Tom's Bird Feeders and Reptile Supplies

We all have watched a TV station that advertises that they have America’s favorite “characters” on their station.  Well,  I just spent quite a bit of time in South Dakota, and now remember that one of my “favorite characters” in the bird world is the Black-capped Chickadee.  This character was busy taking sunflower seeds out of my parents  sunflower bird feeder and hiding them for a snowy day.  The Black-Capped Chickadee hides seeds and other food items to eat later. Each item is placed in a different spot and the chickadee can remember thousands of hiding places.  Not that a chickadee should ever worry about going hungry - my parents would never let their bird feeders go empty for very long.

Chickadees will flock in the winter.  The center of a flock of chickadees contain a mated  pairs and nonbreeders, but generally not the offspring of the adult pairs within that flock. Other birds that can be observed with chickadee flocks include nuthatches, woodpeckers, kinglets, creepers,  and further south  wintering warblers and vireos.

One of the reasons other species of birds may follow chickadee flocks may be the great danger call of the chickadee.  The more dee notes in the chickadee-dee-dee call the greater the threat level.  Even species that do not have a danger call will respond to the chickadee’s threat level.

One story I have heard about the Black-capped Chickadee was about Robert Bates who trained a rehabbing chickadee to pull a string, to raise the cup, to make the cup spill a sunflower seed into his cage.

The flocks that visited my parents do not have to work quite that hard for a sunflower seed, but the acrobatic stunts they do pull make them one on my favorite characters.

Today when we went outside to fill our bird feeders,  a Great Blue Heron was sitting on top of our roof. This would not be an unusual species except I live in the middle of a desert with the nearest body of water several miles away.  All I can say is birds are where you find them.

We had two Northern Flickers visit our yard this morning.  I can’t say we had a pair as they were both males.  We first noticed them when they flew down to our bird pond for a short drink.  They then proceeded to have a little breakfast.  Their breakfast was not provided by us, as Northern Flickers rarely visit suet feeders.  It has warmed up and the ants were moving around their holes.  Ants are the main food source for Northern Flickers.  The flicker will dig in the dirt and then use its long barbed tongue to lick up the ants. 

The Northern Flicker is one of the few North American woodpeckers that migrates.  Flickers in the northern parts of their range move south for the winter, although a few individuals often stay rather far north.

Although flickers prefer to eat on the ground, they will act like other woodpeckers and drum on objects.  This drumming lets other flickers know that they have established a territory and that the flicker considers it priviate property.  For this reason the flicker likes to make as much noise as possible and will drum on metal objects.  One Northern Flicker in Wyoming could be heard drumming on an abandoned tractor from a half-mile away.

We are glad that the flickers stopped in for a visit, but do hope that they do not start drumming on our metal chimney pipe!

Those people who follow our journal know that we start each day with our traditional coffee mugs and watch the birds coming into our feeders for their breakfast.  It is a time of reflection and reminds us each day why we live where we do.  The birds are what brought us to Portal.  Nearby Cave Creek Canyon has a very diverse and unique birdlife and has provided thousands of birders with new and different life birds.  Even the “everyday” birds have thrilled many a visitor.  To commemorate these birds our coffee mug supplier has developed artwork featuring the Birds of Cave Creek Canyon, both common and rare, and has made them available to us on our 11 ounce ceramic coffee mugs.  These mugs feature the much sought after Elegant Trogon and Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher as well as the Blue-throated Hummingbird, Bridled Titmouse, Mexican Jay, Acorn Woodpecker, Canyon Wren, Painted Redstart and Elf Owl.  Now that’s what I’m talking about!  A cup of hot Joe and a handful of wonderful birding memories to start each day!  For those of you who have made the pilgimage to Portal and wish to have a momento of your previous trip we have the Birds of Portal mugs available here at Tom’s Bird Feeders.  For those planning a visit in the future, stop in at the Portal Peak Store and Lodge and visit our mug display, Nancy’s hand made soy candles, soaps, pine needle baskets, bird jewelry and other momentos of your trip to Southeastern Arizona.

This battle started with a Loggerhead Shrike perching on top of an agave stalk we had placed above our bird feeders. After a few days of his continuous presence, our morning ritual of filling our coffee cups and watching our bird feeders became rather boring.

We thought we had solved the problem by removing the agave stalk.  The shrike moved to our satellite dish.  From there he can now dominate all three bird feeding stations in our yard.

This morning we climbed onto the roof and attached several strips of surveyor’s fluorescent pink tape to the cable he perches on.  Hopefully this will discourage his continued presence.

I’m hopeful, but not ready to declare the war over!

We have been blaming the windy weather for keeping the number of birds down at our bird feeders. But today the wind was down, the sun was out and birds were still not coming into our bird feeders. In fact even the thrashers were hunkered down deep into the bushes instead of claiming a platform bird feeder.

We had recently had to take an agave stalk down because we had a Loggerhead Shrike use it as a perch. But with the stalk down we had not seen him lately.

This morning when we went to fill the bird feeders, we discovered that we had not discouraged the shrike, but only accomplished moving him to the top of our television satellite dish. Now he can see all three bird feeding stations at the same time.

We can’t take down the satellite dish. He does not fly away when we try to scare him. But, we do have some neighbors worried about our sanity.  It seems that yelling and waving your arms while staring at your dish is not normal.

This shrike thinks he has outsmarted us.  And I guess we may have lost the battle, but have not given up the war.

If you have ideas, PLEASE let us know.

Goldfinches cling sideways mimicking feeding on seed heads.

In my continuing series on different types of finch bird feeders I would like to review our 1 quart stainless steel thistle bird feeder. 

I have to admit that this thistle bird feeder is my favorite.  It truly optimizes our philosophy of easy to clean and easy to fill bird feeders.  It’s die cast yellow top and bottom along with the  perforated stainless steel sides and lifetime guarantee will make it one of yours also.

You may notice that this bird feeder has no perches.  If you review our article on attracting finches to your yard you will remember that these acrobatic bird use a cling and peck method in nature, so no perches are necessary.

To fill it, you simply lift off the yellow die cast top.  This top is very tight fitting and will keep squirrels from lifting the lid.  Because it is die cast metal the squirrel has no chance of chewing on the lid to get to the thistle/Nyjer seed.  This feeder does not have a center pole, so the seed does not bounce out when you are refilling.  It  also has a seed diverter so that every seed can be consumed and you will not have any waste.

Top lid swings out of the way for filling. The bottom is completely removable by pulling the stainless steel pin.

  This bird feeder will come apart without the use of any tools.  A stainless steel pin, complete will a hoop for easy removal, has to be pulled to remove the bottom.  Once the bottom is removed, I use a Swab wet with a mild bleach solution to clean the inside of the feeder.  I rinse well, allow to dry, and refill.  It’s that easy and as we all know, easy is better.  It also means that the feeder will get cleaned more often.  The  advantage of good hygiene is obvious.

Now I warned you from the beginning of the blog that this was my favorite finch feeder, and now I’m sure that you know why.  If you want me to continue to sing its praise, contact me and I will write pages and pages for you.

This morning we were running on slow, even though we had the coffee mugs filled.   I think we wanted to take a four day weekend and just veg out after our Thanksgiving meal yesterday.  But we were inspired to get moving by a Crissal Thrasher.  He ran across our yard, up the stairs and across the porch.  He then ran back to the bird pond and started scratching under the triple tube bird feeder.  His energy inspired us to get moving and get those bird feeders filled.

You might notice that I say he “ran”.  He did not fly.  Crissal Thrashers are known for their habit of running or walking around their territory.  Even when threatened by a predator or disturbed by us he runs for cover.  He does not fly unless death is imminent.  This unique habit makes things interesting when a Cooper’s Hawk flies over the bird feeders and a covey of quail are also in the yard.  They will all head for the same juniper/acacia tangle.  If the quail have young they win, if not the quail will usually head for the brush pile.

We have only found one Crissal Thrasher nest.  It was built close to the trunk of a tree, under a large branch.  Access to the nest was difficult for even the parent birds and should have provided great protection from predators and becauses of the location the nest was in a shady spot.  The Crissal Thrasher is only thrasher that lay unspotted eggs.

