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The thread for birds and birding
- Thread starter Proud2baLaker
- Start date
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Actually, we originally downloaded seek to help with plant IDs. Until it picked up an animal once. Then we realized it was for multiple types of identifications. It's a solid app as well.
We use Audubon to help track the migrations too. You'll know exactly when to put out the hummingbird and oriole feeders. Once they started to hit Des Moines we hung them. They arrived a couple days later
We use Audubon to help track the migrations too. You'll know exactly when to put out the hummingbird and oriole feeders. Once they started to hit Des Moines we hung them. They arrived a couple days later
If you are even a casual birder, make sure you download the Merlin app (put out by The Cornell Lab). You can upload pictures to help with ID. It also has a really cool feature where you can have it start recording bird songs on your phone and it will identify them as it hears them. Just have to have your location enabled for the app so it can make sure it knows what it should be hearing. It's been awesome and is starting to help me recognize them myself. You can mark birds as you see/hear them and add them to your life list on the app. All around just a great, fun app.
Been a while since I posted any pictures so might as well (even though they eventually disappear). With migration in full swing I have had a small flock of Lazuli Buntings in my yard regularly feeding. I have a few pics of multiple birds but they are skiddish so it has been tough to get a good pic of the flock. I did get a few nice ones last night of this guy who was fairly cooperative and perched in an open area on a tree. Trying to keep the seed they like always present in hopes they stay for a while. Last year they moved on pretty quick but I have had them around longer this year
Fun fact: my cousin's husband was one of the lead developers of Merlin. He was on the lab's "junior" team at the World Series of Birding while still in his 20s. One time, a relative asked him how he became so knowledgeable about birds. He said, "You know how some middle-schoolers become obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons and they just hole up in the basement for days on end year after year working on their characters and scenarios and such? That was me - just with birds."
Kepler
Cornell Big Red
This is wonderful. Thank you for sharing it. He sounds like a great person.
The life satisfaction pyramid inverts somewhere in one's mid-20s. I wish every intelligent weirdo in her teens who is suicidal knew that if she can just hold on for ten more years she will own the universe, while her tormenters will be sliding unalterably towards the ignominious misery and oblivion of conservatives.
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
That is cool. It's a great app and I have been sharing it with friends who are also sharing it with friends. It is also mentioned regularly in the birding group I participate in on Facebook. Give him my thanks for his efforts in it's development. Although my career is in fisheries/aquaculture and I love it, birds are the most fascinating part of nature for me. I love looking for new species, watching behaviors, listening to songs, etc.
And to respond to Kepler, yeah, I have found myself much more happy in the last 10 years or so (since I turned 30) especially once I embraced some hobbies a bit more. I love collecting Lego now and wish I hadn't gone through a "this is kid's stuff" phase as much in high school and college and just continued doing the things I enjoy (I missed out on some great LEGO sets that are now retired and expensive and hard to come by). I spend my time building and collecting Lego. Tying flies for fly fishing and fly fishing itself. Going birding and doing bird photography. Doing jigsaw puzzles (I may be a bit picky on subject but I will spend weekend mornings with a coffee and some music just doing puzzles). A lot of "introverted" type activities that were made to seem like less than simply because of that. I've also made sure to surround myself with friends who encourage, embrace, and support my hobbies. I have one friend that has come to enjoy birding as well and actively suggests it as a weekend activity.
He is a wonderful person - he would definitely fall on the human side of your human/ape divide. Even better, he's one of the rarest ones who remained human despite his background - his father owns a media company that, among other things, owns the distribution rights for the Grammy awards ceremony for many foreign countries, so he and my cousin go to the Grammys almost every year. Nothing against his parents at all - they are great, too, but sometimes wealth ruins the next generation despite the parents' best efforts.
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Figured it was time to replace the grape jelly offerings with mealworms. Orioles were having none of it. Then the starlings found the worms. Went back to grape jelly and the orioles are back and the starlings aren't too fond of it.
Does anyone know:
A) Is it just too early to switch to mealworms for orioles? I know there's a point at which you should switch to higher protein and lower sugar. I'm not sure if it's just that sugar is cross-species addictive and that's just what they like or what. I also don't want to just keep attracting the fucking starlings either.
B) Is there any way to discourage starlings exclusively from the feeders? Or are they just miserable pieces of shit that I'm stuck with?
Does anyone know:
A) Is it just too early to switch to mealworms for orioles? I know there's a point at which you should switch to higher protein and lower sugar. I'm not sure if it's just that sugar is cross-species addictive and that's just what they like or what. I also don't want to just keep attracting the fucking starlings either.
B) Is there any way to discourage starlings exclusively from the feeders? Or are they just miserable pieces of shit that I'm stuck with?
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
There are ways to deter starlings. I try to offer mostly safflower instead of sunflower as squirrels, starlings, grackles, and other less than desirable species do not like it. Use finch feeds the are mostly nyjer and white millet if possible. If you want to have sunflower, make sure it is whole in shell. Suet cakes are great but starlings will come to them. However, if you hang it right so that any bird that wants to eat it has to hang upside down to eat it (e.g. with their feed towards the sky and their back to the ground) you wont get starlings as they are not capable or not fans of doing that. Just have to make sure there is a wide enough perimeter if you will so they can't sit on top and just reach down. Here is a great link with those ideas and more: https://birdwatchinghq.com/stop-starlings/
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Thanks, good info.
Our biggest issue is the mealworms. We've been trying to switch the orioles over but they basically got assaulted by the starlings and haven't come back to the tray feeder :-(
Was looking at some of the starling-excluding feeders. Most are fairly expensive. Looks like most have a 1.5" mesh, give or take. Might try to buy some 1.5" mesh wire and see if that's small enough for the starlings to be excluded but still let in the orioles. There's not a huge difference in size between them. But it might be enough to slow them down. Because the tray feeder lasts about 30 minutes.
back to my other question though. Is it fine to keep feeding them grape jelly? Or should they be weaned off of it?
