are having a party right now at the all day buffet
good stuff when you are snowed in for sure :highfive
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are having a party right now at the all day buffet
good stuff when you are snowed in for sure :highfive
Real nice photos, Ketchn! I have to reload the feeders this morning. 50s out there right now and a quick freeze kamakazi coming tonight into the 30s. With all of our rain there will no doubt be black ice out there everywhere. A good night to stay in.
Bob
21 here with a 3 or 4 inches of snow , Texas is really unpredictable .....we were a balmy sunshined all up and 70 plus less than 5 days ago :banghead
Awesome photos!!!! We tried feeding birds one time and just created really aggressive and crazy squirrels instead.
I like to feed the finches that visit here in Florida every Winter. They can really pig out. I found that the expensive niger seed is not what they really want. They want millet, like in parakeet seed. So I slop them with that and man do they fight at the feeder. My flock has about 30 or so birds and they will visit and leave, visit and leave all day long. The dove come in good numbers to waddle about below the feeder and gobble what had been wasted by the finches. If I was a finch I would want to leave Pennsylvania and visit the nice man in Florida for the Winter. Yeah, good stuff.
My suet feeders just get nasty so I stopped putting them out. The squirrels are always competitive for seeds and such but I have outsmarted them. Hung it from a tree limb. Too high to jump up from the ground, and too far down to get aboard from up in the tree. They too are reduced to exploring under the feeder.
I was concerned that the seed might attract rats, coons or possum, but so far it doesn’t seem to be the case. What lands usually gets eaten pretty quickly.
Seed can be expensive, but I get enjoyment from providing it to the birds. Surely God has provided for them, but I am kind of like a supplement. Get them fattened up and ready to head North come Spring. I always wondered if the birds I see each Winter are the same ones coming back or if they are all new each year. Once the feeder is found they do not venture very far away. I stop feeding next month to encourage them to make their migration in a timely fashion. they make their move according to the availability of food along the way. Too early and they don’t make it, too late and they don’t make it. Wild seeds and such along the trip are very necessary, and I don’t want them hanging at my dump eating for free, when they should be on the road getting ready to make a nest and get busy.
We have sandhill cranes all Winter down here. They fly from great distances up North to come eat our bugs. Lots of pairs with a baby about the area. They make a loud noise as they fly, and an even louder one if you get too close to that baby. A challenge will ensue pretty quickly if you dare. I acted like I was sneaking up, hunched over and moving slowly, why you would have thought I was some sort of idiot had you been within sight. Them things are vicious. Anyways they leave in March, too. Go outside and you can hear them when they are migrating. A few stay year round and that’s fine I guess.
Our area used to be along a major flight path for ducks and geese. Not so much these days, but the old timers tell stories of what they saw. Huge flocks and they would shoot and shoot all day. Now from those same locations you might hear six shots all day. The birds ventured away and changed their flight path. I suppose they discovered a food item being planted at some farm and that was what altered the course. We planted food for doves and saw how they would hit those fields. I imagine Texas has a lot of doves.
So tell me. Did you ever get that big buck you wanted ?
Beautiful photos Ketch. We feed here too. Just peeked outside and the feeders are getting lots of business in the ice.
when the undesirables show up ,we chase them off , squirrels bring lots of fleas and my dogs really don't like them or the fleas :RoflQuote:
Originally Posted by SuperDave336
yes that is crunchy peanut butter smeared on the tree btw :Rofl
I've had up to 17 species of birds in one day at my feeders in the spring time. I only feed sunflower and suet. The undesirable birds, blue jays, are too lazy to feed heavy on the sunflower seeds. Daily I have 4 species of woodpeckers feeding on suet. My favorite is the majestic Pileated Woodpecker.
I think so , there was some doubt though ,as right after the harvest , 2 days later another one that was a slightly larger twin showed up on our cameras .Quote:
Originally Posted by Micanopy
you might want to try thistle feeders for the finches , they tend to really lose it over thistle seeds
this area don't seem to have goldfinches and the purple finches dont hang around at our house .
but both of those are pretty common in the winter in and around here .
we saw a pair of purple finches in the park the other day .
Very nicely done.
Just a minute or so ago I saw hogs here at my place for the first time. Two very large hogs and a bunch of babies. Probably run off of lands elsewhere. Been here 8 years and first time seeing them. I have seen panthers multiple times, but not hogs.
My deer are pretty clever and come archery season hide really well until deer season has ended. Then right back out in the open they come.
them there piggies will sure enough tear up stuff , hopefully you got a pig proof fence around your yard .Quote:
Originally Posted by Micanopy
they often hit folks yards at night and basically till them up like a root plow .
My schnauser needed a big fence to ward off coyote. Five foot no climb wire. Been good so far. I might harvest one of my “livestock” if they get in close and start causing issues.
