Welcome to Dave’s Bird Watching Blog

Rainy day blue jay!

Author Dave Heiser | August 28, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Blue jay, Tufted titmouse, House finch, Carolina wren, Northern cardinal

Hi! We’ve been dealing with the stormy remnants of Tropical Storm Faye here in central North Carolina, so I’ve got some wet bird pictures to share with you today. I love cloudy, rainy days for taking pictures outside…you get some really nice shots, and the green colors seem to come alive. Everything just “pops” a little more, as a mentor I had used to say.

Well, if you can’t have bluebirds, you might as well have blue jays, at least for their beauty factor. Blue jays and goldfinches on a rainy day make for fun photography. I’m looking to find a good peanut feeder that will attract jays and woodpeckers but still be safe from squirrels. Any ideas?

We’re taking care of some herbs for a friend, and one of the Carolina wrens (above) has already taking a liking to the basil! Also, I haven’t forgotten about the tanager/oriole pursuit, by the way. Grape jelly is the key, I’ve discovered, and that’s coming up next. Bye!  Dave

Carolina wrens enjoying the deck!

Author Dave Heiser | August 25, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Eastern towhee, Other wildlife, Carolina wren

Today I’m going to need to do mostly pictures and not much writing. Lots of Carolina wren pictures, a very plump goldfinch, a small yellow-gray bird I haven’t figured out yet, a juvenile towhee, and a rabbit in our yard this morning.
This weekend, we stained our deck and I finally replaced the broken red seed plate. My son was a great help and did a SUPER job staining! You can see us below spraying on the deck cleaner. He really enjoyed using the sprayer, and the deck looks a ton better. Well, that’s all for today!  Dave

Hurt, dazed, or sunbathing birds?

Author Dave Heiser | August 22, 2008 | Category Bluebird babies (fledglings), Tufted titmouse, Eastern bluebird

Hello, and a happy Friday to you! The photos are really coming in now…everyone is taking me up on my offer to send them in, and it’s great! I’d love to include at least one reader-submitted photo in each blog entry, so please keep them coming (you can email me your pictures at dheiser@wncn.com)! Today it’s Betsy in Tennessee sharing a recent favorite. She’s getting lots of titmice in her yard right now and captured this shot of one lying down on her deck rail. It reminded me of a picture I took back in July of a baby bluebird doing the same thing. The poses are incredibly similar!

At the time, I had wondered if our bluebird was hurt, dazed, or just sunbathing. Betsy told me that her titmouse, which also looks like it could be a juvenile, just seemed to be relaxing. I looked for more information online but couldn’t confirm whether this is normal for all birds, more common for juveniles or a particular species, or a sign of stress or injury. I’d love for anyone who knows more about the subject to post a comment and enlighten me. Of course, I know that birds like to sun themselves and spread their wings to dry, but this seemed more peculiar than that. For now, I’m just going to say these two birds were enjoying a sunny day and a warm spot on the deck. Sounds like a good thing to do on a Friday!  Dave  Link to the original blog entry on the “hurt” bluebird

Birding delight…Tina shares her pictures!

Author Dave Heiser | August 20, 2008 | Category Downy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Bluebird babies (fledglings), House wren, Carolina chickadee, Tufted titmouse, Eastern bluebird

Have I got a treat for you today! All the pictures in this blog are from Tina in Pennsylvania. She emailed me some of her recent favorites, and they are great! Plus, they add some fun variety with some different birds. At right is what looks to be a female downy woodpecker (males have a small red spot on the back of their head). Downy woodpeckers are very similar to hairy woodpeckers, but “hairies” have longer beaks and are larger. Also, “downies” have a few black bars on their outer tail feathers (seen in picture), while those on hairy woodpeckers are all white. The bird below is a male “yellow-shafted” northern flicker. Flickers are fun birds that I used to see a lot when I was a kid.

Tina also sent in pictures of a house wren nest building (top left), a tufted titmouse, and a really cute baby bluebird (by the flower pot). This was the fledgling’s first flight and it landed right on her deck! She said it stayed there several minutes before finally moving on.

Lastly, Tina shared some Carolina chickadee pictures, including a chickadee nestling peeking out of a birdhouse. Now, this house looks strangely like the same one the house wren was looking to build in, so it appears the chickadees were victorious…or maybe it was just different nesting seasons. Tina, you’ll have to post a comment and let us know…but thank you so much for sharing all these wonderful pictures!

Again, I welcome anyone to email me their photos (as attachments) at dheiser@wncn.com. Hope you enjoyed them today as much as I did!  Dave

Baby goldfinches making a racket!

Author Dave Heiser | August 18, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Ruby-throated hummingbird, Hummingbirds

Greetings, folks! Some fun stuff happened this morning that I’m excited to share with you, the first being that a whole goldfinch family suddenly showed up in our backyard! The place went crazy with squeaking, as we had two adults feeding on the finch sock, three baby goldfinches anxiously waiting in the tree, and one very fluffy goldfinch on the deck rail fending for himself. The fledglings in the tree were quite insistent that they be brought appropriate rations most immediately, and their wings went flapping like a hummingbird when either adult came near. Then, after about five or ten minutes of racket, they all left just as quickly, and the yard went suddenly quiet again…a very dramatic contrast!

