Distinguishing Individuals

Meet William, the Red-winged Blackbird.

It is not very often that I give individual wild creatures a name.  One reason for this is because I can't usually tell them apart.   All Chickadees look alike to me, try though I might to recognize feather patterns or other characteristics that would help me know them as individuals.  

Same way with most birds.  When they are nesting, I know that the male and female Bluebirds using a particular box are those particular individuals, but for the most part my brain doesn't seem up to the challenge of recognizing tiny differences that would help me tell birds of the same species apart.   (There's an interesting article here about that subject).

But, this January, I had the privilege to have one Red-winged Blackbird as a distinguished individual at my feeders.  I held off naming him for quite awhile, but then one day it just seemed to me that he needed a name and the name "William" came to me.  I liked that name because at times he looked rather dignified, so he could be called by his full name-- and at other times he acted more like a "Willie" and I could call him that.

Rather interestingly, the book I was reading during the same time that William was hanging out at our feeders was this:

Published in 2006, it's a story by Bob Levy of his birding experiences in Central Park, featuring George, a Red-winged Blackbird that came to his hand for peanuts.  It's a good, light read if you are interested in birding.  Obviously, I'm not the only one who names their wild bird friends. 

At first, William was a little skittish.  When I pointed my camera out the window, he usually took off immediately.  But he eventually got used to it.

Isn't he a handsome bird?

I'm guessing he's a youngish bird because of the brown on the edges of his feathers.

He was not picky about where he would eat.  The sunflowers in the feeders were his first choice, but corn on the ground was okay, too.

Or eating on the bird table on a very cold day when it was necessary to fluff out those feathers to keep warm.

Sometimes he would just sit in the sunshine-- maybe he enjoyed the thermal effect of sun on black feathers?

You can't see much of his red epaulets in any of these photos.  William didn't need to show them to defend his territory since he was the only one of his kind around.

Above is a photo of one of the many Red-winged Blackbirds in our swamp last summer.  Looks like he was defending a nest territory.

In the next photo you can see another bird in the spring time showing the difference between its all black feathers and William's more mottled look.

Male Red-wings are an easy bird for most people to recognize, but the females are a little trickier.  In fact, I'd say they are one of the more confusing birds for beginning birders.  They don't look at all like the males (except for size and bill-shape) and they look more like sparrows.  Here's a female that was recovering from being stunned from a window strike, in my daughter's hands.

Females arrive here a week or so after the males in the spring and they tend to be more secretive, especially during nesting season, and I don't have any other photos of them.  

Meanwhile, in the spring the males are singing their hearts out on prominent perches trying to persuade a female to be their mate.  If you would like to read more about blackbird behavior, I recommend this article called 'Interpreting Red-winged Blackbird Behavior'.

Back to the present... at least back to January 17th.  It was a rather nasty day, with sleet and snow coming down.  William didn't look too happy.

He still was eating at the feeder though.

But that turned out to be the last day I saw him.  I'm hopeful that he decided to follow the rest of the flock to a more southern location.  I hope that if he did, he enjoyed the blizzard they had!  We didn't get any snow from the huge storm... maybe he should have stayed here.

I thought a day or two later I had another individual I could recognize because it was the only one at the feeders.

But then two more Starlings showed up and all three looked identical to me!  I wonder if I will 'know' William if he returns in the spring with dozens of his kind?  I'm guessing not! 

Swinging Cradles

Baltimore Orioles have been long gone from here, spending their winter in the tropics, but I think of them often... because they've left behind their hanging cradles.

It's pretty hard to know how many orioles we have in the spring.  They flock to the jelly feeder.

Besides four male Baltimore Orioles, do you see another bird in the photo?

We've been putting out grape jelly for them for a number of years now, and I think we have a popular spot for them!  We have other visitors to the jelly feeder, which you can read about in my post called, "Jelly Feeder Parade."

Though the jelly provides a high energy snack they need, I feel a little bad just giving them what seems like junk food to me, so I also give them fruit-- like banana...  

or oranges.

It's hard to count how many birds are using our feeders since they are constantly coming and going.  I decided to try to count their nests from last summer while it is easy to find the nests in the bare tree branches.

All these nests are in close proximity to our house.

Here's number one:

As typical of orioles, it's in the tip top of a tall tree-- you can see it circled in the next photo.

Number two is just down the road a short way.

This one looks like it's been blown around quite a bit since it was used, I'd say.

Number three is also along the road, right in front of our house in fact.

It is still in pretty good shape.

Fairly close to that is number four.

It's in one of the poplar trees in our front yard.

Walking on down the road in front of our house, I expected to see the next oriole nest above our mailbox.  I know it was there, as I watched it each day when I was getting the mail, especially when the parents were actively feeding their babies.  But sometime between November 17th and today, it disappeared.  I think probably the branch it had been on fell down.  Here's the photo from November.

In that photo the orioles nest is on the left and a cedar waxwing nest on the right.
Here's a photo of the same spot from today.

Orioles make such strong nests, they usually last a long time.  Although, I've read that female orioles (which make their nests in about a week) sometimes use material from old nests.  The females do most of the job of weaving their nests, though occasionally her mate will supply material for her to use.  After attaching long grasses to the tree limb, she makes an outer bowl, then an inner bowl, and finally lines it with soft materials.  In the next photo you can see a female taking some hair that I provided for the lining!

Okay, back to counting nests.  We were up to four, and I'm going to count the missing one as number five.

Number six is on down the road just past our place.  It's way up in the outer branch of a maple, over the road.

You can see a bit of a piece of blue tarp in it.

