Birdfeeder Activities

It was dreary and sprinkly this afternoon, but that didn't slow down any of the bird activity at my feeders. However, this half-empty nyjer feeder wasn't winning me any new friends with my backyard goldfinch population.

There......that's better!

I've had to put some of my seasonal window clings up on the patio door. In the last 2 weeks, I've had 2 goldfinches lose their lives after flying into this door. Although it looks kind of stupid to have these clings stuck down in the middle of the window, it seems to be working because I haven't heard any more birdies hitting the glass or found anymore casualties on the deck.

Here's a little junco also enjoying some nyjer seed in the tray feeder on my deck. I've got lots of juncos in the yard again now.

There was also an abundance of red-winged blackbirds in the backyard this afternoon. I think somehow or other they know there are winter storm warnings in Nebraska and Kansas, so they have decided to stick around here a little bit longer before heading south. Here's a male red-winged blackbird now wearing his "winter" plumage (according to my Kaufman field guide). I guess I never knew that the males didn't have black feathers year round. The brownish feathers give this red-winged blackbird a bit of a resemblance to a starling, don't you think?

And out in my fly-thru feeder I had 4 red-winged blackbirds--2 males and 2 females. I've always liked the red-winged blackbirds and hearing their calls in the backyard gave me a nice flashback to the early days of summer.

According to the weatherman, it sounds like we're coming to the end of our moderate autumn weather. As the huge low pressure system currently creating winter weather nightmares in Nebraska and Kansas continues on its northeastern path, our weather is predicted to change dramatically by the end of the weekend. One forecaster used the phrase, "from awesome to awful" when describing our Saturday to Sunday weather (I even heard the dreaded "S" word!) I guess we'll have to wait and see how "awful" it's really going to be, but in the meantime, I'd better make sure my birdfeeders stay full for my backyard feathered friends.

Fall Colors In My Backyard

I haven't taken you for a walk around the backyard in a while, so I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the colors that are out there. (Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.) We haven't had a hard frost yet although tonight's forecast is for temps in the low 30's. (I covered my second crop of lettuce just to be safe--it's finally gotten big enough to start eating.) I would say we're at peak color in the area right now and in addition to all the beautiful colored leaves, I still have some flowers blooming.

Yarrow

Gorgeous purple asters

One brave little purple coneflower

We lost quite a few apples in late season windstorms, but there are still some hanging on. I'll let them get frosted a little (it makes them sweeter) and then pick what I can to make apple butter and applesauce and maybe even an apple pie for Mr. Johnson!

Don't you love these Winterberry Holly?

I have several of these holly bushes in the backyard, but this one has the most fruit on it. I planted them especially for the birds, but the birds have never taken advantage of the fruit. However, they provide beautiful color in the backyard through much of the winter.
Asparagus plants are even changing color. This is how you find where asparagus is growing wild in road ditches--drive around looking for the yellow color in the fall and remember where it is so you can go back to cut some in the spring.

Some of the sumac from the roadside ditch is infiltrating the evergreen windbreak at the edge of my yard. It's annoying to me and I need to go cut some of these wayward visitors off, but the red leaves of the sumac are such a beautiful contrast against the dark green of the evergreens, don't you think? So I think I will give them a "stay of execution" until they have lost their leaves.

Here are a couple views of the staghorn sumac patch. This patch has probably quadrupled in size since I planted it about 7 years ago.I think this is the most colorful I have ever seen it!

Here's one of the maple trees--changing over from green to yellow. I think it's pretty amazing how some of the leaves are still completely green and some are completely yellow, while the others are half and half.

The aspen trees are just starting to change to their yellow leaves. I'm guessing within the week, these trees will be all yellow. This aspen grove is another success story in my backyard. By discontinuing lawnmowing around the 10 or so trees that were there, the little shoots just took off and now I have a really nice little grove. The only mowing I do there now is 3 trails through the middle of the trees--it's like my own private little aspen jungle! Bunnies and deer like to spend time in there too.

The Mountain Ash trees are covered with orange berries too. I'm surprised the Cedar Waxwings haven't eaten all these berries yet.

How about this handsome little feller? I've had bunches of these White Crowned Sparrows (adults and juveniles) in the backyard for a couple weeks. I tried hiding behind a shrub to get some pictures of these twittery little birds, and after 20 minutes, this was the only acceptable shot. BTW - I saw my first dark-eyed junco in the backyard yesterday afternoon also.

And here's one of the favorite spots for many of the birds in my backyard. It started out as 10 red osier dogwood seedlings that eventually grew into 10 foot shrubs. Now the shrubs are grown over with Virginia creeper and wild grapes, also one giant elderberry bush and a box elder tree right in the middle of the thicket. I keep a tray feeder right on the edge (you can see it in the lower left of the picture). It's so dense and excellent cover for the birds--especially when Cooper's Hawk swoops into the yard. I think the Gray Catbird nested here this summer, but I won't be able to check for any nests till all the leaves are gone.

I hope you all get a chance to go out and enjoy fall colors soon--in your backyard and beyond.

Necedah National Wildlife Refuge

I'm getting so far behind in my blogging activities, so I need to show you the highlights of last Saturday afternoon spent at the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge (NNWR) so I can move on to the other great stories and pictures I have to post for this week.

I hope you all get the chance to visit NNWR some day. I would love to see them offer a 3-4 day birding & nature workshop where participants could go out with the naturalists and study all the diverse habitats, plants, animals, and birds. The 90 minutes spent on the bus in the morning and several hours I had in the afternoon gave me only a small sampling of what this >43,000 acre refuge has to offer. They're currently in the process of building a large new visitors center, with a projected completion sometime in 2010. Maybe we should start planning now for a bloggers get-together that summer. They will arrange special field trips for birding groups......