The tan pig was very large and shy. The black pig was a little smaller and bold. The piglets were, well piglets munching. I suspect the locals been shooting at them and that is why they are here.
my favorite ones are the Pintos and Dalmatian colored ones , but a nice red one is pretty cool too ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Micanopy
go with one of the piglets if you want to eat one , them are rather tasty and easy to deal with ....just saying
and btw a beautiful white wing showed up yesterday with a really skittish bluejay and my personal favorite red belly woodpecker .
the jay and the pecker are REALLY hard to capture in an image , they fly off at the first sign of nothing much .
Some really good photos Ketchn. Wasn’t my favorite but after my father passed away I received a fake red bird ornament for our Christmas tree with a wonderful poem. I can’t look at a cardinal now without thinking of my father. My favorite now without a doubt.
The FIL was telling me that he was feeding the birds 50 pounds of bird seed a week. He would pour the seed out on a concrete park bench in this garden. Deer tracks everywhere around the bench. Didn't have the heart to tell him he was providing a deer buffet
Nice pics Ketchn!
I too feed the birds, brings me a lot of enjoyment.
I notice your junco is lighter. Looted than ours up here.
We have lots of gold finch, house finch, and the regulars like you.
Here’s a special one. Can you tell what it is?
Attachment 418281
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a nut hatch maybe ? looks a bit on the light side for a nut hatch ? we dont get alot of small tree climbers , we do have a brace of wrens , but they is really flighty and hard to capture on the cameraQuote:
Originally Posted by Redge
Yeah, they have had some you tubes taken in Florida of land that has absolutely been torn up by wild packs of pigs. Nasty too. Guys set up at night and shot the heck out of them, but they can be a real problem. I remember that photo you posted one time of a pickup bed loaded to the hilt, I think heading off to the dog food factory?Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
Bob
PS Yes, I love to see the reD bellies come in to hit the suet cakes. They are Namby Pambies though and act like they have a target on their back, particularly the yellow flickers. Beautiful birds in flight.
B
my favorite all time was a vermillion flycatcher when we spent winters at the ranch in the middle of Texas .
that bird came alone every year and it was about really beautiful . in the country you are likely to see lots more cool birds than right in town like my house for sure .
the ranch had tons of different finches in the winter and my second favorite song bird in numbers during the summer was the painted buntings :highfive
third on my list is a male spotted towhee in the winter
It does look like a nuthatch, Redge, but a little lighter than the ones we have up here. I love to watch them moving up and upside down.Quote:
Originally Posted by Redge
Bob
or a ravine , dead hogs are often dumped in ravines ,one of my buds has lots of ranches and they just hammer hogs and have a ravine designated for dumping them . same with another bud on his ranch too , we haul the nasty ones off of my place .Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
so redge what is it ? asking for a friend ....:Rofl
someone said how could you shoot such a beautiful bird as a white wing dove ?
we say turn off the safety and lead it right and SQUEEZE .....:crazy:
btw redge , its called a slate colored junco , not a coal colored one , just saying :Rofl
My favorite visitors also.Quote:
Originally Posted by MCG1
Attachment 418451
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Great picture. Mine is camera shy. Saw it working on a nest hole for 2 days straight. Mind boggling how much wood they can remove and how perfectly smooth it looks.
That is a true beauty, VB. The prettiest that we get and my favorite the the yellow winged flicker. Beautiful when they come in to land.Quote:
Originally Posted by vbottom
Bob
The pileated is working on a hole above the other one. Mother-in-law apartment?
Fantastic photos Thanks for sharing:ThumbsUp
Hand fed a downy woodpecker yesterday. First time ever for a woodpecker. He was almost as friendly as the chickadees.
Pileated woodpeckers can really hammer. I had one destroying rafters on a porch. Wood boring bees had gotten in there and he was after the larva. Had an old dead tree and they came to visit it pretty often. If you sat still they came very close and you could develop some respect for how hard they hit.
In the swamps there used to be an “Oh My God” bird. The Ivory Bill Woodpecker. Named so because anytime someone saw one, they would say….. that exact phrase. Much larger than the pileated, but very similar in appearance, white bill not black, and now unfortunately extinct we fear.
Woodpeckers are interesting. I have seen them on telephone poles. Not eating bugs, rather using them as resonators. They drum out territorial announcements so other pairs do not encroach. I have seen them drumming on metal objects attached to the poles as well. They have an extra special fluid lining surrounding their brains. This cushions the organ otherwise it would splatter as they hammer away. Humans do not have this special lining so please don’t try to mimic the woodpecker. Just get an axe if you want some grubs.
we love our pecker woods , our largest visitor is a red breasted and there might be 2 of them , they are super duper shy though.
one thing for sure they have some rock and roll coloration going on :highfive
lately one of them has become a bit more friendly and "talks" to me from a distance without the instant see ya later thing going on we always see from them .
brownheaded cowbirds showed up this week for the first time ever ,we about never see them in the city
and there has been quite a bit of bla bla bla from close range when I replenish the food sources lately as well .
one little tiny something er other that is slightly yellowish green was about to get really friendly last night on the refill .
Yep it’s a nuthatch. Lightest colored one I have ever seen.Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
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Nuthatch, only one I’ve seen that lightly colored.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ketchn
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