[mou] Yard bird update

[Thomas Maiello]

Goldfinches continue to gather cotton for nesting.  They have never  
stopped.  Maybe its for comfy chairs and they are couch potatoes in a  
bird sense.  I do see pairs at the ponds in my yard.

Catbirds active primarily for jelly.  No indication of additional  
nesting.

Several Baltimore Orioles still in breeding colors and frequenting  
the jelly feeder.  One young spotted.

I have decided to have a yard sale with the massive overflow of robin  
and grackle young I have - all you can catch for a buck after showing  
proper permits, licenses, forms and humane intention.  I got back  
from my trip to DC and the yard was absolutely coated with them.  I  
have pulled my feeders to try to get the grackles to find better  
digs.  The grackle young are incredibly loud and persistent and way  
to old by now for their abrasive calls demanding food.  I can barely  
talk on the phone when one family with 4 young would search for food  
beneath the feeders outside my office window.  I have no idea how  
many families I am hosting but my goodness!  In Oklahoma we would  
have flocks as large as possibly 5,000 birds winter in various  
areas.  The cacophony was louder than this but not as abrasive - plus  
the droppings aren't nearly as deep here.

The robins were stacked like firewood around my water feature this  
morning just sitting and looking.  Whenever another bird approached  
even if it was another young they would begin begging for food simply  
by widely gapping their mouths - if only for a second before  
apparently realizing it was another sibling.  I had at least 4 nests  
about my yards but the abundance seems to indicate more nesting  
success than that.  I was digging worms and putting them in bowls for  
them early on but the numbers of breeding pairs became too much with  
the noisy competition and intimidation.

The Brown Thrasher triplets are hanging out with mom and dad and  
learning how to forage and discovering the jelly feeders.  They are a  
hoot to watch when the compete in the forage area I have made outside  
my window.  When the parents come in their behavior shifts to  
learning mode.  Fascinating.

The chickadees are sporadic visitors these days.  I used to have  
large numbers but now it seems only one family is present with a  
brood of 2 young.  I feel sad that something could be effecting their  
numbers.  They are my favorite survivors due to their winter  
persistence.

Red-bellied, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers are present in low single  
digits also.  I am hoping that they simply don't like the company I  
keep with the grackles and have found better feeding grounds.  The  
decrease in numbers is also disconcerting to me.

The starlings have already fledged and moved on.  The way the young  
harass their parents in their quest for food gives me a softer heart  
to these "problem" birds.  I don't see them very often this year.   
Maybe the grackle numbers have even driven them off.

Even the house sparrow numbers are down.  I used to have to figure  
ways to keep them from emptying my feeders, and I did with some  
success using wire loops inside the feeding ports of the large tube  
feeders - but they are in remarkably low numbers right now.

My trip to DC was stoked with ospreys everywhere near water,  
mockingbirds dotting every few hundred yards in and out of the city,  
and numerous other birds that didn't really stick out as notable.   
The best bird-related event were the raptors that they bring out and  
change every half hour at Busch-Gardens-Europe at Williamsburg.  I  
got to see very close up and one to one with full discussion and  
exhibition - a Ferruginous Hawk and a Rough-legged Hawk.  A guy comes  
out with one on tether and glove and stands along the sidewalk  
beneath an umbrella waiting to discuss the birds in all their detail  
regarding identification, behavior, habitat, feeding, breeding, etc.   
What a great opportunity to see the different species.  I could have  
just hung out their waiting to see what the next bird was!  But the  
Griffon roller coaster called.

That's all for now.  Glad to be home.  Hmmmmm....... I wonder if a  
grackle feather bed comfortable would work for the winter?  I bet  
feather-nude grackles would be a hoot to watch, too - kind of like  
the cardinals that lose their feathers and looked so unidentifiable  
without the red.

Thomas Maiello
Angle Environmental Management, Inc.
Spring Lake Park, MN
763-783-9797


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