Friends, Food & Frolicking...

We all took the day off. San & her husband, Me and my husband and the Napster so we headed to the Hampton's.  It was a beautiful summer day, we left the heat and humidity and drove into the sun and fun of the Hamptons with a cool summer breeze.

Our first stop was the South Fork Natural History Museum, so after paying $7 apiece, we walked into what at best can be described as a kids touch and feel museum.  The only other people their was a couple with their two little children.  However the museum did have a balcony with telescopes so you could look out into the acreage. 

We were greeted with the swooping flights of the Barn and Tree Swallows.

They had Gourd bird houses for Purple Martins, but the only one's living there were the Swallows.  (This year I planted some Bird House Gourds, so next year we will see what will be able to attract to our gourds.)


The real treat that day turned out to be the nests we saw for the Swallows.  We saw one mother Barn Swallow sitting on her nest.  According to the very informative care taker, this was her fourth nest, the rest had been destroyed.

We also saw a Glossy Ibis, but we could not add him to our Long Island Native species list because they are migratory birds.


So as we leave the 'Museum' we have one last opportunity to see nesting Swallows, this time though we saw the baby Swallows, three of them.  They were the cutest things.

They were watching us with those cute little faces.

All in all it was a fabulous day, friends, good food and of course frolicking.   What more could one ask for.

Hawk alert!

Okay, you may not believe this but we had another bird moment just now.  My husband was in the kitchen, it's about 7:30pm and he yells out that he saw the owl flying in the backyard.  So I grab my binoculars and head outside.

Of course there isn't anything to see.  And then out of the woods in our backyard it flies....not an Owl but a Red Tailed Hawk, he is being chase through our yard by a couple of Blue Jays.  So he lands in one of our trees and of course I have my camera so I was able to get a few shots of him.  I even got a picture of him looking at my husband and I watching him.

Although it looks as though he doesn't have a care in the world, there are a couple of Blue Jays yelling at him from branches right above him.  They are flying and squawking, but he doesn't seem to care.  Then he flew right over our heads, only a few feet above us with Blue Jays in tow.

When the Hawk flew over our heads, the view of his wingspan was awesome, it looked about 4' feet wide.  It was truly a magnificent sight to see.  What a privilege that was for us.

This has been one of my best solo bird days, the only think that could have made it better would have been having San at my side to experience it with me.

"The Big Year"

Just clicked on one of our links, chatterBird, and found this tidbit of information.  On May 5, 2010 they started filming a birdwatching comedy, yes, you heard it right, a birdwatching comedy called "The Big Year", starring Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Steve Martin. They play a trio of competitive birdwatchers who, over the course of a year, try to outdo each other through a series of supposedly outlandish stunts.  Some of the supporting actors who have signed on are Anjelica Huston, Brian Dennehy and Dianne Wiest.  This film is under the direction of David Frankel, who previously brought us Devil Wears Prada and Marley & Me.  Whether this turns out to be thumbs up or thumbs down, I think any birdwatcher would get a chuckle out of it!

Remember Me??

Looks like I am, once again, the Blog Slacker!  I certainly don't have as many interesting wildlife stories as my partner in crime, Ar.  Her yard seems to be all aflutter with activity.  I can offer this much:  Something ran off with my peanut butter pinecone, (I was planning on reusing it!)  It is nowhere to be found.  The peanut butter bagel also disappeared, (was not planning on reusing that one!)  Someone ate the sunflower seed encrusted apple, but I was not there to witness who it was.  No one has eaten the suet out of the coconut.  And I have some poorly taken pictures of some female finches on my suet pinecone.  So there it is!!  Wild America this is not.  However...

I am happy to at least be able to share with you a picture of mama Robin in her nest in our Dogwood tree.  It is kind of hard to see her in the small picture.  If you click on the picture, you'll be able to spot her, no problem.  Looking forward to seeing some baby birds.  So this seems to be about as much excitement as my yard can yield at this time.  Hope you are all having a little bit more in the way of birding adventures!

Hanging our House's

What a day we had today!  It was so exciting, we were finally going to hang up our Owl house.  My husband chose a spot on this old Telephone pole we have in our backyard.  It hasn't been used for what must have been decades, but it was never removed.

First thing he did was climb up an eight foot ladder than he used the footing on the old telephone pole.  It was pretty nerve racking watching him climb up there but he kept saying he was fine.  So up he went.  First thing he did was to take down the Bat house.  Then our son Michael helped us hang the Owl house where we have been seeing the Owl hang out a few nights ago.

Then we were going to try and find a new place for our Bat house.  Since we have yet to see any bats we wanted it to be in an area more conducive to what Bat's look for in a home.  The house has to be on the Southside facing the sun.  The bat's need to have sunshine heating the house during the day.