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
Not sure on the jelly question honestly. I have never used it. But I would imagine they wean themselves off of it more than anything. Probably more a matter of when they start nesting and feeding young and need more protein for building vs sugar for energy.
dxmnkd316
Lucia Apologist
Just one more note. I know this sounds extreme, but the starlings are quite bad this year and it's really frustrating and expensive to keep feeding the birds. THis is the first time I actually wished I lived out in the boonies so I could take care of this invasive pest semi-permanently. Again, I know that's extreme, but they are an invasive species that actively kill or drive out native species. Our stupid neighbors lay out corn in their front yard to feed the racoons and other animals (don't get me started) so it just invites the starlings from the get go. Add to that our other dumb neighbbor who has holes in his siding and has never fixed it. There are three active starling nests in the side of his house. like w t .f.
Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
Blackpoll, common nighthawk, indigo bunting and scarlet tanager today, at a casual family picnic... And I wasn't even trying.
(Often seems to work better like that.)
(Often seems to work better like that.)
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Fishman'81
Black Bear since D-2
If you are even a casual birder, make sure you download the Merlin app (put out by The Cornell Lab). You can upload pictures to help with ID. It also has a really cool feature where you can have it start recording bird songs on your phone and it will identify them as it hears them. Just have to have your location enabled for the app so it can make sure it knows what it should be hearing. It's been awesome and is starting to help me recognize them myself. You can mark birds as you see/hear them and add them to your life list on the app. All around just a great, fun app.
Been a while since I posted any pictures so might as well (even though they eventually disappear). With migration in full swing I have had a small flock of Lazuli Buntings in my yard regularly feeding. I have a few pics of multiple birds but they are skiddish so it has been tough to get a good pic of the flock. I did get a few nice ones last night of this guy who was fairly cooperative and perched in an open area on a tree. Trying to keep the seed they like always present in hopes they stay for a while. Last year they moved on pretty quick but I have had them around longer this year
Merlin is a great tool, but it still has kinks.
EG, I can watch a phoebe sing in real time, and Merlin says "red-eyed vireo".
Getting better all the time, but take the IDs with a grain of salt.
Or a handful, right now.
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
Perhaps not surprising to birders, he is a Cornell grad (though he didn't study ornithology formally). Wild though. Apparently only thought to be around 11,000 species in the wild. At most 20 people have seen 9,000 and around 60 have seen 8,000.
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
With the new forum, thought I would do a little test here. It looked like people have been able to post pictures no problem and I used to post a lot in this thread but they would disappear after a while. Curious to see if that will happen again.
Anyway, this is a picture I took in the winter of 2023-2024. This Mourning Dove was perched in a tree in my yard and took a little snooze for an hour or so. Got this picture just before it fell asleep. I did some color adjustment to make things pop a little bit. I am very much considering have a print made to display on my wall.
Anyway, this is a picture I took in the winter of 2023-2024. This Mourning Dove was perched in a tree in my yard and took a little snooze for an hour or so. Got this picture just before it fell asleep. I did some color adjustment to make things pop a little bit. I am very much considering have a print made to display on my wall.
RaceBoarder
Waiting for the Snow to fly...
That's a super cool shot... Dude is just snuggled up with the orange leaves in the background.
Very solid grab on this one!
Very solid grab on this one!
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
Thank you much. I'm going to be posting more pics here and there. Got to try to maintain some level of sanity and birds certainly help for me
Proud2baLaker
Master of Science
A timeline cleanse...
This is a Black-capped Chickadee. Native year-round to the northern US and parts of Canada from New Brunswick all the way over to the Pacific and up into parts of southern and central Alaska. In the US they dip into the Appalachians along the Tenn./NC border and just into northern New Mexico. Quite common at bird feeders.
A few interesting facts: They will hide seed and other food items for later with a single chickadee remembering thousands of hiding places. They apparently will "delete" old information from their brains by allowing certain neurons to die each fall, replacing them with new neurons so their small brains can better adapt to changes in environment and social flocks. How they determined that I do not know but I find it fascinating.
This pic came at the end of a hike right back at the parking area. A small flock was gathering seed from these sunflower like flowers. They move fast so pictures were difficult at times but I got a few. This was my favorite especially once I realized I got one with a small seed in its beak. I've also just now realized after looking at the photo closer, that it is banded. I wonder where and when it was first banded. We have a significant banding station in Idaho at a mountain top outside Boise that does a lot (that was partially lost in a fire this past year
) so I am curious if it was them or if they have had it come through. Wish I could see the info on it
This is a Black-capped Chickadee. Native year-round to the northern US and parts of Canada from New Brunswick all the way over to the Pacific and up into parts of southern and central Alaska. In the US they dip into the Appalachians along the Tenn./NC border and just into northern New Mexico. Quite common at bird feeders.
A few interesting facts: They will hide seed and other food items for later with a single chickadee remembering thousands of hiding places. They apparently will "delete" old information from their brains by allowing certain neurons to die each fall, replacing them with new neurons so their small brains can better adapt to changes in environment and social flocks. How they determined that I do not know but I find it fascinating.
This pic came at the end of a hike right back at the parking area. A small flock was gathering seed from these sunflower like flowers. They move fast so pictures were difficult at times but I got a few. This was my favorite especially once I realized I got one with a small seed in its beak. I've also just now realized after looking at the photo closer, that it is banded. I wonder where and when it was first banded. We have a significant banding station in Idaho at a mountain top outside Boise that does a lot (that was partially lost in a fire this past year
) so I am curious if it was them or if they have had it come through. Wish I could see the info on it
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