The energy of the Crisssal Thrasher inspired us to get moving or at least inspired me to get out to the office and write this blog.  You can find Crissal Thrashers and observe their habit of running by going to our Portal, Arizona birding map and looking for the big thicket.

I was at a show last weekend where I had a Grandmother lament that her grandchildren just weren’t interested in bird watching.  I have grandchildren and found them to be very involved in feeding the birds and are very excited when a bird came in for breakfast or maybe just a snack.

I have been thinking about why my grandkids are interested in bird watching and would like to offer the following suggestions to parents and grandparents.  These suggestions are for young children.  In another blog I will talk about older children.

First, you need to get them involved.  Pointing though a window and saying “Look at the pretty bird” just does not do it.  My grandson (2 1/2 years old) helps fill the bird feeders.  When we have finished filling the bird feeders and hear the birds singing, I tell him that it is their way of saying “thank you”.  If we have not filled the bird feeders, the singing is their way of saying “please”.  I don’t make an issue that he helps every day and I never interrupt a good game of stacking the blocks to do this.  I try to pick a time that he is looking for something to do.  And yes, some times the birds get fed more often than they need to, but who cares as long as the child is interested in birds right then?

We have bird feeders that are at his level.  All bird watchers have experienced “warbler neck”,  that stiff feeling that you get from looking up all day at tree top birds.  For a child a bird feeder at your level will give them “warbler neck”  We have several platform bird feeders that are at his height.  These are the bird feeders that he notices.  The platform bird feeders are outside a sliding glass door at our house, and outside a low picture window at Great Grandma’s house.  The movement of the birds catches his eye and when he knows that he filled that feeder, he is excited.  It means that we have finger prints on the glass, but really, is that something that we should worry about?

Bird Watching at Great Grandma's House. The bird feeders are at a level that helps little ones enjoy the birds

I need to remember that my grandson will not be excited about the first Green-tailed Towhee each fall, but is excited about the House Finches every time he sees them, after all red is his favorite color.  He has helped his little sisters stand up to look out the windows more than once and explained to them that “That’s my bird!”

I try to remember that if  he has spotted a particularly colorful bird, like Blue Jays in South Dakota or a Cardinal in Arizona I need to stop what I am doing for just a few seconds and share in his excitement.

I also need to remember that his attention span is still very limited and he will be off to his next project before I am ready to move on.

I think you get the idea by now.  Make bird watching fun.  Don’t make it a chore.  Get down on your knees and see their world.  You will learn that the world through their eyes is a very different place than the world though our eyes.  Enjoy their wonderment.  As every Grandma knows, childhood does not last long enough.

Today I will review another finch bird feeder.  Now, remember these bird feeders will only feed thistle bird food. They will not accommodate a mixed seed nor will they feed sunflower seeds.

These thistle bird feeders will attract all three species of goldfinches,  House Finches, Purple Finches, Pine Siskins, and I have had reports of juncos and titmice regularly visiting thistle feeders.

If you have been using a thistle sock and are tired of replacing it or have problems with squirrels, the acrylic thistle feeder might be the next step up for your backyard birding habitat.

The acrylic top will provide some protection from rain and the acrylic bottom does have drain holes so that rain may quickly drain away from the seed.  This feeder also has a center seed diverter so that Every seed can be consumed.  The screen is stainless steel and allows birds to cling to it.  There are no perches, but this will help with some problem birds such as the pigeons and morning doves. Now remember that finches are “cling and peck” feeders and do not need to have perches.

The top has a special lock pin so that it will not blow off in wind storms, but can be easily removed for filling.

To clean the acrylic finch feeder, we spray the screen with a mild bleach solution, use a stiff  brush to scrub it and then allow it to dry.  The bottom may be removed during the cleaning process, but it is held together with a nut on the bottom so you must use an appropriate tool.  For this reason, this feeder  is slightly more of a challenge to clean that some of the others that I will review.  However, at only $14.99 for a 1 quart feeder with a three year warranty this is one of our most popular thistle bird feeders.

A little while back I wrote a blog about the winter birds coming in to our bird feeders early this year. Well, the birds knew what they were doing. For the past two days we have had rain, sleet and snow! On Wednesday the snow actually accumulated on the ground. It only lasted a few hours, but snow is usually at our elevation only in December and January.

This storm brought a new yard bird into our platform bird feeder. It was the Dark-eyed Junco, the Oregon subspecies. It is common in Paradise, but the elevation and the habitat are typical for the Oregon Junco in Paradise, not down here on the edge of the desert.

We also had a Gila Woodpecker coming in to help its self to the sunflower seed bird feeder, one seed at a time. He would then fly up to an agave stock to crack the seed, then back down to the bird feeder.

The weatherman has promised a warm up, but this morning the Oregon Junco was back in. Who do you think predicts the weather more accurately, the weatherman or the junco?

“Which thistle bird feeder is right for me?” is a question I get quite often at the birding festivals.  First I have to ask if you are feeding thistle now.  If you are and are looking for a new thistle feeder I would like to know why.  Do you just need to replace an old thistle feeder that is in disrepair?  Is there a reason you don’t like your current thistle bird feeder?  Is it hard to fill? Is it hard to clean?

If you are not feeding thistle then let’s figure out what birds a new thistle bird feeder will bring into your yard.  We need to check distribution maps and compare your location to the maps.  You will get some birds into thistle anywhere in the country, and checking distribution and habitat will tell you what the most likely species are, such as Goldfinches, Siskins, Redpolls and House Finches.

If you are new to feeding thistle to the birds I like to suggest a thistle sock as a beginner bird feeder.  We have three different thistle socks.  Our basic thistle sock comes filled with thistle seed.  This will give you both the sock and a starting supply of seed.  This is for someone who is just not sure what will come in to the thistle sock.  These socks have a thinner weave to their material.

The other socks are woven from heavy material, and comes in two sizes.  The small thistle socks are approximately 4″ x 11″.  This sock will accommodate approximately 7-8 birds at a time.  The large thistle socks are woven from heavy material and are approximately 4″ x 22″.  This sock will accommodate approximately 12-15 birds at a time.  A draw string retainer protects from spillage of expensive nyjer seed on these thistle socks.

Any thistle sock is subject to damage from squirrels, so this should be taken in to account before choosing a thistle sock.

With any thistle sock, be sure to roll the sock between your hands after rain.  This will move the seed around and assure that the seed dries so there is not spoilage.

These thistle bird feeders provide an economical method for feeding small desirable birds that cling, and may be right for you.  In upcome blogs I will discuss our other thistle bird feeders pros and cons.  We will find the perfect thistle feeder for you!

We have had an Anna’s Hummingbird visiting our hummingbird feeder recently.  That flash of rose red while we sip from our coffee cup always gives us pause.  The color is so brilliant.  When I first started bird watching, I thought that my field guide had taken some creative liberties when they chose the color of ink, but I now know that my inexperience was showing  and that the field guide was accurate.

A facinating fact about this little gem of a bird is his display.  This little guy will not only display for a female hummingbird, but will show off for humans frequently. He will let you know that you are about to be treated to this display by hovering 6-12 feet in front of you.  He will then fly about 130 feet straight up.  He will then plummet in a near vertical dive. This display dive ends when the lets off a loud tweet about a 1 1/2 feet in front of you.  He will then circle back to his starting point.  Now this little hummingbird knows how beautiful he is as he will orient himself to the sun so that his throat and crown are reflected in the sun during the dive.

So, next time you think that the Anna’s Hummingbird you were watching disappeared by flying straight up, stay put, he just may be giving you a special view, and celebrate by wearing your Anna’s Hummingbird cap.

What is the winter weather going to bring us?

I looked out the window this past week to see a Pinion Jay at our stainless steel sunflower bird feeder.  I did a double take.  We have had them in our yard before, but usually in December and January, and then only when we have snow at our elevation which only happen a few times a year.  Although Tom was sure I knew what a Pinion Jay looked like after helping band them for years, his eyebrow still went up just a little.

“How unusual,” was his only comment.

