I’ve been writing a bunch of poems lately about vultures and grackles. One of those, “My Tourist Yard,” was published at Bolts of Silk today. Check it out and have a look around while you’re there. Lots of good stuff to read.
by James Brush
Tag: grackles
Project FeederWatch ended last weekend. For those just tuning in, PFW is a citizen science project run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The idea is that you commit to keeping a record of all the birds that visit your feeders, birdbaths, birdhouses, and landscape features from November to April. In addition to being a part of something that helps scientists learn about and help birds, participants have the opportunity to learn a surprising amount about what goes on right outside their doors.
This is a summary of some interesting things I learned.
Observations about Specific Birds:
Wrens:
We get both Carolina and Bewick’s Wrens at our house. They both like suet and mealworms, but the Carolina Wrens will also take seeds from the cake feeders. Carolina Wrens also seem to be more willing to poke around the ground in the flowerbed, while Bewick’s Wrens prefer scouring the trees and plants for bugs. Carolinas also seems to be much more vocal; every morning, I can expect one singing (surprisingly loud) from the fence.
Hawks:
On several occasions, on count days and non-count days, I saw unidentifiable accipiter hawks swooping through the yard. On one occasion, I got some pictures of one sitting by the neighbor’s feeder and on another day, I saw one sitting by my feeder. I never got a good enough look to ID any of the ones I saw on count days, but readers of this blog thought the one I photographed was a Sharp-shinned Hawk.
I assume he’s been eating sparrows since those are the only birds whose counts have been lower than I expected them to be. The wrens, titmice, chickadees, and finches all seem to show up in basically the same numbers each week so I suspect they’re avoiding the hawks.
Goldfinches:
I was thrilled to see goldfinches show up in my yard at long last. I have my sister to thank. She got me some nyjer bags for Christmas, and the goldfinches arrived withing days of putting them out.
Lesser Goldfinches will only take nyjer seed from the bags, while American Goldfinches who seem to prefer the nyjer bags, will use the tube feeder when the bags are crowded.
I had hoped to see the American Goldfinches in breeding plumage, but they seem to have mostly left, although I did see one this weekend in transitional plumage. I hope he sticks around so I can see him in his full golden glory.
Blue Jays:
Through most of the winter, the Blue jays came around only for the peanuts. As things warmed up, and nesting season began, they started taking suet again, which they didn’t touch during winter, ceding it instead to the wrens, titmice, kinglets, warblers, and mockingbirds. They also come around more and more for the regular seeds, but the peanuts are still the favorite.
Cardinals:
(no pictures. try back next year)
During the fall and winter, the cardinals only come around in the very early hours before dawn and the dusky hour between sunset and dark. During spring and summer they come around the feeders at all times of the day.
Doves:
White-winged Doves are the most prevalent and obvious birds at our platform feeder during spring and summer, but through fall and winter, there are substantially fewer and the Mourning Doves come around a bit more frequently.
Mockingbirds:
The mockingbirds come regularly for suet in the winter, but lose all interest in it when it gets warmer out. There is a pair nesting in the neighbor’s cedar tree, but their only interest in my yard now is the birdbath.
Titmice:
The Black-crested Titmice are almost always the first ones to check out a new feeder, and often the first ones to the worms in the morning, thus earning them the nickname Pigmice. They’re still my favorites, though.
Every morning in winter, one or two would burst from the wren box and start scolding me from a nearby tree until I had the worms out. Now that it’s warmer, they’ve left the box for the wrens and are nesting elsewhere, but they’re still first in line at the worm feeder most mornings.
And, now, some lists…
The Visitors:
The numbers are the highest numbers of individuals seen at one time.
- White-winged Dove (25)
- Chipping Sparrow (24)
- House Sparrow (20)
- American Goldfinch (8)
- Common Grackle (8)
- House Finch (5)
- Northern Mockingbird (4)
- Brown-headed Cowbird (4)
- Black-crested Titmouse (3)
- Mourning Dove (3)
- Carolina Chickadee (3)
- European Starling (3)
- Blue Jay (3)
- Lesser Goldfinch (3)
- Bewick’s Wren (2)
- Carolina Wren (2)
- Northern Cardinal (2)
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet (2)
- Red-bellied Woodpecker (2)
- Black-chinned Hummingbird (2)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker (1)
- Accipiter sp. (1)
- American Robin (1)
- Red-winged Blackbird (1)
- Song Sparrow (1)
The Permanent Collection:
These are the birds that appeared in all 20 counts.
- White-winged Dove
- Carolina Chickadee
- Black-crested Titmouse
- Carolina Wren
- Bewick’s Wren
- Chipping Sparrow
All of these are permanent residents except the Chipping Sparrows. They will depart for points north in the next week or so, and return in October. If past years are any guide, we will see flocks of 60-70 in the yard for a day or 2 and then they will be gone.
House Sparrow only missed one week (Dec 27), which was incidentally, the first time I saw an accipiter hawk. Smart sparrows.
Passing Through:
Birds that came for a distinct span of time and then left.
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1.3.09 – 2.7.09)
- American Robin (2.28.09 – 3.14.09)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1.3.09 – 3.14.09)
- Red-winged Blackbird (3.7.09 – 3.14.09)
I’ll be curious to see if these species come around these times next year.
Sometimes Birds:
Birds that are here year-round. They don’t come by the yard very often, but were kind enough to stop by on at least one count day.
