Here are the latest pics from Jane's webcam.

Tufted Titmouse and Male House Finch



And Then, There Were Four



INCOMING!!!!

Hey Thorny,
Very nice to have you back. Thanks for the bird shots. I really dig the incoming chickadoodledee!

Wow! Love those pics!

Hey Thorny,
Do you think we could use the video cam for on-line participation in the Great Backyard Bird Count on February 16-19?

There's the link to the count. We are going to participate - but the window cam could be treated separately.

http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/

Hubby found a cheap camera on sale at Radio Shack and this weekend is going to attempt a cardinal cam that more folks will be able to see. He'd ratther do about anything than real chores

You can include photos and videos with your report, but you will need to do a written report also.

More cool ones to share!!!!

Jane go to redshanksoftware.com and download ClipBird. It is a FREE program that allows you to record daily lists of your bird sightings, WITH COMMENTS! It is perfect for the GBBC. As a matter of fact that's what most of us birders use now for ALL our birding records and reports. Here is the link:

ClipBird


The NEW version of ClipBird just came out so I updated my version, too.

I like the red head the best.....

Thanks for sharing .

I like birds too......
DOnt know the names except a robin.. ha ha he is robin my strawberys.

dodge...............

Dodge the red head is a Male House Finch. A Male Purple Finch has the red head too. The females of BOTH species are just brown and white. Those brown and white birds with the red head are female House Finches.

Thorn,

thanks..........Finches.
i will try and rememeber that ......my sister is a giant bird watcher in her yard and has a book.. I live in the country and dont know one bird from the other.....

i did see a Heron in my dam one day..Has long legs.......So I did notice.
They are really cute birds you show. And duckie an all else......
Only thing about duckies and geese.. They drop too much on the yard......daaaaaaaa

dodge

There are many types of finches. House Finches and Purple Finches absolutely LOVE Black Oil Sunflower seeds, either from a tube feeder OR a platform feeder (the ground, flat board, or table top, like in the photos here.) The other common Finch in the Eastern U.S. and Canada is the American Goldfinch. These Finches like Black Oil Sunflower Seeds (BOSS),but they positively LOVE Black Niger Thistle Seed in a cloth mesh bag (Commonly called a, "Thistle Seed Sock"). Black Niger seed is rather expensive, though, running $7.00 to $10.00 for a 5-lb. bag, so I just take my chances with BOSS which I get for $12.00 for a 50-lb. bag at Tractor Supply Company.

I thought it may be expensice hobby , cause my neighbor told me it costs her $4.00 each time her feeder is filled....

Glad it isnt my hobby.. Our state isnt fond of the feeders, cause in the summer the Bears are coming into the yards to eat out of them.....
Make lots of damage if they come in groups on 3.

dodge

I thought it may be expensice hobby , cause my neighbor told me it costs her $4.00 each time her feeder is filled....

Glad it isnt my hobby.. Our state isnt fond of the feeders, cause in the summer the Bears are coming into the yards to eat out of them.....
Make lots of damage if they come in groups on 3.

dodge

I spend about $100.00 a year on food for the birds and another $20.00 to $30.00 on feeders and other incidentals. Of course, these expensives are spread over a twelve month period! So that comes out to about $10.00 a month.

thorn

Now harm in that......Better than drinking...
WE spend plenty feeding our cows, so I dont need the extra expense......
Neighbors ducks come by each summer, also a Heron. Geese sometime and turkey .. Wild.

I love to look..My sister is a widow and loves their attention....Lives alone.

Do you get the Magazine" Birds and Blooms"?
Sister does an saves me them.. cheap 12 for $12.00 and bright colored pages.

dodge

Hi all,
dodge, feeding the birds can get very addicting and expensive.
Supplying water is a lot cheaper and can also get you lots of birds. Especially in winter,a heated birdbath on a frozen day is a guarentee of feathered friends.
We attract more than a hundred birds a day, however, I am spending a king's ransom in bird food. I am making adjustments to get it under control I was sneaking bags of bird seed in with groceries all the time (so that money was hidden in grocery expenses)

Thistle (niger) seed for the goldfinches costs $8.97 for 10lbs at wallyworld. It's the cheapest I've found. I use about 5 lbs a week. So that's $20 a month for just the "bugs," oops, I mean American goldfinch. We are ok with this expense, because come summer, we'll have lots of bright yellow male American goldfinch. Our winter count is more than 20 a day.

I love to ground feed, but the squirrles we're killing us. We switched to the cheapest seed I can find (with the least milo) and add cracked corn and safflower seeds. I like the brand at Target. BOSS is BOSS, but it makes the squirrel popluation spiral out of control.

