Faunascrolling--what's visiting where you are?
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So, fellow birders....I gave up on bird feeders years ago..got tired of the mess and all the squirrels they attracted. It was a pain with the dogs around.
No dogs here anymore. I picked up a nice feeder with a solar powered camera for cheap at Costco. Online it's $110, but for some reason they were on closeout at the warehouse back in January for $25. I can't resist a bargain.
I got some seed and put up the feeder where the squirrels can't get in it. Of course the birds drop seed all over the ground, and the squirrels are ground feeding amongst my hostas. Four or five at a time, and when they scuffled with each other to protect their access to the seed, they did a number on the two really nice hostas that are at the base of the post with the feeder. Had to dig half of each plant out in order to save them. Anyway...
I find that I'm basically feeding the house sparrows right now, with them consuming probably 99% of the seed. Cardinals, blue jays, brown-headed cowbirds, and a downy woodpecker are seen every so often but clearly the sparrows outnumber them bigly.
The new feeder is empty right now and I'm thinking about not filling it until fall or winter. Do you guys feed birds during the summer? Or do you let them forage their own food during the summer and focus more on late fall/winter feeding? I bought a small finch feeder, too, and filled it with nyjer seed and we've been enjoying the goldfinches who show up pretty regularly.
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So, fellow birders....I gave up on bird feeders years ago..got tired of the mess and all the squirrels they attracted. It was a pain with the dogs around.
No dogs here anymore. I picked up a nice feeder with a solar powered camera for cheap at Costco. Online it's $110, but for some reason they were on closeout at the warehouse back in January for $25. I can't resist a bargain.
I got some seed and put up the feeder where the squirrels can't get in it. Of course the birds drop seed all over the ground, and the squirrels are ground feeding amongst my hostas. Four or five at a time, and when they scuffled with each other to protect their access to the seed, they did a number on the two really nice hostas that are at the base of the post with the feeder. Had to dig half of each plant out in order to save them. Anyway...
I find that I'm basically feeding the house sparrows right now, with them consuming probably 99% of the seed. Cardinals, blue jays, brown-headed cowbirds, and a downy woodpecker are seen every so often but clearly the sparrows outnumber them bigly.
The new feeder is empty right now and I'm thinking about not filling it until fall or winter. Do you guys feed birds during the summer? Or do you let them forage their own food during the summer and focus more on late fall/winter feeding? I bought a small finch feeder, too, and filled it with nyjer seed and we've been enjoying the goldfinches who show up pretty regularly.
@wtg I feed year round, can't resist. I guy bags of shelled peanuts for the squirrels. They know me now and make themselves known if the food isn't out.
A few weeks ago a honking huge black bear broke the door to the entry room off it's hinges--basically a shed attached to the side of the house. That door is a modern wood and plastic thing. The door into the kitchen is a solid wood outside door and that remains intact and I expect it to remain so.
The reason the bear was able to barrel through into the 'shed' is that the piers it rests on heave horribly in the freeze/thaw cycle every late winter to the point where the door doesn't even latch shut any more and I have to keep it closed by propping a spade against it.
The 'shed' is where I'd been keeping the bird seed... in a plastic bin. But, unfortunately, the week before this occurrence, I'd accidentally forgot to prop the door closed and the bear was able to walk right in, during the night of course, and discover that beyond the door was the tasty treats he'd been looking for. Hence, his subsequent forcing his way in.
It hasn't happened since and I don't think it will happen again. I keep the seed in the house now. I saw a bear twice today, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the same one. This one seems like a one-year old, newly on his own.
They're so cute when they're young! A pic from a few years ago, on the wood pile:
The industrial revolution cheapened everything.
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We've been asked to stop feeding birds via bird feeders due to disease. Still throw breadcrumbs.
Bears in your back yard!
We've got some bison, beavers and boars now reintroduced to England. But bears no, while wolves, and lynx are still being discussed I understand.Ventosa viri restabit
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@wtg I feed year round, can't resist. I guy bags of shelled peanuts for the squirrels. They know me now and make themselves known if the food isn't out.
