Preparing for the Big Chill

Oh, birdies, get ready. The temperature is about to change. BIG time.

This weekend's highs will be in the single digits, with possible wind chills of 30 below zero.

I prepared by running to the store to stock up on bird seed. I cleaned out a couple of the feeders really good and refilled them. I put out an extra plate of seed on the deck for the juncos and mourning doves, who prefer to stay low, and hung a couple seed bells in the tree. The woodpeckers prefer to hang out by the tree instead of in the finch/sparrow traffic by the deck. I also put out two suet cages in the tree, as Walmart finally stocked them! I've been meaning to buy them online, but hadn't gotten around to it.

Then I made up a couple peanut butter and seed acorns, and chopped up an apple for the starlings.

There's a lot of food out there, and I hope it's enough for the birds to stock up for this brutal weekend we're about to have. I'm glad my sick finch is inside safe and warm at Willowbrook instead of out in this. I think about her a lot and keep checking my mail for a post card from Willowbrook, announcing her fate. I hope she's OK.

Cold and Windy

Hello, birds! How about a 30+ degree temperature drop and some 45mph wind gusts to get you into the holiday spirit?

Oy the poor birds! Yesterday, they hardly ate anything out of the feeders, having free range in the 50 degree temps and vanishing snow cover. Overnight, the temperature dropped into the teens and the wind picked up. Today, they've eaten me out of house and home and probably could have eaten more - but I didn't want to go out and scare them all away to refill the feeders, figuring they were still foraging on the ground and seemed to be doing alright. Daylight is just about gone, and only a few stragglers are left at the feeders. I don't know how they survive these cold winters!

They had a hard time with the wind today.

Check out this cardinal - the wind was blowing from the west, left to right as you look at this photo:


No, he's not posing! That's the wind blowing him!

He had a much easier time on the platform feeder, but still you can see his crown feathers blowing left to right:


I was really worried for the mourning doves. Three times, they took off to fly away and one ran into the house, blown off course by the wind. None were stunned - I don't think they hit head first as they were trying to fly away from the house but the wind gusts threw them backwards. They all continued flying away, but still - it can't be good for their poor little bodies to take that beating. They're the only ones left in the yard now, scrounging for the last of the seeds off the ground.

The most poofed out mourning dove EVER:


It surprises me that only a few starlings visit per day. I've seen the whole flock a few times (I've counted 17 of them), but they rarely come en masse. More often, 2 or 3 show up, and they stick to either the nut/seed bell over in the tree, or the suet feeder. They really don't bother the smaller birds, contrary to their reputations. They do fight with each other a lot, though!



I finally got a shot of the American Tree Sparrow. I was able to confirm the American Tree Sparrow ID today, as this one faced me a few times and I was able to see the dark spot on its chest through my binoculars. I think (s)he is a loner. I've never seen more than one here. It's nice to have some variety in the winter.



The American Tree Sparrow nests in northern Canada, but unlike those Common Redpolls, these sparrows do migrate south to the US every winter. It's hard to imagine flying south into Chicago and stopping. I just want to say to these guys, "Keep flying! Just a little longer! It's warmer down there!" I know it's all relative, but the current 18 degrees F can't feel warm to too many people (or birds!) I'm already chilled to the bone thinking of filling the feeders tonight. I think I'll go out a bit early, as soon as night falls and the birds are gone.

The winds are really howling out there. Tomorrow's high is 27F and hopefully the winds will die down a bit.

A for Effort

The Northern Cardinal was back today, and he was quite a bit more bold than in previous visits. He hung out in the yard for most of the afternoon, spending most of his time working on the hanging fruit/nut/seed bell in the tree. He likes to hide deeper in the tree and down in the brush, but I was able to snap a few shots of his acrobatic attempts to grab seeds off of what's left of the bell.

The forecast is calling for 6+ inches of snow tonight, and I can tell it's coming by the hordes of birds that have been at the feeders all day. Dusk will be upon us soon, so I hope the birds got enough to eat for the night.

Splashes of Red

The cardinal was back again briefly this morning. Here I caught him checking out the new nut/fruit/seed bell with a house finch. It's nice to see some splashes of red in the tree.



We had some freezing rain last night, so the tree is coated in ice and the birds are out in earnest taking advantage of the feeders. Even as I've watched for the past half hour or so, the ice seems to be melting off the tree. Traffic maps show "green" so hopefully getting to work today won't be too bad.

And because I think they're cute, here are male and female white crowned sparrows:

Male


Female

Who needs sleep?

Sleep was neither lengthy nor restful last night. I have no idea why. If all had gone according to plan, my alarm clock would have gone off a minute ago, and I'd be snoozing right now. Instead, I've been up for 3 1/2 hours after sleeping for less than 4.

I'm not one to give up on trying to sleep. Damn it, I'll force myself to sleep if need be! Unfortunately for me (since today is the second of my "long days" at work), I had so much work I needed to get done before noon today that I couldn't stop thinking about it once I woke up.

Couple that with the fact that the hawk was back for another meal today, and ate the damn junco right beneath my bedroom window; there was no going back to sleep for me.

Why the juncos? Why not the house sparrows? Not that I dislike the sparrows, but there are like 5 house sparrows for every one junco at my feeders. And the juncos are SO adorable! Cute little white bellies.



We got our first measurable snow last night, and the birds have been INSANE at the feeders this morning.

