Project FeederWatch Week 8

As I look at my records from last year, either 2009/2010 was a down year or 2010/2011 is an up year. I don't have enough data to really make comparisons yet. In 2009/2010, the highest number of species I had was 15 in weeks 19 and 20. In 2010/2011, I have only had two weeks (1 & 2) with fewer than 19 species. It will be interesting to see in years to come if this is an up year or if it's normal. Week 8 saw the highest species count of the year - 27 species. There were a few highlights from Week 8. Two Ruby-crowned Kinglets have found the suet and are using it regularly. Five Pine Warblers are now coming to the suet. A House Wren has found the suet and is using it when the Carolina Wren doesn't chase him off. An Eastern Phoebe visited my birdbath to get a drink of water.

Project FeederWatch Week 8 (27 species):
Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1
Eurasian Collared Dove - 1
Mourning Dove - 1
Red-bellied Woodpecker - 2
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Eastern Phoebe - 1
Blue Jay - 4
Carolina Chickadee - 3
Tufted Titmouse - 2
Carolina Wren - 1
House Wren - 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet - 2
Eastern Bluebird - 2
American Robin - 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1
Pine Warbler - 5
Chipping Sparrow - 5
White-throated Sparrow - 2
Dark-eyed Junco - 1
Northern Cardinal - 2
Red-winged Blackbird - 8
Brewer's Blackbird - 4
Common Grackle - 3
Brown-headed Cowbird - 3
American Goldfinch - 15
House Sparrow - 13

I did spend a few minutes away from my feeders going birding on the property. There was a flock of 25+ Dark-eyed Juncos in the pasture. I haven't seen this many juncos since I was a kid. The flock of nine American Pipits is still hanging out in the grass near the new pond. I spotted four Pileated Woodpeckers while in the woods. It's amazing how hard they can peck on trees. It sounds as if they are right above you when they're really quite a ways off! There are still hundreds of American Robins and Yellow-rumped Warblers all over the place. I saw my first Song Sparrow of the year in the pasture where the cows are fed hay. I have my BirdCam on the feeders in the woods and have some pictures below. The first picture is of a female Pine Warbler coming to get the sunflower hearts. The second image is of an American Goldfinch eating a black oil sunflower. The third image is of a Carolina Chickadee (top) and a Carolina Wren (bottom) on my suet log which I have loaded with Jim's Birdacious Bark Butter. I really liked how clear the wren is.

Quest for 200

With the recent addition of the Hairy Woodpecker to my property list, I have gotten excited about the possibility of having 200 species on my property list. The Hairy Woodpecker was #195. So, five more is all I need. Should be easy, right? Well, not really. I sat down and made a list of birds that would be possible here, but not probable. It's going to take some work (and a little luck!) to add those five! Here are the possibilities and where I might see them:

Gadwall - pond
American Wigeon - pond
Northern Shoveler - pond
Northern Pintail - pond
Ring-necked Duck - pond
Greater Scaup - pond
Lesser Scaup - pond
Northern Bobwhite - pasture
Pied-billed Grebe - pond
Wood Stork - pond, wet pasture
American Bittern - pond
Least Bittern - pond
Bonaparte's Gull - pond
Common Ground-Dove - feeders in the woods
Vermilion Flycatcher - pond
Red-breasted Nuthatch - feeders in the woods
Brown-headed Nuthatch - feeders in the woods
Winter Wren - woods, overgrown areas of the pasture
Marsh Wren - pond
Sprague's Pipit - pasture
Palm Warbler - pond, creek
Mourning Warbler - woods
Wilson's Warbler - woods
Grasshopper Sparrow - pasture, overgrown areas of the pasture
Le Conte's Sparrow - pasture, overgrown areas of the pasture
White-crowned Sparrow - pasture, overgrown areas of the pasture, feeders
Purple Finch - woods, feeders in the woods

If I had to predict which would be the first five I see, I would pick:
1. Wood Stork (more likely flying over)
2. White-crowned Sparrow (I have excellent habitat for them)
3. Gadwall
4. Bonaparte's Gull (flyover in the winter)
5. Mourning Warbler

The ducks, gulls and Wood Stork are all possible with birds flying over. Sometimes the ducks are pretty hard to identify when they are backlit by a bright sky.

The number of new birds on the property declines dramatically from year to year, which is to be expected. Here are the numbers of new species I've seen by year since 2003:
2003: 91
2004: 55
2005: 17
2006: 7
2007: 10
2008: 10
2009: 3
2010: 2

It could take a couple of years to get to the 200 mark. Some of the positives are that the new pond has a healthy growth of cattails all around it and has several trees growing around it. It looks like it will be more attractive to ducks and other birds that like water. There are lots of minnows in it now. I need to get some plants to put in the water that would be attractive to dabbling ducks. Having the feeders in the woods can make it a little easier to find some of the species down there, especially having the BirdCam set up to record what visits. So, I'm on a quest to get five more species to get to the 200 species mark.

With our four-wheeler having a flat tire, I've had to resort to walking to the feeders in the woods. It's a tough life, I know! But, it's given me the opportunity to listen for some of our summer residents that are still singing. Yellow-billed Cuckoos are everywhere and still calling. A Northern Parula was singing along the gully. An Indigo Bunting sang from the top of a tall weed and let me get a good look at him before he dropped and disappeared. I've also heard Red-eyed Vireos, Great Crested Flycatchers and all the resident birds (cardinals, Blue Jays, chickadees, titmice, woodpeckers).

On a non-bird note, I did add another mammal to my property list - nine-banded armadillo. He was foraging in the woods near the feeders yesterday when I went down to fill them. I don't know if they're getting more rare, but I am surprised this is the first one I've seen in the nearly seven years we've lived here. I don't see as many of them dead alongside the road as I used to, either.

First Hummingbird of the Fall

This morning I looked out the window where I have my hummingbird feeder hanging and saw an adult male sitting on the fence about 15 ft. away from it. He came to the feeder and then took off. A few minutes later I looked out and saw what appeared to be a juvenile male sitting on the feeder. So, two individual hummers in a matter of minutes. Maybe it's getting time to set up my other feeders for all of the hummers I get in the fall.

Other interesting things going on around here include having up to twelve cardinals at my feeders at one time. There are several juveniles in that group. The males seem to have a bit of a testosterone surge still in them because any two adult males will have some kind of confrontation. The Eurasian Collared-doves seem to have had a successful breeding season. There are as many as eight of them around my feeders at a time. The bluebirds show up pretty regularly. I saw four of the juvenile bluebirds along with the male feeding from the fence in my yard yesterday. The swallows are migrating. I see them flying southwest most of the time. I've seen Barn, Tree and Cliff so far. Looks like I need to start getting out on Friday mornings for some birding since fall migration is up on us.

In case you're wondering how my Property Big Year is going, I'm at 126 for 2008. That's still 13 ahead of where I was this time in 2004, so I should have no trouble breaking that number. There are several birds that I missed in spring migration that I might get in the fall. I'll be posting my sightings from when I go out. I will probably have to wait until August 22 to start since I've got things going on today and next Friday.

I'm also going to expand the scope of what I write about on this blog. I'm going to include birds I see everywhere, not just on my property. I don't do a lot of birding in other places, but I get a fair amount in, even in the summer when I'm so busy. Hopefully with me blogging about all my bird sightings, I will update things a little more often.