A few weeks ago a honking huge black bear broke the door to the entry room off it's hinges--basically a shed attached to the side of the house. That door is a modern wood and plastic thing. The door into the kitchen is a solid wood outside door and that remains intact and I expect it to remain so.
The reason the bear was able to barrel through into the 'shed' is that the piers it rests on heave horribly in the freeze/thaw cycle every late winter to the point where the door doesn't even latch shut any more and I have to keep it closed by propping a spade against it.
The 'shed' is where I'd been keeping the bird seed... in a plastic bin. But, unfortunately, the week before this occurrence, I'd accidentally forgot to prop the door closed and the bear was able to walk right in, during the night of course, and discover that beyond the door was the tasty treats he'd been looking for. Hence, his subsequent forcing his way in.
It hasn't happened since and I don't think it will happen again. I keep the seed in the house now. I saw a bear twice today, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the same one. This one seems like a one-year old, newly on his own.
They're so cute when they're young! A pic from a few years ago, on the wood pile:
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We've been asked to stop feeding birds via bird feeders due to disease. Still throw breadcrumbs.
Bears in your back yard!
We've got some bison, beavers and boars now reintroduced to England. But bears no, while wolves, and lynx are still being discussed I understand. -
@wtg I feed year round, can't resist. I guy bags of shelled peanuts for the squirrels. They know me now and make themselves known if the food isn't out.
A few weeks ago a honking huge black bear broke the door to the entry room off it's hinges--basically a shed attached to the side of the house. That door is a modern wood and plastic thing. The door into the kitchen is a solid wood outside door and that remains intact and I expect it to remain so.
The reason the bear was able to barrel through into the 'shed' is that the piers it rests on heave horribly in the freeze/thaw cycle every late winter to the point where the door doesn't even latch shut any more and I have to keep it closed by propping a spade against it.
The 'shed' is where I'd been keeping the bird seed... in a plastic bin. But, unfortunately, the week before this occurrence, I'd accidentally forgot to prop the door closed and the bear was able to walk right in, during the night of course, and discover that beyond the door was the tasty treats he'd been looking for. Hence, his subsequent forcing his way in.
It hasn't happened since and I don't think it will happen again. I keep the seed in the house now. I saw a bear twice today, but I'm pretty sure it isn't the same one. This one seems like a one-year old, newly on his own.
They're so cute when they're young! A pic from a few years ago, on the wood pile:
@Bernard wins the fauna of the day award! My squirrels are nothing compared to your bear.
I keep the bird seed in some old metal tins in the garage. The biggest critters we might have would be raccoons, but they've never tried to get to the seed stored in there.
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My new little friend in the garden: Western Fence lizard.
https://www.facebook.com/100000076418541/videos/pcb.27781190928133415/977751011544866
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BTW we had an uninvited guest the other day, just making herself at home… If she was that interested in the neighbor’s yard, she should have sat over there!
@ShiroKuro Awww....so sweet. But of course I know how destructive deer can be when it comes to landscaping!
As you say, better in someone else's yard.
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@ShiroKuro Awww....so sweet. But of course I know how destructive deer can be when it comes to landscaping!
As you say, better in someone else's yard.
As you say, better in someone else's yard.
Yep!
BTW I have been monitoring the lack eyed susan's in the front of our house, and I'm convinced that the animal doing the eating is a deer. The reason I think that is because the spots that are eaten are in the middle of the bunch, as if a large creature walked up and bent their head down from a height, rather than at the edges, as you might expect with a small creature sitting low to the ground and chewing at that height.
This is my current "plant detector" analysis.
I remain hopeful that there will still be blooms come July
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Squirrels. They ate all of my raspberries. Now they're checking out the tomatoes.
They left behind a half-eaten tomato and this chewed-off cluster of green tomatoes:
So when I saw my first Little Sicily tomato just barely starting to ripen, I knew i had to pick it or the next day I'd be seeing a beautiful tomato with a chomp taken out of it. Little Sicily are a Campari-sized tomato, just perfect for a snack or a sandwich. They ripen beautifully on the counter. It's just heading for the orange stage on its way to red:
In a few days I can have a BLT!
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