Wild Birds Unlimited

A few weeks ago I spotted a Wild Birds Unlimited on my end of town. I finally had a chance to stop in and browse yesterday. When I told the helpful gentleman that I had never been in before he playfully wanted to know why not, that they had been there three years. I told him that I'm just now getting birds, and he knowingly asked if I was in one of those new subdivisions that had once been a corn field and had no trees. How did he know? Well, that's pretty common here around the Indy area.

Anyway, I loved the store and could have spent a fortune, if I was prone to do that sort of thing, but I'm not. I just bought a thistle sock, bird seed and since I am always a sucker for books I bought this:



I loved it! I read the whole book last night and it was very interesting and informative. I didn't have a book on Midwestern birds and this one was my favorite of the birding books they had in the store. It had great pictures of each species with important facts and the feeding habits of each one. It also has a section with simple woodshop designs for bird feeders. I had been wanting something like this for my son.



One of the things I discovered while reading the book was how harmful house sparrows can be to other songbirds. They aggressively seek out nest boxes that are occupied by wrens, bluebirds, chickadees and tree swallows. They attack the adult and baby birds in the nest by fracturing their skulls with their sharp bills.

I have mostly sparrows coming to my feeders so I've been buying the cheapest bird seed which has not been a good thing to do. They like cracked corn and millet which is in the cheaper seed mixes. They don't particularly like black oil sunflower seeds or thistle. I bought the cheaper food because they were scratching out the sunflower seeds and there was so much waste. So, now I have to make a decision, stop feeding altogether until they move on, or just buy the expensive seeds and hope they move on. I love seeing the other birds that are finally coming to my feeders, so I think I'll fill the other feeders with the better food and use up the cheaper seeds feeding them less and less until it's gone.



Besides, they are providing great entertainment for Libby and Lilly. Every day, all day long, the cat is perched in front of the sliding glass doors watching the birds. I've read that indoor cats will live longer if they have some entertainment, otherwise they get depressed and bored and have shorter life spans. It is so cute to see these two beside each other in front of the doors. Today Lilly got just a little too excited when a dove came right up to the door within inches of her nose, she jumped up barking and nearly trampled poor Libby.





Here is a purple finch, (correction- house finch, thanks Lisa)at the feeder in front of the family room window.

So far, since we had the snow fall this past week, I've seen:
House Finches - male and female
Dark-eyed juncos- male and female
Downy Woodpecker- female
Blue jay
Cardinal- male and female
European starling
Goldfinch
Sparrows galore
Mourning doves
Cooper's hawk

Speaking of the Cooper's hawks, I saw two of them today giving chase through my yard and then swooping down in several of the neighboring yards. I wasn't fast enough with the camera to catch it. I don't think they caught anything.

First Woodpecker

~Female Downy Woodpecker~



I was absolutely delighted when I glanced out the window this morning and spotted this female downy woodpecker on the suet feeder. Of course I won't be delighted if this one behaves like the one we had in Alabama. That one would frequently peck on a metal vent on the roof, it sounded like a machine gun and would drive us nuts. It also had a habit of pecking on our window scaring us nearly to death.

Thankfully I have a lot of windows across the back of my house, so whichever room I'm in I'm constantly glancing out the windows watching the bird activity. As much as I'd like to just sit and watch the birds I do have things to do, unlike the cat who has been parked right in front of the sliding glass doors from sun-up to sun-down watching the BirdNetwork. I think she's addicted.


In case some of you are wondering about my bird obsession right now, there is a very good reason for my excitement over seeing birds. When we moved to this neighborhood seven years ago, (January 18, 2001), only a few houses were finished and none had yet been built behind me. It took several years for the neighborhood to be completed and since the land had been a corn field, there were no mature trees. We have since planted many shrubs and trees on our small property. Now that the neighborhood is becoming more established and the newly planted trees and shrubs are getting larger, I am finally seeing birds. This is the first year that I recall seeing any winter bird activity other than a few sparrows in the evergreens. In fact, until this year I hadn't seen much bird activity regardless of the season.

It is so funny, I'm even dreaming about birds now. I had a dream last night that I finally spotted a mockingbird in a shrub. We had a lot of mockingbirds in Alabama, but I yet to see one here. Maybe next year.

Snow Birds Part 2

Like many people, I've spent most of my life being so busy that I didn't have time, or rather didn't take the time, to really observe the little creatures around my home. In fact, it wasn't until I began to enjoy the hobby of photography that I truly observed things up close, I mean really up close.



