The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153352 Message #3682279
Posted By: Janie
03-Dec-14 - 07:10 PM
Thread Name: BS: Birdwatching 2014
Subject: RE: BS: Birdwatching 2014
Oh maeve, so happy to see you here! And you also, gnu!
That link to the NWF page is perfect. I've looked at a few links but the information on the NWF is the most complete I've seen. Have bookmarked it. I read somewhere else about packing the box with wood chips for the woodpeckers to excavate. On the NWF site it says to fill with about 4" of shavings as nesting material. I'm a little confused about whether the box should be filled with wood chips to the top for the birds to excavate to their desired depth, or if adding 4 inches of wood shavings is considered packing the box. Can you clarify?
I do see flickers in my yard, usually in early spring when the ant colonies get active. Had not considered I could put nesting boxes out for them also.
I'd have to go out birding to see eagles on regional lakes. Doubt I'll ever see one from my yard, which is where all my birding takes place. Would be a thrill, though. One New Year's a few years ago, coming back from New York, we detoured and stopped to take a walk along the Susquehanna River just below the Conowingo Dam, near Port Deposit. It was unseasonably warm. There was some sort of fish run or swarm just below the dam, and there were Bald Eagles everywhere! The only time I have ever seen them in the wild. Several were wheeling over the water, and others roosted on low branches along the path so we could observe them quite closely. It is a popular path and these birds were obviously pretty acclimated to gawking hikers.
Did you get your picture, maeve?
Arkie, this past spring I saw the first Pileated Woodpecker I have seen on the NC Piedmont where I live since I moved to this area 28 years ago. Sitting at my computer, saw movement out the window and there was a male, clinging to a tree trunk about 10 feet away. They were common, and one of my very favorite birds in the hills of WV where I hail from and I have missed seeing them flash through the woods, and the sound of their calls. Figured he was just passing through, and probably he was. Then, this past Saturday morning, sitting on my carport with my second cuppa I heard a woodpecker drumming on the oak behind me, turned to look, expecting a red-belly or a downy, and to my delight, saw it was a Pileated. Turned my head back when I saw something moving in the woodlot across the road, and there was another one! Watched both of them for about 20 minutes. It was great.
I don't usually see pine warblers at the feeder until January or early Feb. I'm guessing that is when it either gets cold enough or the winter foraging gets scarce enough that they come down to the suet.
We don't have ravens here. I think they may have them in the NC Mountains, but am not sure. Have never seen one of them in the wild either.
I did see seagulls flying overhead this weekend. They come inland around shopping malls and I've seen them a few miles away, but never flying overhead here before. Don't know what species.
So happy to be talking and hearing about all y'all's birds here. These bird threads have long been some of my favorite on Mudcat.