Just a few days ago Tom hollered in from the family room “Hey, we have a Scrub Jay eating at the suet bird feeder!”

“How unusual,” was my only comment.  Although I have to tell you that I did get a good look at him and will confirm his finding.

This morning while we were sipping from our coffee mugs we had a Dark-eyed Junco stop for a bite to eat at the triple tube bird feeder.  We looked at each other and said at the same time “How unusual!”  We can laugh and tease each other and this sort of teasing always makes the day start off right.

It does make us wonder-what kind of weather will we be having if the birds are already scouting out bird feeders at our lower elevation?

Are you people from up north feeling sorry for us?

We started our morning in the typical fashion-coffee mugs in front of the sliding glass door in our family room. Our thistle bird feeder was attracting the Lesser Goldfinches. These finches usually stay for most of the year with us. They will leave us for a few weeks each summer during breeding season.

But this morning we had one American Goldfinch stop in for a bite to eat and a quick bath in the bird bath. This species is uncommon for our area. A few are seen in the area each year, but we have never had the flocks we were familiar with when we lived in South Dakota, and they never stay in the area for very long.

We knew our day was off to a great start, and to add to the day a small flock of Pine Siskins stopped by. These were a first for this fall. They visited our thistle sock, as the stainless steel thistle feeder was pretty much covered with birds. The American Goldfinch was much larger than the Lesser Goldfinches, so he was not shy about making sure he got a hearty breakfast.

It’s great to have more than one kind of bird feeder in your yard. Yesterday the platform bird feeder had all of the excitement and today the thistle bird feeders. What will tomorrow bring?

Did you ever wonder why there are no dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica – where do they go?
Wonder no more!!!
It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life.
The penguin is very committed to its family and will mate for life, as well as maintaining a form of compassionate contact with its offspring throughout its life.
If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into and buried.
The male penguins then gather in a circle around the fresh grave and sing:

“Freeze a jolly good fellow.”

Penquins are one bird we know nothing about!

Hope you laughed as hard as we did at this one!

With fall here we know to expect the snowbirds to start to filter in. Now, I am not talking about the snowbirds who come in RV’s, but those who migrate here for the same reasons – to avoid the cold and snowy weather.

The White-crowned Sparrow, with it’s striking black and white striped head, is one of the birds that indicate to us that fall is here. The first year birds will have a brown and white striped head when they arrive here, but by the time they head back north the crisp black and white pattern is apparent. He is one of the first sparrows that beginning bird watchers learn to identify when they come to their bird feeders.

Since the White-crowned Sparrow prefers to feed on the ground along tree and shrub lines their favorite feeder in our yard is the platform bird feeder. A mixed seed seems to attract then however they have been know to be drawn to grains such as oats, wheat, barley, and corn.

A young male White-crowned Sparrow learns the basics of the song it will sing as an adult during the first few months of its life. The song is developed from not only listening to it’s father, but he will pick up bits of song from its neighbors. The birds will return to the same area to nest as they were hatched so the songs of the White-crowned Sparrow have regional dialects. If a young bird develops his song on the edge of two different dialects, the young bird will not combine the songs, but may become bilingual learning two different dialects.

Another interesting fact about the White-crowned Sparrow is that it will share their territories with Fox Sparrows, but chase Chipping Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos until they leave. In our yard we have three platform bird feeders so that all the sparrows can find a safe place to eat.

Our defination of “snowbirds” may not be the one that most people have, but in the world of birders, I’m sure that the White-crowned Sparrow is one of the welcomed snowbirds to their bird feeders.

This time of year the hummingbird migration is on and we have had lots of Rufous Hummingbirds visiting our hummingbird feeders.

I have to confess, sometimes I get really aggravated at the Rufous Hummingbird. We have had Black-chinned Hummingbirds here all summer. They have nested in our yard and entertained us with their acrobatic flight. Now migration is on and that little tiny bully known as the Rufous has managed to intimidate our summer long visitors. We have put out more Best 1 hummingbird feeders out of sight of each other, but the Rufous has managed to find a vantage point on the roof of our house so that he can see both the west and south side of our house, and he feels he needs 10 feeders for himself.

Tom has reminded me that the Rufous has the longest migratory journeys of any bird in the world, as measured by body size. At just over 3 inches long, its roughly 3,900-mile movement (one-way) from Alaska to Mexico is equivalent to 78,470,000 body lengths and that they need their strength to make such a migration.

Tom also reminds me that the Rufous has been documented chasing chipmunks away from their nest, so that they have to have a fierce nature to protect their young. Also, that they beat their wings 52-62 times a second, so they have to have a great deal of energy.

Tom has valid points, but still, does the Rufous Hummingbird need to dominate all 10  bird feeders? I think I’m still a little aggravated with him.

We have been out of town for a couple of weeks and working on a plant project in South Dakota, so our birdwatching here in Portal has just started up again.  And this is a great time to be bird watching in Portal.

Our hummingbird migration is still going on.  We still have Rufous Hummingbirds coming through and we still have most of the hummingbirds like the Magnificent, Blue-throated, and Violet-crowned coming into our Best 1 Hummingbird feeder.  We have also set up several saucer humming bird feeders around the yard and of course, Tom still has the window mount hummingbird feeder on the kitchen window.

In the past few days we have had warblers filtering through including the Townsend’s, MacGillivray’s, Common Yellowthroat, Wilson’s, Yellow, Yellow-rumped and the Black-throated Gray.  They have been at our birdbath and enjoying the bird mister especially.  The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher only came in for one day and seemed to enjoy the  bird dripper most.

Many of our winter migrants have started coming in.  The Clay-colored and  White-crowned Sparrows are back as well as the Green-tailed Towhees.

All of this going on and in our recycled platform bird feeder we have a Curve-billed Thrasher feeding young.

Have I convinced you?  It’s Great to Bird Watch in Portal!

This morning we had a Rufous-crowned Sparrow visit us while we were sipping from our coffee cups and doing our daily ritual of bird watching from the easy chair.

Our yard has been fenced off from cattle grazing for about 10 years now.  We are fighting a battle with Russian Thistle and have noticed a definite decrease in this weed and several other noxious weeds.  The return of the Rufous-crowned Sparrow has given us hope that our yard will someday become a true desert scrubland haven for the birds.

Once paired the Rufous-crowned Sparrow remain on their territories year-round and stay bonded for life.  The are ground feeders and like to peck at the base of grass stems.  They are therefore most attracted to platform bird feeders in the winter, however prefer insects in the summer months.  The bird baths we have in our yard seem to be attracting them this year as we have not had much in the way of monsoonal rains. 

To help you find Rufous-crowned Sparrows download our Portal Birding Map and look along the Portal Road and the Foothills Roads in the scrub land before and throughout the big thicket.

The fall warbler migration is in full swing now, here in southeastern Arizona.  During the past week we have had numbers of Wilson’s Warblers, Yellow Warblers, MacGillivray’s Warblers, Townsend’s Warblers, Black-throated Gray Warblers, Virginia’s Warblers and Lucy’s Warblers visiting our four tiered bird pond.  Without this nice water feature these birds would be only a fleeting glimpse through our Chihuahuan Desert property.  The warblers and hummingbirds enjoy the waterfalls where the water flows from one tier to another.  It is so nice to see the colorful warblers bathing in the various levels with our resident Pyrrhuloxias, Canyon Towhees, House Finches and Black-throated Sparrows.  Water is the key to attracting the warblers, flycatchers, vireos and tanagers.  Moving water is even better because birds flying in the vicinity can see the ripples in the water or hear the moving water.  Even a simple bird bath can be made a bird magnet with the addition of a mister or dripper.  There are not many bird species that can resist the sound or looks of moving water so if more birds of more species is your goal, moving water is the solution.

With the fall bird migration starting, watching our birdfeeders becomes more exciting again. Although not all migrants are rare, all are fun to see as they pass through.

This morning we had a Lazuli Bunting at our tube bird feeder. This male was in the middle of a molt. That is not unusual for Lazuli Buntings when they visit our bird feeder here in Portal, AZ.

