Siskin Trouble

  It’s been cold, snowy, and icy the past few weeks (oddly, it’s in the 70s as I write this), and the birds have been going through bird seed like a kid through an ice cream cone on a hot day. I’ve had to refill both sunflower and thistle feeders every other day (4 different seed feeders and 3 suet feeders). We’ve had much larger numbers of birds at our feeders before, but whenever it’s cold or there is substantialRead more

The Feeders

OK, in the past few weeks we’ve had days with snow, ice, and some very cold temperatures. We’ve also had a solid week, seven days, with temps in the sixties and seventies. And now, it’s chilling down again. Not long ago the local birds were singing a happy tune. Now it seems all they care about is putting on fat, the bird feeders in Catch the Wind are busy! Here’s just some of the birds looking to put on weightRead more

What will the weather bring us?

Weather systems often bring in unusual birds. Strong cold fronts sometimes carry with them birds from the far north. Unusually cold weather creates strong needs within birds to feed, simple survival is the name of the game. During extreme cold periods you often see birds at your feeders that are absent during mild weather especially when the leaf litter is covered with snow. On Thursday, a day when upon awaking from a three dog night, the air temperature was aRead more

American Gold

Our goldfinches are starting to molt into alternate, or breeding, plumage. As we move into spring, the males forsake their drab olive-gray coloring for the bright yellow, black, and white feathers of their breeding plumage. Their bills lose the dull gray-blackness of winter for the bright orange of the mating season. Goldfinches molt into their basic (non-breeding) plumage in the fall. The birds molt all of their feathers at this time, wings, tail (flight feathers), and body (contour) feathers. ThisRead more

Hovering Hermit Thrush!

Hermit Thrushes are not especially adept at clinging to the sides of things the way a nuthatch, titmouse, chickadee, or even a bluebird is. Nor are they adept at hovering like a hummingbird, orĀ perhaps a kinglet, who do quite a bit of hovering in case you didn’t know. No, Hermit Thrushes spend much of their time on the ground foraging among the leaf litter or foraging in fruit laden trees and vines. I often see a Hermit Thrush feeding onRead more

Siskins, others, and a sign of the season to come (maybe)

The cold weather following the cold front last Wednesday night brought with it increased activity at the bird feeders in Catch the Wind. There had been one Pine Siskin hanging around for a couple of weeks and Ranger Kristin reported 6 siskins at the feeders on Sunday (1/27) but it took the cold to bring in a group of 18 of the little finches. The birds had nearly cleaned out the thistle feeder, it was getting very low on seed,Read more

Be careful out there little titmouse

I was sitting at the bird feeders at Bird Viewing in Catch the Wind. I was watching the titmice, chickadees, and other birds busily feeding in front of me when suddenly, they scattered. A whoosh of wings came at me, then abruptly turned and landed in a tree about 30 feet to my left, hidden in the shadows. In the midst of all this I heard a high pitched, shrill whistle come from somewhere over by the feeders. There, onRead more