Strange Names You Hear Around Our House

I've been a bird-brain lately, pun intended.

Just check here and here if you're not convinced.

So I thought I'd share the names my kids and I have for some birds, because we're weird that way.

1. Chip - Chickadee
2. Nutty - Nuthatch
3. Tim - Tufted Titmouse
4. Woody - Red-bellied Woodpecker
5. Woodette - Female Red-bellied Woodpecker
6. Mac - Cardinal
7. Robby - Robin
8. Donna - as in prima donna, for the juvenille female Oriole that would just as soon let others feed her from our oranges than to eat for herself
9. Phil - for the Pileated Woodpecker in our backyard in Virginia
10. Phyllis - for the female Pileated Woodpecker in our backyard in Virginia
11. Gus - Male Goldfinch
12. Goldilocks - Female Goldfinch

Swarmed

The feeder in this post just wasn't cutting it for the number of goldfinches we had wanting to eat all day.

I had spotted a new feeder at the local bird store last week. I was picking up a hummingbird feeder that attached with suction cups to the glass on our back door. It's in the pictures you see in this post, along with some gel stick-ons to help convince the birds not to fly into the door.

Of course the hummingbird tried to drink from the yellow bumblebee stick-on today in between drinks from the feeder.

I'd thought the mesh bird feeder would be a great birthday present for Hubby in the middle of October. It's a very nice one that includes a lifetime warranty.

The birds weren't going to wait, or something like that. Hubby received a birthday song when he arrived home yesterday and an early gift.

The birds have been happy ever since.

It's not even that much bigger than the other feeder. It just doesn't minimize how many birds can fit on it by only having a certain number of perches. Although by the looks of things, we may be minimizing how many birds can fit on the thing pretty soon.

Incoming from the left:

Incoming from the right:

And a glass door that needs a good cleaning...

Cinderelly And The Goldfinches

It reminds us of the part in the Cinderella movie when the birds are all flitting around Cinderella.



The birds have even gotten used to seeing the cat watching them through the window.

The nyjer feeder on the left was full at the beginning of the day. This was the middle of the afternoon.

We're going to have to get a bigger feeder (see the bird in flight on the way to the right feeder above?).

We're also going to have to get a better camera.

And maybe quit taking them through the back door.

One last bird in flight.

Birding 101 (for novice birders)

1. Go with experienced birders

2. who know their birds

3. who don't mind sharing expensive birding binoculars with you

4. and all four of your children

5. and have enough to go around counting their parents' binoculars

6. and don't mind pointing out lots of birds to you that you would never see otherwise

7. and don't mind telling you what bird you found when you say, "I see a little bird there." (By the end of the second day, Hubby, Buddy, and Sparky were getting pretty good at identifying some of the warblers. I on the other hand was lucky to find them through the binoculars with my new progressive lenses, and the rest of the time I was entertaining the child who thought it was the worst day of his life, two days in a row.)

Photos of the female cardinal, male red-winged blackbird, and American robin, all banded and being released at Magee Marsh in Ohio. It was nearly impossible to get pictures of birds in the wild, so that's all I have.