Backyard bird watching

[Raven]

i was rather Astonished to LEARN....

i was taking apart a bird house i had set up for
chickadees i had in there last year to clean it out

so i could re -use it ......at my new place...
anxiously wanting to see the type of nest they make

and what did i find... nothing but greenish yellow moss
the kind that grows on streamside rocks...

no grass or small sticks like a typical birds nest
it was as soft as a tempurpedic bed too.

[FishermanTim]

Certain birds prefer certain materials for nests.
I put out pieces of string, clumps of drier lint, cotton balls or anything that could be used to line a nest/birdhouse.
They will take whatever they can find.

As for Common Flickers, they are primarliy insect (ants) eaters.
Then again, ANY bird will eat suet during the winter because they ALL need fat/protein in their diet.

During the spring you should try sticking apple and/or orange halves in the same area where your feeders are. I stick mine on tree branches. These will attact the fruit eating birds. For me, it means Baltimore Orioles.

Nothing like hearing them fighting/squawking over nesting territory, an seeing those bright orange kamikazi's whizzing around the neighborhood. They are loud and fast, plain and simple.

[Raven]

there's nectar feeders for Oriels too
all good tips TIM

[striperman36]

I am gonna try that

[Raven]

i've had more Birds (or sucess) come to my feeders that had suet
in them than just different types of seed.

Even Oriels... and Bluebirds will eat the droppings....

i have a wood pecker tree now meaning they have already started drilling it where the inner wood is soft so i take my suet cake and smear it or MASH it right in there ...especially any small crevice or hole.
this is the equivalent of them finding a wood grub, a highly soft after prize.

I also re attached my old bluebird house there and screwed it on right where a limb had been sawn off years ago.
it is full of black oiled sunflower seed and suet cakes i sawed in half
with a long serated knife and then i shoved them in there.

Soon i will have every concievable wood pecker , nut hatch,
tuffed titmouse , brown creeper ect. coming around.

I had a chickadee yesterday four feet from my face
just happier than can be because of all the seed i just put out.

He's goin: CHICK a dee dee to me... so i'd say it right back to him
"in my best impersonation" trying mainly to have the timing off the "notes exact" as i have practiced this for years.

this made him even friendlier and it was blowing his mind and
he was reacting in such a cool way as if to say "wow" this guy (human)
is talking to me in my language ...and he'd kind of jump on
the grape vine there and grab at it with his beak.

It was fun to watch his/her reaction. "I know when they know" and i'll settle for nothing less than them eating out of my hand someday.

I bought ten packs of Russian Mamoth sunflower seed and i will
grow a forest of them where right now its just a narley tangle
of vines then i'll dry the huge heads for winter. Plus i bought
the red variety for the different color.

Right After the birds......
yank out the striped seeds out of the seed heads the holes left behind make the most perfect place to put "hulled" sunflower seed
which is a bit pricier.

it's a bit tricky to dry them so they'll stay flat
and and not get moldy on the back side

so this year i'll make a large clamp style wood frame specifically for that purpous and find a dry place in the green house
to speed up that process.

One reason i get into this is because...you can be having the MOST crappiest day where everything possible seems to be going wrong and your JUST mad as hell in General...

and then one of these Happy ,totally cheerful little birds make it all melt all away in a single moment and you forget all about it.