Have a great day.

jane


Sound like me with flowers on my farm.. this only happened to me the last 4 years.

Do you have a feed mill in your area? You may be able to get cracked corn there.. Is that the same as mallot?
My sister buys for a surplus place.....
Right about the squirrel population and rabbits.
She feeds those also on the ground.. Rabbits have the babys there under her shed.. Next to the free food....She is in town and it is polluted with bunnies an squirrel and birds..
However she loves it like you ......
She also has a book strickly on birds. I would love to see your gold finch when it arrives.. Let me know of that post.
She talks of finches.. ha ha

barb

Here are todays pics taken on Sunday,Jan. 14, 2007, at 2:30 PM, E.S.T. The first is the LONG awaited pic of Jane's husband. The other two are of a bird that is a PRIZE to get at ANY feeder anywhere, a sweetly adorable, White-Breasted Nuthatch (Male: the BLACK cap tells you it is a male. Females have a GRAY cap.) The Nuthatch's call is a VERY nasal, "Yank!, Yank!"

JANE'S HUSBAND


WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH(MALE)01



WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH(MALE)02

janes husband .....what do you feed him?

ha ha ......

Nice photos ...do you let the camera on all the time and have he feeder close to a window?

Marvelous photos.....
Some blue and grey bird hit our window the other morning I think picking a spider off the web.
What may that be?

dodge

Hey All,
Hubby would probably you tell you the birds eat better around here than he does

Hey Thorny, that is a first. I have never actually seen a nuthatch in the window. Man, I wish I had been upstairs for that. Nuthatches are delightful! I believe they are the only bird (at least in my yard) that walks head first down trees.

The camera is an internet feed that just lives off the wireless connection in our home. The feeder is an avarium. It's like an inverted bay window box that has a wooden frame that fits in a window. I will get pictures together.

dodge, I don't know who is hitting your window... my first guess will be titmouse.

Possibly a BLUE-Gray Gnatcher, but it is TOO early for them.

What's a blue-gray gnatcher? I want one!!!

Hubby is laughing his hiney off. I am dying to see a nuthatch from my bedroom window and have yet to do so. He watched one just after thorny's nuthatch post... I missed it! :p I keep missing it.

We are really fortunate to have many white breasted nuthatch. Thorny, don't they make a sound that reminds you of an island bird. He can make you think toucan sam is in the yard?

My REAL name is, "Nat" (short for, Nathaniel"). The FIRST time I EVER saw a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher, I was wearing blue jeans and a gray T-shirt. Someone said, "Oh, LOOK! A Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher!" I looked down at my blue and gray clothing, and horrified said,"Don't let him catch me!!! "

BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER

wasn't that bird at all..
But that is a beauty.

this on has strips across the belly.

Some sort of winter fellow......(gal)

ha ha

Blue-Gray Gnatcatchers are tiny birds, about the size of a Chickadee. They are 100% insect eaters so will NOT come to your feeders, but occur in large flocks in the woods beginning in mid to late April. You can hear them clearly calling, "Tsee, Tsee, Tsee", very similar to Kinglets, to which they are CLOSELY related. They make a TINYnest out of tree lichen lined with spider web in the fork of a tree branch near the end or the branch, often with a small branch just above the nest. This nest is easily overlooked as it is about the size and shape of a golf ball cut in half.

BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER NEST

I just love looking at these pictures each day!!!

penny , me too

glad I found them......I dont usually get all over this gh every nite.

Nice things do happen here.

I really enjoy these pics

Jane ......

More pictures please..

By popular demand.

Where is Thorny???
I actually have never taken a picture from the window cam!

The video doesn't work here on this darn MAC, so I wouldn't know how to get to the picture moved here anyway.

Would you like some regular pictures of my backyard friends???

sure.....

Pictures are pictures......Birds and flowers.

You sound like me...I have a video on my digital camera and dont know how to upload it on here.

The program that came with it doesnt do it ??

d

Sure.....i love to come and have a peek at them!!

Hey Jane, your feeder cam IS ON THE FRITZ. It doesn't show but any thing but a TINY sliver of the picture in the upper right-hand corner of the blue box. I can't get any pictures of that.

thorny,
I am wathcing it fine. I wish it was a little further from the camera. But, it's looking good here.

I saw the aerial pic of your house on Birder's World and I marked it on my Google Earth also.

Where is the Birders's world?

I wanna see her house......

Here's the link, Dodge. Go there, look under the "Backyard" section, and then look for the Aerial Photograph thread.

Birder\'s World Forum

blue jay alert!!!