- Accipiter sp (Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk)
- Red-bellied Woodpecker
- Ladder-backed Woodpecker
- Red-winged Blackbird
- European Starling
Spring/Summer Birds:
These are the birds that hang around the yard only during spring and summer along with their arrival dates.
- American Robin (2.21)
- Common Grackle (3.07)
- Black-chinned Hummingbird (3.21)
Biggest Flocks:
These are the largest groups of individuals seen at one time.
- White-winged Dove (25 on 3.14.09)
- Chipping Sparrow (24 on 1.17.09)
- House Sparrow (20 on 12.06.08)
- American Goldfinch (8 on 02.21.09)
- Common Grackle (8 on 03.07.09 & 03.21.09)
Life Birds:
These are the birds I had never seen and saw for the first time as a result of paying closer attention to the feeders.
- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
- Orange-crowned Warbler
- Brown-headed Cowbird
- Lesser Goldfinch
- Accipter sp. (probably Sharp-shinned Hawk)
Non-avian Feeder Visitors:
- Fox Squirrel
- Virginia Opossum
Project FeederWatch was a fun and eye-opening experience. I intend to continue counting birds and uploading my counts to ebird for the rest of 2009, and I will definitely be participating again next year.
On Sunday morning, I became the only person in Austin, TX to become excited about seeing grackles. That’s because 8 Common Grackles showed up, and while they’re as common as air around here, they rarely come to my yard, and this is the first time they’ve come since I started doing Project FeederWatch.
As if that wasn’t enough. 3 European Starlings, another common local bird but a rarity in my yard, stopped by for a round of vigorous splashing in the backyard birdbath.
This is a happy discovery I’ve made about listing: even if a newly listed bird is extremely common and I’ve seen it a million times in every parking lot in town, getting to add it to my list makes the bird new.
I watched the grackles for a long time, marveling at the dark sheen of their iridescent feathers, their bright laser-intense eyes and their long sharp bills. They are wonderful birds to watch and those shadow-colored birds look so great among all the other avian colors. A backyard needs some black (even if it’s really dark purplish) around the feeders.
Despite a name that’s fun to say, the grackle gets a bad rap around here. Of, course it’s easy to appreciate them when you don’t have a flock of thousands roosting in your trees, and so, I’m glad they came by, but I hope they don’t bring too many more friends, unless they show up with their Great-tailed kin so I can add another bird to my count.
Last summer, a pair nested in the neighbor’s tree and they brought their fledglings around to our feeders where I got some nice shots of junior begging for and getting a peanut from one of his parents. They also made sure their young knew where to find the birdbaths. Their bathing habits surprised me: they are probably the most frequent bathers of all my backyard birds. Not bad for a bird that many consider filthy.
Other than the grackles and starlings, all of the usual suspects made an appearance. Some quick observations:
- House Sparrows seem to be coming around a bit more.
- A wren built a nest in my neighbor’s plant.
- White-wing Doves are increasing as the weather warms.
- For the second week in a row, I only saw one each of the American and Lesser Goldfinches, and no goldfinches on Sunday. I wonder if the warm weather and weeds that are sprouting have inspired them to seek wild food, or in the case of the American Goldfinches, head north. I hope not, as I was hoping to see them in their breeding plumage.
- Still no hummingbirds yet. Probably next weekend.
The Week 17 Count, which has the greatest number of species seen, thus far:
- White-winged Dove (12)
- Mourning Dove (2)
- Blue Jay (2)
- Carolina Chickadee (1)
- Black-crested Titmouse (2)
- Carolina Wren (2)
- Bewick’s Wren (2)
- American Robin (1)
- Northern Mockingbird (1)
- European Starling (3)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
- Chipping Sparrow (8)
- Northern Cardinal (2)
- Common Grackle (8)
- House Finch (2)
- Lesser Goldfinch (1)
- American Goldfinch (1)
- House Sparrow (17)
My count for last weekend was sparse. We were in Houston, and so I only counted for a couple of minutes on Saturday morning and Sunday evening, but here is what I got for Week 16:
- White-winged Dove (5)
- Mourning Dove (1)
- Blue Jay (1)
- Carolina Chickadee (2)
- Black-crested Titmouse (2)
- Carolina Wren (1)
- Bewick’s Wren (2)
- American Robin (1)
- Orange-crowned Warbler (1)
- Chipping Sparrow (5)
- Northern Cardinal (2)
- House Finch (1)
- Lesser Goldfinch (1)
- American Goldfinch (1)
- House Sparrow (7)
If you’ve never watched a grackle through a good pair of binoculars, give it a go. They’re really quite exquisite birds.
Mike at 10000 Birds has a nice post celebrating grackles today. It seems that this weekend he also saw his first Common Grackles for the year.
For more on the Common Grackle, have a look at Common Grackle: The Overlooked Blackbird at Tails of Birding and, of course, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds: The Common Grackle.
Or, better yet, go out and find one to study. They’re everywhere.
Now that I no longer live in south Austin or around campus among the famous grackle trees, I’ve come to appreciate these rather striking iridescent birds.
There are a few that have been nesting in the trees around the house and so every few weeks I get to see the fledglings learn how to be birds as they follow their parents from feeder to tree to birdbath.
Here’s one of the juveniles with his short tail and fuzzy, discombobulated look.
He hops, beak open and wings flapping, over to one of the adults who has clearly just scored a nice juicy peanut.
Fortunately for junior, the adult bird is feeling generous.
“More!”