Dreary Day for Project FeederWatch

Sunday was a dreary day as far as weather is concerned. Fog blanketed the area for the majority of the day. But that didn't stop the birds from coming to the feeders. We added four more species to our Project FeederWatch list: Blue Jay, Brewer's Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird and Brown-headed Cowbird. I never look forward to the blackbirds coming because I know they'll form enormous flocks that will empty my feeders all too quickly. Time to switch to safflower, I guess. I am thinking of trying to put the cage that excludes larger birds over a portion of my ground feeder to keep them off at least a little of it. The American Goldfinches began showing up in numbers. I had five at a time on my feeder yesterday. I have never had just one goldfinch on my feeders for two weeks before. That was kind of weird!

There were some interesting birds that didn't come to the feeders yesterday. A White Ibis poked around out in the pasture for most of the day. A Red-shouldered Hawk called loudly from a tallow tree in the pasture and gave us some great looks at him. I tried to get a picture, but this was the best I could do.
More Tree Swallows flew over. They were in a large flock. This time they were all heading southwest at a pretty good rate of speed instead of just hanging around over the pasture. A pair of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers visited the hackberry tree behind the house. I hoped they would find the Bark Butter or the suet so they would continue to visit. Maybe they'll be back.

Birds Seen 12/13/09 (21 species): White Ibis, Red-shouldered Hawk, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue Jay, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird, American Robin, Northern Mockingbird, European Starling, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Red-winged Blackbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow

Project FeederWatch 4th Weekend

This weekend of Project FeederWatch was a little slower. It rained nearly all weekend and the Sharp-shinned Hawk was around quite a bit. But, we were able to add three more birds to our PFW list - Carolina Chickadee, Eastern Bluebird and Pine Warbler bringing our species total to 13. The chickadees had never shown up at the feeders while we were watching them on previous PFW weekends. The bluebirds came in and enjoyed the birdbath. The Pine Warblers came to the suet and the seed cylinder with sunflower hearts and fruit. The Chipping Sparrow numbers were way down, probably due some to the House Sparrow numbers being way up. If it doesn't rain next weekend, I'm going to put out the trap for them and try to thin them out. They're starting to show interest in my martin housing and I'm not going to put up with that! A male Northern Cardinal visited the feeders yesterday and was missing the feathers around each of his eyes. I'm not sure what was going on there.

Tree Swallows flew over the pasture. There were literally hundreds of them. I'm not sure what they are catching out there, but they were certainly going after something! The Red-bellied Woodpecker still shows no interest in trying the feeders, although he's out there in the tree quite a bit. Hopefully he'll find them and be a regular. A Northern Flicker called from somewhere close yesterday. It would be fun to see him at the feeders as well.