Hear yea
Hear yea

bluejay for sure ......gotcha



I didnt do it , someone sent it to me.

d

too cute!!

thorn

I went to the site,loved it all....I have to do more time there.........
Now whose was I hunting? thorn or gonetothebirds.

i will go back later.........chores to attend.

d

It's not from the bird cam, I still don't know how to click with it. But, here is a shot of few regulars dining this morning!


I am trying to learn to hand hold the camera and use the zoom lens. It usually ends up blurry. But, I love this pair of cardinals. It reminds me of Hubby and I.
Actually, chances are he is looking at her that way because she is not his chickie and he wishes her to leave!

I hope you all are having a great day! I am not getting too much actually done, but boy is it pleasant!

Jne.........

Thanks so much I love that .Red cardinal.
You doin lots better than me......i cant even get one.

More reddies ......Thanks we are loving this.

barb

ahhhh,,,,they are so cute, and i do like coming to see them!!

Penny ............I 2nd the motion........

Now for a question......

My sister wants to know if anyone knows where to get a wheel that you put sunflower seeds into. And the birds and squirrels hop on and round and round it goes......

She had one in Ohio many years ago.. She is in Penna now/
thanks

Ask Wrennie she sells those things.

Jane, I like your top pic of the platform feeder with the female Cardinal, male House Finch, and American Goldfinch in Winter Plummage all in one shot! Those are three of the CLASSIC feeder birds together including the two main finch species found in the east.

Thorny ! I've moved and though I miss my backyard rabbits, crows, squirrels and California towhees horribly, guess what's here in the new place? Yep, towhees, crows, and two rabbits. The sound of the crows is making me unbearably homesick.
I set up feeding stations yesterday.
One of the rabbits isn't wild-it's a white one that was probably dumped. I hate to see it running wild but the new neighbors say it's been here a long time.
I'm trying to catch it so I can give it a happier, safer and warm home. It grooms itself while I talk to it, but runs when I make a move.
I'll keep trying. Running loose is not the right life for a domestic rabbit.
I'm so glad to be back in the forum !

I am so glad you are back. I've been recruiting a lot of my birder friends from other forums on here to increase our bird knowledge sources. I hope you didn't move near the ocean.

I'm two freeway exits north of where I was.
The city is called Oceanside ! Argh !

Hi Deborah
I am one of the folks thorny invited over from the stuffy ole' bird forum.

I have a newphew who lives in the Oceanside ares - He got out of the Marines and stayed there.

I hope your new digs gets lots of cool birds!

Why can't that bunny be???

Deborah, My bunny, Two Bean Bags, says, "SHOW ME THE BUNNY!!!"

TWO BEAN BAGS

Good one, Thorny !
Gone, that domestic rabbit is in danger from traffic, dogs, the cold, etc.
And we have coyotes here. If you have coyotes, the last thing you want is a light colored animal.
Also it needs a proper diet, not the grass that the gardeners spray with toxins. I'd like to have it at the vet too, for a check up and vaccinations.
It appears to be plump and healthy though.
Thorny, do rabs need a salt lick? Or is there enough sodium in the rabbit food?
What does your rab eat?

They do have salt and mineral blocks for rabbits but commercial rabbit food has adequate supplies of both. Two Beans LOVES chocolate......of ANY kind. He rares up and puts his front feet on my legs and scratches,flicking his tongue at me for a bite of chocolate (which I ALWAYS have available on my computer desk). The other night I gave hime some DARK chocolate containing Espresso. That was a MISTAKE! He was up all night banging into the walls and roof of his cage and doing his floor "Thumping" thingy and LOUDLY ripping up the newspapers in his cage and thrashing around with them. That caffeine really had him wired!

We have Coyotes here in Tennessee now, too. And for the last five years we've had armadillos!

dont know about a rabbi, but I hear chocolate will kill a dog......

Better check that one out.

We almost killed our dog last summer, some bad milk.....Thought he was a goner.....We feed him 2 exlax and he was getting better each day. He couldn't go to the bathroom till then.

Eek .never again.

Birds won't eat chocolate. Blue jays love sweet stuff. Man, they are nutty cakes, cookies and their favorite cinnamon rolls. But, they won't touch chocolate cake or chocolate chip cookie... They know it's bad for them.

Hi Hi!

Happy Saturday !!!!

Did I already show off this picture?

I love my backyard

jane

nice nice nice...
I love your back yard too .
What is it/

That bird is a Carolina CHickadee, one of the MOST common visitors to bird feeders. I call then the "Teddy Bears" of the bird world. Feisty little devils they are.

Snow!!!!!! The backyard is whacky...
Cardinal in the window!!!!

