Tom's Bird Feeders and Reptile Supplies

Things that prompt people to start bird watching are always wonderful stories.  When we were at the Rio Grande Valley Bird Festival I met a new bird watcher.  You can usually tell “newbies” by the way they stand a little back from the booth and have puzzled look on their faces.  Some don’t know that there is more than one type of bird feeder, or that not all birds eat bird seed.

The lady I will remember said that she was a casual bird watcher and needed to know the difference between all of the tube feeders, why some had such big holes (whole peanut feeder), some had screens on them (thistle feeders) and some had “little cups” (the ports in a mixed seed tube seeder).

As I explained that different birds eat different things (see our feeding chart) I asked her why she had decided to start feeding birds.  She replied “guilt”.

Now I have to admit that guilt was a new reason for feeding birds.

It seems that at a spring craft show she had purchased a decorative bird house to hang in a tree next to her patio.  It was painted to look like a Spanish mission style house, but it didn’t even have a real hole for the door, only one painted on.  A bird spent days trying to figure out a way into the house.  This bird stopped in quite regularly all summer to sing and then check out the house to see if there was a way in.

She said that she and her family had come to look for the bird each day.  When she saw the local advertising for the birding festival she had brought the kids to enjoy the Kiskadee Korner and to learn a little more about bird watching.

She left our booth with the knowledge of having bought the right feeder and knowing where to hang the feeder to attract the most birds.  Next year she is going to bring photos of her birds in for me to see.

A bird watcher is born!

One of the things I love about birding is that you just never know what you are going to see or where.  Every day is a wonderful mystery.

Today, Nancy and I woke up, filled the coffee mugs and sat down in our recliners overlooking our bird feeders.  As usual, a group of about 15 Gambel’s Quail came in to feed and take dust baths beneath our feeders.  Today we had a stranger in the midst of the flock.  It was not the common Gambel’s Quail or the equally common Scaled Quail.  It was not even the Montezuma Quail which frequent the foothills above our house.  This stranger is what Nancy and I lovingly refer to as a Scrambled Quail.  These are hybrids between Gambel’s Quail and Scaled Quail which sometimes occur in our area.  This specimen was a male with a brown top knot and throat compared to the black top knot and throat of the Gambel’s Quail and white top knot of the Scaled Quail.  This guy had the scaled look of the Scaled Quail on his nape and half way down his breast with the reddish brown flanks of the Gambel’s Quail.  Unlike either parent, our Scrambled Quail had a wide brown eye line through either eye and brown wings.  He seemed to get along well with all of his Gambel’s Quail friends and was a delight to observe at our bird feeder.

But this was not all for the day.  When the quail left, a small gray bird flew in to our four tiered pond setup for a drink.  Further scrutiny produced the first Inca Dove we have observed in our yard since we moved here in 1999.  After drinking and picking at the gravel under the bird feeders the little guy flew off, but not before we were able to observe every field mark in the book including the long pointed tail.

What a day!  We really felt good about our birds.  What could possibly make the day better?  How about a Common Ground Dove!!  We thought our little Inca was returning when we saw another small gray bird approaching the water.  Like the Inca Dove this fellow had rufous in the wings when it flew in and some scaling on the breast.  The tail, however was short and square.  This was a different species! It was only our third Common Ground Dove in the 9 years we have been here.  This bird stayed with us for 15 minutes and gave us the best of looks.

We really didn’t want to leave the feeders to go to work, but all goods things must come to an end.  I focused in on one last sparrow which had just flown in to the top tier of the pond setup.  It was a White-throated Sparrow.  This was also the third one of these we had ever seen here at our station is Portal.  This just toped off a super birding morning for us.

Like most birders who feed birds in their yards we watch the same common birds come into our feeders every day.  Who would have known that today would be so great with four wonderful sightings in the time of two hours.

Ya just never know…

As the headlights hit the “Slow Turtle” sign on our gate, we knew we were home.  We had visited with Tom’s parents and my parents, spoiled all the grandchildren and had a great time.  But as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz says “There is no place like home.”

This morning we filled our coffee mugs and watched to see what birds came into the bird feeders.  The first were the white-crowned sparrows.  They came into the three-tiered pond.  The scaled quail came into the platform feeder.  Even though there was plenty of feed (our neighbor saw to that) several of the quail came up on the porch and  hollered through the sliding glass door.  The canyon towhees landed on the tube feeder and then came over to the table on the porch to chirp at us.  Cactus, our favorite wren, hung upside down from the oriole feeder and gave a noisy greeting.

Do you suppose they missed us?