A Snowbird in Paradise

We arrived in Florida again on the 10th. Of course, in my head I had told myself that, after 5 years, nothing would be new. We have seen all of the birds and animals we are going to see, especially after the family of Sandhill Cranes last year.

"OH," said our neighbor, "We have an owl. Up there in the tree. Hear it?"

Well, I certainly could hear the soft "Hoo Hoo".

Tonight I was looking across the bay at a large bird in a tree branch that sticks up way above the rest of the trees. Through binoculars I could clearly see the "horns" of feathers that screams, Great-Horned Owl.

I watched for a moment then a noise sent the owl to the cell-phone tower. It is half a mile away but I dragged out the camera and tripod and tried, in the twilight, to get a photo. I have the rest of the 4 months to try and get better photos but, for what they are worth, here is the best shot.

Cool Facts

• The Great Horned Owl is the only animal that regularly eats skunks.
• The Great Horned Owl will take large prey, even other raptorial birds. It regularly kills and eats other owls, and is an important predator on nestling Ospreys. The reintroduction of Peregrine Falcons has been hampered in some areas by owls killing both adult and nestling falcons.
• The Great Horned Owl is a regular victim of harassment from flocks of American Crows. Crows congregate from long distances to mob owls, and may continue yelling at them for hours. The enmity of the crows is well earned, however, as the owl is probably the most important predator on adult crows and nestlings.
• Even though the female Great Horned Owl is larger than her mate, the male has a deeper voice. Pairs often call together, with audible differences in pitch.

Can you see both of them?

There is only one here.

As I was staring aimlessly out the den window into my flower garden, I noticed a little disturbance in the lavender. I looked closer and discovered a wee mouse feasting on spilled thistle seed from the bird feeder. Soon he/she was joined by another tiny gray field mouse. "Ok", I said, "Enjoy yourselves because before fall you HAVE to go one way or another. I cannot go to Florida and risk mice getting into my house.

It became a morning/evening ritual to watch the little fellas, but part of me wanted the mice to be gone. Meanwhile I showed them to my 4 year old granddaughter. Big mistake! She named them...Tiny and Sam. Now what was I going to do?

Another day, after an all-day-rain, the two mice AND a dove were all trying to eat the spilled thistle seed. The mice, considerable smaller than the dove, nonetheless, were PUSHING the dove with their heads. I wish I had a digital video cam. It was more than funny!

Along comes my friend's two little dogs. The larger of the two is a terrier. I am taking care of the sweet little dogs while she is in the hospital. The very first thing the terrier did was dive into the garden to root out the mice. Last I saw of Tiny and Sam they were headed into my neighbor's yard. The dogs will be here for a while so the mice may just make home in another place...I hope.

In Progress and finished. It has taken about a week since my son suggested planting vegetables in the space left by the lemon-mint. Now there's a plant that, though wonderful for tea, will take over your life! It took a lot of weed-killer but it finally didn't come up this spring. But the grass did. More weed killer and my son's hard work cultivating it. How could I say no to veggies?

Way back in the late 70s and the 80s I grew all sorts of things in Square-Foot gardens back at the old house. One year the children and I grew all miniature crops; cantaloupes the size of golf balls, single-serving watermelons, cherry tomatoes, little corn (cute shocks for Halloween that year), little cabbages and bib lettuce, cucumbers. Another year it was all cutting garden flowers, but, thanks to the PBS-TV show at the time, this was how I learned to make a vegetable garden.

So, since my books were long gone, loaned out and never returned, I checked the internet to find Mel Bartholomew had a new book out. Thanks to Amazon.com's special speedy delivery, we were buying supplies the next day. My son constructed the frames and grids, poured in the 12 bags of garden mix soil, and I planted the veggie plants. The seeds I will plant with my granddaughter later this week.

I put down 7-10 layers of newspapers my son got from the recycling center, and covered that over with several inches of mulch. I didn't skimp because I don't want to fight weeds again next year.

We have in the garden:
5 kinds of tomato plants
yellow and green long squash
cucumbers
cantaloupe
sweet peppers
hot peppers
and seeds for
lettuce
green peppers.

I want to get carrots and raddishes also. Maybe some corn.

We have another open area where I eventually want to plant more roses. There may be a third garden after all. That would be good for the root crops into the late fall.

A couple of days ago the Baltimore Oriole stopped by again. Before I could grab the camera he was off again. I had just enough time to set the camera back on the tripod and get it ready and in a flash of orange and black he was in the birdbath, splashing away.

This isn't the best photo but at least he is in the yard, now. If he will just pose nicely on a feeding station I would be happier. I read that Orioles like oranges so I will try that.

Most of those photos were taken in the back yard on the water in Florida. There are a few I photographed while on a birding morning on a Florida golf course. I could probably do another page of the more common birds, and some we saw but couldn't photograph.

There was a digital scrap-booking challenge at one of my online "homes" to use a certain ad as inspiration. The ad had a lot of circle photos. I wanted to join the challenge and realized the ad was perfect for putting some of my bird photos in one place.

