Backyard Bird Watchers

#377
#377
Cleaned blue bird house out today. Two years of nesting, I ran into a gentleman at co-op who was well informed on bluebirds. He mentioned houses should be cleaned yearly, who knew, we usually have two broods a year, bluebirds all spring and summer.
Hummingbird feeder is clean and in window.
Still early in the season but soon here in Loudon
County.
GBO
 

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#380
#380
A pair of hawks was harassing a pair of crows in the hemlocks behind us, swooping very low (20'?) over the backyard. The Idiot Cat was on the deck in full butt wiggle mode, ready to pounce. Dumb cat, those hawks could have picked her up and taken her home for snackies. :rolleyes:
 
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#381
#381
VolNExile said:
A pair of hawks was harassing a pair of crows in the hemlocks behind us, swooping very low (20'?) over the backyard. The Idiot Cat was on the deck in full butt wiggle mode, ready to pounce. Dumb cat, those hawks could have picked her up and taken her home for snackies. :rolleyes:
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It'll be interesting to see if you get more crows to the rescue. We have a lot here, and I've seen the harassing a hawk before.
 
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#382
#382
Go aeiou said:
It'll be interesting to see if you get more crows to the rescue. We have a lot here, and I've seen the harassing a hawk before.
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I don't know if they've got a nest (or more - there were three crows in this little dance) up in the hemlocks, and they're defending territory or eggs or what.

But it sure gets noisy! :p

--There's a squashed squirrel out in the side street, and yesterday a crow was trying to get at it, but every time it got its beak ready to go, another car came by. It was pretty irate there after a while.
 
#383
#383
Tin Man said:
Scarlet finches have their breeding plumage and are jealous of the feeder, chasing away other pairs when they’re feeding. My dogwood is the waiting area.
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I'm going to guess you meant house finches because scarlet finch is an Asian species. Of course you could be loving in China and I not know about it
 
#384
#384
VolNExile said:
A pair of hawks was harassing a pair of crows in the hemlocks behind us, swooping very low (20'?) over the backyard. The Idiot Cat was on the deck in full butt wiggle mode, ready to pounce. Dumb cat, those hawks could have picked her up and taken her home for snackies. :rolleyes:
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I had a red shouldered hawk swoop down on my white dog last year. I had a good laugh about it because they both ran when it got close to the dog
 
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#385
#385
Rishvol said:
I'm going to guess you meant house finches because scarlet finch is an Asian species. Of course you could be loving in China and I not know about it
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My midwestern yankee wife calls them scarlet finches (my family calls them common finches). She would admonish you to let go of your fixation on China. 😁
 
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#386
#386
Hereabouts, crows harass hawks much more than the other way around. Crows are most aggravated by owls. If horned owls like the crows’ nesting site, they will kill and eat the birds present and build their nest atop the crows’.
 
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#387
#387
Two pairs of hawks are hanging around - red tails and a pair of smaller hawks that I think may be Coopers hawks. I cannot get a good look to confirm. Usually, they pass on through by this time of year. If they’ve elected to nest nearby, it will be terror for the squirrels, chipmunks, and songbirds.
 
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#388
#388
Tin Man said:
Two pairs of hawks are hanging around - red tails and a pair of smaller hawks that I think may be Coopers hawks. I cannot get a good look to confirm. Usually, they pass on through by this time of year. If they’ve elected to nest nearby, it will be terror for the squirrels, chipmunks, and songbirds.
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Note: the Cardinals on my feeder seem unconcerned about the red tails crying overhead. They seem to know something the other critters don’t.
 
#389
#389
Tin Man said:
Note: the Cardinals on my feeder seem unconcerned about the red tails crying overhead. They seem to know something the other critters don’t.
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Maybe they're big enough that the hawks don't mess with them, as long as there are plenty of finches and chickadees and Carolina wrens?
 
#390
#390
VolNExile said:
Maybe they're big enough that the hawks don't mess with them, as long as there are plenty of finches and chickadees and Carolina wrens?
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I think that the two were aloft doing their recognition/territorial thing, and the Cardinals recognized the lack of threat to them at my feeder.
 
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#395
#395
Brown headed nuthatches are visiting my feeder. I haven’t seen the “squeaky toys” for weeks. Crafty little ones time their approach to grab a sunflower seed and fly away before the common finches can give them grief. They find just the right nooks in my dogwoods to hammer open the seeds.
 
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#397
#397
StarRaider said:
I put the hummingbird feeder out last week... migration map spotter saw one in Beechgrove
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Late March early April is their normal arrival time for Tennessee. They'll be here in drove in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping we get a breeding pair this year. Last year we had one male with 2 females. Hopefully we'll have them nesting this year
 
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#398
#398
Saw a male common finch feeding its new prospective mate at our feeder. They flew off together. A successful pairing!
 
#400
#400
So idk if y'all remember last year I had a wren nest in my back door wreath. Well now this year I have a finch nest in my front door wreath. I didn't really want to go through this again but.....there's eggs. I just give the door a tap before I leave so they fly away.

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My wife loves it. "be careful opening the door we're raising babies"
 
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