Bluebird babies are just starting to peck their way out of the shells and Mom and Dad Bluebird will soon be hard at work. Those who truly love bluebirds assist the parents with heaping bowls full of meal worms. The little wigglers (larvae of the black beetle) are full of protein and supplement the chicks’ diets. I have been buying meal worms for over 25 years and my best source is Fluker Farms. … [Read more...]

Yep. The “Snows” know all right. Snowbirds, that is, and they know when it’s time to pack their little bags and fly away for the summer. But so far, they haven’t felt the urge. My little flock of 9 snowbirds, Dark-eyed Juncos to be exact, are still picking up the millet seeds that I scatter especially for them. My snowbirds generally arrive in November, chased down from the north by cold … [Read more...]

I welcomed a couple unexpected guests to my back yard last week. A pair of beautiful, Pileated Woodpeckers. They swooped in to check on one of our 50-year-old maples, pecked here and there and sailed away. I expect they were shopping for a nesting site. About 20 years ago, I had a pair of Pileated Woodpeckers that nested in one of my trees in an old hollowed out place for two straight years, … [Read more...]

Nesting time, that is. For the past few weeks, I’ve heard my backyard male bluebird warbling. By the way, I have backyard and front yard bluebirds. Even though they’ve been with their mates all year, the makes take nothing for granted and woo the females, lest a younger bird move in on their territory. Then yesterday, I saw the backyard male pulling up dead grass and flying to the birdhouse … [Read more...]

I’m building a wall in my backyard to keep the illegals away. Not illegal  people. Illegal squirrels. I have a red-tailed squirrel in my back yard and he’s creating havoc, teaching my resident all-gray squirrels some bad habits. There is actually a species of Red-Tailed Squirrels native to Central and South America. Perhaps the cartels have smuggled this squirrel into my yard. Probably cost … [Read more...]

I saw a perfectly awful movie on Netflix last week – “The Big Year”, with Steve Martin, Owen Wilson and Jack Black and I watched the whole thing, which felt like two weeks. Why? Because it was a movie about 3 guys competing to see who could spot and identify the most birds in one year – The Big Year. The winner spotted over 750 species of birds. I found that interesting and it got me to wondering … [Read more...]

I was sitting by the fire pit last week, enjoying a great cigar, when I saw a huge flock of birds, literally hundreds. Maybe starlings, I thought. On closer observation they were robins, a gazillion robins. They lit in several trees on the horizon, catching their collective breaths. They were likely heading north as the days get lighter. I have had a few robins just hang around our yard all … [Read more...]