Bird log
The neighborhood northern flicker was in my yard this afternoon, and spent awhile perched on the north fence. This is a different male from the one I've seen in previous years, with a larger red "mustache" and a more coppery cast to its head. edit: And after being driven out of my yard by activity next door, it has now returned to feed in the yard of the house behind us, and I can see it quite clearly from the office window. edit edit: The male AND a female are now in the yard next door!
There was also a Bewick's wren in my yard, which is a first, and thus is rather exciting. Wrens are insectivores, so they wouldn't visit for the feeder; I suspect the construction next door has stirred up all the insects and arthropods living in the old shed there and the wren was investigating a new food source.
The finches continue to be very present (although it does appear to just be the same two pairs of house finches and the occasional visits from the purple finch pair), and the song sparrows have been increasing. The house sparrows are still giving way to the other species. I can't even keep track of how many chickadees there are anymore.
But the numbers are so high that they've eaten me out of a 6-lb bag of food in just over a week. I'm switching to all sunflower seeds; we'll see how that affects the numbers and species distribution.
edit relevant to above: The sparrows seem confused about the change. The finches are uncertain but eating. The chickadees are FLIPPING OUT with joy and gluttony. Also, a full-grown crow came onto the back porch to scavenge. It was little startling to look out the window and see that.
A starling was standing on the shed roof this morning with some nesting material in its beak, leading me to burble "YOU HAZ A STICK," because I am a complete dork.
Note that is not about my yard: I stopped at Fred Meyer in Ballard after dance class on Wednesday, and parked in front of a pear tree that was filled with squabbling house sparrows. By the time I returned to the car, it was dark, and out of curiousity I very quietly peered into the tree to see if the sparrows were still there. Indeed they were, little balls of snoozing feathers huddled right up against the trunk, where their coloring made them virtually invisible in low light; I only spotted them because I was able to make out the shapes of tails and beaks. I have never actually seen wild birds roosting at night in a tree before, and it was kind of cool. At least until I woke up one of the females and she glared at me with fierce songbird hatred for disturbing her.
There was also a Bewick's wren in my yard, which is a first, and thus is rather exciting. Wrens are insectivores, so they wouldn't visit for the feeder; I suspect the construction next door has stirred up all the insects and arthropods living in the old shed there and the wren was investigating a new food source.
The finches continue to be very present (although it does appear to just be the same two pairs of house finches and the occasional visits from the purple finch pair), and the song sparrows have been increasing. The house sparrows are still giving way to the other species. I can't even keep track of how many chickadees there are anymore.
But the numbers are so high that they've eaten me out of a 6-lb bag of food in just over a week. I'm switching to all sunflower seeds; we'll see how that affects the numbers and species distribution.
edit relevant to above: The sparrows seem confused about the change. The finches are uncertain but eating. The chickadees are FLIPPING OUT with joy and gluttony. Also, a full-grown crow came onto the back porch to scavenge. It was little startling to look out the window and see that.
A starling was standing on the shed roof this morning with some nesting material in its beak, leading me to burble "YOU HAZ A STICK," because I am a complete dork.
Note that is not about my yard: I stopped at Fred Meyer in Ballard after dance class on Wednesday, and parked in front of a pear tree that was filled with squabbling house sparrows. By the time I returned to the car, it was dark, and out of curiousity I very quietly peered into the tree to see if the sparrows were still there. Indeed they were, little balls of snoozing feathers huddled right up against the trunk, where their coloring made them virtually invisible in low light; I only spotted them because I was able to make out the shapes of tails and beaks. I have never actually seen wild birds roosting at night in a tree before, and it was kind of cool. At least until I woke up one of the females and she glared at me with fierce songbird hatred for disturbing her.