All budgies (the name refers to budgerigars) are parakeets...but not all parakeets (which includes an assortment of small parrots) are budgies! 
Birding!
- Thread starter jjohnwm
- Start date
Spring is here!
Not that you'd know it by looking outside. After an amazingly warm period several weeks long, with temperatures several degrees above freezing for many days in a row, our temps have begun to drop again, snow is falling, and the forecast calls for temps to continue to drop for at least the next week. To the untrained eye, winter looks like it still has a good grip on the landscape.
But that doesn't matter! An American Robin has appeared in the yard! And that, boys and a girls, means that it's spring regardless of how cold it may be.
Okay, not really. This bird is likely one of the very few that manage to tough out winter by finding a ready supply of food. Robins aren't equipped to eat hard seeds like most winter birds are; they eat mostly bugs and soft fruits, so they have a tough time of cold weather. When one decides to winter up here, it's usually because of a good growth of grapes, crabapples or other fruits. The problem is that such food supplies can be obliterated in a single afternoon if a large group of Bohemian Waxwings drops in, and then a wintering Robin is doomed unless he/she can find something else to eat.
The one shivering in my yard now is likely a straggler whose food supply was cut off before winter came to a close, and now it's desperately looking for another steady source of nourishment. I always keep a big bag of raisins on hand for just such an emergency. Sadly, for every raisin that the Robin gets there will be a couple dozen that are scarfed up by the much-tamer Blue Jays, who descend upon a food tray before I have walked back to the door while the shy Robin looks on from a nearby tree. But Robins are tough; this guy watched the Jays swarming the food tray and quickly swooped in and got his share, so if I can keep it coming...and if he sticks around...he might make it.
I am also thawing some frozen mealworms I keep on hand. Those disgusting little squiggles of chitin-wrapped fat aren't something I would ever feed to a fish or reptile...but they are just the kind of high-calorie food that this bird needs right now.
Not that you'd know it by looking outside. After an amazingly warm period several weeks long, with temperatures several degrees above freezing for many days in a row, our temps have begun to drop again, snow is falling, and the forecast calls for temps to continue to drop for at least the next week. To the untrained eye, winter looks like it still has a good grip on the landscape.
But that doesn't matter! An American Robin has appeared in the yard! And that, boys and a girls, means that it's spring regardless of how cold it may be.
Okay, not really. This bird is likely one of the very few that manage to tough out winter by finding a ready supply of food. Robins aren't equipped to eat hard seeds like most winter birds are; they eat mostly bugs and soft fruits, so they have a tough time of cold weather. When one decides to winter up here, it's usually because of a good growth of grapes, crabapples or other fruits. The problem is that such food supplies can be obliterated in a single afternoon if a large group of Bohemian Waxwings drops in, and then a wintering Robin is doomed unless he/she can find something else to eat.
The one shivering in my yard now is likely a straggler whose food supply was cut off before winter came to a close, and now it's desperately looking for another steady source of nourishment. I always keep a big bag of raisins on hand for just such an emergency. Sadly, for every raisin that the Robin gets there will be a couple dozen that are scarfed up by the much-tamer Blue Jays, who descend upon a food tray before I have walked back to the door while the shy Robin looks on from a nearby tree. But Robins are tough; this guy watched the Jays swarming the food tray and quickly swooped in and got his share, so if I can keep it coming...and if he sticks around...he might make it.
I am also thawing some frozen mealworms I keep on hand. Those disgusting little squiggles of chitin-wrapped fat aren't something I would ever feed to a fish or reptile...but they are just the kind of high-calorie food that this bird needs right now.
I have 4 robins checking out my yard right now and scavenging through leaf piles for any bug tidbits that over wintered.
"My" Robin is still with us, having survived a few cooler nights with temps close to -20C. I have a temporary feeder arrangement that he finds acceptable but which is unattractive to most other species, so I am able to get his food to him without having to feed countless other birds who do just as well on seeds which the Robin can't handle. He's getting plenty of raisins, dried mealworms and...rather surprisingly...a bit of rehydrated freeze-dried krill, of which he seems very fond.
Winter is back in full force; we had 4 inches of fresh heavy snow last night, with more called for today. The temperature is currently -19C in my yard, and the windchill is listed at -34C, with 40-80kph winds blowing snow sideways across the fields. In other words; it's cold, wet and lousy.
Crap weather like this always brings the birds to the feeders in full force. I watched carefully all morning for the Robin, and was relieved to spot it just a few minutes ago, scarfing up raisins and fluffing its feathers up for insulation. I hope that it can get through the next week or so of bad weather and snow; I'll be careful to ensure that food is always available for it.
I was not pleased this morning to spot a M/F pair of English Sparrows in the yard. These are invasives that do a lot of damage to the nests of native birds, and they are most common in urban areas. The nearby town has a few flocks of these winged rats numbering in the hundreds, but seeing them this far away from population centres (with feeders) or livestock operations (with spilled feed grain) is less typical. I am currently building another half-dozen nestboxes for Tree Swallows and Eastern Bluebirds, which are two cavity-nesting species that are particularly vulnerable to English Sparrow incursions.
Fortunately, the female bird fell victim to an "industrial workplace accident"...i.e. she caught a load of #9 shot from a 12-gauge...and the male bird is living on borrowed time.
My wife is still chuckling at the spectacle of me in pyjamas, bathrobe, fur hat and pac boots, sneaking around the corner of the house to take the shot...
Crap weather like this always brings the birds to the feeders in full force. I watched carefully all morning for the Robin, and was relieved to spot it just a few minutes ago, scarfing up raisins and fluffing its feathers up for insulation. I hope that it can get through the next week or so of bad weather and snow; I'll be careful to ensure that food is always available for it.
I was not pleased this morning to spot a M/F pair of English Sparrows in the yard. These are invasives that do a lot of damage to the nests of native birds, and they are most common in urban areas. The nearby town has a few flocks of these winged rats numbering in the hundreds, but seeing them this far away from population centres (with feeders) or livestock operations (with spilled feed grain) is less typical. I am currently building another half-dozen nestboxes for Tree Swallows and Eastern Bluebirds, which are two cavity-nesting species that are particularly vulnerable to English Sparrow incursions.
Fortunately, the female bird fell victim to an "industrial workplace accident"...i.e. she caught a load of #9 shot from a 12-gauge...and the male bird is living on borrowed time.
My wife is still chuckling at the spectacle of me in pyjamas, bathrobe, fur hat and pac boots, sneaking around the corner of the house to take the shot...
Temp on my backyard thermometer reads -28C right now; no idea of wind chill, but it's blowing at around 30kph so it feels pretty cold.
And right now, a couple of hours after sunrise...lots of birds, but...no Robin yet.
And right now, a couple of hours after sunrise...lots of birds, but...no Robin yet.
The vast majority of them migrate south, gathering in flocks of 50 or more individuals at that time. But a few hardy/adventurous/stupid ones try to overwinter each year. As long as they find a reliable food supply, they have a decent chance. I think mine falls into the "stupid" category, as we simply don't have a large enough local crop of small fruits like crabapples to sustain them throughout the winter, especially after the fruit-specialists like Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks move through and eat up everything. I feel a responsibility to try and nurse this bird through the next few weeks; fingers crossed.
Weve been working in quantico, va for some time now. As if theyre enthusiastic mascots of the marines themselves, eagles are thicker here along the potomac than ive seen anywhere. I managed to get a couple shots of the alpha bird defending one of his nests from a group of red-shouldered hawks, eviscerating one and eating its liver in disdain. Those hawks mustve been pretty hungry to tangle with what is easily mistaken for a dragon rather than bird.
