HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025

 

For more winter bird fun please click this link  Winter Treats for the BIrds

Christmas Treats for the Birds

Peanut Butter and Old Flour Balls - An Annual Christmas Tradition

The sticky dough is formed into rough balls

Every holiday season my sister gets rid of her old flour and buys a fresh bag for Christmas baking, usually a 5 lb. bag of King Arthur. Flour actually does have an expiration date. This year was noteworthy because she dumped the remains of the 20 lb. bag she had scrounged up during pandemic shortages. Then, as in previous years, she mixed the stale flour with other discarded items to make balls for the birds outside her Connecticut house. This year she inherited some Jiff peanut butter that she wouldn't dream of eating, and some old mixed nuts. She added enough water to make the mixture stick together and formed the mass of sticky dough into small balls. Of course there are many elaborate recipes for homemade bird treats on the Web, but she thinks it's much more fun and ecological to compost her expired food supplies this way . 

Note the pumpkin seeds placed on top to create an appetizing bird treat

Pictured above are some finished balls ready to be scattered in the woods on Christmas Eve.

                 Have a Merry Compost Christmas and a Happy Composting New Year!

Bird Seed Sock

Last December Judith Barish, our neighbor and, coincidentally, my New York niece's college roommate,  gave us a bird sock. She was so delighted with the activity that her sock generated that she decided to buy a bigger one and she gave us her smaller one.

We hung the sock on a post above our deck, bought nyjer seeds at The Wild Bird Annex on San Pablo Ave. and filled it. Then we watched and waited for birds to come. These seeds are known to attract goldfinches.

Judith had warned us that the seeds must be fresh or the birds would reject them. The sock filled with fresh seeds hung invitingly in the air, but weeks went by with no visitors.

Finally a small hooded bird appeared which I identified as a black hooded junco, but he was too big to hang comfortably on the sock. He chose to eat seeds that were knocked down on the deck railing, and I encouraged him by scattering seeds there. At least this was a nice addition to the usual chickadees who nest in our bird house.

A Junco enjoying nyjer seeds on the deck railing

After weeks of waiting we noticed smaller birds with tiny legs and feet clinging to the sock and pushing their beaks into the holes. Welcome, finches!  But so many brown seeds were dropping onto the the railing and deck  that it was hard to figure out how they were getting any nourishment.  I finally realized that they shell each seed and spit out the casings. This makes a big mess, but it's worth it to have a constant aviary show right outside our kitchen window.

A junco and goldfinches share what's left in the sock

Soon birds were swooping in from all directions and pushing others off to get their turn. Those that couldn't push their way in would wait nearby until the action calmed.  We counted as many as four birds hanging on the sock at one time.

4 Birds---our record

a gold finch on front of sock

One evening we spotted the telltale bright yellow breast of the bird we had been waiting for---the goldfinch! The color was unmistakable!

2 goldfinches in the evening light;  bird in back is busy shelling his seed

Once one goldfinch arrived, many followed. And now the juncos are jumping on too. We have entertainment from morning til night. We don't have as many varieties as Mr. B and Jeanette Baird, but I might try other feeders and different seeds and hope for a tufted titmouse or a house finch like they report in Jeanette's Blog.

JOHN

                             

John holding two mated Long-Eared Owls in Wisconsin,  c.1985    (photo courtesy of Prof. Robert Rosefield)

                                                  John Bielefeldt  1945-2011

HOUSEGUESTS

In mid-April, two chestnut-backed chickadees came to call.

One of our visitors

 Instead of demanding the master bedroom, they settled for the birdhouse—a recycled dwelling made from reclaimed barn wood, with a rusty tin roof and pink flowers painted on the front. I found it years ago at a booth devoted to hand-crafted bird houses in the Marin Farmers Market. It now hangs from a beam above our deck.

Our rustic birdhouse

The birdies set about building a nest inside the small house. They busily flew in and out, lining the floor with fine, soft animal fur, hair, decomposing redwood bark and needles from nearby pines. Then stillness descended while the female laid and hatched her eggs. The dutiful male flew back and forth bringing takeout treats (seeds, insects and larvae) while the female brooded.

Male chickadee peeks out briefly before exiting

In a few weeks we heard peeping sounds and noticed new activity in the swaying birdhouse. Both adults reverted to their active, acrobatic selves, flying back and forth, to and fro in a whirlwind of activity, bringing seeds and other morsels to the new chick(s).

Camouflaged chestnut-backed chickadee keeping watch on a branch near her chicks

 One bird stood guard on a nearby branch, noisily calling, while the other tirelessly flew in and out, bringing food to their new chick(s). Then they would switch roles.  

One parent nervously keeps watch on deck wire

When I filmed the family from the deck, the parents sang out their warning calls, hopping from  railing to  roof and back again in nervous agitation. It takes time and patience to catch these birds in a still moment. As William Leon Dawson, a leading ornithologist of he early 20th century wrote, "the chickadee refuses to look at any one thing from any one direction for more than two consecutive twelfths of a second...be it a pine cone, an alder catkin, a bug-bearing branchlet, top side, bottom side, inside, outside, all is right side to the nimble chickadee." Mr. Dawson wrote the respected four volume set The Birds of California, published in 1923. The sets are now rare and go for thousands of dollars, if you can find one.

Baby chickadee visible inside the cozy birdhouse

We enjoyed watching the parents tirelessly care for their young, and after many attempts I finally caught a glimpse of a new chickadee peeking out the opening. I wanted to get a photo before the chicks left the nest and early Sunday morning I succeeded.
                                                                                

Empty Birdhouse taken down for cleaning

                     Empty Nest Syndrome

Good thing I photographed the chick on Sunday; by Monday the fledgling and parents had flown away without warning. The birdhouse was silent and empty.

We miss our little guests, and speculate about how many young they produced. We had seen only one offspring for sure, but chickadees are supposed to lay five to six eggs. This discrepancy is puzzling.

Chickadees do not reuse their nests, and they clean out the old debris when they're ready to start a new family. So I felt safe raiding the deserted birdhouse, to investigate. When I pointed a flashlight inside, I saw one unhatched egg and furry, matted material lining the floor. I carefully extracted the egg and then dug out the soft fur and small strips of redwood bark and moss.  It resembled the dusty contents of my vacuum cleaner.

Nesting material with one unhatched white, speckled egg

So ends the saga of our  chickadees. I tucked away the nest and egg, rather than throw them in my green bin, and I returned the birdhouse to its customary hook where it once again sways in the breeze, cleaned and ready for a new set of visitors.

*To hear the distinctive calls of the chestnut-backed chickadee and to read more about them, go to this amazing website: All About Birds