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Off topic, but perhaps one or two of you "bird feeders" might become inspired.
I'm guessing 4 years ago, my wife and I went birding down to south Texas (Corpus Christi and then along the border west of Brownsville) during the spring bird migration. There is essentially a birder's trail and bed and breakfasts to cater to the birders. We were in search of warblers in more open country than the dense woods of the Moose River Plain in New York State - where we saw and heard absolutely nothing! It was a lot of fun and we saw lots of warblers, orioles, humming birds and more. Of course, our amateur status was confirmed when the other birders got a look at our $10 Walmart binoculars. Not a problem though, since the birding book of etiquette mandated that all the other birders lend us their much better glasses. I'm guessing that we saw about 35 or 40 species, many new to us.
So with that inspiration, we went to British Columbia the next year and hired a naturalist to take us around for a few hours. We were at a place called Kelowna about 3 hours east of Vancouver - again, fairly early in the spring. Unbeknownst to us, the naturalist's goal was to show us an American Dipper, a bird that walks around underwater in a fast flowing stream looking for food. Initially that plan failed - but not to worry as we saw other birds that held our interest - and, in fact, we did see the American Dipper just as he gave up hope. Well, we had hired the guy for 3 hours, but I think he was having so much fun that he stuck with us all day. Late in the day we were heading up a mountain to try to catch a glimpse of a climate threatened gray flycatcher at the most northern edge of its range that would have just arrived maybe that day. He was so excited when we did see a pair. At the end of the day, we checked our notes. We claimed 90 different species plus a moose. He claimed 119 (seen or heard), plus the moose.
Both trips were very enjoyable and might be worth consideration if you are planning a vacation.
Hey patty, Colorado is a migratory bird area, so what you will experience varies upon the season. This time of year Loveland will have a small selection of birds. The full time winter residents consist of finches, blue jays, Doves, northern flicker woodpeckers, chickadees and not much more. Cracked sunflower seeds and unsalted peanuts seem to be the favored by all. From my observation a thistle feeders seem to be their last choice.
I am ok with all of the creatures except the rats! Haven't seen our resident rodent around lately....but I'm watching, while hoping the rat trap/poison Rick put under the shed worked.
I've never seen a rat in our yard but I'm not so dense to think they are not out there. Field mice, for sure.
I plan on buying the Costco bird feeder today and then hitting a feed store. I saw robins in my yard yesterday!
I saw a few robins yesterday, too! They're a bit early. Robins are common visitors in the early spring and summer in Colorado. While they don't visit birdfeeders with great frequency, you might have some success offering them meal worms, sunflower chips, and fruit. They will though use a bird bath frequently to drink and bathe.
If you electrify the metal cage holding the suet.... they will not come back too often!
Nice...notice the critter had managed to get the suet cage open, even though I had a twist tie on it. I was able to secure it before the suet fell to the ground and the squirrel ran off with it
01-17-2018, 02:01 PM
