Sorry little bird!

When we let the dogs out in the morning, Taz always runs over to the big rocks (a chipmunk lives in there somewhere), which is also where the bird feeders happen to be. When Taz runs over they scatter all over and sometimes bump into the fence or the house or something. This morning, this little bird flew into the fence and injured itself. It was walking around on the ground though so Freda left it alone so it coud recover. Then, this afternoon, I heard Freda saying, "Taz, OFF!" That was because Taz had this little bird in his mouth. It shows what a soft mouth he had that the bird did not appear to have any injury. Anyway, Freda called the Wild Bird Sanctuary, we put it in a little box with some kleenex and we were on our way there when the bird died. I think that maybe it died of fright.

We have now moved the problematic feeder outside the fence so this situation should not repeat again (hopefully).

Some better bird pictures

Tonight I was outside at the barbecue, and was enthralled with the beauty of the barn swallows' acrobatic flying. I tried to get some photos of that but it just became boring scenery.

I did manage, however, to grab a few photos of some other birds at the feeder. I am not sure what bird this is, I thought it might be a female rose-breasted grosbeak but it isn't, as those ones have a pale underside. So I think this is a grosbeak of some kind, or perhaps a finch. If you have any ideas, please leave a note in the comments.

This is a better photo of what I think is a pine sisken, but as it's back is toward us, it is not definitive.

I hope you enjoy these bird photos.

And so it goes...

We have had a lot of high winds lately, and I guess a bird that was nesting on one of our posts has suffered as a result. Sorry birdy!

Pine Siskin

Hi there,

If you look at the photo from May 9th (Food's On), you can see a number of brown striped birds. I have identified those as Pine Siskins. I hadn't seen them at the feeder last year, doesn't mean they weren't around, but I just didn't see them. They outnumber the Goldfinches this year, so I guess they are around for sure.

The unidentified brown bird still remains unidentified. The photo is not really clear enough to give a positive id. I think it is a female grosbeak of some type, but I cant' really tell. On the other hand, it is a large bird - it is bigger than the red-wing blackbird in the same photo, so maybe it is a dove. I don't know yet.

PS: Forgot to mention, as predicted, the deer have eaten all the tulip flowers, and some of the leaves too.... :((

Rose-Breasted Grosbeak

I believe this bird is a Rose-Breasted Grosbeak. Note the big bill that's good for crushing seeds (not the big bill that flattens wallets - haha). This is the first time I have seen one of these at our feeder.

BTW, sorry about the blurry photo, it's the best I can do with our cameras.

I also saw a number of Red-Winged Blackbirds eating off the ground - this was just below the bird feeder so they may have been eating seeds that had fallen on the ground, or else maybe bugs of some sort.

Can anyone identify the brown bird at the bottom left-center? I didn't even notice it until I zoomed in on the red-winged blackbird!

I am happy to report that we have not had any bird kills from window strikes so far this year. (knock on wood) It was very windy today, and must have been too much for the gold finches as the finch feeder was still 3/4 full when I went to refill it this afternoon. It is usually 3/4 empty every day!

Food's on!

The nyger (or niger) seed feeder is popular with the birds. I think there are 15 or 16 birds in this photo. Sorry that it is not a very good photo.

Thunderstorm coming

Pano - May 8, 2009

A thunderstorm is approaching. I could see lightning and hear thunder, and you can see the rain is falling. The dogs were outside but Taz wanted in because he's afraid of thunder.

A truckload of dirt

May 5, 2009

This is what a tri-axle truckload of topsoil looks like (that's 22 cubic yards of topsoil). We had rain in the forecast so we put a tarp over it to try to keep most of it dry, so we are not shovelling mud as we try to relocate it. It takes 100 shovels of dirt to fill the trailer for our garden tractor and 25 shovels to fill the wheelbarrow. This photo was taken after doing one trailer load.

Saturday is deer day!

When Freda got up to let the dogs out and feed them, she realized there were quite a number of deer all around the house, grazing on the new grass, or whatever they like eating. This is a collage from deer in various places around the house.

This is a pano taken from the front. There is a deer on the far left and one on the far right.

The Goldfinches are back!

We put up the Goldfinch feeder a few days ago, and were delighted to see the pretty birds back. The feeder is attached to this other feeder temporarily, so it is time to get the garden hook out and put the feeder in it's proper place.