Spring at the Feeder
I realize I haven’t been writing much here recently; I apologize, but things have just been busy, both at work and here at the Homestead. I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and there are some really interesting things I can’t talk about quite yet, but within the next couple of weeks, expect some interesting announcements.
As we’re now into June (where has the year gone? — oh yeah, busy busy) the bulk of spring migration is complete, and I’m now seeing the full continent of spring birds here on the property. Last to arrive, as happened last year, were the Swainson’s Thrushes and the Western Tanagers.
One of the more interesting additions to this place is a Barred Owl, which has taken up an interest in birdwatching. I’ve run into it multiple times where it’s taken up a post where it’s watching the feeders. The other day, it made a quick appearance, flying in and diving deep into one of the cedars — and followed in close order by three mobbing Common Ravens. They hung around and tried to deafen it for a while, then declared victory and left, but the owl is clearly decided this is the place to hang out, at least for now. We had a Great Horned Owl do something similar last year, but I’ve seen or heard no sign of them this year. I’ve also gotten occasional calls by a Barn Owl, but haven’t gotten eyes on it yet.
Being spring, it means not only have the birds arrived, but so have the critters. We have good numbers of two squirrels: Grey and Douglas, the Douglas Squirrels being about half the size but twice as aggressive, so they win most of the ground feeder arguments. We have plenty of bunnies out on the grass. We’ve seen (or heard) both Coyotes and Deer a few times, but not within the last month.
And, of course, if it’s spring, it means the bears are awake, and hungry.
This one has been working the extended neighborhood. I believe he’s a younger male, he looks really thin and somewhat underweight and hungry. He’s shown to not be super afraid of humans but not aggressive, and he loves suet (big, compact blocks of calories!). Our feeders have been hit twice, and for now, we’re simply not putting suet out, which seems to have helped. So far, the count is two damaged but repairable suet feeders, one tube feeder carried off into the woods — but amusingly, one of the cats (Hunter) made a dash after a squirrel, and when I went into the woods next to the deck, I found one of last year’s missing tube feeders about 15’ in, empty but unharmed, so overall, I’ve broken even. While it’s a bad bad idea to encourage bears to see your property as a food source — I have some sympathy since with the weather some of their normal sources are behind schedule. And it could be a lot worse, a neighbor a couple of miles away lost two beehives to this boy.
But, you know? Move out into the woods, and you get to spend time living with what the woods has within it. We bring the feeders in at night, and that solves 90% of the problem. When a bear is hungry enough to raid in the middle of the day, you just deal with it…
The birds here on the property are plentiful and varied. Dark-Eyed Juncos, American Goldfinches, Mourning Doves and American Robins are the most common, but we also have a number of Spotted Towhees, Stellar’s Jays, Red-Breasted Nuthatches, two pairs of Purple finches, a pair of Western Tanagers, and a few Chestnut-Backed Chickadees. One notable species missing this year is Black-Capped Chickadees, which were here all winter but for some reason moved elsewhere. We also have a pair of Black-Headed Grosbeaks. Other summer residents include a Black-Throated Gray warbler, a Pacific-Slope Flycatcher, Anna’s Hummingbirds, and an Orange-Crowned Warbler and Song sparrows. We have three woodpeckers: it looks like the Pileateds are back and probably nesting, so I expect to see chicks down the road. We also have a female Hairy Woodpecker, and we’re seeing Northern Flickers on and off.
I’m seeing three species of Swallows: Violet-Green moved in early and we have at least two pair, Purple Martins, and I’ve seen one or two Barn Swallows.
We already have confirmation of successful nesting of three species: the Juncos, the Purple finches and the Robins. I expect we’ll see a number of others: the Grosbeaks, the Tanagers, the Pileateds, the Towhees and the Goldfinches should do well this year.
Birds that have visited while moving through in migration have included Evening Grosbeak (they did that last year as well), Wilson’s Warbler, Hutton’s Vireo, House, Pacific and Bewick’s Wrens, Warbling and Cassin’s Vireos, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Rufous Hummingbird, Brown Creeper, Eurasian Collared Doves, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Bushtit.
We’ve logged 47 species at the house so far this year, and since we moved in, that number is now a whopping 80. New species here in 2023 include Hermit Thrush, Yellow-Rumped Warbler, Eurasian-Collared Dove, Chipping Sparrow, Black-throated Gray Warbler, Cassin’s Vireo, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Hammond’s Flycatcher, Warbling Vireo and House Wren. I thought when we bought this place it would be good bird habitat, but this is way beyond my expectations. Overall, it’s not uncommon for me to see or hear about 20 species on a day where I’m putting some effort into paying attention. That, to me, is an amazing number.
And with the return of spring, I’ve started photographing the feeders again, trying to pick up some of the new birds this year. One of the projects that I’m pondering is how to make a set of feeders I can manage but which look a lot more natural. This one will take some time to think through and experiment with. I’m going to have to research how other bird photographers do this, I think.
