Note: Additional birding accounts may appear under the Seasons and Properties tabs above.
Henslow's Sparrows at Wapello
May 21, 2010
By Jeff Horn
The Henslow's Sparrows have stuck around at Wapello, and Sedge Wrens are present now as well!
Cold, Wet Weather Bluebird Fatalities
May 18, 2010
By Sheila Weydert
Check your bluebird boxes! With last weeks very cold rainy weather, it was so sad to see 5 bluebirds dead in their nest with only a couple days left until fledge.
Highway 20 Whirlabout
May 17, 2010
By Guigo Aviani
16 pelicans flying over the US 20 bridge at Dubuque -- what a way to stop traffic!
Bluebird in the White Snow
January 7, 2010
By M.Birder
I still find it a thrill to see a cardinal in the wintertime, that outrageous almost-sinful red siren against a field of white and black. But today's sighting just about made me jump and shout: the flash of brilliant blue in a snowstorm on my muffled early-morning dog walk. I prefer a background of spring green leaves, but a splash of blue on brilliant blinding blowing white made a beautiful start to the day.
One Man's Weeds...
January 7, 2010
By jankowski
This fall, I decided that I wouldn't trouble myself with the task of cutting down and then forking under the miscellaneous wild flower and weed remnants still "decorating" our rain garden, backyard, and vegetable garden. Turned out to have been a great idea. Not only have I seen more of my neighborhood's typical winter visitors, but I've had the opportunity to spy real strangers, including chickadees, cow birds, grackles and even a small flock of cedar waxwings that hung around one afternoon last week. One bird that I've only seen rarely, and in very small numbers, has been the mourning dove. Last year, I typically counted twenty in my backyard on any given winter day. This year, the most I've counted has been three. Anyone else notice a decline?
Finally, my family has been adopted by a starling named "Loki." He has become a most cherished but also very needy member of our clan. He needs protein; and while he seems satisfied with the dog food we offer him, I'd like to keep his diet a bit diversified. Sooooo...if there are any Guardians willing to part with any of their pesticide-free ladybugs, box elder bugs, millipedes, etc.--DEAD OR ALIVE--please e-mail me to make the necessary arrangements. I can be reached at jankowski8@verizon.net. No reasonable offer will be refused!
End-of-Year Birding
December 31, 2009
By
ChuckW
We’ve re-learned a Charlie Winterwood rule of bird observation. If you see a flock of birds, any old flock of starlings, grackles, blackbirds or sparrows, look more closely, you may be pleasantly surprised. For weeks, we’ve looked out the windows and noticed and tried not to pay any attention to the house sparrows. The Blackmores were by last week for lunch and Mary said look—a tree sparrow, oh look again—a song sparrow. They were mixed in with the juncos and the house sparows and we never noticed. So, now, we know to double check for a treat or two, the unusual, mixed in with the ordinary.
One last story, which even Keith Blackmore couldn’t explain: The other day, when the snow was still nice and fluffy, a blue jay landed in the snow and using his wings started to dig a hole in the snow. He dug down to the grass and start pulling out the grass, breaking the stems off. After a few minutes, he started a new hole and then he worked on that hole for quite a while and, finally, before giving up, he dug a third hole. In the hour or so that we’ve been enjoying our coffee and watching the birds the sky went from a dull, lifeless gray to a merry, bright blue. A pleasant note to start the New Year.
Bird Feeder Frenzy
December 21, 2009
By ChuckW
I often write about my bird feeders because nearly every day there’s something new to report. In nearly thirteen years, we’ve never had more than a solitary squirrel and then he was only passing through, just staying for a week or two when the snow cover was the deepest.
I guess I should be grateful. When ever I go into Wild Birds in Galena to buy peanuts for my peanut wreath, there is always someone complaining that the squirrels, raccoons and possums have taken over the their yard. When we were back in the city, some mornings we had more squirrels than birds at the feeders. My neighbor used a “have a heart trap” to trap them and then release them in the cemetery a mile away. However, he always moaned and groaned that they would beat him back home and they would be busy having lunch when he arrived.
Till now, I’ve been happy with our one squirrel and I’m delighted to see him make his first appearance of the year. But now, wait! As I write this, Patty reports another squirrel has just appeared at a different feeder on the other side of the addition. Now two squirrels; perhaps, I’ll have to reconsider what my old neighbor said about first one, then two and then before you know it they’ve taken over the whole yard. But for the moment, I am quite happy to have two beautiful squirrels at the feeders.
For the last couple of days, we have had a small flock of about two dozen birds at the feeders, under the cedars, out front—simply all over the place. We just assumed that they were starlings. We didn’t pay much attention. And then this morning, Patty took a closer look. It turns out that they’re cowbirds. In the summer we’ve often seen a solitary male and in the fall we’ve sometimes seen cowbirds flocking with other blackbirds and grackles getting ready (we thought) to head south, but cowbirds at our feeder in winter is a first. According to Peterson, the cowbird is a year-round resident.
Acrostic, BIRDING
November 11, 2009
By BarbR
Blue skies welcomed the sun
Intrusive gunshots frightening sounds
Refuge offers welcome rest
Ducks by the hundreds, dots against the
Iowa shore
Nearby geese announce their presence
Gossiping about the weather, same as we.
Kamikaze Crashes
November 6, 2009
By ChuckW
Washing the windows had been on my honey-do-list for nearly two years. Patty says three. A couple of weeks ago on a nice fall day, I finally washed the windows. It has been like Armageddon ever since.
