After being a drab olive for six months, my male goldfinches are beginning to put on the Ritz, molting into a new suit of bright gold feathers. I always thought the birds’ feathers changed colors, but they don’t. Many birds grow new and entirely differently colored feathers. The goldfinch is the only one in its family to undergo a complete, not a partial molt. Even the females get a … [Read more...]

  Last fall, Nancy planted broccoli in several pots in her patio garden. We had a couple of crowns before winter hit, but not much. We planted a little too late. I then advised her not to pull up the plants but to wait until spring and see if they would produce then. They didn’t. They went to seed with beautiful pale yellow blossoms. About ten days ago,  my wife headed for her garden to … [Read more...]

  They showed up earlier than ever. At first there were just three, then ten and now fifty. Grackles! I feel the same way about them as Seinfeld did about “Newman!” If there were just a few, they wouldn’t be such a nuisance, but they come in droves, they crowd out all my songbirds and they eat all the seeds. Grackles, actually, are considered songbirds and are thus protected from BB … [Read more...]

I’ve had a small flock of 8 or 10 cardinals throughout the winter. They visit all my feeders, but really prefer to feed on the seeds that hit the ground. They have been mostly ladies and gentlemen,  behaving themselves - until now. But the red feathers are starting to fly. Within a few weeks my flock will winnow down to two pair – one will nest in the back hedge and the other along the fence. … [Read more...]

  I was on our deck over-looking the ocean just after sunset, enjoying a cigar and a cocktail when I saw them coming. They were headed south, down the beach, a long string of ducks. I tried to calculate their numbers – a hundred here, then another hundred and another. I figured there were close to a thousand ducks headed for who-knows-where. Then, from the same direction, I saw another … [Read more...]

Go to a store that sells bird seed and you will find dozens of choices. But there is no such thing as a universal, one-size-fits-all bird food. To attract lots of birds, I have found that it is necessary to offer a variety of seeds and food. I have two seed feeders, two suet feeder, a thistle feeder for birds which come to feeders, plus I scatter tons of seeds in the back for ground feeders. … [Read more...]

  I heard the crows fussing outside. When I peeked through the kitchen window I could understand why. There was not just one, but two Red-tailed Hawks perched side by side on a limb in the backyard. Interestingly, the squirrels were busy feeding and paid no mind whatsoever to the two big fellows that could have easily eaten them for lunch. The crows squawked and carried on, but kept … [Read more...]

  You can learn a lot about wildlife while sitting still and smoking a cigar in your back yard. I suppose you could learn just as much without smoking the cigar, but I need every excuse I can get to puff on a good stogie. I don’t inhale, by the way. Anyway, on one of the very few recent afternoons that it was comfortable enough to sit outside, I lit up and watched my birds as they … [Read more...]

  All the robins in North American were in my yard this week. Maybe not all of them, but a bunch. Yet, the week before there were none. What’s the deal? The bird folks say that the American Robin’s spring migration generally follows a line formed by 36-degree average temperatures, and that makes sense because in winter robins need to either eat fruit or to have soft dirt and wet … [Read more...]