Springtime

Spring has sprung here (finally!), and we're starting to get some flowers and buds on trees.

The last of the dark eyed juncos finally left about a week ago. I'll miss you, juncos!



The ducks are back! No baby ducks yet, but I love that the mallards come up to my deck. They're like vacuum cleaners, gobbling up all the seed leftovers that even the mourning doves won't touch.

After the horrible winter here that appears to have wiped out 80% of my backyard finch population, there are a few house finches that are still around (4 is the most I've counted, down from upwards of 30). I have yet to see the goldfinches return. I had 4 that wintered here, but haven't seen them since our last deep freeze.



This week, 4 white crowned sparrows have taken to visiting my feeders. One is out there right now. I had 2 come by over the winter, so I'm really glad to see these guys. A male and female cardinal stop by every so often, and of course the grackles and red-winged blackbirds have returned.

I've cut back on the offering of cheap bird seed, putting it only in 1 feeder now. The mourning doves and sparrows gobble it up, but so do the grackles and brown headed cowbirds. Oy. So I've been introducing safflower seed in one of the feeders. I also have nyger and sunflower hearts and year-round suet, and occasionally I'll put out the fruit and nut songbird mix (though the grackles usually mog that, too). I don't mind the grackles - it's just that they come here and eat EVERYTHING. I have 6 feeders, and filling them all used to last all day - but now that the grackles are back, they'll plow through it all by noon! So I've got to find something the grackles don't like.

I added a couple new birds to my life list a couple weeks ago, with a visit to Renwick Lake and to Lockport Prairie.

I met with double crested cormorants:


and blue winged teals:


Also saw the herons nesting, which was pretty cool.


There's a strange bit of green ivy-like leaves growing as sort of a blanket under the tree in my back yard. It's growing up some of the brush and twigs as well. I just noticed that it's only under my tree, and not all along the brush down the creek. A few of the same little leaves have sprouted up under my feeders. It must be something from the bird seed, growing! I wonder if it'll turn into any pretty flowers or anything. They look very green and lush right now.

That's all my news. We've got thunderstorms on tap all day today, so I put out minimal seed. It's been raining all morning, and while the birds had a little bit of a break just now, the rains are back and they've flown for cover in the tree. They're still singing, which is so nice to hear!

The House Finches

The House Finches are still absent. There are 3 that visit daily now, down from the 24 that used to come every day. Two males and a female. I'm afraid the rest of their flock didn't make it. We had another deep-freeze last night, with a 50 degree drop in temps in a matter of hours. I've seen the three finches today, so they're still ok.

Canada Geese have taken their place. There were close to 150 geese on the pond yesterday. There are probably a hundred that spent the night on the ice island last night. Now, half of them are sleeping on the ice and half are up on the lawn of the golf course, foraging around and honking.

That's a lotta geese!


A Canada Goose reflects


Airborn

Where are the finches?

I'm worried about the house finches in my area. They're usually here in droves, and this is the 3rd day that I haven't seen more than a couple at a time - and I've only seen males, no females.

I wonder if they didn't survive last week's deep freeze. :(

Bad news

The finch I rescued didn't make it. :(



Thank you to Willowbrook for trying to save this bird. The people at Willowbrook were kind and understanding. They provide an invaluable service to the community through wildlife education and rehabilitation.

Rescuing the sick finch

This morning, I went downstairs to feed the cats. At that time, I usually pull back the curtains so I and the cats can look out the window at the birds. As I pulled back the curtain this morning, the sick female finch that I posted about a couple weeks ago was sitting right there, at my patio door, trying to squawk at the glass. She was shaking and sort of hopping/falling over, and I swear she was trying to get my attention. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I've been watching her for a couple months. She's blind in one eye, and I'm guessing that she has house finch eye disease, mycoplasmal conjunctivitis. While it is possible to recover from the disease, most birds end up becoming blind and then dying of starvation or predation. A while back, this finch's flock started abandoning her, and I'd see her sitting alone in the brush even after the rest of the birds had been spooked away by a person or a hawk or a neighborhood dog. At that time, though, she was still able to fly. Last week, I noticed she was perching on the ground all week, and wouldn't ever fly up into the tree. Today, she hobbled around my deck and I just thought, that's it. She's sick and she's not getting better - she's getting worse. She looked like she was having trouble breathing. This disease can be treated, and I needed to help her before she starved or was eaten by a hawk, or worse, got more birds sick at my feeders.

I ran upstairs and got on the internet. I couldn't find a recent list of licensed wildlife rehabbers, so I called the vet's office that we took my mom's cat to last year. They were wonderfully nice and gave me the number to Willowbrook Wildlife Center, a state funded wildlife rehabilitation clinic and education center. I called Willowbrook, and they gave me the names and numbers for two local privately licensed rehabbers, but said that if I couldn't get a hold of either of them that they could take the bird.

Armed with that knowledge, I went downstairs to check on the bird, and she was gone. So I kept the numbers handy and kept an eye out.

