FOAM LAKE
BIRDING
No. 162
After a
week of dreary weather the sun has finally come out. None too soon for my tastes. If nothing else, the bright sun lets me get
much better photos of birds.
During the
week of interminable clouds and snow our bird feeders were the site of
continual feeding frenzy. Even Pine
Grosbeaks which are usually hesitant to come to our feeders were competing for
seeds with a horde of House Sparrows. In
addition, we even had a pair of Juncos that had not yet migrated south. Finally, we simply had to stop filling our
Black Oil Seed feeders for almost a week.
Once the feeders were filled again our resident half dozen House
Sparrows returned but the fifty or sixty that were here before did not. They probably found other feeders in
town. It was amazing at how much oil
seed those sparrows could go through in one day.
Our peanut
and suet feeders were busy also but not to the extent that the Black Oil Seed
feeders were. These feeders had the
usual mix of regulars such as the Red Breasted Nuthatches, Chickadees, Downy
and Hairy Woodpeckers and, yes, House Sparrows.
I managed to get an excellent photo of a male Hairy Woodpecker
acrobatically feeding on peanuts on our first sunny day.
In addition
to feeders, we also try to make our yard bird friendly as it were by selecting
plants that provide birds with food into the winter. For example, every year we plant sunflowers
and leave them in the garden over winter and not removing them until
spring. The birds not only eat the seeds
but the small mites and insects that are hibernating in the plant itself. In our yard chickadees are forever clambering
about the dried out sunflower stalks looking for insects.
My wife
also has a fairly large planting of domesticated native plants. Because the plants are domesticated they
produce bigger and better flowers than their wild ancestors but to the birds
this is not an issue. They are simply
native plants. Overall, it is a win, win
situation for both birds and us. Some of
the varieties include Delphiniums, Bee Balm, Joe Pye Weed (Milkweed), Thistle
and Verbascum (bee plant). The second
photo of a Pine Grosbeak on a Verbascum stalk was taken during the stretch of
overcast skies and snow. I just missed
getting some pictures of a pair of Redpolls feeding on the thistles.
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