Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Our Winter Birds are Back




We love our backyard birds, and you will often find one, two or all three of us at the back door, binoculars to our eyes, spying the birds at the feeder, or the ones waiting in the trees. There are two times each year when we get really excited about the birds...spring, during the migration, for obvious reasons, so many wonderful birds coming through, spending a few days in our backyard, before they travel a little further north, and late fall, when our winter birds return.

The winter birds will hang around through the cold and snow, visiting our feeders every day. You would think after years of watching them we might get a little tired of it all, but we don't. I stand, many times throughout the day, watching them, identifying them, if it is a new to us bird, and marveling at their beauty.

The feeder you see above is one of two we have, this one is on the back sliding door, and the other one is on the kitchen window, right where I do the dishes, and prepare our meals. No matter the time of day, early morning as the sun rises, noon as I prepare lunch, or as the sun sets and I start the preparations for dinner, the birds are there, hovering around the feeder, bringing a little magic to my day.

Over the last few weeks our bird list has grown as the birds slowly find our feeders. So far the following birds are spied each day:

:: red breasted nuthatch
:: white breasted nuthatch
:: chickadee
:: goldfinch
:: white throated sparrow
:: blue jay
:: cardinal
:: dark eyed junco
:: tree sparrow
:: hairy woodpecker

Do you notice the birds in your backyard? If so, what birds are visiting your feeders?

31 comments:

  1. I have everything on your list except that the cardinals are a very rare treat. I think we've seen them three years out of 16. We have snowbirds in the pasture, downy and pileated woodpeckers, red and white winged crossbills, pine siskins, and purple finches. Occasionally we have Evening grosbeaks but not for a few years now. I never tire of seeing them.

    Have you tried to feed them from your hand? The chickadees, nuthatches and siskins are fairly easy to feed if you have time to sit still.

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    1. What a lovely mix of birds you have. We also get downy woodpeckers, but haven't seen any yet this year.

      We have, and have been successful. We have had both nuthatches and chickadees eat from our hand in the backyard. We also have a few conservation areas around here where the birds are super friendly, last week I had a hairy woodpecker land on my hand to feed...amazing!

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  2. This is so great! I love your pics of the birds and now I’m feeling I’d like a feeder that goes on the window - I’m just wondering if I do so if the birds will poop all over the porch! Haha!

    Usually by late fall I stop feeding the birds for a bit so that the ones who are meant to go south don’t hang out for food. I have a suet I’ve made for the hairy woodpecker who comes from time to time. Of course, the black-capped chickidees love it too! We have new visitors this year for which we were very excited - American Goldfinches. We would run to the window everytime we saw them with their amazing bright colours. We get a lot of starlings (a lot a lot!), Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals and sparrows.

    I have a medicine wheel garden and when I go out into it the birds gather and I love their happy talk. I feel kind of like Cinderella talking to the animals! :)

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    1. Thanks. You know there isn't a lot of bird poop, the one you see is on our back sliding door that goes out to the deck, and we don't mind it at all. We only have it there in the winter, as we use the door too much in the spring, summer and early fall.

      Yay for the goldfinches, they are beautiful birds. You must be seeing the males, their colour is amazing. We have a ton of females at the moment, but have yet to see a male.

      It is amazing to hear them, and listen to them chatter away. I am been working to distinguish their calls and sounds....happy chatter, compared to alarm calls, etc. So interesting!

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  3. We love feeding birds and squirrels, their antics are so much fun to watch. We get a lot of cardinals, blue jays and some blue birds in our area. I've always wanted a feeder that would attach with suction cups, but always wondered how well they would stay put. How is yours working for you and do you remember where you bought it?

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    1. They are fun to watch! Blue birds, how lovely, we have never had one in the backyard.

      That feeder is awesome and I highly recommend it. It stays put, even with the squirrels hanging from it :) We picked them up here http://www.urbannaturestore.ca/shop/pc/home.asp I think they are only in Canada, but I bet you could find one at any bird store. If not, let me know, maybe I can arrange to get it to you :)

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    2. Thank you for the offer Kim! I looked at the feeder and brand and will see what I can find here. If I can't find anything, I might take you up on it.

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  4. I love to watch the birds too. We have a troop of sparrows that live in the bushes next to our house, so they are our most frequent visitors. But we also get juncos, bushtits, jays, northern flickers, chickadees, and several types of hummingbirds.

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    1. Oh northern flickers, how I would love to have those in the backyard. They are in the conservation area just up the road, but have yet to visit our home.