The Lazuli Buntings have a very unusual way of molting during migration. The birds begin their Prebasic molt during late summer on the breeding grounds, then abruptly stop this molt and migrate to one of two known molting “hotspots”. These are in southern Arizona and New Mexico and northern Sonora, or the southern tip of Baja California. They then finish molting before continuing their migration to wintering grounds in western Mexico.

So, if you get to come birding in our area be sure to watch out for the Lazuli Buntings.  Their molt is something for you to talk about when you return home, and you will only see it here while bird watching in the United States.

A question we are often asked, especially by our more northern and eastern customers is  “Should I quit feeding my hummingbirds around Labor Day?”  Apparently a number of people have found information in the literature somewhere saying that to continue feeding the hummingbirds after Labor Day may keep them too far north and they may be caught in the winter weather as a result.

Recent studies and literature tell us however that there is no evidence that feeding hummingbirds after Labor Day will keep them from migrating.  In fact, feeding may help weakened stragglers refuel for the long haul to Central and South America.  So leave the hummingbird feeders out until the birds stop coming in.

We recently received a question from a wonderful lady who had purchased a Best 1 Hummingbird Feeder from us at a birding festival.  She was concerned that her hummingbird feeder seemed to empty mysteriousy overnight.  I thought I would share my answer to her with everyone.  I hope this answers some other concerned people who have the same question.

Hi,

I’m glad that the hummers have found the new hummingbird feeder. Our hummingbird
migration in in full swing here so you should be getting several different
species shortly.

You said that your feeder seems to be emptying overnight. I would bet
that you have nectar eating bats coming into your feeder. These are
endangered species that come up from Mexico approximately in August following
the yucca and cactus blooms. With this dry year, they are visiting
hummingbird feeders even more than usual.

We simply feed the bats. We like to help endangered species whenever we
can. You can take your feeders down overnight to stop the bats from
feeding. Hummingbirds will still use your feeder even if it is not up at
sunrise. With their metabolism, eating all day is necessary.

If you are handy you can make a homemade cage to stop the bats from coming
in by purchasing some fencing called rabbit guard. Turn the rabbit guard
upside down and make a dome out of the fencing. Be sure the smallest
squares are by the feeder ports. It should be twice the diameter of your
feeder. Hang you feeder inside the dome. The bats will not be able to
reach the ports, but the much smaller hummingbirds will have no problems.

Hope this helps, and feel free to contact us anytime.

Nancy Hays
Tom’s Bird Feeders

Well, according to the quail, a great tragedy has befallen our bird feeders.  You see, we didn’t fill the bird feeders before we went to bed last night and the platform bird feeder was out of seed.  Now before you get terribly upset it was only the recycled platform bird feeder.  The cedar platform bird feeder had some seed in it.

But according to the quail that were on our porch squawking and calling and generally making their displeasure known it is a tragedy.  You see, the Curve-billed Thrasher has claimed the cedar platform bird feeder as his and only his.  He can’t get by with that year round, but we still have very young baby quail coming in with their parents and at the first sign of trouble, everyone heads for cover.

The question you may be asking yourself is why did the quail come onto the porch?  Well, they come up to the sliding glass door and holler at us until the bird feeders are filled.  This is a learned behavior.  They have learned that the bird feeders are filled when someone comes out that door.  They are not quite as bad as chickens, but will come with in a few feet of us at feeding time.

Now you know why the quail had a bad Monday morning.  The next question would be why was our morning bad?  This all took place before 6:00 am, before we are normally up.

Did we get up to feed the quail?  Of course we did!  Our quail are really spoiled.  The only thing more spoiled are our grandchildren.

You can send sympathy cards to our daughter after we visit for a week at the end of the month.  She will deserve them. Spoil them rotten and then leave-that is our motto when it comes to grandchildren!

The fall hummingbird bonanza is gearing up in Portal, Arizona now.  We are having to put out the 32 ounce Best 1 hummingbird Feeders along with the 8 ounce Best 1 Hummingbird feeders.  We have also put up a couple of 8 ounce saucer hummingbird feeders on pole mounts to supplement our other feeders.  Currently we have Black-chinned, Rufous, Broad-tailed, Magnificent, Anna’s and Calliope Hummingbirds coming in to our feeders.  Violet-crowned, Costa’s, Lucifer’s and Blue-throated Hummingbirds have all been observed in the Portal area in recent days.  White-eared and Berylline Hummingbirds have been observed in the nearby Huachuca Mountains in the past week.  We had a large hummingbird which we tentatively identified as a Plain-Capped Starthroat a few days ago.  It appeared to be as large as a Magnificent but sat more horizontal on the branch it was perched on.  The red throat was visible but the bird took off before we received a decisive look.  Portal is definitely the place to come to for hummingbirds and now is a great time to break out the hummingbird coffee cups.

This is just a short note to let bird watchers who plan to visit our area that the fall migration has started.  This morning our bird bath was visited by a Lazuli Bunting, a Wilson’s Warbler and two Yellow Warblers.  We have not had many hummingbirds through yet, but will keep you posted.

The Pyrrhuloxias that fledged several weeks ago came back for a visit to our platform bird feeder.  No parent birds were present, so they are on their own.  We hope they continue to visit throughout the winter.  Pyrrhuloxias roam more during the winter and will sometimes leave the dry thorn scrub they prefer to nest in to visit more stream side and even urban settings.

Beginning bird watchers have a tendency to misidentify Pyrrhuloxias.  They are quite often confused with the female cardinal.  This mistake can be avoided by looking at the beak.  The Pyrrhuloxia has a strongly curved bill that can be described as “stubby”   The beak is dark in the juvenile and yellow in the adult.  The cardinal has a larger, more triangular bill.  The juvenile does have a dark beak, but adult cardinals have an orange to red bill.

The odd name Pyrrhuloxia comes from the genus names Pyrrhula (bullfinches) and Loxia (crossbills). The roots mean “flame-colored” and “crooked,” and aptly describe the reddish bird with the crooked bill.

During the summer the Pyrrhuloxia will glean insects from the plants around our bird bath.  During the winter they would normally forage while hopping on the ground, so to attract Pyrrhuloxias the platform bird feeder will be most likely feeder used by this species.

It is alway exciting for birdwatchers out of our area to see their first Pyrrhuloxia and we still enjoy seeing them, specially when we know that a successful nest has taken place in our yard.  If you download our Portal, Arizona birding map you can find the Pyrrahuloxia along the Portal Road or along the Foothills Road.  Good Luck and Good Birding!

The House Finch is a fairly common bird throughout the country now, but, it has not always been that way.  In the early 1900s they were common only in the southwestern states.  At that time they were also commonly sold as cage birds because of their beautiful song.  When American birds became protected under federal law (the Migratory Bird Treaty Act) many pet shops and bird dealers in the eastern states, especially New York released all of their captive birds so they would not be caught with them and fined.  These birds rapidly became quite common where they were released and began spreading to the west and south.  The southwestern birds also began spreading to the north and east.  In the early 1970s I banded the first House Finch identified in the state of South Dakota.  This was like the Golden Nail that joined the railroads from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  The eastern and western populations of this bird had met in the middle and now they occupy all 48 states and Hawaii and are fairly common throughout the country.

This is truly a beautiful bird.  The male is dressed up with a bright red forehead, supercilium, breast and rump in addition to its pretty song.  The female is more sparrow like, brown in color with a light belly with brown streaks.  They are easy to attract with sunflower seed or thistle Nyjer seed.  These birds are cling and peck type feeders so perches on the sunflower feeders or thistle feeders are not necessary as they can just cling to the side of the feeder.

Water is also a good way to get House Finches to your yard.  This can be provided with a simple bird bath or something as elaborate as a backyard pond kit.  Moving water is always better for attracting birds and you can add this dimension to a simple birdbath through the use of a mister or dripper.

While these birds are beautiful and fun to watch in your yard, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.  In many areas House Finches are as common as the English House Sparrow.  In my mother’s backyard in Wyoming the House Finches are overwhelming, occurring in large numbers and eating a lot of seed in the process.  We have a lot of them on our property here in Portal, Arizona also, but nowhere near the numbers that my mother plays host to. 