Welcome!

At my first stop in the refuge, I was treated to a fly-by from this squadron of sandhill cranes.

Here's another look at a pair of Sandhill Cranes. We have them in Minnesota too, but usually closer to the Mississippi and I don't get down that way very often.

Here's a look at one of the juvenile Red-Headed Woodpeckers I saw. You can see from the back there's a lot of white on its wings. When they're flying, there's also a large white spot on their back, just above their tail. It's quite distinctive and makes them really easy to spot and identify when they're flying.

Here's an even worse picture of the adult woodpecker that the juvenile shown above was hanging around with. I'm guessing this was one of the parents. I know I said it in the previous post, but it was just fantastic to see so many Red-Headed Woodpeckers in one afternoon. I bet I saw at least 20 all over the refuge. The habitat (with its many dead or dying trees) was ideal for these birds. They're on the Audubon WatchList as records show this bird has seen a 50% decline in overall population since 1966.

Here's a story about Whooping Crane restoration near one of the viewing platforms in the refuge.

This was a little road to another viewing platform. It was in a native prairie area and I was trying to give you an idea of how tall the native grasses were growing right along the road. I was in Mr. Johnson's Tahoe and the grass was 4-5 feet tall. I also saw lots of Monarch butterflies all over in the refuge.

There was quite a bit of fall color starting to appear. I like the way the colorful maples, oak and sumac contrast with the dark colors of the evergreens.

Just another fall color shot with native prairie grasses in the foreground.

There was just one blemish on an otherwise lovely afternoon...... For whatever reason, there are certain roads in the refuge that are open to ATV traffic, and this was one of the groups I encountered. I could go into a huge ATV rant here, but I won't because Mr. Johnson owns one and he reads this blog. Suffice it to say that I do think ATVs have a purpose--on the farm or for work-related hauling and chores, etc. However, there's no way anyone's going to convince me that the folks in this picture above were out on their ATVs to enjoy nature because #1-they were going too fast to see much of anything; #2-you can see how dusty it was--after the third rider, the rest of the riders weren't able to see anything; and #3-any wildlife you might have been able to see would be scared off by the sounds of these ATVs coming up the road. OK, 'nuff said (deep cleansing breath and back to nature)

As I was crossing one of the roads, I happened to notice a large black chunk of something down the road to my right. It kind of looked like a blown-out tire, but as I watched, it started moving. I quickly changed course and headed up the road to investigate. By the time I got there the "black chunk" was in the grass next to the road. Getting out of the truck for a closer look revealed the HUGEST snapping turtle I have ever seen. Isn't this guy a monster? There was a drainage ditch from one of the lakes that ran under this road and this large snapper must have just crawled out of there. I felt really privileged to see such a creature.

Here's a pair of Trumpeter Swans. Caitlyn told us on the morning tour that there were several pairs in the refuge. (Lifebird #224 for me!)

Great Blue Heron (juvenile)

Belted Kingfisher

Goodbye for now......thanks for the memories......please come again!

Welcome September

Wasn't it great to have a 3-day weekend? I was so happy to just stay at home for the majority of each day and have the chance to watch out my windows and see what was going on with birds in my backyard. I glanced out the kitchen window on Saturday morning and saw this:

What the heck is that? I thought to myself, because my mind was telling me it wasn't a bunny just laying in the grass. So I grabbed the binoculars for a better look....... Holy Cow! It's the Cooper's Hawk! Have you ever seen them just laying in the grass like this before?

I wondered if it was injured or maybe was sitting on top of something it had killed, but when I tried to open the window to get a better picture, it heard me and flew right away. I will turn this unusual hawk behavior over to Susan, the raptor expert and see if she has any insight on what this hawk was doing.

Here's what I think is the same hawk cooling off its toes and tail feathers in one of the birdbaths also outside my kitchen window. While the depth of water in this almost empty birdbath is ideal for chipping sparrows and house finches, it's quite inadequate for a Coop, although it appears he/she was trying to make the most of the resources available. This picture is a little clearer than the ones above that I had to take through the kitchen window....for this picture, I was able to crawl out onto the deck and snap the photo using the side of the house as a blind. The deck is not very hospitable for crawling on bare knees, but I was happy this picture turned out great on the first try because the Cooper's Hawk eyesight saw me after about 3 seconds.....bye-bye!

We enjoyed summer-like temps (with highs in the 80's) for the entire weekend. However, a front is coming through tomorrow and will bring us some rain and then, finally, some lower temperatures (daytime highs in the low 70's and down in the 40's at night). Hooray! Welcome September!

Do Deer Molt?

Here are a couple pictures of Mrs. Whitetail during a nocturnal snack stop last Saturday night.Poor girl.....she's lookin' a little tatty! I'm not sure what's going on, but I wonder if she's starting to lose her summer coat now in preparation for fall?

Here are some pictures I took last October out in the woods. Talk about blending in!!

Imagine how much Mrs. Whitetail would stand out in that reddish summer coat if she were out in these autumn woods in October?



Obviously my camouflage isn't as good, because this sharp-eyed doe didn't have any trouble spotting me up in the tree taking pictures!

Even though August is just beginning, I'm starting to see some signs of fall. They creep up slowly, but what I always notice the most are the shorter days. It's now dark enough in the mornings again that I can't work on any knitting projects during the ride into work. Boo Hoo! I'll have to start searching for one of those lights to wear around my neck because I hate to think of that 20 minutes of time every morning just going to waste when I could be knitting!