Also this morning, I discovered that cardinals can make a hissing sound much like a cat. As I was out on the deck, a female juvenile cardinal came to the (still broken, red) seed plate. A male cardinal nearby quickly decided that this was not okay with him and began chasing the young female throughout the yard. Imagine your local outdoor cat very angry at another feline invading his territory, and that’s the sound. Never heard anything like it from a small bird. It was almost goose-like hissing.

The final cool thing was that I saw a Carolina chickadee fly over to our bluebird nestbox a few times this morning. He didn’t land on top but flew around the opening, peeked inside, and perched at the hole briefly. At the moment, I’m uneducated on the nesting habits of these cute little birds, but surely it’s too late for them to start a nest and lay eggs. Anyway, it was fun to see. I love Carolina chickadees because they are so small and curious. They just seem like friendly little birds. Gotta run!  Dave

P.S. The hummingbird pictures I took this weekend. The different backdrop is because we were visiting at my parents’ house up near Virginia!

Fun birds and gorgeous weather!

Author Dave Heiser | August 15, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Brown thrasher, Ruby-throated hummingbird, Tufted titmouse, Carolina chickadee, Hummingbirds, Carolina wren

Wow! What a beautiful morning to be out bird watching today…pleasant breeze blowing, Carolina blue skies above…absolutely glorious! I refilled and cleaned our hummingbird feeder last night, so there were some happy hummers this morning. Next project is replacing ye olde seed plate. You can see from the Carolina chickadee picture below that the red plate has seen better days. It actually has a pretty good size crack in it and is letting some seed slip out. No problem though; it’s an easy fix.

Well, after a complete absence from the blog, the brown thrasher has now made two appearances in a row. You can see the yellow in its eye now much better than the previous entry. We’re still getting lots of goldfinch traffic, and my wife is really loving having these bright little birds around again. I’m loving having the finch sock so close for easy pictures! Rounding out the crew are a Carolina wren (bottom left) and a tufted titmouse climbing our hummingbird pole. Have a great weekend, and enjoy the Olympics (I sure have been, especially the swimming and gymnastics)!  Dave

Goldfinches, baby towhees, and a hungry bluebird nestling!

Author Dave Heiser | August 12, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Brown thrasher, Eastern towhee, Northern mockingbird, Bluebird nestlings, Eastern bluebird

Hi, everybody! I’ve got some really fun pictures for you today, including a reader-submitted bluebird photo! I’ll start with the news that we’ve finally put a finch feeder (filled with thistle seed) back up, and the goldfinches are loving it. The old one had been decimated by hungry squirrels and house finches, and it was beyond any more of my duct tape repairs. You can get a sock like this from Lowe’s or Home Depot pre-filled with seed for five bucks, so it’s an easy way to attract some beautiful birds to your yard. The bright yellow one is the male, and the female is the more yellow-green.

Also, I’d like to introduce a new bird to our blog, the brown thrasher (right). We’ve had these birds in our yard sporadically, but I’ve been unable to get a good enough picture of one to post. Brown thrashers sometimes come to our seed plate, and when they do, look out! It’s vacuum cleaner city, baby! Anyway, I like the brown tones they have and the yellow in their eye. They’re fun birds that dig around in the leaves and are very similar to our…towhees! Woo-hoo! Towhees are a personal favorite of mine, and we had a couple of juveniles (below) scavenging among the thistle seed fallout below the goldfinch sock this weekend. The female towhee has the brown and orange colors, while her brother (presumably) is more gray and brown. Eventually, the male becomes a pretty black, orange, and white combo (see picture from a previous blog).

In addition to the picture of a mockingbird taking an illegal rest on our bluebird nestbox (below), we have this cool photo from Lynn Anne in California of a bluebird nestling! This is their first bluebird nest, and the babies fledged just this past Thursday, August 7. You’ll notice the way the hole has gotten pecked away some, too. Lynn Anne asked some great questions about this and some other bluebird issues; you can read our running conversation in the comments section of my very first blog entry. Incidentally, I’ve been getting a lot of fun bluebird questions lately. You may want to go under the Eastern bluebird category on the right and check out some of the older posts. Lots of great comments and questions are piling up there. If you’ve got a good photo, send it to me, and I’ll include yours as well!  Dave  dheiser@wncn.com

Go to my most recent blog entry

Tanagers and orioles yet?

