Ornithology (Bird) Thread

[bighomer]

Always enjoy watching the gold finches feed upside down.

[Quick Steel]

A fine shot bighomer.

[Steve Warden]

Always enjoy watching the gold finches feed upside down.

Nice!
I need to get me a thistle feeder. We do have gold finches in our region, but they're not drawn to my tube feeder.

[Dinadan]

Mel and Ike, you fellows surely have wonderful birding opportunities being on major flyways. A little envious right now.

Sounds Ike is right on a major flyway. Me not so much. But this time of year, for the next six weeks, a lot of birds do accumulate here along the Gulf Coast, prepping for the the flight across the Gulf. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the most noticeable, if a person has a feeder, anyway. We had a feeder up all summer with maybe two stray hummers showing up one or two times. Within the last week we have around four hummers resident in our garden. Cypress vine is blooming profusely, basically covering everything in our garden. It really draws the hummers, more than our feeders, I think, so I usually leave it to bloom until the hummers are gone.

[Quick Steel]

Thanks for the correction Mel. I guess my thinking was that the birds who were coming down the coast would cross over to the gulf coast if they were going to make the big hop. Not so much.

[Waukonda]

Nice pictures BH and Mel!

[Dinadan]

Thanks for the correction Mel. I guess my thinking was that the birds who were coming down the coast would cross over to the gulf coast if they were going to make the big hop. Not so much.

I think that the ones migrating down the Atlantic go down Florida and island hop from there. Not that we do not get a lot of migrants here. In the winter a lot of water birds winter along the coast as well as a lot of song birds. But when I was doing some work along the Mississippi River one fall, I was like: Wow, so this is what they mean by a flyway!
Here are a couple of maps I scraped off the net.

Flyways

Flyways

Theoretically, I am right on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Flyway. When I was young (say, forty years ago), it was not uncommon to see large, high flying migrating flocks of geese. The ones that are so high I would not even notice them until I heard the honking and started scanning the sky. I have not see one of those for close to twenty years now. Migration patterns have certainly shifted.

[bighomer]

Always enjoy watching the gold finches feed upside down.

Nice!
I need to get me a thistle feeder. We do have gold finches in our region, but they're not drawn to my tube feeder.

I used the bag feeders you can fill them up several times before they start to deteriorate. The tube feeders seem to get mold in them awfully quick.I about quit feeding niger seed all together, they seem to like the black oil seeds just fine.

[bighomer]

Thanks for the correction Mel. I guess my thinking was that the birds who were coming down the coast would cross over to the gulf coast if they were going to make the big hop. Not so much.

I think that the ones migrating down the Atlantic go down Florida and island hop from there. Not that we do not get a lot of migrants here. In the winter a lot of water birds winter along the coast as well as a lot of song birds. But when I was doing some work along the Mississippi River one fall, I was like: Wow, so this is what they mean by a flyway!
Here are a couple of maps I scraped off the net.
Flyway12.jpg
Flyway14.jpg
Theoretically, I am right on the eastern edge of the Mississippi Flyway. When I was young (say, forty years ago), it was not uncommon to see large, high flying migrating flocks of geese. The ones that are so high I would not even notice them until I heard the honking and started scanning the sky. I have not see one of those for close to twenty years now. Migration patterns have certainly shifted.

Man I know what you mean about the geese and ducks of yesteryear. Now we got ducks and geese that live here year around I can look up and see them flying most every day. There's a pond about 2 miles from me and you see geese there all the time.

[Quick Steel]

I've heard that many of the Canada geese have become year round residents. And thanks for those maps Mel. They actually show that it is just the western 1/5th of KY that is touched by the Mississippi. My area actually shows all white; no flyway participation at all. Of course we get strays.

[Dinadan]

Canada geese are year round residents here along the Gulf, too. Go to any park with lake frontage and they are nesting and raising goslings. It is funny how something so exciting can become so mundane. I see the local flocks of two to fifty flying low as they go from place to place: but that is nothing like those old time flocks of hundreds or thousands, mostly Snow Geese I think, high in the sky. I have heard human wanderlust described as wanting to follow the wild geese, and just seeing those flocks coming from an unknown land and heading to an unknown destination stirred the wanderlust in me!

Regarding the Goldfinches: the ones that show up in our garden really prefer black oil sunflower seed to thistle. I have tried thistle feeders, and they just did not get the traffic that black oil sunflower gets. I never needed to refill the thistle, and the sunflower needed refilling every day. Maybe it was something about my particular feeder.

[Steve Warden]

Always enjoy watching the gold finches feed upside down.

Nice!
I need to get me a thistle feeder. We do have gold finches in our region, but they're not drawn to my tube feeder.

I used the bag feeders you can fill them up several times before they start to deteriorate. The tube feeders seem to get mold in them awfully quick.I about quit feeding niger seed all together, they seem to like the black oil seeds just fine.

I usually get a 20 pound bag of wild bird seed mix and a 20 pound bag of the black oil seed and mix the two. That gives the higher ratio of black oil, which I know is preferred by most birds. Just not the gold finches, for some unknown reason.

