs? Too daunting?
Would it be better to have a thread for each calendar year?

[ButterflyLady29]

Do moths count? I saw this couple Saturday;

[applestar]

What is it?

[LIcenter]

Do moths count? I saw this couple Saturday;

WOW Good eye! To the novice like me, would have thought it was just a dead leaf hanging there.

[ButterflyLady29]

It's pretty hard to identify Sphinx moths unless you see the underwings but I believe this is a pair of Blinded Sphinx moths. The female was there by herself the day before. I was checking to see if she had finally flown off and realized she had called in a boyfriend. They hung together like that for most of the day. You can see from their beautiful colors and perfect wings that they had just emerged from their winter hibernation in the pupa stage.

[applestar]

Ah! NOW I see them! It finally clicked and I realized the 2nd one is the mirror image facing down. COOL!

[Lindsaylew82]

Ooooooooooooooooooooh! Now I see! One is on the top and one is on the bottom. I thought they were sitting side by side!

Well, they don't take long getting down to business do they!?

[Susan W]

Yes, suggesting start a new thread every year.

[applestar]

We could try it. I'll separate the posts into their year threads when I get the chance.

[ButterflyLady29]

They were together for hours! It was pretty chilly for May (has been all month) and insects move slower when cold. They mate only the one time, then the female has about 2 weeks to lay her eggs before she dies. The caterpillars are much more commonly seen than the adults.