The Change to Summer Birds

I keep the bird feeders filled with sunflower seeds and cracked corn year round.  Although the diet never changes, the species of birds visiting the feeder vary from season to season.  The last few weeks has seen the arrival of what I think of as the summer visitors.  Many of these, like this Blue Grosbeak, would be difficult to view if they didn’t regularly visit the feeder.

Even though they are permanent residents in this area, I rarely see Brown-headed Cowbirds in the winter.  During the summer, I routinely see them at the feeder.  They are also to be found stationed atop the tallest trees around the property, watching to spot nest locations in which to lay their eggs.

A gathering place for birds that don’t typically visit the feeder is the vegetable garden.  Brown Thrashers patrol back and forth along the vegetable rows, plucking larvae from the plants and pulling grubs or cutworms from the soil.

Chipping Sparrows search the garden for both seeds and insects.  This guy kept chasing and eating some type of insect moving quickly across the planting beds.  He captured several in just a couple of minutes, but I never got a look at what he was hunting.

Field Sparrows have found the mulch of cut grass in the garden to be ideal nest material.  They are frequently seen leaving with mouths full of the fine grass stems and leaves.  The top of the fence is  a favorite perch.

Bluebird pairs seem to find an abundance of suitable insects inside the garden boundaries.  The female sits on one post …

… and the male usually sits on the next post over.  When an insect is spotted, they will fly down to pick it up and then return to the post.

With all of those garden insects to feed on, it’s no surprise that the Bluebird couple claimed the bird box nearest the garden.

The female has just begun incubating this clutch of five eggs, so I probably won’t be seeing much of her for the next couple of weeks.  After that, she’ll be busy ridding the garden of insect pests in order to feed her growing family.

With their aerial displays and propensity to chatter, Tree Swallows are usually the most noticeable of the summer birds at Blue Jay Barrens.  These birds were uncommon here 25 years ago.  When I first installed bird boxes, they were all occupied by Bluebirds of Chickadees.  Now, 80 percent of the box inhabitants are Tree Swallows.  The shallow pool of water at the site of my new toad pool construction has been getting a lot of attention from the swallows.

The area that has been stripped of vegetation seems to be a preferred site for the collection of nest material.

The final phase of Tree Swallow nest building is the addition of feathers around the rim of the nest.  The birds almost always use feathers from domesticated chickens or ducks.  The battling Wild Turkey males leave an almost daily offering of feathers in my yard, but the Tree Swallows don’t find them of interest.  Maybe they just have a preference for white feathers.

No Tree Swallow eggs have yet been laid, but I imagine that will change soon.  By the time the last of hatchlings leave the nest in late summer, the resident population of Tree Swallows will be about four times what it is now.

Blue Grosbeak et. al.

If not for the feeder and associated bird habitat located outside my window, I would miss a lot of interesting bird activity.  Arrival of the Blue Grosbeak is not heralded by a sighting in the field, but by a view of the bird visiting the feeder for some sunflower seeds.

I saw the first Blue Grosbeak at Blue Jay Barrens about ten years ago.  They are now regular breeding birds here.

This male was a little bit wary of the feeder and spent time hovering just out of range.

Other birds moving about caused it to back off, but it wasn’t about to abandon its quest for seeds.

Once it actually settled in and began eating, its apprehension abated.  It didn’t take long before it was flying straight in regardless of the company.

A scattering of Red-breasted Grosbeaks visit the feeder each spring.  They are on their way north and will not stay to nest here.

This spring is typical of most and I haven’t seen more than a single Red-breasted Grosbeak at the feeder.

Indigo Buntings are abundant summer visitors here.  Their song can be heard around every field edge.

Blue Jays are at the feeder year round.  They’ll soon be bringing their young in to learn about sunflower seed and cracked corn.

Eastern Bluebirds don’t visit the feeder, but they find the yard an ideal place to hunt for insects.  They rarely perch for more than a quarter minute before dropping to the ground to pick up an insect or worm.