So, are the House Finches beauties or beasts?  You can decide and let us know how you feel by commenting on this entry.  As for Nancy and I (and my mother), we operate on the premice that birds coming into the feeders attract other birds to the feeders and, in general, we have found that to be true.  What do you think?

Cooper’s Hawks like to eat smaller birds.  It is their way, and we have an article in our hints and tips about what to do when you have one of these birds visiting your bird feeder for his snacks.  The suggestions we make have been proven to work at our feeders and we have had people tell us they have helped at their bird feeders also.

But…..(you could hear that but coming, couldn’t you)…  we have a new bird feeder problem.  We have a young Cooper’s Hawk that has decided that our four tiered bird pond is a great place to soak it’s feet on a hot day.  It comes in and just stands in the water next to the water fall so that it gets a little splash, but not soaked.  We have never seen it attempt to hunt while it is here.  In fact it comes in with a great deal of wing flapping and hopping around.  It seems to want to clear every other animal out so that it has the bath to its self.  It is great to see the hawk stand so still for so long when you want to identify the bird or want to show it to a fellow bird watcher……but….you sure aren’t going to be able to show your fellow bird watcher any other birds when the hawk is around.

Now I realize that Cooper’s hawks have a rough life.  In a recent study of 300 skeletons,  23 percent showed old, healed-over fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the wishbone.  The males have a particularly hard life.  Let me remind you that:

1. Cooper’s Hawks eat birds smaller that they are. 

2. The females will eat medium-sized birds.

3. Male Cooper’s Hawks are smaller than the female. 

 Are you getting the picture?

This tends to make the male submissive and he will make sure that his mate is in the mood before he makes his move, for reasons I’m sure are obvious to you.

The male will build the nest and will then feed both the female and the babies for the next 3 months, the time it takes for the young to be ready to go out on their own.

Now despite this rough life, I wish this particular Cooper’s Hawk would find some other way of cooling off this summer.  He is wreaking our chance to see the baby birds that would usually visit our yard.  It is always fun to watch the adult plumage slowly emerge.

We do have bird feeders on other sides of the house, so we haven’t been totally out of touch with the maturing of the baby birds, but it is just not the same when we fill our coffee cups each morning.

This hawk does not have a flight plan, so we can’t discourage him in the normal ways.  Our only solution is to let the pond go dry and water the birds in the other bird baths are offered around the yard.  I hope he gets the message soon.

Of course, we are not having to put out as much bird seed as usual, so we are saving some money. But, doesn’t the President want us to spend money right now?  Maybe I can get him to address this problem over a beer at the White House some time.

A male Black-headed Grosbeak visited our sunflower bird feeder today. We were excited, because we are slightly out of their habitat. We are in the foothills of the mountains, in desert scrub. The Black-headed Grosbeak prefers a variety of deciduous and mixed forest habitats. We have some small deciduous trees and some short evergreens, but our yard could not be considered a forest habitat.

When the grosbeaks builds a nest they do their best to install air conditioning by making the bottom of the nest so thin that you will be able to see the eggs through the bottom of the nest and the best air circulation is available to the eggs and the parent bird. The thickness of the nest depends on the part of the country the nest is built in.

The female grosbeak is a true feminist. She expects the male to do about half of the work when it comes to incubating eggs and feeding young. If the male starts to spend too much time away from the nest, she will start singing. The male will then return thinking his territory has been invaded.

Attracting grosbeaks to your yard is as easy as providing food, water, and shelter. Grosbeaks will eat insects, seeds and fruits. The grosbeaks visiting our yard prefer sunflower seeds. They like our hopper / platform bird feeder. This feeder has a hopper in the middle of the platform. It is easy to keep full.

These birds seem to prefer our bird pond over our bird bath. They seem to prefer to be near the splash of the tiers, and are regular bathers.

Our yard does not have many of the large deciduous trees, but I have heard them singing from our 15-20 foot trees, although we have never found a nest.

In conclusion, you do not need the ideal habitat to attract Black-headed Grosbeaks to your yard.  Provide the right type of food and some water and they will come.

For the past couple of weeks we have been entertained by a pair of Lucy’s Warblers while we sit with our coffee mugs and watch the birds coming in to our backyard bird habitat.  These birds do not come in to the birdseed we put out for the birds.  However, the sound of flowing water in our four tiered bird pond has been bringing them in every day.

I am not sure why else they would be here.  Their preferred habitat is generally streamside willows, cottonwoods and mesquites.  They generally nest in cavities or under peeling bark of these trees.  The closest habitat of this sort is nearly three miles away from our property and there is not a tree large enough on our property to have cavities or peeling bark. 

These small active little elves have pale gray upperparts, plain gray wings and whitish underparts.  Both male and female have a rusty patch on the upper tail coverts.  The male has a very noticeable rusty red patch on the top of the head.  The bills are thin and very pointed and they have dark legs.  Overall size is smaller than some of our hummingbirds at about 4 1/4 inches.

Lucy’s Warblers are insect eaters and a great deal of the joy we have for these little tykes is watching them glean insects from the sage, acacia and mesquites which border our bird pond.  The acrobatics of these birds in catching their food is amazing as they chase small insects in every imaginable position up and down the branches of the plants.

I do not know if this pair flies from the better habitat three miles away or if they are nesting closer and are utilizing a non-traditional nesting site.  Today, however, they showed up with a juvenile bird.  The youngster was fully feathered and was catching its own food on the various shrubs.  It was similar in looks to the female but had some buff on the underparts.  Now we have three of these little birds to enjoy and enjoy them we will.

When new birders are learning the bird songs, Northern Mockingbirds can be very annoying!  Each bird will sing 10-15 different songs and both the female and the male sing.  These rather plain gray birds sing endlessly, even at night.  To add more confusion for new birders, Northern Mockingbirds continue to add sounds and songs to their repertory throughout their lives.  It has been estimated a male mockingbird may learn about 200 songs and sounds during its life.

Because of this musical talent, they were nearly extirpated from parts of the east coast in the early 1900s.  People took fledglings and  trapped the adults to sell in cities like New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis.  In 1928 these talented singers could bring as much as $50.00.

The Northern Mockingbird is found in shrubby areas with open grassy spots.  Shrubs that form thickets and produce berries are their favorites.  You can find Northern Mockingbirds in parkland, cultivated land, suburban areas and in second growth habitat at low elevations.

Northern Mockingbirds eat mainly insects in summer but switch to eating mostly fruit in fall and winter.  What this means for you is that you must create a backyard bird habitat to attract them to your yard.

Start by planting shrubs and hedges that produce fruit and will become quite thick.  Try to pick native plants, although mockingbirds will eat ornamental berries.  The mockingbirds that clean off the pyracantha berries from our thickets are already establishing territories although the berries are still green.

We use our recycled oriole feeder to feed raisins to the mockingbirds and birds have taken mealworms from other cups in our recycled oriole feeder.  It is always a thrill to see the flash of white in their wings as they approach the feeder.

We also have a four tiered bird pond that recycles water throughout the system.  This is a magnet for the Northern Mockingbird.  They seem to enjoy the splash from one tier to the next.  The less dominate mockingbirds take turns at the bird bath, pretending they can’t see each other.

 The Northern Mockingbird population has rebounded from their low counts in the nineteen hundreds, and even though the mockingbirds in our yard have waken me on more than one morning, I for one know that I am going to have a good day when I hear that song.

 If too many large birds or House Sparrows at your feeder become a problem, you can control their numbers by using specialty seeds or restrictive feeders that will attract only certain species.  You can encourage small birds and discourage large birds with feeders that restrict access.  Tube feeders without trays restrict access to only small birds. If you remove the perches you’ve further restricted the feeder to only those birds that can easily cling such as finches, chickadees, titmice and woodpeckers.  Specialty feeders are made for these birds which serve specialty seeds.  Black oil sunflower and Nyjer thistle seed are both popular with the gregarious and active small birds which many people like to invite to their yards.  Specialty feeders are available for both the sunflower and thistle seeds. 

Thistle seeds attract a limited number of bird species, but they include a number of the most popular backyard birds such as include the American Goldfinch (often called the wild canary), Lesser Goldfinch, Lawrence’s Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, House Finch, Cassin’s Finch, and Purple Finch. 

