Rooster Rescue

This is Fancy Pants. A Silver Laced Polish Hen.....oops I mean rooster! He was supposed to be a hen but turned out to be a rooster. We have had a love hate relationship since he started to declare himself a 'him'.
I have five hens living in a good size coop and 'play pen' but Fancy Pants had more needs than they could fulfill especially Evelyn who lost back fathers from his 'saddleing' her. Last June, 2014, he was kicked out of the hen house. Enough was enough. He not only was wearing out the girls he was attacking me! It is not good to bite the hand that feeds you! It is now January 2015 and Fancy Pants is doing just fine. I made him a 'man cave' that I put him into each night so he will be safe from night predators. As to the day time predators he seems to be big enough and tough enough that he is not bothered.
He goes to roost on the top of the girls playpen each night. It is about 6 feet high. Each night I go out to close up the girls in the coop and reach up and grab 'him' and take him to his 'man cave'. Tonight it was misty and cold. We had freezing rain the night before and today did not get above 32 degrees. There was street work being done in front of the house behind me. Perhaps all of this contributed to his stance on the 'playpen'. He was about a foot or so in from the edge so I was not able to just reach up and get him He was also standing looking a bit alert even though it was dark and usually he would be sleeping. I though, oh my I will need to get the ladder to reach him but then an idea popped into my head- try the 2x2 to push him to the edge of the pen so I could grab him. Well! Did I strike gold! He hopped onto the 2x2 and allowed me to bring it down with him on it where I could hold him and bring him to his 'man cave'! Rooster rescue done successfully!
Good night to all and to all a good night!

Northern Flicker visit

The Northern Flicker is a year round resident in North Carolina. It is a brown and white woodpecker with a red spot on the back of its neck, the nape. It has a very bold black mark above a speckled breast and the male has a black 'mustache'.

It has been a few years since I have seen them visit my yard. Yesterday as I was about to let my dog out into the backyard I saw two Northern Flickers ground feeding! Nice surprise! Tivo had to wait until they finished looking for food before I let her out. The Northern Flicker is the only woodpecker to habitually eat from the ground preferring ants and grubs and such. I watched as these two welcome visitors found and ate what appeared to be grubs from my yard. I wondered why I don't see them more often in my yard as they are here year round but it may be that in the winter I get the northern migrants. Regardless of where they come from and how long they stay they are a welcome sight!

Bird Feeders Continued

 I like to reuse anything that I can. I am not a big fan of oranges but at this time of year the Clementine orange is popular and I do enjoy them. They are small, easy to peal and sweet. The oranges are sold in a mesh bag. I knew the squirrels would have a blast chewing it apart but I thought I would give it a go as I had a suet cake but no suet cage. I was surprised that this bag hung out there for the birds for a few weeks. Then, yes the squirrel had a desire for suet cake! Yes he ate through the mesh in no time and had his cake too! The orange mesh was all that was left! I will not suggest this mesh as a possible suet cake holder.

The weather remains cold so I purchased more suet for the birds and was going to buy a cage to hold it but remembered I had some left over hardware wire in the shed. Once again I set out to reuse and make my own suet cage. This time I believe I have success!
It only took me a few minutes to cut the wire and fix the suet inside.

I hung the suet up next to the other bird feeder and was excited to see a Gold Finch in his winter colors come to visit! In fact I do believe a male and female Gold finch were the first visitors!

 

 

Bird Feeders

My Mother use to say if you are hungry enough you will eat it! The same goes for the birds; if they are hungry enough they will not only eat it, but eat from it! There are all types of bird feeders on the market and it is big business! They can cost from as little as $6 (pictured above) to $150 and up! The birds don't care what the feeder looks like. If your goal is to keep the squirrels out, well good luck with that! The money you spend on a fancy bird feeder could cover the additional seed you would buy to feed the birds and squirrels. Feeding both birds and squirrels will add a new dimension of enjoyment as the antics of the ingenious, flexible squirrel are fun to watch! I watched in amazement as a squirrel climbed the pole you see in the picture. The next day a different squirrel, perhaps a little chunkier than the one the day before, tried to climb the pole but after a foot up slipped back down the pole. He tried one more time then settled into eating what was on the ground. Very funny to watch. I guess the moral to that story is keep feeding them and they will get too fat to bother your feeders!

There are 7 types of feeders basically. They are as follows: globe, haven, hopper, platform, suet basket, tubes and window feeders. The most popular and most expensive is the 'haven' feeder. I would guess it gets its name from the idea that it is a safe place for small birds to eat as it keeps large birds of prey out with the metal cage. It also keeps the squirrels out of the food. It is a tube feeder with a metal cage around it. The cage limits the size of bird that can feed. In my area, Raleigh, NC, I would suggest black-oil sunflower seed and a quality mixed seed that would attract Nuthatch, Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Finches and Sparrows.

The 'hopper' and 'platform' feeders will attract the widest variety of birds. The feeder in the picture is not a 'hopper' as the feed drops continuously as it is eaten but it attracts a large variety of birds also. I have seen all the small birds use it along with Cardinals and a Red-bellied Woodpecker. In either the 'platform' or 'hopper' feeder black-oil sunflower and a good quality seed mix are good choices. The 'platform' would also handle some fruit for the fruit lovers of the air!

If anything is know about backyard birds it is that the American Gold Finch loves thistle! The thistle sock is best suited for these brightly colored birds but there are thistle tubes also. Go with your own preference.

I will leave the remaining feeders for the next post. I hope I have given you enough food for thought to hold you over to the next writing! I promise it will come soon!

The Birds are Back!

I have had the opportunity to see a lot of bird activity since I last wrote. I don't know where they go or why they go, probably because they can, but they are here now! This is who I have seen these last 2 weeks.

* Sharp-shinned Hawk, sitting on the fence, 7 A.M.
* Dark-eyed Junco, feeding on the ground around feeder, about 12 to 15 birds, 9:30 A.M.
* Purple Finch, at feeder, 10 A.M.
* Also all the regulars mentioned earlier