For many years I've enjoyed the Birds and Bloom magazine for the photographs, I have stacks of these magazines that I've picked up at garage sales. I always wanted to take decent pictures of birds and flowers too, but it takes a lot of money for really good camera equipment. A few months ago I was able to purchase a zoom lens for my camera and I love it. I love being able to zoom in close to see the colorful details of the birds that I would have otherwise missed.


Today I went out to fill the bird feeders and noticed that the finches didn't fly away while I was walking about. When I checked the finch feeder the birds stayed just a few branches above my head. I went inside to get the thistle seed and my camera. When I got back outside, I started taking pictures and slowly took a step closer with each picture, I was able to get pretty close before they flew off.


While I was filling the thistle feeder this one flew just a few feet away to wait. I love being able to see the colors and tiny little details on this finch.



The dark-eyed juncos remind me of the hummingbirds because they are so feisty and stingy with their stash of food. This one, (above) was really letting the other junco have it for getting too close to his birdseed.


The dark-eyed juncos are beautiful birds but are very difficult to photograph since you can't see their dark eyes. It really, really bugs me not being able to see their eyes.


The cardinals were back briefly today. The female is easier to photograph because she sits still longer; the male grabs a seed and quickly flies away.



Lisa said yesterday, "With all your bird activity you will probably have a Cooper's Hawk show up."

Guess what, Lisa, I spotted a Coopers hawk this afternoon sitting on the roof top of my back yard neighbors house. It was watching my bird feeder. It must have already eaten because it never gave chase, just watched and then quietly flew away.

I thought I was finished with bird watching until spring, but I've actually had more bird activity than before. I thought they would have all flown south by now. I guess some of them stick around for these cold snowy Indiana winters. Crazy birds.

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

Early this morning I received a call from my neighbor/friend letting me know that I had a great opportunity for pictures in case I hadn't looked outside yet. I was just getting up and had not yet looked out. She was right.



I hate winter, but this is the one thing that happens occasionally here that I wouldn't miss for the world. It is magnificent!



It is called by several names, hoarfrost, white rime ice, rime fog are a few of the names, but basically it's just frozen fog. When this happens it covers everything with sparkling ice crystals.



It is quite beautiful on the grasses.





When the sun comes out the frost glitters and sparkles like diamond dust.


If you all remember, I'm from the south where we rarely got snow, so the first time I saw frozen fog I was beside myself. It was as if God opened the heavens and sprinkled everything with opalescent glitter.





It was even on the single strand of a spiders web.




Lilly loves the snow.









It is absolutely breathtaking to me each time I witness this winter phenomenon. It is now what I think about when I hear the song, Walking in a Winter Wonderland. In fact I was singing that song as I drove around this morning basking in this stunning beauty of God's breath on His creation.

Job 37:10 By the breath of God frost is given:
and the broad waters become frozen.

Snow Birds

We had our first snowfall overnight and I'd say we're off to a pretty good start for winter with about 3-4 inches here in Noblesville. I noticed that there was a lot of bird activity first thing this morning and the bird feeders were almost empty. I quickly changed out of my warm fleece pajamas, got dressed, put on my snow boots and braved the wind and snow to get the feeders filled up. It wasn't too long before several surprise visitors showed up on this snowy day.



During the winter, there's nothing prettier to me than a male cardinal in the snow. I was so delighted when I spotted this one in my neighbor's shrubs this morning. I jumped up and ran for the camera. Then I spotted the female at my feeder. I rarely ever see cardinals here, so this just made my day! I wish I could have gotten closer or either had a better zoom lens.






Birds were everywhere this morning, I wanted to get them closer to the house, so I threw some bird seed on the patio and poured some into the nearby planters.



It worked! They were all over the patio, in the planters and on the patio wall.





Remember that bird I couldn't identify a few weeks ago? Several people informed me that it was a starling. Shirl from Shirl's Garden Watch said, "They are very socialable birds and we seldom see only one arriving at the feeders here - they usually take over and fight amongst themsleves too. Perhaps it will bring back friends the next time or maybe it is completely lost and quite lonely :-("


Well, Shirl, it came back and brought its friends today.












The dark-eyed juncos were all over the place today too. They came right up to the patio door and didn't seem to be bothered when I opened the door to get a few pictures.



Libby, (the kitty), has spent the whole day right in front of the patio doors and Lilly, (our golden), enjoyed the entertainment too.