Once the house was down, my husband looked inside and he thought he saw something,  so I went and got a flashlight and sure enough we had a bat in our bat house!!!!  We were so excited so now we had to put it back exactly where it was so the bat wouldn't get confused. 

So now my husband has to climb back up the telephone pole and put the bat house back up without disturbing the bat inside.  So once he gets back up there, I hand him the bat house and to our shock and horror he drops it from about 15 feet up.  The house hits the ground and the top falls off, and the poor bat trying to get some sleep flew out.  So we quickly put the house back together and hung it back where it was hoping that the bat finds his way back home.

Of course bats are not birds, but small mammals, but it was still pretty cool.  So now, both houses are on the pole separated by a few feet, so we hope they all can live together in close proximity.

An Apple a day theory

I have been wondering which  birds were eating the apples I have been putting in my fruit feeder, and my diligent watchfulness finally paid off.

Even though in the past I have seen the Baltimore Oriole eating from my fruit, this time though it was the Red Breasted Woodpecker.

The apple doesn't look very appetizing, but the woodpeckers loved it.  I now have a new one up, so we will keep feeding as long as they keep coming back for more.

Quest for a 'Full House' of FInches

San wants me to get a picture of my thistle feeders when they are packed to capacity with American Goldfinch, House Finch and now Purple Finch's.  So every chance I get I will take a picture of the ones that I see. 

As we have mentioned before, bird watching is really a test of your patience (and or aimlessness).  So I have on many occasions had every spot on my three feeders packed with finches with more in the wings.  

So for now, I will keep an eye out for a 'full house'  and hopefully I will have my camera ready when they are.

This year though we have a lot more House Finches.  I've never seen so many.  They seem to be a little more aggressive than the Goldfinches.  So sometimes they don't want to share, even if there are other perches available they will shoo one another away. 

Not sure why, San and I will investigate that at another time.

How to Identify what your Owl's been up to...

Okay, so last night I saw the Eastern Screen Owl again, but he flew as I raised my camera to get a shot of him.  So for now, I will still have to be patient.

As I discussed the Owls habits with San, I read through my Owls of New York booklet and they mentioned what to look for in your yard to confirm that Owls have been frolicking about.

Since owls are great hunters that often eat smaller prey, such as mice, whole.  Indigestible parts of the prey are regurgitated as owl pellets.  The pellets are gray or brown masses about 1-2'' long, and are made up of fur, feathers, bones, bills, claws, teeth, and sometimes insect  or plant parts. 

And with these dropping you can determine their eating habits.  So excuse me if this is a tad gross for some of our friends, but it is what happens and I will definitely look around my yard where I've seen him hanging out.  So you might ask how can you determine what he's been eating????

So here it is, the booklet tells you to soak it in warm water, and then dissect it to learn just what foods the Owl has eaten.  Albeit, you know I won't be doing that but I will look to see if I can find any pellets.

I constantly have my camera at the ready, and I will keep you posted, because I am sure you all are dying to find out what these Owls have been snacking on.  Lol...

New Suet Feeder's

Hello all, I just thought I would let everyone know that San's idea of suet in a Coconut was a huge success in my yard.  All kinds of birds were able to feed from it.  Such as Grackles, Blue Jays and Downy Woodpeckers.

One of the biggest challenges when bird watching is being there when the birds are around.  So, every opportunity I have, I am looking out a window with my camera in hand.

These are a few of the pictures I was able to get at one of the feeders we made at our birding and bonding party.


What was really great, was a mother Downy Woodpecker teaching her young one how to feed from the feeder.  At first she would take some suet and feed it to her chick.  Then over the course of a day the chick was able to go to the feeder and feed for himself.

First on the Pine cone feeder, then he was able to feed from the coconut.

It was so much fun watching them.  I truly look forward to when we will have time to enjoy all the marvelous creations that were made to make our lives on earth so joyful. 

What a privilege it is to witness such wonderful goings on right in our own backyards.

I want to thank San for all the great birding 'moments' we have had over the years, and I look forward to our future adventures.

First Semi-Annual Birding and Bonding Fest

The stage was set.  The supplies were at the ready.  The day was hot and humid.  As we contemplated the marvels of a beautiful day (in the always inviting hammock), our first guest arrived.  As mentioned in an earlier post, we had already seen a Purple Finch while peering out the kitchen window.  Happy to be able to add a new bird to our list, we were now excited about the prospect of bonding with close friends who share our mutual love of birding. 

We were both moved by the expressions of our first guest, who, rarely has opportunity to view the blog, but appreciates the value of friendship and the gift of the world around us.  It bolstered our commitment to our project and to ourselves.  Thank you, Fay.

