Bird Count & Red-bellied Woodpecker

Today was a good bird count day. I was very happy to see the Red-bellied woodpecker. They are such spirited birds and I love that 'barking dog' sound they make to announce their arrival. Some of the birds and behaviors that were observed today:

• 6 Starlings that enjoyed my heated bird bath immensely. They splashed around for several minutes.
• 5 House sparrows
• 1 male cardinal
• 1 Junco
• 1 Nuthatch so polite taking one peanut at a time from a wire cage feeder.
• 1 Blue Jay that was too shy to come to the feeders but made sure everyone heard him in the yard.
• 4 Mourning doves that enjoyed pooping in my heated bird bath. I had to clean it three times today.
• 1 Red-bellied woodpecker that fought off the starlings quite admirably so it could enjoy the suet cake in peace.

Black-capped Chickadees

Today our family visited Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, Michigan. It's a great place to go birdwatching and they have a bird feeding station too. When I went out on the deck of the visitor's center, small swarms of black-capped Chicadees were landing on my head and arms. The park staff said they thought I had food, so they were kind enough to give us some sunflower seeds to feed them. I cannot describe the wonderful experience of having these little birds clinging to your finger and trusting you enough to take a seed from your hand. I had one Chickadee that sat in my hand for close to a minute while he sorted through the seeds he wanted. My husband accurately described them as little angels surrounding us.
I highly recommend visiting Hartwick Pines for birdwatching. In addition to the chickadees, we have seen Evening Groesbeaks, nuthatches, Downy & Hairy Woodpeckers and Flickers upon our many visits. Though after today, my favorite experience has been seeing the Chickadee.

Marvin - my fellow birdwatcher

Marvin the cat just loves watching all those birds that visit our birdfeeder. His favorite is the junco which I believe because they hop around scratching on the ground making a lot of movement. When they come to visit - he meows at them the whole time.

His favorite observation point is in the sunroom where he hides behind the chair waiting for a bird to visit the window feeder. Once they land - he throws himself against the window to say hello. The only bird not impressed with this is the nuthatch who will continue to eat from the feeder no matter how loud and how many times Marvin bangs against the window.

Slow Birdwatching Day

Today was a "slow" bird day for me! Over 3 hours, I observed 4 house finches, 5 mourning doves, 1 nuthatch and the usual 20 sparrows. I also had a persistent squirrel which I bribed with peanuts thrown on the ground for him so he would quick launching himself from the tree to my feeders.

Eddie - my friend in Northern Michigan (a.k.a "Up North) had a much more impressive day. He shot me an email with this picture of the Pileated, Hairy and Downy woodpecker all eating together.

I was hoping for a good variety of birds so I would have great data input for the Project Feederwatch survey. For those not familiar, this is a winter survey of birds that visit your birdfeeder between November till April. This is run by Cornell University who you then report your data back to. It has also inspired me to put up 6 feeders and a heated birdbath in an attempt to draw every bird that exists in Michigan to my feeder. (After reading 20 bird books, I found out not matter how many feeders I put out - not all birds use them. )

My husband Greg was motivated to put bird seed out in the middle of our yard in the hopes the mourning doves would eat there and a hawk would see them and swoop down and snatch one of them. He's not too far off the mark in thinking this would happen. We were witness to such an event last year in our yard when an innocent mourning dove was out in the open and a sharp shinned hawk swooped down, squeezed him to death - tore his feathers apart like a pillow and then ate him. I managed to snap a couple photos before he flew away with his carcass. Greg is still mulling over how to present the hawk with more bird treats......