Bird Watching Anyone

Here's a topic that hasn't hit the BB....maybe because there is no interest . I became interested in hawks about 40 years ago. I would notice these big birds perched in a tree on the side of the interstate. I found out they were Red-Tailed Hawks. I got curious. I then found out there are hawk-watches along the western hills (mountains) of New Jersey bordering the Delaware River and in New York along the Hudson River. Each year the Audubon Society conducts "raptor" counts (hawks, falcons, eagles) from mid August to mid November. So one year I went to Hook Mtn in Nyack, NY along the Hudson River. There were a dozen of nerdy bird watchers with big binoculars and telescopes calling out the names of hawks flying by. To the naked eye they were dots in the sky, but these folks were calling out, "immature, male, sharp-shinned". They would keep a running chart of numbers. On a busy day in September they would count up to 1,000 broad-winged hawks migrating from Canada to South America. I thought that was pretty cool.

Today, I'm a backyard bird feeder. Chickedees, Tufted Titmouse, Cardinals, Nuthatches, Towhees, Juncos, Downy Woodpeckers visit my feeders. Its a peaceful hobby just watching them out my window. Occasionally I go for a hawk watch in Cape May, NJ or along the Jersey marsh lands. This past weekend I saw a first; a Marsh Hawk. Any fellow, nerdy bird watchers out there?

I like to watch the birds when they are eating at the feeder. I like to watch humming birds.

But I also like to go to the mall and get something to drink and sit and people watch.

MC, I do enjoy watching the birds in the yard, especially the cardinals. They are gorgeous. The only bird I've observed closely, though, was when my daughter got a male cockatiel for Christmas and promptly named it Shirley.

Well, I can appreciate the birds singing in the morning or on the rare occasion I see a bluebird at the park or whatever.

And, no offense to my friend MC, but as far as bird watching, I'd probably equate it to watching paint dry.

Oh, and let me add, I do have a fear of birds flying directly overhead. Always have. I don't mean high up in the sky but, but anywhere near my head.

TIS

MC, I believe there is a bird sanctuary in or near Ocean City that I visited about a dozen years ago that was fun. I've been told that Brigantine has a large wildlife refuge that attracts many bird watchers, but this might be a good distance from you.

Spotting hawks, cardinals, blue jays or an occasional eagle is alwayscause to stop whatever I'm doing and watch. There have been a higher number of Cardinals in my area this year..

Mig, I don't have a humming bird feeder, but I've seen them and humming birds feeding. They are cute little buggers. I don't have a people feeder either, but some of them are pretty sloppy

SB/Kly, Cardinals are definitely cool. Very territorial. They are known to fight with their reflection in a window. I hope the Red Sox beat them.

TIS, SB is afraid of clowns and you're afraid of birds overhead. What am I going to do with you two. A little bird poop on your head is good luck.

Kly, Guess where I saw that Marsh Hawk? The Brigantine Wildlife Refuge. Its about 20 minutes from my house. Connected to Brigantine Refuge is the Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, which is quite large. I've been there several times, riding my bike on an 8 mile trail out into the bay.

I wanted to be a forest ranger in my younger days. I'm a bit of an environmentalist. I do love Mother Nature.

The most interesting bird I've had in my yard is a turkey vulture. It was pulling at the carcass of pigeon that I think was killed by a little Cooper's hawk (it came back later to finish the meal). My favorites, though, are the blue jays -- big, pretty, and noisy.

I lived in apartments most of my life, but bought a house a few years ago and have slowly gone from one tiny feeder to about ten. The squirrels, of course, were the bane of my existence until I finally just gave up and started putting peanuts out for them. The peanuts, now, have attracted crows -- who are worse than the squirrels. They come in gangs, keep other birds away, and knock down feeders. I'd love to find something that squirrels like, but crows aren't interested in.

I adopted a full grown but young and rambunctious German Shepherd a couple of months ago. My bird feeding season is just starting, so the crows are in for a little surprise this year....

Please tell us what a titmouse looks like. Do they get along with nuthatches and woodpeckers?

The Tufted Titmouse is "a species in the tit and chickadee family (Paridae)." - Wikipedia. In the pecking order at the feeder the chickadee is the lowest and then comes the Titmouse being slightly larger. Nuthatches slip in next. Woodpeckers stay to themselves. The tits are categorized in sizes A, B, and C, rarely do you see a D. The peckers and nuts are usually checking out the tits.

M-Pete....ten feeders you must really draw a crowd, that can get expensive. I have a four position feeder that I fill with sunflower and millet and then a suet cake. Squirrels are a pain and very clever at getting in the feeders. Your dog should help. A few times I've had a pair of mallard ducks on the ground around the feeder. There is a small lake nearby. I also had a solo turkey. I've had a flock of 12 pass through the yard one year when the feeder wasn't up. Now I have about 10 doves that peck around the ground for the spillings.

I've never had ducks or turkeys!

It's not that expensive - through the summer I only have up a couple of hummingbird feeders and a couple of hanging birdbaths. In the winter the latter two are filled with peanuts or some other rough material, then there's two suet feeders, and two small and two bigger ones that get filled with seed. I get a good number of doves/pigeons that sweep the ground clean, too!

As to the summer, I have eleven small old fruit trees that still kick out a bit of fruit. The birds and squirrels get ALL of that! They seem to plan ahead which day they're going going to swoop in and clean a tree out. They can literally strip a peach of everything edible while leaving the stone hanging on the tree. I have some pears that arrive later in the season - the squirrels fatten up on them, and barely move when I come out of the house. All in all, it's a better then even exchange -- I get the blossoms in the spring and the animals year round.

If by bird watching you mean duck hunting, count me in!