Where to begin...a table full of supplies, glue gun, pliers, wire cutters, pine cones, chicken wire, boots and an assortment of ribbons, all waiting to be transformed into a masterpiece of bird art.   We had a large pot of suet on the stove and re-hydrated dried fruits ready to be strung.

Our friend Raven took advantage of the pot of suet as she used it to apply to a pine cone,  well 10lbs of suet later this is what it looked like.  Can't really tell it's a pine cone anymore, but Raven had fun making it.  (We helped her carry it to the car!)

We also had peanuts strung with pretty ribbons, apples embedded with sunflower seeds and bagels slathered with all natural organic peanut butter and sprinkled with a bird seed mix. 

Besides food items there were other projects aplenty.  While Kristyn assembled projects of a food related nature, Patrick put together a little bird house, the Napster screwed the hooks into the pine cones.  And I put together my Nest in a boot. 

We all had a great time, which is why we will be having another birding and bonding party in the fall.

So, you might wonder if any self respecting bird will use any of our creations, well Ar waited patiently with camera in hand to catch one in the act.  And a Downy Woodpecker obliged as you can see.

The verdict is still out on some of our projects.  Janis's fruit wreath was devoured by the next morning.  By who, we don't know.  San's peanut butter pinecone was being enjoyed by a squirrel.  We will keep you posted on how the other projects faired.

So for all who may wish to join us next time, we have worked through the kinks and look forward to a fun Birding and Bonding Fall Fest.  We will keep you posted!

Too Many Rules!!!

As we collaberate on our Bird and Bond Fest Blog, my partner in crime continues to remind me that I have "Too Many Rules!"  As others have mentioned, and Ar agrees, Bird of the Week should continue as long as there are birds singing, whether they be year-round birds or birds of summer.  So rather than be a stickler for rules, I will bend to the majority and continue to post Bird of the Week, provided that I hear "Said Bird" singing during the week, whether here year-round or for the summer or for a weekend or whatever.   If I hear it singing during the week, I will feature it.  After all, we are privileged to have many summer bird visitors to Long Island.  Why not get to know them!!??  And so there it is-- I respectfully yield to my fellow birders...:)

Nesting Mourning Doves

One of our followers provided these pictures of a Mourning Dove sitting on her nest.  They took this picture from their upstairs window.

The Mourning Doves Coo may sound sad, but bird watchers know it signals the beginning of this birds habits of nesting, claiming territory, and raising young.
A loosely built nest of twigs, grass, weeds and pine needles make up the nesting materials Doves use. In fact, this loose pile of twigs is so lightly put together that often you can see through it from the bottom.
If the Dove is startled and flies off the nest too quickly, the eggs could fall from the nest. Bird watchers would be wise to wait until the eggs have hatched before approaching any nest.
Nest abandonment is very common with these birds. If they feel any threat from predators whether human or animal, they may go elsewhere to nest abandoning both eggs and nestlings. Bird watchers need to exercise caution.
The nest can be found 5-25 feet above the ground, often in the crotch of a shrub or tree. Laying 2 white eggs that are incubated for 14-15 days. The young will leave the nest in 12-14 days.
Mourning Doves have been known to reuse the same nest for five sets of eggs in a single season. Usually 2 - 3 broods raised each season.

You can try attracting doves to nest near you by placing a Nesting Shelf attached to a tree or your house. Doves, along with Pigeons, produce a food called pigeon milk (not really milk) by glands in the crop of the adult bird. The parent opens its mouth wide, permitting the nestling to stick its head inside to feed on the nutritious food.

In the wild, the adult birds feed primarily on waste grain. These include corn, wheat, grass, and weed seeds.
You can attract these birds to your feeder by supplying white and red proso millet, oil-type sunflower seeds, and cracked corn.

Unlike most birds, Doves incubate their eggs continually. Since the male and female look alike, it appears the same bird is incubating the eggs the whole time.  Actually, the male does a daytime shift and the female does the night shift. If you are not around during the change, it appears the same bird has been on the nest the whole time.
Not to worry, the switch was made while you were not looking.

Ducks with 'Puffs'

Part of the mystery is solved.  While at our Birding and Bonding party Patrick reminded me that we saw similar Ducks at their wedding reception.  So I searched through all my pictures from their wedding because I know I took pictures of those cute little ducks.  And sure enough, I had pictures of 'Ducks with Puffs'.

Although we now know that we've seen similar Ducks before, we still do not know what kind of ducks they are.  So we are still leaving it out there for our friends to see if anyone knows what type of ducks these guys are.  We will keep you posted.

Well our fellow birder and research guru Tom found the name of these ducks, they are Crested ducks.  There is a website Tom found:http://www.feathersite.com/Poultry/Ducks/Crest/BRKCrestedDucks.html

So thanks to Tom for finding this so quickly.

An Added Treat!