Bluebirds love to perch on utility lines.  It is from this position that they drop seeds destined to become shrubby invaders of the utility right-of-way.

Cardinals are also year round residents that take full advantage of the feeder.  I imagine that many of these adults were first brought to the feeders by their parents.  I’ve seen many a parent bird sit on the feeder and pass cracked sunflower seeds over to its offspring.

The Cardinal is the last species to leave the feeder in the evening.  I’ve watched many still munching seed in twilight so dark that you couldn’t tell the color of the birds.  I think it’s this habit of late feeding that makes the Cardinal an opportune target for early hunting Screech Owls.

White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows are stopping at the feeder on their journey north.  The White-throated Sparrows are the two on the left and the White-crowned is the one on the right that is not a Mourning Dove.  White-throated Sparrows occasionally spend the winter here, but I’ve seen very few this year.  I always get a lot at the feeders during spring migration.  I guess they are attracted by the crowd of resident birds.

I normally don’t see many White-crowned Sparrows.  This year they have been especially abundant.

Goldfinch numbers were way down this winter.  Perhaps the frequent ice and snow storms we had drove most of them farther south.

A few Brown-headed Cowbirds are always at the feeder.  The forest in this area has been chopped into neat blocks and strips that are ideal for the Cowbirds.  A scan of the woodland edges reveals Cowbirds sitting high near the treetops watching for other birds to betray the position of their nests, so the Cowbird can slip in and deposit one of its own eggs.

There are always a few House Finches in the mix, but their numbers can fluctuate dramatically from year-to-year.  I would be concerned about the health of that guy in the back if I hadn’t seen him come to the feeder straight from the bird bath.

Eastern Towhee numbers have been increasing for years.  They are now a common year round resident.  Towhees generally forage on the ground, but if necessary, they’ll come straight to the source.

Red-winged Blackbirds sometimes arrive in large flocks during the winter.  During spring and summer they are represented by only a few individuals.  Blue Jay Barrens just doesn’t have the wetland habitat preferred by these birds as a nesting area.

Of course we also have a few Crows that regularly come by for some corn.  I don’t know if I would get close up views of any birds if not for the feeders.

A Quick Walk Up The Hill

It’s bad enough in the winter when you go to work in the dark and get home in the dark, but it’s ridiculous when that happens to you in the summer. I’ve had a rough time this past week getting home before it was too dark to take photos. Last night the sun had set on the house, but I figured I could catch the last of the illumination if I headed up The Hill. The Hill is one of the places I go to have a quick look around when I have a few free minutes. I’ve been watching the progress of the growth in the field that was mowed last winter. Things are really looking nice and I think I ought to walk through there this weekend and get a closer look.

The fence row on the east side of the field is showing quite a few dead trees. Many of the dead are Sassafras, a species that tends to grow rapidly and die early. New shoots are constantly growing to replace what is lost. This is a wonderful area for watching foraging woodpeckers.

The sun has disappeared, leaving 88 degrees and a lot of humidity. Dew is already thick on the grass and a hazy fog is developing. I feel a sweaty weekend coming on.

As I headed back toward the house, I spotted a group of agitated birds moving along the edge of the field. In the center of the group was a bright blue bird with brownish shoulder patches. I’ve seen Blue Grosbeaks here before, but never at this time of year. When I took these shots, I knew it was too dark to get any clarity. I just hoped I could manage to get a shot that documented what I saw.

These photos are clear enough to validate the sighting of Blue Grosbeaks and would support a notation in my field notes stating that on July 23, 2010 approximately ten minutes after sunset I saw a pair of Blue Grosbeaks with what appeared to be four fledglings slightly smaller in size than the adult birds.

This is where the sighting occurred. The birds were around that clump of walnut sprouts to the right of the photo and moved out toward the center of the field at my approach. Over the weekend I’ll search further for the birds and take in a look in those walnuts for a recently used nest. I’ll have to put out of my mind the 72 billion chiggers that are in that field waiting for me.