A couple hours later, a hawk flew in and scared away all of the birds - all but one. She was sitting on the ground under the feeders. I grabbed a small box and went outside. Since she could only see from one eye, I approached her from the other side. I was able to go out through the sliding glass door and walk all the way up to within a foot of her before she knew I was there. That is NOT normal. When she saw me, she tried to hop away, and hopped over alongside the deck. I cornered her there and picked her up. She barely put up a fight. She couldn't fly away. I put her in the box and brought her inside, careful to lock the cats out of the room I was in.

I called the two local rehabbers. One is at the TLC animal shelter 5 minutes from my house, but they're closed Sundays and Mondays. The other is out in Monee, and I was able to get a hold of him, but he recommended I go up to Willowbrook, since I'm about the same distance from both, and they've got a vet on staff every day. He wouldn't be able to get the bird to his vet until tomorrow. I thanked him and headed up to Willowbrook.

The people there couldn't have been nicer. With the new 355 extension, it only took 20 minutes to get there (whereas google maps had it as a 50 minute drive - the extension isn't on the map yet). They have a ton of stuff to look at and animals to visit. I want to go up there when I've got more time to check it out. As it was, I had to get back home to meet up with some girls from work.

I gave the bird to the people at Willowbrook, and they said they'd send me a postcard to let me know if they are able to rehab and release the finch.

While this all should be happy stuff, I've been completely wracked with emotion over it. I can't figure out why, exactly. Am I sad that the finch is sick, and concerned for her welfare? Am I prematurely mourning her death? Am I worried that I've done the wrong thing, interrupting nature and all? Am I personalizing the whole thing, with thoughts like, "what if she had a family here and I just took her away from her family?" (Yeah, I know... birds don't have the same sort of social structures we do). I guess it's a combination of everything.

I hope she'll be ok.

House finch with an injured eye

Last week, I saw that one of the female house finches in my yard appeared to have an injured eye. I reported it as eye disease, but I was able to snap a photo of her today (through the digiscope) and I think it looks more injured than diseased. It appears healed, and she looks around with her one good eye, but she hasn't been hanging with her flock lately. She's been staying in the trees and brush in my back yard, coming out every so often to eat, and bouncing around with the dark eyed juncos. She can still fly, but I imagine she's at a great disadvantage with only one eye.

Her good side


Her injured eye


It has been a quiet day at the feeders again today. The temperature isn't too bad - it's 36 degrees now with highs in the low 40's today, as was yesterday. I heard the birds chirping at the feeders early this morning, but by 8:30am they were gone. A few finches stopped by and I was able to try out the digiscope setup, but there are landscapers outside working on the bushes, and I think that has scared the birds away for now.

Female house finch

Stalking the Stalker

This morning started out like most mornings. I filled the feeders (I'm filling a couple with black oil sunflower seed and a couple with a "gourmet" mixed seed) and watched the incoming mob of house sparrows.



These are the guys I affectionately referred to as "ice cream heads" before I had identified them. Hey, their caps remind me of chocolate vanilla swirl sundaes! What can I say? It's a big ol' sparrow party around here.



I plugged in the heated bird bath today. When I checked it this morning, it was frozen. Time to turn on the juice! The bird bath stayed firmly mounted through the windy weather the other day. I was quite pleased.



The day carried on. The slate colored dark eyed juncos visited (my new favorite backyard bird), and the ducks came for their usual mid-day lunch. This male got seeds all over his head - messy eater.



The females were a bit more discreet. I believe these are Mallards.



As afternoon approached, I saw a first in my yard: mourning doves, in the tree! They hung out here all summer, sitting on the deck railing or on the ground, but not once did I see them in the tree.

3 doves in a row


All of a sudden, I heard the whoosh of a flock full of birds flying up and over my house. I looked out the window, and the tree was bare... except for a hawk! I think this is an immature Cooper's Hawk, but I'm not sure. If anybody knows for sure, please leave a comment!



The hawk stayed for a good half hour or so, and I went outside ever so quietly to try to get some better pictures of it. The trees blocked most shots, but I got a few where you could see those piercing eyes.

It was a lot like stalking the stalker. I watched the hawk through the binoculars for a while, and he was very definitely looking for a bird to eat. After a while, a cat came up to the brush, also stalking the hawk!

The hawk finally left, and within a few minutes, all of the other birds came back to the feeders.

Upon return, I finally saw more house finches! I'd been afraid that the one male that was hanging around was alone, but today he had 3 other males and a few females with him. He's no longer a loner.



As night fell, the ducks swam off and the birds nestled into the trees. I'm left to wonder what they're all doing now.

The Lone Male House Finch

All of the summer finches have gone, except for this guy. According to whatbird.com, they're found in this area year-round, so I hope he'll be OK this winter. He has been hanging out in my back yard with the house sparrows.



It's a very windy night here in Chicagoland - the first windy night since I set up the new bird bath on my deck railing. Come morning, we'll see if the bracket was strong enough to hold the bath in place.