Jane, snow is the best time of all for bird activity at feeders. Get yor camera ready, get warm clothes and a hot drink and, GET OUT THERE AND PHOTOGRAPH!!!

Oh... Thorny, I had so much fun. It was spiritual and amazing and wow...

The birds act completely different - they were wild, crazy and aggressive. I had juncos on the suet feeder!! One of the brown creepers was on the porch!...Oh my!

I have some pictures - Oh had it only been sunny. I am going to go through them after dinner.

Mostly, I am such a newbie I couldn't click I was too busy picking my jaw up off the ground.

Oh yeah, I finally got to watch a cardinal chow down from the window... which mean almost nose to nose with the big red fellow!

Wow... It was amazing! There had to be 200 birds at once. We hestitate to do it on the first count day... but we believe we had 100 juncos!

The shocker though... Our cardinal count (You must see them at once) was only 8.

All the $$$ is worth it!!!

Let's here it for the ladies
What a day it was! I love snow!

wow thats a great pic jane! i dont know much about birds but i do like to watch em!
we get bunches of [ i dont know if there called blue birds or blue jays] but we get bunches of em!

Sibyl,
Birds are wonderous. Hubby and I, both, and together can watch them all day! We have so much new conversation and shared ideas about how to draw birds to the yard and who they are. It's been a major blessing!

Cool thing sibyl is they will be waiting for you to discover them whenever. They'll be there - years from now. Mom fed them here and I pretty much stayed out of it. Wow and Wow.. now I see...
I'm glad the waited for me

The bird in this picture is female cardinal. Big red's woman. Thanks for taking the time to check her out- and I'm so glad you like her.

Jane

I love that photo........

Get one a littl clearer of her and I can print it for my wall......

Love it .......Big red too.
Thanks for sharing.

dodge

What a great picture!!!

I agree.....


dodge

HLC! i think jane and thorny got me addicted! i keep peekin out my windows to see if i can get a pic of a bird!

Ha ha

We're are all BIRD concious now!!!!!!!
Thanks Jane and Thorn.........

We love what your doing to us.

;o)/\/\/\/\

Here is today's featured bird from Jane's webcam; a Tufted Titmouse. These birds are year-round residents of much of the Eastern U.S. and are VERY COMMON visitores to bird feeders. Males and females of this species are identical so you really can't distinguish which is which. They are ALMOST always found in the company of Chickadees. Their Spingtime mating song is a LOUD, CLEAR bell-like, "PETER, PETER, PETER!" Their call is very Chickadee like and when angry or upset they make a Wren-like, "Pssssht, Pssssht, Pssssht!"

TUFTED TITMOUSE

All this food and no one to share with

was that the female?
cardinal?

ha ha

we love those photos>>>>>>
And we entertain thorn too.

b

As an Equal Opportunity Birder I felt I must include THIS picture to balance Jane's "For the Ladies" picture.

FOR THE GENTLEMEN

ooHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Beautiful.................male.

Lady or not..That is my favorite tennessee bird.

thanks thorn,
more more more......

dodge

HA HA
tHORN

No bird prejduce, in you.ha ha

HD says males are always the prettiest in birds.
Is that your belief?

b

A female blue jay is just as beautiful as a male blue jay!!!

Some species look just the same.

In the bird world the males ARE the most colorful of many species. This is probably because the females have evolved to become more drabber in order to sit on the nest without being noticed, thereby protecting the eggs. Males are MUCH more noticeable probably to attract females easier, and to be MORE noticeable to enemies, who will follow them away from the nest. There by protecting the females and young.

In bird species where the males are NOT more colorful than the females, The sexes are IDENTICAL or nearly so. American Robin males and females are identical, EXCEPT, SOMETIMES the males have more intense coloration while the females plummage appears a little more faded and pale. Blue Jays, Crows, Chickadees, and Timouse, have identical sexes.

In the case of some birds, example: the Red-Winged Blackbird, the sexes are SO fifferent they look like two entirely DIFFERENT species.

wow! i didnt know all that!

Thorn

MY man just gave me the same speech this morning.
I keep showing off your birds.......

Your correct....

You know your birds for sure.

Nice.

I have studied birds INTENSELY for 18 years now. For the last 5 years I have been retired so that is pretty much ALL I do (drives my wife CRAZY. I am always looking for new things that people have NEVER noticed before, or am ALWAYS looking for the humorous side in everything I do, ESPECIALLY birds and bird behavior.

My wife and I noticed several immature Starlings folding their wings in mid-flight and dropping to the ground, dead as a doornail one Spring, about 4 years ago. I mentioned it on a worldwide website and got replies from all over Europe, Asia and other parts of the world from birders who had seen the same thing, in many cases it was IMMATURE STARLINGS!!! We figured it must be heart conditions peculiar to young Starlings but are not certain.