Duck Hunt

I guess that can be watching. You watch the bird fly overhead and then shoot at it. That term "hunting" is somewhat of a misnomer. You wear camouflage, hide in the bushes, make duck sounds and put fake ducks in the water. Sounds more like "ambushing".

We feed the birds that come into our garden but we have cats so we have to be careful!!

We have a whole animal sanctuary in our yard. We got all sorts of birds, cardinals, blue jays, robins, sparrows, crows, a red tail hawk that pops up occasionally and hunts the squirrels. We also have rabbits, chipmunks, obviously squirrels, either a gopher or a groundhog, coyotes come through, we found a dead fox that was caught by a coyote in the backyard a few weeks ago, probably have raccoons that come out at night and i'm sure others that im missing.

Oh, and I guess you could call it bird watching when I feed the chickens.

A hunter might call that getting dinner ready.

Don't pick on Coco and Farnsworth. They don't know that I originally wanted to name them lunch and dinner.

Are you still getting eggs from them?

Of course! That's their purpose.

Today I showed my grandson (3 1/2) a Rufous-Sided Towhee feeding on the ground by the feeder. He called it a Rookus Tokey. Close.

Hey SB, what color are the chickens? I heard white eggs come from white chickens and brown eggs come from brown chickens. If so, what color eggs come from multi-colored chickens?

Scrambled.

Coco and Farnsworth are Black Australorps and their eggs are brown. Their feathers are actually very pretty, with lots of green reflected in them.

Duh, of course.

Recently the The Press of Atlantic City wrote an opinion piece regarding government programs that work and they cited the laws that were passed to ban DDT and the protection of endangered species - eagles and other raptors being the beneficiaries. Some stats: There are 148 bald eagle nests in New Jersey with 41% in Cumberland and Salem county (that's south Jersey along the Delaware Bay). In 1963 there were 417 eagle nest in the entire lower 48 states! In 1970 there was 1 (one) nest in all of New Jersey. Since I've moved to South Jersey 7 years ago, I've sighted eagles no less than a dozen times. In the sky you can't mistake them; the largest flying bird you will see and the white head is prominent. Sitting in a tree top they look like they weigh 100 lbs.

Last month a Snowy Owl was spotted in a nature reserve in the marshlands near Atlantic City. A very rare sighting for birds that normally winter in Canada and Russia. Speculation is that the food source up north is not so abundant. They primarily dine on lemmings; not that there are lemmings in New Jersey, but there are a lot of ducks, which is also on their menu. Snowy Owls are the largest specie of owls in the world.

Lastly, I added a bird to my sighting list - a Carolina Wren. It was on my suet feeder. It took me awhile to find it in my book. Uncommon in NJ. Nice rusty brown back and wings, lighter below, like a cinnamon color with a distinctive white stripe over the eye.

Chirp, chirp.

didn't think anyone on a LCN forum besides me would be a birder.
Snowy owl sightings have been the highest in memory in NJ ( I live in Edison) and have been seen at Brigantine, Sandy Hook, and several other places. Some years we get irruptions of redpolls, and crossbills.

Carolina wrens are not rare in NJ, at least in the spring and fall.

If you like birding go to Garret Mountain (West Paterson) in late April to early May for the warbler migration. You won't be sorry !

I've seen bald eagles at the Delaware Water Gap, east of Easton. I would love to see a nest. I understand that a nest weighs in excess of a metric ton and could sleep a couple of adult humans comfortably.

Mr. Babe threw out some sunflower seeds this morning, which attracted some small white-bellied birds. We looked them up and they were dark-eyed junkos. Very cute. The cats were enthralled and kept nattering away at them. ChooChoo, the sweet and dumb cat (we refer to her as our little Fredo), charged at the back door several times, obviously not realizing there was glass there each and every time. We would hear her rumbling at them, then the soft and sad little thud of her head hitting the door.

JC, I consider myself an intermediate birder (if there is such a thing). I have pamphlet from Atlantic County Park System titled, "Birding in the Atlantic County Park System". The pamphlet has a list of birds "that can be found within..the Park System." They list the Carolina Wren as "Uncommon". My bird book shows their range from lower NY state to Florida and across to Texas. However it categorized, I was happy to add another bird to the list. I'll keep Garret Mtn in mind if I ever make it up north. Thanks. Happy Birding.

It's all we have. The real mafiosi have fixed all the pigeon races.

The Eastern US is in a pretty volatile weather period -- lots of very low temperature and snow cover. The birds and their friends can use some help, in the form of food thrown out on the snow.

Yessir, M-Pete. The little guys have been emptying my feeders at a faster than normal pace. They have to burn more calories to keep warm...especially since they don't wear hats or boots.

My mother has always been an avid bird feeder, particularly in the winter. Learning from her, I always spread a lot of food around for the birds after snowfalls.

An article from Audobon magazine. How Birds Cope with Winter

In this article is a word I've never seen or heard. In case you haven't either....
noun
Torpor is the state of being inactive or having apathy.

I've heard this word almost always in relation to hibernation. Its use is rare.

"Boids...dirty stinking lice infected boids." -- From "The Producers."

All I know is I turn and go the other way if I see this, on my daily run to the park:


TIS

TIS, One of my favorite scary movies when I was a ... younger.

Almost a year since the last post. Good news from New Jersey. There were 567 breeding pairs of Ospreys in NJ in 2014. In 1973 there were 53. DDT was to blame for the dwindling numbers as was the case with eagles and other hawk species.

Yesterday I took my winter visit to Edwin Forsythe National Reserve in the marshlands north and west of Atlantic City. A beautiful, clear, windless day. I saw 3 Eagles, 2 Marsh Hawks, 2 Great Blue Herons, hundreds of Snow Geese and Canada Geese, numerous duck species and a new addition to my bird list - a pair of Northern Shovelers (ducks). Being a bird nerd is peaceful.