A tube feeder with black oil sunflower seeds will attract the goldfinches, chickadees, pine siskins, woodpeckers, nuthatches, titmice, and redpolls.  By adding a tray to the bottom of the tube feeder you can also attract House Finches, White-crowned Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows, cardinals, crossbills and Purple Finches.  

These feeders and feeds will go a long way toward eliminating some of the problem birds in your backyard.

Finches are the true vegetarians of the bird world.  While many different bird species enjoy a good seed, most feed on insects when they are available in the summer and usually feed their young insects because of the high protein content.  This is not so when it comes to the finches.  They prefer seeds year round and I can see them reacting as you or I would if we caught a bug in our mouths.  If fact if a Brown-headed Cowbird lays its egg in a goldfinch nest the young cowbird usually does not live past about three days.  They cannot survive on the totally vegetarian diet.

Finches use what I call the”cling and peck” method to feed.  These small birds can cling to the head of a flower and peck at the seeds.  Now these flowers do not have to be sturdy like a sunflower and can be as fragile as a blanket flower.  In fact most finches enjoy seeds from any of the composite family of flowers.

Now that you have the facts you need to back you stance, I would like to offer you the opportunity to do more bird watching.  We all wish that we had more time to go bird watching, I mean would you rather mow your lawn or go bird watching?  Would you rather deadhead the flowers in the garden or go bird watching?  Would you rather dig weeds out of you yard or go bird watching? 

What?   You think your neighbors might object to your yard?  Well, tell them you are doing your part to protect the wild birds.  After all who doesn’t like goldfinches?  They eat the seed heads of thistles and dandelion, so you have to be green and feed the birds.  No, you can’t deadhead the flowers in your garden, you must let them go to seed- to feed the finches.  Trim your shrubs?  What if there is a finch nest in that shrub?  Mow your lawn?  What if that exposes the fledglings to the neighbors cat?  They need places to hide!  I’m sure you see how this is supposed to work.  And it does work for us. 

Of course our closest neighbor is a 1/4 mile away…..

We do enjoy our quail at our bird feeders here in Portal, Arizona.  We normally get good numbers of Gambel’s Quail and Scaled Quail in our yard.  We are located in a transition zone between the grasslands enjoyed by the Scaled Quail and the shrubby foothills preferred by the Gambel’s Quail.  Quail are what we in the bird feeding business call scratchers.  That means that they like to scratch on the ground for the seeds that they eat.  We found out a long time ago that if we just tossed the seed out on the ground for the quail that soon we had a variety of rodent pests coming around to feed there also.  At that time we started using platform bird feeders.  These flat feeders hold the seed far enough off the ground that the rodents cannot get into it and still accommodates the scratching instincts of our quail.  We have seen as many as 12 quail on these feeders at one time.  Even the babies can get up to them at about 10-14 days old.

Speaking of baby quail we just had our first family of Gambel’s Quail in the day before yesterday.  Mom and Dad had 15 young ones in a downy mob at our four tiered bird pond.  The young ones had no trouble jumping up onto the platform feeders to eat with the parents.  Yesterday, our first family of Scaled Quail came in with 8 youngsters.  These little guys looked like a cotton balls on toothpick legs and were only a couple of days old.  They also drank from the bird pond, but were unable to jump up to the platform feeders yet.  Usually by this time we are feeding from 60-80 baby quail a day but this has been a slow year for them.  It has been our experience that the quail fail to nest normally during unusually dry years.  While this has not been as dry as some years, weather predictions are rather dire for this year when it comes to precipitation.  Maybe the quail are trying to tell us something.

Portal, Arizona is a place that most dedicated bird watchers visit at least once, most several times and those who don’t mind the desert habitat (but it’s a dry heat) come more often. We quite often find people standing at our gate trying to see what is at our bird feeders. Normally we try to visit with these birders, as most are really nice people.

Yesterday we noticed a car barely pulling down our road, backing up, then pulling barely in again. After watching this odd behavior for a while we wandered up our road to see what was going on. They were a bird watching couple and the wife was trying to get the car angled so her husband could see our feeders without crossing into the acreage we have fenced off. He had a problem with mobility and getting in and out of the car was difficult. We, of course asked them to pull down our road and park so most of the bird feeders could be observed.

They noticed that we have three recycled oriole feeders hung around our yard, and asked how many orioles we have at one time. Now we get the Scott’s, Bullocks, and Hooded Orioles visiting us for grape jelly, oranges and sugar water just about constantly during the day , but we use the feeders to feed more than just orioles.

These feeders have plastic cups that can be filled with just about anything your imagination can think of and that birds will eat. We currently have one oriole feeder with jelly in one cup and peanut butter in the other with orange halves on the pegs. This feeder is visited by not only the orioles, but can attract wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, titmice, warblers, tanagers, woodpeckers and in our yard towhees, thrashers and several species of sparrows.

In the second recycled oriole feeder we have mealworms and raisins with apple on the pegs. All the insect and fruit eating birds favor this feeder. Species this food attracts includes bluebird, cardinals, wrens, chickadees, nuthatches, robins, titmice, warblers, mockingbirds, tanagers, orioles and woodpeckers. We have also had flycatchers visit in our yard.

In the third oriole feeder we have crushed egg shell and fruit we let get a little soft without actually being spoiled. This feeder attracts just about every bird that passes through our yard.

We have had people who have more jays than us tell us about filling the cups with crumbled dog food and people who have grated their suet blocks and used the cups to hold it to make it easier for the kinglets.

The recycled oriole feeder is one of the most versatile feeders we have. Maybe we should rename this feeder. Any suggestions?

During the past couple of weeks we have been conducting Breeding Bird Surveys on the Coronado National Forest here in southeastern Arizona.  We conduct four of these surveys with one each in the Peloncillo Mountains and the Dragoon Mountains and two in the Chiricahua Mountains.  These counts are part of a nationwide system of similar counts, all conducted on a standardized basis, with the intent of showing population fluctuations of birds in general or any given species in a given area.  They are conducted in the same place at roughly the same time every year.

These routes have already been randomly laid out by computer and consist of a starting point (Stop 1) with 49 more points each 1/2 mile apart.  Basically it is a linear transect 24 1/2 miles long.  At each point the counter counts all of the birds he sees or hears within a three minute time period.  At the end of three minutes he moves to the next stop 1/2 mile away.  Birds observed or heard after the three minutes or between stops do not count.  This goes on for the 50 survey stops of each route.  Each route has a designated starting time which is 1/2 hour before official sunrise and most end before 10:00 AM in the morning.  Each stop should remain constant from year to year and many Breeding Bird Survey conductors GPS the stop locations.  Also, it is not permissible to use audio recordings, pishing or any other method to coax the birds.

As you can see, Breeding Bird Surveys are technical and, I must admit, a drier form of bird watching.  However, the knowledge we get from them can be immense.  It was Breeding Bird Survey data that told us of the dramatic decline in numbers of individuals of many prairie species.  We have 15 years of data on our counts.  While the same species still reside on our sites, we have noted declines in numbers of individuals of many species.  However, this year we had a number of Botteri’s Sparrows, a grassland species on one of our counts.  We had never had them on any of our counts before and their arrival probably coincided with the breaking of a 30+ year drought a couple of years ago.  Areas which have not had grass since the 1940s now have luxerient grass over 4 feet tall.  Now this population fluctuation is documented by this survey.

Now that you know a little about Breeding Bird Surveys, it is time to decide if you would want to do one.  Nancy and I were doing about 20 a year at one time and have conducted them in South Dakota, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee.  Routes are available in all 50 states.  All you need to conduct a count is a reliable automobile, a pair of binoculars, a notepad and pencil and the ability to know the local birds by sight and sound.  If you think a Breeding Bird Survey is for you, you may contact the Breeding Bird Survey Office at (301) 497-5843 and they will refer you to your state’s coordinator.  Are you up to the task?

“Listen, listen. I hear something.” I said poking Tom in the ribs. 

“I don’t hear anything,” Tom mumbled trying to hear what the announcer was saying about the foul in the soccer game he was watching.

