Friday, November 13, 2009

Bluebirds!

I've seen a few bluebirds before. At the park, near some rural fields, on a power line, but never at my house! Yesterday I looked outside and spotted no less than eight bluebirds munching on the poison ivy berries! I didn't think they'd come out this far out because it's pretty wooded here, though most of the people up here have at least an acre each cleared for their yards. The number of different birds I have seen on these vines in the last two weeks is making me really upset that we're planning on cutting the couple trees down in front of our house with the vines growing on them next spring. We're planning on digging out part of a small hillside to expand our front yard, put in a retaining wall, and make some new flowerbeds. But other than our deck out back, this is my prime birding spot (there is a multiflora rose brush pile around the bottoms of the tree where the ground feeders hang out too!) I am definitely going to have to get some bluebird boxes and other birdhouses up before next spring.





Notice the Junco eating the berries in the top left of this picture, too!





This adorable Carolina Wren has been hanging around the house the last couple weeks. Usually I hear him long before I see him, and he's so skittish, these are the only photos I've gotten of him!




White Throated Sparrows are loving the berries...



...and talking with their mouths open!



The cardinals have learned to levitate.


The song sparrow that has been hanging out almost exclusively in the big grassy plant that has gone to seed, finally came up to see what all the commotion was about at the feeder.


It's that time of year again... suet cupcakes!



"I just can't stop singing my praises for your suet dough recipie!"


Yum Yum


The feeder's spinning and I'm starting to get dizzy now.


This baby and it's sibling and mommy have been hanging out in our backyard all summer. When the babies still had spots, we were eating out on our deck, and they were just running around and frolicking for about 10 minutes! They weren't at all bothered by us. Now if they hear us they'll look, and occasionally walk back into the trees, but they don't seem to mind friends hanging out with them.

The sibling


Momma stood up to see what was happening when she heard me clicking away, then she went back to her lunch.

4 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your post. It's really wonderful to have so much wildlife visit the yard, especially when you get to watch the young ones grow and develop. The trick is being able to sit on your deck and enjoy the view without continually jumping up because you've seen something that needs attending to. I have not yet mastered that trick.

    As a destroyer of invasive alien plants, I'm obligated to suggest that you get rid of the multi-flora rose.

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  2. Hahaha....really cute narration. Love that levitating Red!!
    Your poison ivy berries are quite the hit!! For being so itchy for us, the birds sure love them. I've never in my life seen 8 Bluebirds together. Lucky you!

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  3. Thanks Steve, and yes the multiflora will be on it's way out in the spring before it gets it's leaves again. You should have seen the piles we've cut out and burned already... and the scratches on the arms and legs that ensued... it's like it knows where there's an inch of skin showing and sticks right in there! Oww! The one that's left up there is pretty small by comparison, but it's wrapped around a couple cherry trees, so it's going to be a bit tricky to get out, but i think we'll get it. I've already been considering collecting sticks or dead grapevines to make a new brush pile :) About invasives... We were walking down by the neighbors pond right before the leaves were changing and I found this AMAZING vine with these beautiful yellow berries so I cut some to take home to look up... of course it was Oriental Bittersweet. In very small amounts, it sure is pretty though!

    Thanks Kelly! I can't believe the number of different birds that are eating those berries! Birds I didnt even know would eat berries until the dead of winter! The bluebirds were amazing, at first I just saw a bird in a tree at a distance that was a different shape than the usuals around here, so I got out my telephoto and zoomed in on it, and the head was in shadow and it was a yellow sunrise, so the whole bird looked orange! I couldn't think of any small orange bird that should be here right now, so I kept snapping and she was nice enough to come closer for me :) I have mealworms, but I didn't dare go and scare them away from their first visit to see us! It was warm and they didn't seem to have any trouble finding their own food :)

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  4. Despite the fact that we live in the woods, we just don't have many berry-producing plants around to draw the berry eaters in! I would love to have bluebirds at our feeders. I've tried putting mealworms out before, but the bluebirds didn't come. Oh well. I love your suet cupcakes - that's so cute!

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