[bighomer]

Sarge I also guit using the wild bird seed mix, it seemed to me that there was too much waste, I don't know which birds like the millet seed but I evidently didn't have enough of them. It's black oil almost exclusively for me although I'll use the niger sacks some, when I was putting out several of the Niger bags I probably had 25 or 30 pairs of gold finches, I don't have as many with the sunflower seeds, but they don't fight a bad. They are worse to fight than the hummers, they will peck the eyes
out of each other. I walked up on a female on the feeder the other night I could've reach out and touched her. I was on her blind side. What is sad I found her or another one dead a couple of days later.

[Paladin]

I buy and feed the wild bird seed and I agree about the waste. My birds like the white seed which I believe is highgear (no points off for spelling) and they tend to leave the golden milo. They clean up the sunflower seed pretty quick.

Ray

[Steve Warden]

Yeah, I've noticed the waste. Next purchase will probably be all black oil seeds.

[bighomer]

Got invaded by nighthawk about dusty dark. Probably well over a hundred flying and catching bugs. Quite a show.

[Dinadan]

Very interesting photos, Homer. I always like to see Nighthawks, or any other member of the Goatsucker family. I have never seen a gathering of a hundred, or even close. Seems like it is usually two or three or four that I have seen. Maybe they are gathering up for migration. I will have to keep an eye out at dusk for next few days.

Your place sure looks like a nice place for spotting birds - very open and verdant.

[bighomer]

Mel I too think they are gathering up to migrate, fueling up up to go to South America, it was the first time for seeing that many. They are a beautiful bird in flight. They can cut on a dime and give nine cents change.

[Waukonda]

Got invaded by nighthawk about dusty dark. Probably well over a hundred flying and catching bugs. Quite a show.

Nice

[Waukonda]

Re: migration

Migration is really picking up steam. It is predicted that 30 million birds will fly over Illinois tonight. I am hopeful of seeing just a few of them over the next couple of days. There has been a fairly large group of Yellow Bellied Flycatchers hanging around one of the woods that I frequent with my dog. They are extremely active and stay high in the trees when I approach, so, no photos. It is the first time I have ever seen this species, their breeding range is far northern U.S. and Canada. I also saw, this evening, a small group of Blue Grosbeaks and a group of 15-18 streaked Sparrows which I was unable to identify. They were on the large side, maybe Fox.

[treefarmer]

Canada geese are year round residents here along the Gulf, too. Go to any park with lake frontage and they are nesting and raising goslings. It is funny how something so exciting can become so mundane. I see the local flocks of two to fifty flying low as they go from place to place: but that is nothing like those old time flocks of hundreds or thousands, mostly Snow Geese I think, high in the sky. I have heard human wanderlust described as wanting to follow the wild geese, and just seeing those flocks coming from an unknown land and heading to an unknown destination stirred the wanderlust in me!

Regarding the Goldfinches: the ones that show up in our garden really prefer black oil sunflower seed to thistle. I have tried thistle feeders, and they just did not get the traffic that black oil sunflower gets. I never needed to refill the thistle, and the sunflower needed refilling every day. Maybe it was something about my particular feeder.

Mel, we used to feed the Gold Finches and after a few years the thistle seed got ridiculously expensive, we quit specifically providing for the GF's. What type of feeder are you using to attract the GF's using the black oil sunflower seed? Miss Joy buys black oil sunflower seeds along with a mixed bird feed for her "feathered visitors" year round.
Treefarmer

[Dinadan]

What type of feeder are you using to attract the GF's using the black oil sunflower seed? Miss Joy buys black oil sunflower seeds along with a mixed bird feed for her "feathered visitors" year round.
Treefarmer

Honestly, the Goldfinches seem to like just about any tube feeder that I have tried, as long as it is full of black oil sunflower. I like the feeders that are in a cage to keep squirrels from gnawing a hole in the plastic. But the birds seem to like the cheapest tubes just as well.

[treefarmer]

Thank you, Sir.
Treefarmer

[Mumbleypeg]

Goldfinches are common and frequent visitors to the tube feeders here during winter (when they’re not sporting the bright yellow colors). I normally use a “songbird mix” which contains black oil sunflower, striped sunflower, red millet, white millet, cracked corn, peanuts, and raisins which attracts a wide variety of birds. The goldfinches use their beaks to cull all the other stuff just to get the black oil sunflower seeds. The rejects fall to the ground but that’s not problem because other birds that feed on the ground, like cardinals, juncos, native sparrows and others quickly consume them. I have tried a couple of different thistle feeders in the past but they’re a waste of time IMHO because if there is black sunflower seed available they prefer it. I have to use squirrel baffles to keep the little @#$*&’s off the feeders.

Unfortunately about the time the goldfinch start changing color they leave and go north.

Ken

[Waukonda]

This Red-Tailed didn't fly off on approach as they normally do. Therefore , I felt obligated to take his picture.