plantladylin said: And, the Red-winged Blackbirds ... we see many of them pretty much year-round but the females are very scarce, same for the Brown-headed Cowbirds which we only see here in the fall and winter months ... many males and very few females. It's puzzling.

One thing about the R-w Blackbirds is they will form flocks of the separate genders outside breeding season. When winter is waning down, we will see flocks, but it is one gender or the other. Their feeding methods are different, the males feed on the ground and the females up in trees or tall weeds.

Not often will we find the cowbirds in large flocks, just the Grackles, Red-wingeds and if we look closely, we'll see Rusty Blackbirds. We get the cowbirds in the breeding months. The males I could live with. They are hilarious as they try to pose and show off for the females.

We actually backtracked for a Cardinal today. We do not see those things perched on wires and the tail seemed too long, so we thought we'd get a Tanager... nope it was a Cardinal. Ah, well.

We bought a new feeder today. The last hopper was impossible to clean thoroughly, so we got one of those nice recycled plastic ones from Wild Birds Unlimited. It will outlive us.

This thread has been quiet. I know our birds are not as active here. I saw the Sedge Wren today and photographed him. I guess he was willing to be seen because of the rain and knew I still would not be able to get decent photos.

I've been going through older photos and found this favorite from March of 2013.


We started seeing Kestrels around our place and because they need habitat, we put up a nesting box at the south edge of our property. We were thrilled one day to see a male show up, and later a female. They liked each other.

One snowy afternoon, we happen to look outside and see shapes in our attempt at a nesting platform for Barn Swallows. Nothing ever used it until this point, not even wasps. Later, we found out Barn Swallows want more coverage above them, like in a barn or under a porch roof. This was maybe 50-70 feet from the house.

Getting binocs, we saw the Kestrel pair. We used two different cameras to take pictures. With the outside conditions, there was no hope of anything clear, but it is enough to show the cute couple. They stayed there the rest of the day and overnight. Before dark, they took turns hunting. They didn't even leave when we let the dog out. And of all days for him to have digestion issues!!

The next morning, one left us a gift, a pellet that I still have today. It was the beginning of my collection. No, it is not poop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The female is on the left in the photo. And why did they use this instead of the box? I don't know, other than possibly birds view the boxes as a place to lay eggs, not protection from the elements and she wasn't ready for egg laying. (I wish our shrug fellow didn't look so sad, I would have used him here.)

We had a female Kestrel that stayed last winter, her choice of overnight roosting was an old Barn Swallow nest in a 3-sided building we have. I never got a picture of her in it, but we knew she was there as she flew out if we approached and there was a grand pile of pellets and other leavings below the nest.

How cool ... I've never seen an American Kestrel although they are said to be in Florida year round! They sure are pretty birds and I love that shot of the pair of them!

Very cool Kim! I was thrilled when we moved out here. I see at least one every time I go to town!

Thank you so much.

They are said to be in decline, so I am so thrilled they are right around us year round. The county roads people used to maintain Kestrel boxes and we would see the little faces poking out of the hole. The last couple of years we are noticing the roofs missing from some of the boxes, so I am not sure they do this any more.

Kim - Love your stories and your photos!!!

I've never seen an American Kestrel either. Y'all sure see some awesome birdies!

I moved the seed feeder today. I decided I was going to dig up the area that the feeder was in to add another raised garden bed! Eventually THERE WILL BE NO GRASS (or at least very little grass). I no sooner put the feeder up in it's new shady location when several cardinals were over there checking it out! They must be wondering what in the heck I am doing .... again!

beckygardener said:I decided I was going to dig up the area that the feeder was in to add another raised garden bed! Eventually THERE WILL BE NO GRASS (or at least very little grass).

Oh how I wish I could convince my husband to get rid of all , or at least most of the grass/sod ... I've been trying for years but to no avail. He grew up with the green expanse of lawn and there's no convincing him that a more native/natural landscape would be sooo much better for the wildlife and us humans too!

We know someone like that, all he wants is lawn. Because of this we are getting some yuccas as he's tired of mowing around them. I like those yucca bells as I call the flowers.

I do not like lawns, but I wonder if for some fellows, lawn care is a relaxing chore. My husband doesn't care for it, the boys nearly fight over who gets to mow. I have little ones that really want running around space, so until they are too old for play, we will keep some lawn.

Here's some totally domestic backyard birds. Teenage chickens really like sweet corn.


I read on some chicken site that when it is hot outside, give chickens frozen corn on the cob to help cool them off. I just don't care for sweet corn like I used to, so the birds can have it.

I'm with the chickens ... I love sweet corn. Cute photo!

Oh man! I want a couple of chickens, too! That is one wish I haven't been able to convince my husband of. He is firmly saying, "No way!" But I never give up asking. Maybe he will get tired of my asking or eggs will get so expensive that he will change his mind one day .... I can hope!