“Mute the TV, and listen!” I insisted.

Tom muted the television and with a frown pretended to listen while most of his concentration was on the soccer game.

Finally the sound was repeated. Now Tom’s frown deepened.  He had just completed several Breeding Bird Surveys and had had his ears tuned into bird calls for several weeks.

“Boy, that call is something I can’t place.  It definitely sounds more bird like than it does mammal or bug,” Tom said shaking his head.  ” I just can’t place it.”

It was time to investigate.  I stood inside the back door and scanned the trees and bushes before opening the door.  The only thing is sight was a Canyon Towhee.  We were both familiar with all of the calls and songs of the towhee, after all they are with us year round.

The call repeated itself.  It sounded close, but we couldn’t see anything.  It was time to open the door and take our chances that the bird would simply disappear.  I crept down the steps with binoculars ready.  Tom stayed on the porch to  get a wider view of anything that might fly.  I couldn’t see anything that would make that call.  The only thing around were some Black-throated Sparrows and the towhees.

“Hey, Nancy, I have it identified.  I think you are looking to far away from the house.”  Tom was smiling with a knowing look on his face.  He pointed straight down off the porch. 

Sure enough he had the culprit with the weird call found and identified.  See if you can identify it.

Can you identify this bird?

It was a fledgling Canyon Towhee.

Now you may ask what we did to help this little guy.  Well, we followed our own advice that is in our hints and tips page.

Everything turned out right.  The parent birds called and lead the little guy to the safety of a Mormon Tea Bush.  Tom’s team even won the soccer game.

I know this is supposed to be a blog about bird watching and bird feeders, but sometimes the beauty of the desert just has to be shown to the people who do not live in this type of region.

If you follow my blogs and my twitters you know that about two weeks ago we had a solid week of rain.  I was dismayed that it was interfering with my bird watching during the migration, but rain on the desert is always welcomed.  Scroll down to see what the rain has brought us.  These pictures were taken after we had completed our breeding bird surveys.  Tom will tell you more about the surveys when he blogs later this week. 

One last note, let me apologize to Ed Bustya, a world class photographer :^).  He is a good friend who will cringe and try to explain about composition, lighting, ect.  Hey Ed, I had been up since 1:30 AM and only had a $100 camera with me (how’s that for an excuse?)

Summer might be considered the most “prosperous” time of year for birds.  Most raise their families during this time of year because of the abundance of insects and berries to feed the young and themselves and the leafy shelter of trees, shrubs and vines is much more luxuriant during the summer than any other time of year providing cover for birds and nests.

For some birds, however, this may still be a critical time of year.  While nature and man may provide luxuriant growth in many areas, some birds must still travel afar to obtain water and food to feed themselves and their young.  The birds are exposed to added dangers during these forays.  This is where we as birders can come in and make a difference for the birds and add a great deal of enjoyment to our own lives by attracting a greater number of birds and bird species to our yards. 

By providing fleshy fruits for feeding babies and water we can eliminate or lessen these dangers.  Many nesting birds require fleshy berries for food during their early development.  We can help by providing or planting cherries, mulberries, serviceberries, blueberries, elderberries, raspberries, pyracantha, blackberries, wild plums, chokecherries or other fleshy fruit producing plants in our yards. 

In summer, birds look for thick plantings to provide shelter and nesting areas.  They naturally look for thick evergreens, yews or barberry hedges, vine thickets, hawthorns and trees providing hollow cavities for nesting.  We can help by putting up bird nest boxes for the species that will utilize them.  These plantings also attract many insects which the birds eat themselves or feed to their young.

Fresh water is even more important during the summer than any other time of year, especially in hot dry weather.  It is more important during this time of year to keep fresh water in the bird baths than to operate feeding stations during the summer.  Always remember that the sound of moving water will attract more birds to your yard during this time of year than non moving water.  This can be accomplished by providing your bird bath with a dripper or mister or by providing moving water with a backyard waterfall kit.

Summer is a “prosperous time of year for the birds, but, this does not mean that we cannot still help them out and provide enjoyable, educational and relaxing entertainment for ourselves.  Summer can be fun in the backyard.

We have been going to the Bisbee Farmer’s Market not only to sell bird feeders, but to purchase great produce and pastured meat for several years now. Our first trip for the year was last Saturday.

We were welcomed back by the organizers and some old customers, however we had one customer who had been looking for us. It seems he was unhappy with the Best 1 Hummingbird Feeder we had sold him last fall, and was not shy about telling us how unhappy he was and how hard it was to maintain.

I asked him if he had been getting humming birds into his feeders. He replied he has had quite a few hummers in, but had to stop using the Best 1 we had sold him.

I asked him if the hummingbird feeder leaked or was defective in any way. He said he did not like the design.

I told him that it was my favorite hummingbird feeder because we get 40 MPH winds and the feeder did not swing and spill sugar water all over my porch. He agreed that it had not tipped to the point of spilling.

I explained that I sometimes recommend a funnel to fill the bottles, especially if you use a container with a wide mouth to mix your sugar water in. He said filling was not the problem.

I was about to give up when I finally got him to start talking about the feeder and what had him so upset. He then confessed that he had went out of town unexpectedly and had not told his neighbor that takes care of his house when he is away about the new hummingbird feeder. When he came home it was full of black mold and the brush he had bought at the local discount store simply did not get the neck of the bottle clean. It was impossible to clean the bottle. And he knew dirty feeders are not good for hummingbirds.

I asked him if he had tried a Swab to clean the bottle. While asking I handed him one of the Swabs. He looked at it and said he was sure that the swab would not get through the neck of the bottle. The Swab was simply to big.

I asked him to wait right here and I would be back in just a minute with a solution to his problem. I dumped out my soda and filled the cup with water from the bathroom. I then explained how important it is to get the swab completely saturated by squishing it several times under water.

Squeeze the Swab several times to make sure it is saturated.

I then showed him that the swab does indeed fit through the neck of the bottle.

The Swab will fit through the neck of the Best 1 Hummingbird Feeder.

I showed him how it will open up once through it will clean the spots that the other brush missed.

The Swab is cleaning the Hard-To-Reach spot.

He bought the Swab that I had demonstrated with and said he would get back to me next time we go the the Bisbee Farmer’s Market. He walked away with a solution to his problem and a promise from me to make it right. After all who wants to explain to hummingbirds that they will not get their sweet treat from a Best 1 Hummingbird Feeder?

We recently had the opportunity to go bird watching on the other side of the mountain, over by Patagonia, Arizona.  Now it may be just a short distance as the crow  raven flies, but for us it is about 2 1/2 – 3 hours from our house. I have to change it to raven as we have no crows in the area.

A trip like this will usually let us see some species that don’t get over the mountain too often like the Phainopepla, the Cassin’s Sparrow and the Gila Woodpecker, to name a few.  Now before I get bombarded with comments about who has seen the birds on the east side of the Chiricahua Mountains, I know they get here, but they are much more common on the west side of the mountains.

We were looking at a woodpecker, and had to opportunity to show it to some visiting birdwatchers from Virginia.

The gentleman thanked us and explained that they get Red-bellied Woodpeckers all of the time.

Tom and I  commented that we had gotten a lot of Red-bellied when we worked in Virgina and soon tired of them much like people from our area soon tire of the Acorn Woodpecker.

My Mother-in-law asked us to remind her to write the Gila Woodpecker down on here list because it was a year bird for her.  (She was visiting from Wyoming.)

The gentleman asked where we got the Gila.  Tom pointed up to where the Gila was still sitting.  The wife grabbed the field guide.

“Do you realize that that is a lifer for both of us?” The gentleman exclaimed.  He said that the Red-bellied Woodpecker was so common in the area that they lived that they just didn’t even bother to look closely at a medium-sized woodpecker with barring on its back and some red on its head.  They had noticed that there was less red than on most from their area, but had written it off as a regional difference or perhaps a young bird.

I think both of our new Virginia birding friends felt a little embarrassed about the misidentification.

I guess the lesson to learn from this story is to always check the distribution maps, especially when birding for the first time in a new area.  You might just add a lifer!