Actually I used to think they were being forced to fly......Ha ha..My opinion, only.
I did hear the moms kick the sick one out of the nest....

??

Well nothing wrong with birds and watching..

It's the birds you dont watch, that cause trouble.

ha ha
joke

Here is a picture of our very own Jane in her backyard on top of her table. I guess she's looking for seeds and suet scraps to eat to keep her warm. A sudden snowstorm came through and dumped an inch of snow on her house in about two hours, because at noon her yard was almost totally free of snow.

Jane at the Jane Feeder

thorn and jane

Welcome
To the club..Were being clobbered with about 8 inches here in Penna...None on the ground till this week.

Jane why didnt you wave at us?

;o)

Hey Thorny!
Yup... It is the first time I predicted the weather by the birds. We got a surprise snow storm - it dumped an inch in less than 1/2hour. Anyway, the birds were wild and crazy this morning - there were 9 anxious male cardinals in a tiny area and 5 blue jays pecking like crazy and more close by. I thought something up... and bang snow snow snow!!

I bought this MAC to start my bird blog properly. But, so far I have not learned a dang thing! In my imagination I have a section all about what feeding central looks like. One of these days...


I love your picture. I wave at the camera all the time. So... what you see in the picture is our double wide swing set that in now bird central. I am on the steps to the platform that leads to the sliding board. Just above me and over to my right a tad is the 18 perch goldfinch feeder. I climb up there to tend to it everyday.

I love your shot because you can see our custom suspended suet feeder Look at the towards the middle of the biggest tree behind the swing set. Do you see that oblong light colored blob? That is the homemade suet feeder hubby suspended up there. I think this shot is of me going to do maintenance on it. It's a cool feeder I'll have to post pictures. Theres other feeder stuff in the picture too.

Shoot... I had picture to post and then I went and got all wordy!

Hey dodge... I wave all the time

Here is a picture from today.
I let Thorny tell us all about what the little guy is up to.

I hope you see him ok?

He's hard to see... He sure looked good on my 24" MAC monitor

The little guy has a Black Oil Sunflower Seed and is holding it against the branch with is foot while he hammers at it Woodpecker-style with his beak to crack the outer shell so he can get at the sweet, sweet, nutmeat hidden inside. Here is Jane's picture lightened and colored enhanced to show the details better.

Titmouse Chowing

Why - thanks for the enhancements. I can watch titmouses all day long. Some days they are my most favorite bird in the world.

I think chickadees do about the same with seeds?

Thorny, have you seen a titmouse pound on a seed in the window cam. I get such a great view from behind that camera.

Hey Hey ,

I caught a cardinal in the window cam!

I walked by today and had scare... thought there was squirrel in the window... it was a darn mourning dove! They'll eat you out of house and home just like a squirrel.

I watched one pounding a seed on your cam today. Chickadees do the same thing. Chickadees and Titmouses ALWAYS hang together, have the same behavior, and make similar noises. I have actually HEARD a Titmouse sing, Chickadee, chickadee, dee dee. The only thing that they apparently do NOT do together is cross-breed although there is evidence that they may have at one time in the Western U.S. where some apparent hybrids have been reported.

Now I see him..

Now go enchant the red one.Jane

I will wave back.

SNEAK-A-DEE

What did you do with the snow?

;o)

This pic was taken about an hour BEFORE the snow hit.

those web cams are cool! great pics!
jane
is that little bird with the red cardinal a darn mourning dove?

Sibyl... mourning doves are glorified pigeon!

Not my favorite bird - by a long shot. They remind me of snails in fishtank. They run behind cleaning the lawn of leftover. pigeons... just pigeons.

Here is chicadee I captured - (I figured out where the camera pictures went on puter)

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh
i live the reddies......I am putting all the reds on one page in my word pad......so I can look and look.

thanks your getting better.

dodge,
Everyone loves those big reds... But, the ladies are lovely!!! Oh... look again.

She is really quiet a looker herself!

wow

get more ..
i have a page of them now.

hanks

b

How pretty!!!

Yeah, Penny... that's what I say too. Everyone just loves that bright red boy. But, she is a looker too. Just, more discreet and refined. She has been my favorite bird this week!

She definetly is a looker in my books too

Birds and Feather stick together..I like em all.

That's my story, And I am sticking to it.;o)

:p

Birds and Feather stick together..I like em all.

That's my story, And I am sticking to it.;o)

Yeah, Dodge, me too! That's why I said the she cardinal is my favorite "this week!"

Maybe someone could open a part 2....we're past 100 posts so I have to close this one down.