Lin - You would likely hate my yard. Not native. It is bird and butterfly friendly. It is not a flowery garden, it is a habitat. And probably way too many raised beds and borders and paths and trees and just too much of everything. Jungle would probably be a better word to describe it all. My husband says it does look like an overgrown jungle. And it does. I like it that way. Unfortunately, it is not overgrown enough as I can still see and hear the neighbors around me. I need to grow the bushes taller!

I am going to become the cat or dog lady if my husband goes before me. I will wear a moo-moo and ignore everyone but my pets and the wildlife! And I will forever be outside gardening. Hopefully by then, it will just be planting small annuals and weeding. No more building hardscapes and creating raised beds. I am on the 5 year plan ..., get all the hardscaping done. Complete. FINISHED. There! I said it! Now I am committed to doing it! .....

Lin, I feel your pain about the grass & husband.

Kim, those are really cute chicks.

It rained yesterday & I happened to look out at the front steps after the rain had quit. I saw these little Carolina Wrens "bathing" on the wet steps. These are this years babies & mom or dad was sitting up on the handrail watching over them as they bathed. You can see one in the top right corner & another in the bottom left corner. Click to embiggen or you won't see all of it.

Ann - How cute is that?!!!

Ann, so cute!

Too cute!!

Thanks y'all! I don't know why they weren't using 1 of the 2 birdbaths but maybe the parents start them out this way before making them jump into "the big water".

beckygardener said: Lin - You would likely hate my yard. Not native. It is bird and butterfly friendly. It is not a flowery garden, it is a habitat. And probably way too many raised beds and borders and paths and trees and just too much of everything. Jungle would probably be a better word to describe it all. My husband says it does look like an overgrown jungle. And it does. I like it that way. Unfortunately, it is not overgrown enough as I can still see and hear the neighbors around me. I need to grow the bushes taller!

Becky, I'd LOVE your yard!! My husband is the one in our family who loves the green, manicured lawn with orderly, plants and trees all in rows! My ideal garden would be NO LAWN and a total chaos of native plants as well as other annuals and perennials for attracting all sorts of birds, bees and other critters ... well, all except for snakes, I've had enough with snakes scaring the beejeebies outta me over the past 40 + years! I'd love to have many raised beds ... especially since I'm getting older and being on my hands and knees when weeding is difficult. There was a time a few years ago when early one morning I was sitting on my butt in the backyard for a couple of hours, weeding beds and when I went to stand up, I couldn't! Hubby was at work and wouldn't be home for hours yet and my friendly elderly neighbor (we used to share plants and chat over the fence almost daily) was out of town ... so I was stuck! I kept thinking, what the heck am I going to do, it would be hours before my husband got home and I couldn't sit out in the hot sun the entire day! Thank goodness I had a heavy rake laying in the yard from a bed I'd been clearing for replanting so I was able to get to it and use it to pull myself up. I coulda seen the headlines "Local lady found dead of heat stroke while weeding!" After that incident I began keeping my cell phone in my pocket when I'd garden but I've somehow gotten out of the habit of doing that and need to remember to start keeping my cell phone handy again when I'm outside! Anyway, I bet I'd love your jungle!

I bet they feel safer with it being so shallow. I have seen them do it in tiny pockets of water.

Ann, those are the cutest babies!
I've seen one or two Carolina Wrens the past few weeks but they are speedy little things and I haven't been fast enough with the camera to get any photos. I was hoping that maybe they'd check out the birdhouse we have mounted on a post out in the yard and maybe build a nest there. I had two purple martin houses at our old house and I wish I'd brought one of them with us when we moved because the Carolina Wrens had been nesting in them for quite a few years. It was always interesting to watch them going back and forth building their nests ... and of course a lot of fun watching both adults going in and out when feeding the young and then seeing the young ones fledge the nest.

A lot of fun reading this morning...
@flaflwrgrl I like that word, "embiggen". That is so cute about the wrens. We've had birds bathe in water from melting snow, when there was the heated bird bath... I don't get it.

@beckygardener Here's a native mix you may enjoy if you have any full sun areas... https://www.prairiemoon.com/se...

We planted this seed mix late winter. We should have gotten this last fall for winter sowing, but didn't think of it. By the time we got the seed, snow covered the ground.
You can sow,
On top of the snow.
But wild birds would eat,
This abundant treat.

As I was typing I felt a rhyme coming on, but please forgive me if the meter is wrong. I never bother counting the number of syllables.

I just got a notice that our local organic farm will be having some sweet corn soon. This might be tempting, but we'll wait to see the price. Sadly, much organically grown sweet corn is kind of mushy, even when fresh. Being we are surrounded by conventional corn, we have been turned off by corn in general. I'll leave it at that before I say something stupid.