Crash! Splat!! Boom!!! Kamikaze birds have been flying into the windows right and left. Fall migratory season makes the whole situation worse. Tiny little warblers, including a magnolia and a black-throated blue, which we probably would never have seen, end up dying on the deck. A goldfinch just went down in the bushes. A couple of cedar waxwings literally hit the deck and a mystery bird or two has met their demise by crashing into the windows.
Before I washed the windows a gray film covered the windows and the windows looked like part of the house’s off-white siding. Now the windows, sparkling clean, look like a passage to greener pastures. Little do the birds realize that what they perceive to be a bucolic heaven is really certain death?
Right now, we’re looking for screening to cover the windows, but she who must be obeyed has declared that I can stop washing windows.
Jays and Redbellied Woodpeckers Unite
November 4, 2009
By ChuckW
Almost three years ago, Joe and Maureen gave us a peanut feeder wreath from Wildbirds. For two years the nuthatches, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers came to the wreath every day. They would hold on tight, often upside down, and peck away at the shells. They would drill a small hole in the shell and either extract the nut or pulverize it and eat it on the spot. A lot of work. It took them three or four days to finish all the nuts.
This year, their modus operandi is completely different. First of all, the downy woodpeckers and nuthatches seem to have been driven off and replaced by a pair of squawking blue jays. The jays and the redbellied woodpeckers have a new system. They pull the nuts, shell and all, out of the wreath and fly off with the whole peanut in their beaks. Occasionally, a red bellied will use the side of the garage to steady the nut while he breaks it open and devours the contents, but more often they fly across the field to the weed trees in the old fence line on the far side of the field, a fair distance. But they’re back in a flash. I don’t know if they’re stashing the nuts someplace or what’s happening, but the birds make the peanuts disappear a lot faster this way. Beats me.
Junco Juju
November 2, 2009
By ChuckW
I said, “It looks like the juncos are back.” She said, "Ugh!” And really, who can blame her? The junco is after all the harbinger of winter. We do forget, however, that with a little bit of luck (for us) the first snows and really cold air won’t blow in from the juncos’ summer home for at least another six weeks.
I thought that I had seen a flash of white tail feathers a week or so ago, but by the time I tried to get a good look, they were gone. But now they’re definitely here and in substantial numbers so that there is no mistaking them for anything else.
I’ve always admired them. Even on the coldest, windiest, nastiest day when every other bird is hidden under a cedar branch, the juncos are all over the ground, under the feeders scavinging anything that that the doves or squirrels might have left behind.
I tried to tell her that the juncos have to get down here early; they don’t want to be caught traveling across Canada or northern Wisconsin in a blizzard. Relax, I said look outside right now, look what a lovely day we have to enjoy right now. But nothing could assuage her. She was in a funk, thinking of winter and ice storms, blizzards and snow drifts. And all because a tiny little bird is out bouncing around the yard.
Falcon's Dinner
Oct. 12, 2009
By Guigo Aviani
I was walking along, thinking, "Oh, no, it can't be another early October snow."
But on closer look it wasn't snow, but feathers, everywhere in the sky above me.
Then I spied the source: a falcon on a very near ledge was dining on a rock dove.
Blackpoll Warbler Takes a Break
September 26, 2009
By
Guigo Aviani
The blackpoll flew into my Galena garden, sat on the end of a yellow cone flower,
and ate seed, slowly, for a good hour or more. Then it rested, as if the
flight in from Minnesota was tough and if it really didn't want to migrate further.
Chimney Swifts
August 31, 2009
By Feathers
This Spring I eagerly awaited the return of the chimney swifts as I have for many years. The false chimney on my house had been occupied by the swifts from the beginning, but it took three seasons for them to finally use the one I have on the shed. I take great pleasure in watching them careen around the sky and over the house. As with many species, habitat loss, as well as other factors, has affected swift numbers and I am happy to provide nesting/roosting facilities for one of my favorite birds while they take care of flying insects for the short months they are here. At 8:30, near-dusk on August 2, I again watched with great satisfaction these incredible birds descend the quarters I built just for them. For more info, contact me or go to www.chimneyswifts.org. I would love to help you build your own swift home.
The Thistle Bird
May 27, 2009
By Julie Bruser
The American Goldfinch is a bird of many aliases: wild canary, yellowbird, lettuce bird, and thistle bird, just to name a few. Which name a person uses often reveals a lot about their interests and hobbies.
Serious birders call it by its “official” name of American Goldfinch. Ask a gardening enthusiast and you might hear the name “lettuce bird” due to the bird’s practice of nibbling at the tender young leaves of this vegetable. Most causal birdwatchers simply use the term “wild canary” because its magnificent yellow and black coloration remind them of a pet store canary.
A rarely used, but debatably more accurate name, is “thistle bird.” It has long been known that thistle plants and goldfinch are almost inseparable, and even its genus name, Caruelis, is from the Latin word carduus, meaning “thistle.”
Goldfinches rely heavily on thistle plants as a source of food and for nest-building materials. So much so, that during a research study in Michigan that observed over 250 nests, no nest was ever found more than 300 yards away from an abundant supply of thistle seed.
Goldfinches delay the start of their nesting behavior until the thistles come into bloom so they can anticipate an abundant and reliable supply of seeds for their young. Look for those blossoms any day now, and keep your finch feeder filled with fresh Nyjer® (thistle) seed to welcome the nesting “thistle birds” to your backyard refuge. Wild Birds Unlimited on Main Street in Galena has a fresh supply of seed as well as a variety of finch feeders from which to choose.