Number seven is located in what we call our 'little woods'.  

Can you find it in the center of the photo above?
It's also visible from our dining room window.

I had one more to count, but though I know it was there this summer, it was gone like number five.  I'm certain about that one, too, so that's eight.  Orioles only have one brood per season, so I think we had 8 oriole families very close by.  That's not a 'scientific fact' but I'd say reasonably certain.  

The other thing I am absolutely certain of is how much I enjoy seeing them and I'm looking forward to their return, around the beginning of May.  The jelly feeder will be ready, and I'm keeping a bag of overripe bananas in the freezer for them!  UPDATE:  While the birds loved the grapes I had frozen, they didn't eat the bananas once they were thawed out.  So I don't recommend using frozen bananas!

Bundle Up or Fluff Up!

Winter weather hit us yesterday.  Without even knowing the forecast, I could tell from the number of birds at our feeders that some colder weather was coming.  I try to go for a walk everyday, and yesterday morning I was thinking how nice it was to walk on bare ground in January.  Today I walked in about 2 -3" of light, fluffy snow and that was good, too... except when the wind picked up!  

I was bundled up, but the wind was ferocious.  I didn't last outside as long as usual.

At first I was in the shelter of some trees, along the edge of this field.

It was fun to see that someone else had walked thru this snow before me.  

This is looking back.  You can see my tracks there now, and some of the snow blowing out of the tops of the trees.  The snow still had not blown off the weeds.

I'm always checking the fields for birds that might not come to my feeders, but there were none today.  I also check the coniferous trees.... maybe I'll see a crossbill or a red-breasted nuthatch, you never know!

We have a very heavy crop of cones this year, so maybe sometime this winter I'll see some unusual birds on them.  But there were none today.

There is always something interesting to see though.  I really like how the snow melted and formed a garland of sorts on this old gate.

Not sure when it got warm enough to melt, but perhaps the early sunshine warmed the metal enough.

I had planned to walk all the way around my usual loop.  But this was happening:

You really can't see the full effect in the photo, but snow was blowing across the field like crazy!

Go that way, or back the way I came?

Looking back at my trail, I notice that I walked rather like a drunken sailor.  Ha ha... well, I was stopping every so often to look around.  The weather looks okay in that photo, but that's an illusion... here's a video:

I made the decision to head back toward home!

I could watch the birds from inside our warm house.  Even though I had bundled up, my fingers were frozen (from taking my mittens off to take photos).  

I'm venturing out again soon to replenish the bird feeders.  The birds eat a lot on these kind of days.  Even though they can fluff up to keep warm, they need to eat a lot to keep their inner fires burning.

This downy woodpecker was being buffeted by the wind, while he was having a buffet of high-energy suet nuggets.

You can see how fluffed up this goldfinch was - he doesn't need a down vest, he already has one built in.

The snowbirds (dark-eyed juncos) don't seem to mind the weather, though you can see I need to get out there and restock the bird table... there's not much food left on it.

It's time for me to bundle up again and go outside to feed them.  Brrr!

A New Year and some New Things

I am in the early stages of feeling like I want to go into hibernation, so I don't think I have many words for this post, but I do have photos to share.  

A week of 2016 is already 'history', which shows how time flies.  I will have to remember that throughout January and February when the dark days can seem awfully long.

This week has actually been pretty busy - with birds, animals, and more! 

The birds have been enjoying their Christmas presents.

Chickadees on homemade ornament feeder.

Mourning Dove on Christmas gift.

Goldfinch on new window feeder.

New Years Day means starting a new list of birds seen on our property.  Here are some highlights from the 2016 list so far:

Eastern Bluebird on January 2nd.

Pileated Woodpecker also on January 2nd.

A chilly looking Red-winged Blackbird on January 5th.

This Pine Siskin was the most recent addition, #23 on January 6th.

An update on the Canada Goose who was featured in this post, as of yesterday, it was still okay.

The swamp is mostly covered with ice now, thanks to the extremely cold temperatures of recent days.  I have been putting some corn out for the goose.   I think that crows may sometimes get the corn first, but hopefully the goose gets some, too.

The goose is pretty well camouflaged.  See if you can find it in the middle of the next photo.

Now for the animals that I mentioned.  With the colder weather we've had some squirrels at the feeders, such as this Red Squirrel:

And this Grey Squirrel, keeping itself warm with its tail on a bitter cold day.

They were both eating under the bird table, but keeping an eye on each other!

 During the unusually warm weather we had, I wondered if a chipmunk would make an appearance.  Sure enough, one did, and it was also at the feeders after we got some snow on January 2nd.

Of course, my trusty animal friend, Ruby, still comes to visit and go for walks with me.

It was quite sparkly with frost this morning as we walked, which you can see a little bit in the photo.  

A row of nesting boxes is waiting with me for the arrival of tree swallows.  It will be awhile-- and  I'm trying to be patient, since I can't hibernate like the chipmunks.

Another new addition -- also waiting for spring,  waiting for someone else is this box.

I'm hoping a pair of Kestrels will find this new nesting box sometime in March.  (Thanks to my brother for the box.)

My husband promises to keep the field mowed so they can find lots of food in the hayfield to feed a family.

But for now, winter is settling in, with ice forming on the little creek.

At least the sun is shining today, as Ruby and I go walking.

And ice can be fun to see, too...

whether they be tiny icicles or large ones;

and if we get too tired of ice, Ruby and I can enjoy a touch of the tropics in our sunroom.

and another new addition in the window.

Thanks, Laura, for the Monarch in winter!