There has been a bird hidden in the neighborhood trees with a distinctive, loud, musical call. I decided, once again, to try and identify the bird by sound alone. I started playing all of the calls from All About Birds. The door-wall to my garden from my computer room was open. I looked up from playing all these different bird calls to see my yard just filled with birds. Unfortunately, not anything unusual, and I haven't identified the bird call yet, but if I find it, I now have a plan to play the All About Birds bird calls and lure it out into the open.

I move my feeders around a bit trying to get more songbirds and fewer of those big black feisty birds. The suet-seed cake feeders are now hanging on the fence and the songbird feeders are on the shepherd hooks. I left one of the suet cake feeders empty when I moved them until I saw the Downy Woodpecker trying to get one last bit of food from it. I went out with a new cake and didn't seem to scare the Downy at all. He let me get quite close before he flew off into a tree. Once I was inside again he was right back to feast.

Over these last 3 days of rain and gloom, I saw nothing at the feeders but big, argumentive black birds. Then all of a sudden, I looked out today and there was the most beautiful sight...a bright Baltimore Oriole.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With its brilliant orange and black plumage, the Baltimore Oriole's arrival is eagerly awaited by birders each spring migration. Its preference for open areas with tall trees has made it a common inhabitant of parks and suburban areas.

Description

• Medium-sized songbird.
• Male brilliant orange with black head.
• Size: 17-19 cm (7-7 in)
• Wingspan: 23-30 cm (9-12 in)
• Weight: 30-40 g (1.06-1.41 ounces)

Sex Differences

Male brightly colored with black hood, female duller and without black hood.

Sound

Song: a series of rich whistled notes interspersed with rattles. Call: a chatter.

Conservation Status

Populations showing slight decrease across range, but populations probably stable. This species should be monitored closely.

• The Baltimore Oriole hybridizes extensively with the Bullock's Oriole where their ranges overlap in the Great Plains. The two species were considered the same for a while and called the Northern Oriole, but recently, they were separated again. Molecular studies of the oriole genus indicate that the two species are not very closely related.
• The "orioles" of the Americas were named after similarly-appearing birds in the Old World. The American orioles are not closely related to the true orioles in the family Oriolidae. They are more closely related to blackbirds and meadowlarks. Both New and Old world orioles are brightly colored with red, yellow, and black; have long tails and long pointed bills; build hanging, woven nests; and prefer tall trees around open areas.
• Young male Baltimore Orioles do not achieve adult plumage until the fall of their second year. But some first-year males with female-like plumage succeed in attracting a mate and nest successfully.

We spent Mother's Day at my daughter's family lakehouse. Of course I took my camera for family pictures, but also because they have so many little songbirds in the surrounding woods. As soon as we had arrived, my son-in-law filled the feeders outside the big picture window in the dining room. Immediately a little Black-Capped Chickadee and a little White-breasted Nuthatch came to dine and stayed most of the day.
For SOME reason, the Nuthatch started flying into the window and catching on to the frame and pecking at the glass. After this had gone on and on, I went outside to see if I could solve the puzzle of why he was doing this. It seemed to me that he was looking at the reflection of the feeder in the window, but when the lights went on inside and the reflection was not a factor, he continued flying at the window. This wore a little thin as we tried to have dinner. Finally my son-in-law started knocking back at the bird and said, "Dude! You are annoying!" Of course the 4-year-old picked up on that phrase, repeating it until WE were annoyed at HER.

We never did solve the mystery. I wonder if that bird is STILL flying at the window.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Black Capped Chickadee
One of the most familiar and beloved birds in northern North America, the Black-capped Chickadee is a frequent visitor to bird feeders. Its apparently cheerful activity throughout the harshest winters has won it the admiration of many people.
Description
Small, short-billed bird.

• Black cap.
• Black bib.
• White cheeks.
• Size: 12-15 cm (5-6 in)
• Wingspan: 16-21 cm (6-8 in)
• Weight: 9-14 g (0.32-0.49 ounces)

Sex Differences

Sexes look alike.

Sound

Song: two or three notes whistled, with first higher in pitch, "fee-bee-ee." Call: suggests name "chick-a-dee-dee."

Conservation Status

Black-capped Chickadees have benefited from human-provided food and nest boxes, as well as increased forest edges caused by deforestation. However, overzealous forest management can reduce or eliminate natural nest sites.

Cool Facts

• The Black-Capped Chickadee hides seeds and other food items for later recovery. Each item is placed in a different spot and a bird can remember thousands of hiding places.
• The chickadee's simple-sounding calls have been found to be extremely complex and language-like. They code information on identity and recognition of other flocks as well as predator alarms and contact calls.
• Breeding pairs and nonbreeders join up into flocks outside of the breeding season. Nonbreeders may be members of several flocks, with a different position in the dominance hierarchy of each flock.

Ducks are a way of life in this community right on Lake Erie. They beg for bread, stomp on your feet while you feed them, swim in puddles, and have free run of the streets. No one would think of being irritated when you have to wait for a pair to cross the road.

I have had a pair of ducks swimming in my un-opened swimming pool every year for the last 2 or 3 years, but never saw them in my garden before today. Not only were this pair tromping through the plants, the female came right up to the door wall begging. I ran to find a couple of pieces of bread and started tossing pieces on the ground for her. The male, meantime, had been alongside the house and chased her away from the bread. He didn't seem to want it for himself...just didn't trust me, I guess.