H.J. Ruiz – Avian101 – Page 706 – "My Backyard Visitors" – All about birds

Backyard Gossip

The activity of birds in my backyard has increased considerably the past few days, I’ve seen more Northern Cardinals both male and female flying around and chasing each others most likely they are mates. Mourning Doves, they never left my place and they reproduce easily so I see more each day!. They pass their time ‘jumping’ each other. The Brown-headed Cowbirds are always numerous, they like to travel in flocks, drop in and my feeders become an “All you can eat” restaurant same with Red-winged Blackbirds, they get to the feeders, chase away the rest of birds and toss their heads side to side and spread all the seeds so they can pick only the ones they like, Song Sparrows just applaud that move because the seeds will fall to the deck floor and they love to eat there. Field Sparrows opt for that move too away from the bullies. This morning I saw a bunch of Common Grackles first time this season so it’s going to get even more interesting at chow time. What a mess!

Northern Mockingbirds are the first birds that go to the feeders in the morning. When I finish the refilling of seeds, as soon as I turn my back I just turn my head and I assure you that i’ll see a N. Mockingbird already by the saucer. Sporadically he’ll get to the saucer and get a piece of peanut and leave. Even when there’re more than one Mockingbird they proceed the same way. They prefer to eat invertebrates more than seeds.

I have a family of Eastern Bluebirds now nesting in a bird house but I hardly see them. They very seldom come near the other birds. I have another bird house occupied by Carolina Chickadees and them I see daily, other Chickadees are nesting on trees. I do not disturb them ever.

American Goldfinches only stop-by eat and take off after a while, same with House Finches, Carolina Wrens, White-throated Sparrows, Indigo Buntings. European Starlings I usually see them after any rainfall, they pull worms out of the lawn. American Crows I hear them and see them once in a while walking the grounds picking insects. A Cooper’s Hawk is visiting my backyard more often now. When I see him perched on the deck railing as soon as I grab the camera he flies away. There’s another way that I know he’s been hanging out on the deck he loves to leave his large poop as…I guess his signature or perhaps a gift for me! Yuk! 😦

So, that about the summary of what’s going on these days in my backyard. I believe that I will do some outdoors work tomorrow afternoon if it doesn’t rain of course!

Palm Warbler

Red-shouldered Hawk

American Crow

Great Blue Heron

Eastern Bluebird (M)

European Starling

Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101

Tags: American Crow, birds, Eastern Bluebird, European Starling, Great Blue Heron, nature, Palm Warbler, photography, photos of birds, Red Shouldered Hawk

The Power of Poop

Last Sunday I posted one panoramic picture of three Canada Geese swimming in the lake as the main subject. This brought up a conversation with a friend referring to the C. Geese, she expressed her dislike for them but she did not enter into more details as of to know why she wasn’t fond of them, however she mentioned that after seeing them so nicely portrayed in my picture she changed her mind and loved them. My reply was mostly in reference of me not liking them either but several years before I moved to Georgia. I used to live in New Jersey and played golf regularly with some of my friends. Most golf courses in our area were constantly used as a migratory Canada Geese hangout and the greens were pelted with tons of geese poop. It was real unpleasant to be stepping on poop all the time.

I got another message from my friend immediately expressing her amusement and cause for laughter reading my replay, then she told me that the reason why she didn’t like them was because in the town where she lives there a nice park that gets covered with tons of C. Goose poop every year and that makes it disgusting!

– I live in Georgia now and I don’t play golf anymore. So I don’t have any beef against the Canada geese now. But let me tell you an anecdote that happened to me at a golf course once, this is a true story.

“Four of us friends were out playing golf one morning, while we walked and played we used to converse and laugh a lot, it was having fun hitting the links. In parts of this golf course there are water streams not very wide or deep but made good part of the course landscaping design. When players get to those points there are nice wooden bridges built as aesthetic objects and also as a way to cross to the other side of the stream.

– In the surrounding areas you can see geese pecking on the grass some other are preening or simple standing. We continue our game until we got about 30 feet before the stream and is my turn to hit the ball, make my pick of the iron number and get my striking position. I proceed and strike the golf ball with force in direction to the flag, the ball is now in the air when suddenly a goose flies across the path of the speeding ball, this bird comes out of nowhere already high in the air we look at this scene like in slow motion, the ball hit the goose square in the middle and we see it barreling down into the stream. We all run to the stream ditch and we see the bird emerge from the water and take off flying! We sigh of relief and we look at each other and smile.

My three friends told that story every time that we got together or with other friends at any reunion.

Moral: