Backyard Birds 2024
16 to 31 January and early February
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16 January - Some snow. Mourning dove lands on water dish to get a drink.
Birdfeeders are empty, except for the suet holder.
18 January 2024 - Black oil sunflower seeds. Blue jays and cardinals arrive.
The seeds still have their outer hard shells, to deter starlings with their soft beaks. No problem for a cardinal.
A burst of colour in a winter landscape
Seasonal visitors have returned: white-throated sparrows and juncos. Here's a junco.
A bluejay can eat from the front or the back of the peanut feeder. As with the sunflower seeds, the peanuts are in the shell to deter starlings.
Female cardinal
19 January 2024. Two mourning doves land on a platform feeder and do what they do best -- just hang out.
The magical power of snow -- you can see where all the birds and mammals have been.
The water in the water dish has frozen, and it is covered in snow. The birds and squirrels check it out.
Put out fresh water for the birds.
Not only do they drink, some also bathe.
The blur of a bluejay making off with a peanut.
House finches
The ever-present house sparrows
Within an hour or so, all the sunflower seeds can disappear if bluejays and cardinals are around.
Quick -- take a photo -- too late. Did see a red-bellied woodpecker one day.
20 January 2024. It takes about three days for this big feeder to get emptied out.
Mockingbird. They don't eat any of the seeds put out, but they'll come for a drink of water.
Downy woodpecker. Even the suet is specially chosen to deter starlings, so it has no seeds in it -- just 100% suet.
31 January 2024. A rare visitor, and very camera-shy. Hairy woodpecker.
8 February 2024
Starling, an "invasive species." Adorable when they bring the kids around in the spring and feed them, not so adorable when they hang out in the backyard in a gang and eat all the food. They vie with robins for best bathers — they spash a lot.
A small group of black birds visited today. Usually in the group will be grackles and red wing blackbirds. Only saw red wing blackbirds today. On the mixed-seed feeder with a house sparrow. The feeder is half-closed, because it is set to close if too much weight lands on it. It's partially closed with the weight of two birds.
Black oil sunflower seed feeder. Took about an hour to get emptied out by cardinals, house sparrows, house finches, and red wing blackbirds.
Waiting their turn: house finches, male (salmon red) and female (all brown).
Red wing blackbirds below the mixed seed feeder. Birds are messy eaters, so there are always seeds falling to the ground beneath a feeder. I put some wood under the feeder so that the falling seeds wouldn't disappear instantly into the ground.
For comic relief, there's always watching a mourning dove take a bath. Dip the beak in — done.
