Backyard bird watching

[Raven]

i don't have a single common Sparrow

i have several red finches
a couple of song sparrows
(with the white and black striped heads)
also known as fox sparrows
quite a few cardinals mostly female
a wolf pack of blue jays(man do they eat)
20 or so Juncos
two morning Doves
and a wild grey cat that wants to eat them

around fifteen wood Peckers-
Hairy, Downies and Red Bellies and Nut hatches

typically around 50 birds live on my deck
i have 1/2 round bark Quonset hut's shelters
taken from logs i burn as they peel and or fall off

the 4x4 cube of suet sits over an old bird house
with a slanted roof that catches the "droppings"
from the suet so the Juncos land there with GLEE

the house itself prolly an old bluebird design......
is stuffed with seed which when seed gets real low
entices only the most intelligent of the crew
to stick their head in the hole and feast away.

but my best idea is the thinly cut slab wood
screwed to the uprights attached to the railing
that gives the pecker heads a landing pad
where they line up for their turn at the suet.

the bark is what they love because its perfect traction!
one thin strip of bark (about 2 inches wide)
i have screwed to
the outside of the slider to the deck so i can
watch the smaller downies from just 16 inches away.

the Barn cat who's almost as fat as Garfield now
has a grand time watching the Action for hours on end.

[Chris in Mass]

A pack of Starlings invaded today. I don't usually get these. Very cool looking - winter plumage. After reading up on them, it sounds as though they are pretty common.

[Raven]

they are a non native species common to England,
but when an ornithologist here in the states accidentally
had four of them "he was studying" escape in 1954 they
multiplied .........and now ..........
Flocks blanket Texas so thick
they literally block out
all satellite transmissions.

[Chris in Mass]

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

Searched Google (what else) for Birding in New England and came up with these reference sites, useful but not a bulletin-type board:

Common Birds of New England


Birding in Massachusetts

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

Chris, contact The Birdwatchers General Store in Orleans Ma., they will
have any publication you want. They have a web site too.

Rav, basically the same with the English sparrows we have. They used to be a ground bird eating the cheaper millet etc. but graduated to sunflower, niger and suet lately. They are worthless competing with all the good guys you have.
They are ugly, come in flocks, squawk, fight and eat you out of house and home.


Oh BTW- spring is close behind we had a lost flock of Robins in the crabapple tree this AM.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Chris in Mass

Are there any equivalent websites like this one for birding that are focused on the Northeast? Anyone subscribe to a good birding magazine?

First thing I'd do is get a copy of a good (i.e. classic) field guide like this one...get a used one, they already have mojo

Amazon.com: Peterson Field Guide(R) to Eastern Birds: Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides) (9780395266199): Roger Tory Peterson: Books

-spence

[PRBuzz]

Originally Posted by spence

First thing I'd do is get a copy of a good (i.e. classic) field guide like this one...get a used one, they already have mojo



-spence

I have a copy of Peterson Eastern Birds with very little mojo, still looks brand new that I'd be willing to part with. I have several field guides which currently get very little use. I see that Amazon list new @$55. I'll part with mine for $40 (shipped) or $35 picked up/hand transferred.