Well the Birding and Bonding Party was a success!  We will blog about that as soon as we get our collective thoughts together.  In the meantime, we were happy to be able to add another bird to our list.  We both have, no doubt, seen this bird before, however, the Purple Finch is very hard to differentiate from the House Finch, especially from a distance.    As mentioned in the June 3rd blog, they are similar in appearance.  Thanks to the thistle feeder conglomerate outside Ar's kitchen window, we were able to get a good long look at Mr. Purple Finch!  It was a great start to an even better afternoon. Looking forward to sharing the experience.  And for all those who were not able to make it, we are looking at October for another one.

Fashionable Ducks

Thanks to our fellow birder Sandy, we have another mysterious looking duck.
It looks as though they are wearing feathered hats.

I know you are not going to believe these pictures but I promise you we did not touch them up.  Now I looked through three separate bird books, the National Audubon Society Field Guide, Peterson Field Guide and National Geographic complete Birds of North America, and these guys were no where to be found.

Our fellow birder Sandy believes one of her neighbors across the the water from their home is somehow cross breeding these poor Ducks.

So if it is a cross breed, what on earth is it a mix of.  I can't find any duck with a feathered head like these.  So once again we are putting them out there for our fellow bloggers to help us identify.

Please let us know what you come up with.

Finches

When San posted that the American Goldfinch was our bird of the week, I just knew this was going to be a real easy one.  I have three thistle feeders each can feed 8 birds right outside my kitchen window and I have American Goldfinch at the feeders on a daily basis 365 days a year.  At times with a bird at each post and others waiting in the wings to feed as well.

But wouldn't you know it.  The time frame I have in the morning to spot and  hear a bird song is very short.  And every single day this week there have been House Finches at my feeder and the females are quite vocal.  So try as I might in the morning no Goldfinches. 


The other day while watching my Finches, I actually had a pretty rare sighting.  There was a red finch, but it looked different from the House Finches I normally have at my feeder. The finch was kind enough to take his time feeding at the thistle feeder, so I was able to memorize his colorings and get my handy field guide and look him up.  Now  I was hoping it was a Purple Finch, and it was much to my happy surprise.

I have never in my entire life seen a Purple Finch, they are rarer to spot in our neck of the woods than the the more common House Finch. 

Now when you look at these pictures, you may think they are the same bird, but the color patterns are decidedly different.  The Purple Finches head is entirely red, and the red fades into the entire breast area.

So it pays to be aware of our birds, you never know what you might spot if you take the time to study them.

Arsan's Big Adventure!!!

Well it's almost here...Arsan's big  birding and bonding adventure.  The time is this Saturday at 2pm, and the place is Ar's house.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate so we can work on our projects in the backyard.  This way we can bird watch as we create our wonderful little projects.

Last night San and I went shopping for some more unique items we could use on some of the birding projects we have for our fellow birders.  We might venture out again tonight to finish getting all our supplies.

I honestly think the two of us are more excited about this than any of our blog followers, but no matter, that was the point of the blog after all.

We have some of our North Carolina blog readers up for the week and we are very happy that they can make it to our little shindig.

So, if you've been gathering items you can use for your projects, please bring it with you on Saturday.  See you then!!

What a privilege...

Sunday my husband and I attended a wedding of the son of one of my work associates.  It was at the Crest Hollow country club, which is beautiful this time of  year.  The cocktail hour was outdoors, and they couldn't have asked for better weather.  We danced, and ate and danced and ate the night away.

Even though being invited to a wedding is indeed a privilege, we had quite a special treat when we got home that night. 

As my husband was putting the car in the garage, I was walking towards our back door.  I saw something fly to the ground, then I walked a little closer and it flew to a tree right by our deck.  And guess what it was???  An Eastern Screech Owl (Of course I didn't know what type of Owl it was until I looked it up.)   This adorable Owl was now watching me watching him.

I stood motionless waiting for my husband to come so he too would have the privilege of seeing the rare sighting of one of our nighttime birds.  My husband meanwhile was wondering what on earth was I doing just standing there in my party dress, but as soon as he was next to me, I showed him why I stood there motionless.  So this wonderful creature was kind enough to wait for my husband to spot him before he flew into the darkness of our backyard.

So, thank you Eastern Screech Owl for the privilege of spotting you that night.  San has since played their call for me so now I also know what to listen for. I will ask San to find the link to their birdsong.  This is one of the smaller Owls in our area, they are only about 10" long, but the brown coloring was very distinct.

Spotting him was not only a privilege but we considered it a blessing as well.  Just imagine the times we have to look forward to when we can peacefully sit in our yards at night and watch the parade of nocturnal goings on.

Much obliged.  Here is the link to hear a Screech Owl:  www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp.  Click on Owls, then click on Screech Owl.