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  5. So fun. We set a large feeder up that we can see from the kitchen window and from our fireplace room, and I bought a book so the kids and I could learn together to identify new birds, but it's another thing I've not quite gotten around to:(

    www.hollandsreverie.blogspot.com

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    1. It is fun, and hearing my little man shout out what birds are in the feeder is even more fun. Bird identification is so much fun. We get so excited when there is a new bird in the yard and spend lots of time trying to figure out what it is.

      Get that field guide out and start identifying, you will have so much fun! In the next week or so, I will have my free family nature journal download ready for 2015. It would be perfect to record all the birds you identify :)

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  6. oh how wonderful! we have been busy feeding the birds too. Spencer keeps asking when the bullfinches will be back. I don't know, but we're all keeping an eye out! It is so lovely to start the day with a little bird watching. Once the birds had their "breakfast", we have ours :)

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    1. That is cute about breakfast :) Hope those bullfinches don't keep you waiting too long.

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  7. sadly we cannot feed birds due to bears (yup). However I've seen chickadees, blue jays, cardinals, woodpeckers, sparrows, oriole, thrush and that's all i can think of....oh wait, lots of hawks circling in the sky!!

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    1. Ah, yes, you don't want to feed the birds if there are bears around. We have had bear sightings at the conservation area up the road, but have yet to have them around our homes, so as of now we can still feed them. I would be so sad if we had to stop.

      Hawks, we had a red tailed hawk swooped down a few weeks ago to try and grab a chicken. Luckily we have fencing on the roof of their run, so the hawk hit it and flew away. Totally freaked the chicken out though.

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  8. Oh, Kim, we have the exact same feeder, my youngest son got it from our us american friends, it is so much fun to watch the birds come and feed!

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    1. How awesome is that! Isn't it the best. Enjoy!

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  9. We have different birds over here - robins, blue tits, great tits, coal tits, long tailed tits, chaffinches, nuthatches - we only have 1 type, ours have orange bellies, they look very like your second photo. green finches, occasionally bull finches and goldfinches, sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes and the odd woodpecker. We love them! Glad you're enjoying your birds over there too.

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    1. Some birds I haven't heard of, I like that. I love birdwatching in other places. If we are in a spot for a few days and I know we will get to do some hiking, I always hit the local book store and pick up a bird field guide so we can identify new to us birds. Always fun!

      Enjoy all those birds.

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  10. How fun! I need to fill our bird feeder again. I'm waiting for the return of the cardinal. So lovely, bright red.

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    1. You certainly do need to do that :) You should see the cardinal against the snow....amazing!

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  11. I think those birdfeeders you can stick to your window are so great.

    I'm a bird watcher, but, the rest of the family is not. So, not much effort put into making bird feeders or keeping them full of seed all winter. Luckily, the big pine tree out front attracts a handful of birds (and squirrels) all year round, enough to keep me entertained. I have been seeing some interesting migratory birds recently on my drive to work though. I drive along the lake (Lake Ontario) and there is one creek/swamp that attracts swans, mergansers, and other ducks.

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    1. They are the best, allows you to get up close and personal with the birds. We love them!

      That is too bad, never fun when you are the only one. Glad you have that pine tree, and a great drive to work :)

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  12. Dear little things. In the reserve across the road we have a variety of parrots - Sulphur Crested Cockatoos, Galahs, Rainbow Lorikeets etc, along with magpies and ducks. Sometimes they make their way into the backyard. They used to venture into the backyard to feed on the nectar of one of our flowering gums but the tree fell down in the spring storms so we don't see them as often. It could also be because they are aware of our cats! :(

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    1. They certainly are :) I can't imagine having parrots in our backyard...so cool! I have seen some of the birds you guys have down under, and wow, they are beautiful. Their colours are just stunning.

      Cats, yeah, not really a birds best friend :)

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  13. Oh I love that feeder! May I ask where you got it? I think it would be so much fun to have the birds so close for the kids to watch. :-)

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    1. It is pretty awesome! We get them here http://www.urbannaturestore.ca/shop/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=32 It is our favourite bird store, and we always enjoy our time in there when we go to pick up seed.

      It is a ton of fun, and provides hours of amusement for all of us.

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  14. We haven't even managed to get our feeder out yet, but we still have all sorts showing up. I think they like that we're a bit wasteful with our chicken feed.

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    1. Well at least they are coming around. Our chicken feed tends to attract the chipmunks :)

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