The weather is cool and windy often below freezing at night but so far we have had only a few flurries that have melted away quickly. On the way to shopping yesterday I saw two ravens and one magpie(photo). There were no other birds to be seen. The geese must be all gone or most of them at least. The sloughs are freezing over already.
At the feeder house sparrows are still predominant. However this morning the feeder was not too busy. At leastl the chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches had an opportunity to dart back and forth without encountering a wall of sparrows already on the feeder! No juncos in sight. Perhaps they are already moved on south.
1 comment:
Nice blog.
I have just recently changed my feeding strategy to discourage the house sparrows - which are too plentiful and make it difficult for the native species to feed. I got rid all 'flat' feeders and have just three tube hanging feeders. For the one Nyger seed feeder - I trimmed the perches to about 5/8 inch. The finches can still feed here easily - but the house sparrows can not get grip. The other tube feeder is surrounded by cage which allows chickadees and red breasted nutchatched to enter - but keeps the house sparrows out. The final feeder is another tube feeder "the squirrel buster" in which I removed all the perches. This is easy for the chickadees as they can cling to opening - but tough (though not impossible) for the house sparrows. All these feeders are generally squirrel proof too - as much as any feeder can be. The juncos feed on the ground. The only down side to this is that there is no feeder for the cardinals - but generally the house sparrows tend to stay away. The house sparrow topic is always open to debate - but now I my feeders are not wiped out in a single day... Cheers!
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