While bird watching yesterday, my Brother-in-law tagged along.  He is not a birdwatcher, and I feared he would become bored after a few minutes.   He is usually a very active mountain biker type of guy.  He had come from California to visit with us while my Mother-in-law from Wyoming, who is an avid birdwatcher, was visiting.

While we were showing my Mother-in-law some of the local specialties such as the Pyrrhuloxia and Painted Redstart, Paul asked what kind of bird was in the bush right next to the road.  All of our heads immediately went to the tops of the oak trees.

“I think they are a little lower than where you are looking at’” Paul ventured.  “There’s one right next to me.”

Our eyes and binoculars went to the edge of the small pool of water about 20 feet from Paul.  We started to scan the brush around the pool.

“Uhm, if you are looking for what I am seeing they are about 5 feet from me about chest high.”  The birds Paul had spotted were still near him and still not spotted by three “seasoned birdwatchers”

Now admittedly, I figured he had spotted one of the swallowtail butterflies that had been flitting around.  About that time something fluttered out from a bush, about 5 feet from Paul.  When it landed, it was perched at the very end of a branch and worked its way upside down.  Suddenly,  a second ball of feathers with a long tail appeared.  This one had yellow eyes where the first had dark eyes.  This ball of feathers was a soft gray color with a slightly lighter breast.  They were foraging for bugs and had a very soft tzee tzee tzee call.

Have you guessed what Paul had found for us?  A pair of Bushtits!  Although this bird is considered common in our area, they are frequently overlooked,  just as we had done. 

I think the most interesting fact about the Bushtit is that the female has yellow eyes, while the male has dark eyes.  These birds usually can be found in flocks, but this time of year they have paired off.  The nest can be anywhere from 8′ to 35′ above ground.  Although they do pair off, territories are not usually strongly defended and pairs can be found quite close together.

Here’s our big THANK YOU, PAUL!   Without you, our bird list would be shorter!

For directions on how to find Bushtits visit our  Portal, Arizona Birding Map.  The Bushtits were by Stewart Campground.

Everyone knows that the bird watching is terrific in the Portal, Arizona area by day.  What a lot of people do not know is that it can be equally exciting at night.  At least 12 species of owls inhabit the area.  Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls, Western Screech-Owls, Whiskered Screech-Owls, Northern Pygmy-Owls, Burrowing Owls, Mexican Spotted Owls, and Long-eared Owls are all permanent residents in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeastern Arizona.  Flammulated Owls and Elf Owls spend the summers and breed here.  Short-eared Owls and Northern Saw-whet Owls spend the winters in the area.  Overall it is a pretty owlly place we live in.

I’m sure many of the birdwatchers who have been to the Portal area a few years back will fondly remember an area locally known as Willow Tank.  A local rancher had allowed birdwatchers to cross his fence and bird around his cattle tank.

Several years back the rancher had to abandon the tank as the pump had broken down and to fix it and pay the electrical bill to run the pump was cost prohibitive.

The Arizona Wildlife Fund donated several solar panels to the cause.  Local bird watchers have donated barbed wire, fence posts and labor to fence the cattle off from the tank.

The old willow tree that the tank was named after has died, but when we were over there last week the cattails and reeds are starting to return.  The tank is half full and again slowly becoming a haven for birds.

Some of the species reported over there are: Spotted Sandpipers, Rough-winged Swallow, Great Egret, Mallard and Kildeer  It’s not a great list, but the possibilities for the future are!

Yesterday the Western Tanagers returned to Portal, Arizona.  A beautiful male came in to bathe and drink from our four tiered bird pond.  He was later joined by two more brilliant male birds and a female.

We always enjoy these colorful birds and we are sometimes asked by our customers how to attract tanagers to their yards.  Since these birds are not generally seed eaters we must look to other aspects for attracting these birds.  Looking at the National Wildlife Federation’s list for attracting wildlife (food, water, shelter) it becomes more apparent what must be done to attract them.  A combination of the three will certainly get them to your yard if they are in your area.

Water is probably easiest method for attracting tanagers.  They love moving water and the sound of it seems to be magnet for them.  We get them every year in the spring and fall and our property in the Chihuahuan Desert is nothing like the mountain canyons or riparian habitats they prefer.  Water can be provided in a simple birdbath or, more elaborately, with a small backyard pond kit.  Pond kits usually come with a waterfall type setup.  Misters or drippers can be used to move the water in a birdbath.

Since tanagers do not normally eat seed you must accommodate their fruit and insect eating habits.  We have found that they truly love watermelon fruit.  Other birding friends have told us that they also come in to grape jelly and mealworms.  All of these items may be offered at one time using a recycled oriole feeder like the one shown below.   Instead of the oriole setup shown you can use one half of an orange and a slice of watermelon on the pegs.  Keep one tub filled with grape jelly and put live mealworms in the other tub.  The sides are slick so they will not crawl out.

Shelter is a little more problematic if you do not already have trees or shrubs on your property.  Tanagers enjoy tall trees and frequently forage in the tree tops.  A thick stand of evergreens is ideal and if you have provided food and water in the proper ways, you may keep a pair of tanagers around to nest for the summer.

I was at a small show this week-end and was amazed how many experienced bird watchers confessed that they did not have a bird bath or a bird friendly water feature in their yard.

In our yard there are days when we are sitting with coffee mugs in hand, and have more interesting birds at our bird friendly pond than at our platform bird feeders.  Now we can always count on our bird feeders to bring in many of the seed eating birds, but some bird families such as the flycatchers, swallows, thrushes and warblers don’t eat seed so must be attracted by other means.

Any water feature for birds should be very shallow, just a couple of inches is all that is needed.  The bottom of the water feature should not be slippery.  If this is a problem for your bird bath cover the bottom with clean gravel. 

You will be able to attract more birds if the water is moving. This happens at my bird friendly pond by recirculating  the water.  On our bird bath we have a mister in the center.  This is really attractive to the hummingbirds.

To further explain my position, for the past two days I kept a list of the birds that came to our bird bath or bird friendly pond that otherwise would not have stopped at our yard:

Western Tanager

Plumbeous Vireo

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Greater Roadrunner

Wilson’s Warbler

Western Kingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Virginia’s Warbler

Yellow Warbler

Plus watching happy birds splash and preen after a bath is always entertaining.

For the past two weeks we have been on a business trip to south Texas.  However, the beautiful thing about birding is that it is an interest that will travel anywhere with us.  There are birds everywhere in the world that a person would travel to.  After our own Portal, Arizona area, the Rio Grande Valley is our favorite birding area.  A trip can’t be all business…right?  It is an area with a number of unique bird species such as the Altamira and Audubon’s Orioles, Groove-billed Ani, White-collared Seedeater, Red-billed Pigeon, Long-billed Thrasher, Clay-colored Robin (Thrush), Brown Jay, Blue Bunting and Aplomado Falcon.   Even the common birds birds such as the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Great Kiskadee, Harris Hawk, Crested Caracara, Ringed Kingfisher, Green Jays and Olive Sparrows keep us entertained because they are all species that we can only see when we visit “the Valley”.  Migrations in the area will always provide fun because most shorebird and warbler species that call North America home in the summertime will pass through the area both coming and going.

While many of our old birding haunts in the Valley are now closed to the public because of the rampant drug trade with nearby Mexican cities, several great places are still available for birding and nature studies.  Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge is an excellent birding location.  We have spotted Aplomado Falcons here on several occasions and feeders and water features at the headquarters bring in many local favorites.  Falcon Dam and Falcon Dam State Park provide homes for Green and Ringed Kingfishers and Green and Brown Jays.  Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is great for a number of Texas endemics.  The Hidalgo Pumphouse Nature Park in Hidalgo, Texas is a wonderful early morning birding site.  Favorites here include the Clay-colored Robin which behaves much like the American Robin hunting worms on the grassy lawns.  Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park also provides for exiting birding.  There is even a Birding Trail which covers the vicinity and takes you into many small nature centers and special habitat areas.

We have found the birding to be very good in the Lower Valley all 12 months of the year.  Each season has its specialties, but you just can’t go wrong with this area at any time of year.