Author Dave Heiser | August 8, 2008 | Category Chipping sparrow, Carolina wren, Northern cardinal

Welcome, and a very happy Friday to everyone! Allow me to pass on a quick update on our recent orange experiment…we are in stage one of attempting to attract scarlet tanagers and/or Baltimore orioles to our yard. You can see one of our orange halves below that we’ve placed around our backyard, and so far (drum-roll, please)…we have attracted, not counting ants, can you feel the suspense building, my voice rising, the drama, the tension, we have attracted a, well, um, slug. Yes, ahem, well. You can see it in the picture there, not too close, so you’re not grossed out. Anyway, we will now commence with stage two, which is adding grape jelly and some fresh orange halves. We shall see…

Also noteworthy to report is the baby female cardinal (left) that has become a regular visitor to our seed plate. She’s a mostly light brown color with a distinctive dark beak that sets her apart from the mama cardinal. Also cool is the almost mirror image pictures of the Carolina wren (top) and the chipping sparrow (top left). They look eerily similar, I think.

Last thing today is that we had a hawk fly through the yard some this morning. I’ve heard it from other people, and now I understand…when one of these is around, the rest of the yard gets really, really quiet. I was thinking, “What’s going on?” when the hawk suddenly emerged from a nearby tree. He stayed a few minutes, and once he left, everything went back to normal. All the regulars started making their noises again and coming in for seed. Very interesting! Have a great weekend!  Dave

Attracting scarlet tanagers and Baltimore orioles with oranges?

Author Dave Heiser | August 6, 2008 | Category American goldfinch, Carolina wren, Northern cardinal

Greetings from the Heiser backyard, where the goldfinches have mounted an attack on the chickadee and titmouse food supply! This morning we had a beautiful male American goldfinch camp out at the seed plate for several minutes, long enough for me to snap some fun pictures. I love their bright yellow color right up against the black wings and head. What a great contrast! You can always tell when the goldfinches are in your yard by their fun, high-pitched, squeaking sounds. Definitely another favorite of ours!  

In my last blog entry, I mentioned a little project we have started to try to attract some tanagers and/or orioles to the backyard. We cut up some oranges and basically nailed some of the orange halves to some trees in our yard. After two full days, I can tell you we have attracted zero known orioles, zero known tanagers, and thousands of tiny ants. I knew the ants would come; that’s why I didn’t put them up on the deck. I’ve also read that grape jelly can attract them, so that will be the next step along with more oranges. The ants will love us! If any of you out there have successfully attracted Baltimore orioles, scarlet tanagers, or summer tanagers to your yard, please post a comment and let me know what worked for you. They are all gorgeous birds (scarlet tanagers are an amazing, flaming red with black wings; orioles a lovely, bright orange) with range in North Carolina, so we’d love to see some!

A quick update on our weekend Eastern bluebird sighting…I haven’t seen him since. And the bluebird nesting family from earlier in the season is still missing in action (a moment of silence, please). I knew bluebirds were a treasure, but I didn’t think they would vanish so quickly. If you have them, I encourage you to enjoy them while they’re with you! You never know when they might just pack up and fly away.

Finally, if you haven’t read through the “Can you solve the mystery bird?” blog entryfrom last week and the recent string of comments there, I’d encourage you to do so. A reader from Tennessee sent in a picture of second mystery bird, a fledgling that they were struggling to identify. It’s a really cute little bird, and we think it might be a baby brown-headed nuthatch. I included the picture they sent me in the comments section there. Check it out, and if you have a better guess, then chime on in. We’d love to hear from you! Well, that’s all for today. Tanager and oriole updates coming…  Dave

P.S. Carolina wren and female cardinal pictures are from this morning, too.

Welcome back, Mister Bluebird!!! Blue jays coming around, too!

Author Dave Heiser | August 4, 2008 | Category Blue jay, Ruby-throated hummingbird, Chipping sparrow, Hummingbirds, Eastern bluebird

Houston, we have a bluebird! I was out on our deck Sunday morning before church, and look what appeared (middle right)…an eastern bluebird on our nestbox! Excellent! I don’t think it’s the same male we’ve had all spring and early summer, but he’s a bluebird nonetheless and therefore a most honored and welcome guest in our yard! He sat on the nestbox, peeked inside once, chirped softly, looked around, and then flew away a couple minutes later. He might be a young male because he doesn’t look as brightly colored as a typical adult male eastern bluebird. Maybe he just needs a bath, but I’m almost positive it’s a different bird.

Now the bird on the top right, of course, is a blue jay, not a bluebird. Blue jays are bigger, louder, and more aggressive than bluebirds. They have more of a screech than a song, and they will steal eggs and nestlings from other birds’ nests. Still, they are beautiful birds with dazzling shades of blue and purple set against crisp white and black markings. We’ve started seeing some blue jays at our seed plate eating the peanuts we have. They are definitely welcome…because of their beauty, not their character.

A few other things to share from the weekend…one is this cute photo of an adult chipping sparrow (right) and a fledgling (left) at the plate together. The little one was chirping quite loudly and demanding its appropriate share of the loot. Also, here’s another hummingbird photo for your viewing pleasure, and lastly, we started an experiment this morning to try to attract some orioles or tanagers to our yard. More on that later!  Dave