The mystery bird was back again today, and again I couldn't get a photo of him before he left, but he was pecking on a tree when I saw him... clues... I think he's a Northern Flicker woodpecker. I can't say with certainty until I get a pic of him or see him a couple more times so I can figure out his beak shape and check out the colors of his crown and rump (ha! I said rump!) But I suspected that's what he might be when I first saw him, and now that he did some tree pecking, I think I was right. The Downy hasn't been back. He'd better hurry. The finches and juncos have figured out how to peck at the woodpecker fruit/nut seed block.

/edit - GOT A PIC of the mystery bird! Holy cow, I do NOT think this is a Flicker and I have NO clue what it is! I can't find it in any of my books. I've asked the Flickr bird ID group again...





The red winged blackbird visited briefly this morning, and the trees have been full of house sparrows, finches, and mourning doves all day.

I guess I'd better go to work now that I've spent an hour birding! I love my avian friends!

Here Come the Juncos!

I had my largest junco visit this morning - 9! There are usually 3-4 visiting, and I think that became 3 last week when the hawk made a catch. But today, there are 9 little ones out there hopping around.



I added a block of nut and fruit (a "woodpecker block") to the tree in the back yard, and I've got a new octagonal tray feeder hanging on the deck. I haven't seen the downy woodpecker around today to try the block, but a couple female finches are giving it their best go! A couple finches ate out of the new cedar feeder today, but nobody seems to be trying the suet yet.

We're expecting 2-4 inches of snow tonight, so hopefully the restocking I did last night will give the birds enough fuel to get through the snow storm.

House Arrest

I'm quarantined to the house today, as an ice storm has begun and they say that a difference of 1-2 degrees will determine whether we get a quarter inch of ice cover or just snow. It is currently falling as freezing rain, which does not bode well for the worst case scenario!

As I paused at the end of typing that sentence, I caught a bird out of the corner of my eye that looked unusual. I grabbed the binoculars, and... OMG! NEW BIRD!

This time, I had the long lens on the camera and all I had to do was pop off the lens cap and fire away. I grabbed some through-the-screen crappy shots, just to make sure I got something for identification purposes. Then I ran to my bedroom, where it's easier to get higher up to shoot through the non-screened glass. (My desk is in front of my office window). I should put a step stool in my bedroom - then I'd have it made! (Or, I should just figure out how to remove the stupid screens - *still* can't figure it out).



I think he's a Downy Woodpecker. At first I thought Hairy woodpecker, but apparently Downy's have much smaller bills. I didn't get a good profile shot of this guy, but his bill seems pretty small. The Hairy's bill is as long as its head, and this guy's bill doesn't look that long. So I'm going with Downy. I've submitted the photo to Flickr's Bird ID group to see if I can't get some help from the experts.

I was excitedly editing that photo when I heard the tell-tale swoosh of birds departing en masse, which only means one thing: a hawk is nearby. I stood to get a better view out the window, and sure enough, a hawk was weaving in and out of the brush, chasing a bird. "Fly away, guys, fly away!" The hawk swooped down to the ground and... yup. He caught one. I think he caught a junco. I watch in horror as he came out from the brush to the lawn. He stood there for a few minutes (probably squeezing the bird to death - I read that's what they do). I was frozen, staring. He didn't seem to be going anywhere, and I figured I should probably grab my camera. This is all part of it, right?

I grabbed the camera from my desk and ran back to my bedroom. I snapped a few shots, and as the hawk started eating the bird, I broke into tears. I've never been very good at the whole food chain/circle of life thing. When I was little, I loved watching nature shows on TV, but inevitably, there was always a scene where the featured animal became prey to a larger animal, and I'd burst into tears and run to my room. My dad would try to explain that it's just nature, but I couldn't help but sympathize with the poor victim, the underdog. Eventually my mom said, "You have GOT to stop watching those shows!" after one show had me practically hyperventilating in tears. I did stop watching them for a long time. I'd flip past a show on TV with some cute animal and think, keep flipping... he's just going to die anyway.

Then, I went to see March of the Penguins at the movie theater. All of the previews were adorable and funny! I didn't realize it was an actual documentary. Poor Randy. By the end, after seeing the baby eggs freeze and the predator birds attacking the baby penguins, I was a running snot faucet, nearly sobbing as we left at the end of the movie.

I realize that it's probably a good life lesson to come to terms with the food chain. Even as I watched the hawk eating a bird that was here because I lured him to my feeders, I was thinking in the back of my head that the hawk was having a meal, too, and he wouldn't starve today.

Still, I cried through the whole affair, snapping a couple pictures then watching through the binoculars. I apologized to my feeder birds as I watched.



The hawk was taking forever, plucking the bird and eating it, so I decided to try to go outside to get a photo. A couple weeks ago when the hawk was in the tree, it didn't fly away when I went outside, and this time the hawk was much farther away. So I went outside onto the deck and lined up a shot. Right then, the hawk saw me and flew away. I hope he was done eating, but at the same time, I'd like him to think that this isn't the safest place to find a meal.

Every time I see a hawk around here, I think that my feeder birds will never come back. Why would they keep coming to a dangerous place? Well, by the time I got upstairs from trying to take a picture of the hawk outside, the juncos were already hopping around on the ground, out from their hiding places. Within a couple minutes, the finches returned, and within 10 minutes or so, the place was hopping again with house sparrows and mourning doves. That made me feel a lot better. I may lose a bird to a hawk every so often, but I am helping SO many more birds than I lose. And even in losing a bird, I'm helping another - all part of Mother Nature's plan.

Here's a cute shot of a male and female house sparrow, to end this post on a happy note:

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.