North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club Meets January 19

The North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club will meet Tuesday, January 19 at 7 PM at the NALC Building on Southwest Parkway (next to Wichita Valley Nursery.)

Terry McKee will present a program on the upcoming Great Backyard Bird Count.

Good birding!

Foggy Morning on Lake Wichita

It was a foggy morning at Lake Wichita this morning. It was still a good morning for birds, although I probably missed some due to visibility.

When I left the house, I thought the wet was just fog, but overnight some of the fog had coalesced into ice on the truck and trees. You can see a little bit of frost on the ground. The bridge had a light film of ice. The ice was beginning to melt by 8 AM.

Among the birds seen: white-crowned sparrow, ring-billed gull, Harris' sparrow, red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, mockingbird, downy woodpecker, ruddy duck, mallard, northern shoveler, pied-billed grebe, American coot, cardinal, bufflehead, red-winged blackbird, Canada goose, blue jay, starling, slate-colored junco, song sparrow, great-tailed grackle, Eastern phoebe, and Eurasian collared dove.

Good birding!

Spring is on the Way!

It may not seem like it, but Spring is coming soon. When I went outside this morning, a male cardinal was singing a territorial breeding song. This is the first I have heard this year. It won't be long before birds will be building nests. Last year, Wild Bird Rescue had its first baby bird in January.

Good birding!

Keep Feeders and Feeding Areas Clean

When you feed birds, it is important to keep feeders and the ground around the feeders clean.

Feeders should be cleaned no less than every other week (I would suggest making it a weekly chore). Wash them thoroughly with hot, soapy water and allow to air dry before refilling.

You can reduce the mess under your feeder (this is under one of my sunflower feeders after just a couple of days) by feeding seeds without the hulls. This is more expensive per pound in the bag, but considering the weight of the hulls on the ground and the chore of cleaning up, the extra cost is probably worth it. However, as much as I feed, I have always felt the birds should have to do some of the work by shelling their own seeds. Seeds on the ground under the feeders get wet and moldy, and not good for the birds.

Around January I'll begin getting calls from people who tell me they have a bird (usually a dove) who monopolizes a feeder and eats constantly. We will also get emaciated birds people bring in that they insist have been eating like pigs, but just fell to the ground. We will also start getting calls from people asking about blind birds (usually finches) at their feeders.

These birds have trich (doves) or conjunctivitis (finches). These are common, highly contagious diseases that are spread by contact, often with feeders and food the infected birds have been around. This is the reason it is so important to clean your feeders and feeding areas. If you have an outbreak of trich or conjunctivitis, take your feeders down and clean them thoroughly (in this circumstance, I would also rinse in bleach water, allow to dry and then rinse in clean water), clean up the area, and do not rehang the feeders for 10 days. This will allow the diseased birds to die off and not reinfect your feeders as soon as you rehang them. This seems cold-hearted, but is necessary to keep infection from spreading.

Enjoy feeding your backard birds, but keep the area clean.

Good birding!

Spotted Towhees

I have had a female spotted towhee at my feeders for several weeks. Yesterday a male showed up for the first time. My resident wasn't happy. She chased him all over the side yard and the field next to the house every time he came near a feeder. She seemed to get used to him later in the day and allowed him to eat, as long as he didn't get too near to her. She has not been at all aggressive against birds of other species at the feeders--wonder if the male committed some towhee faux pax.

Good birding!

Weather Forecasting

Even if I hadn't heard the weather forecast for tomorrow, I would bet good money that the weather will be taking a turn for the worse. My feeders are jam packed today.

The birds seem to know when bad weather is coming. Although I have had good numbers of birds for the past several days, the demeanor of the birds today is decidedly different. They are more frenzied and if there is food, they are staying put. No waiting in line politely--no, if one bird seems to be staying too long, another is pushing it aside to get to the goodies. The only time my feeders have been empty was when the big black tom stray settled in under the cedar tree. Even then, the only feeders that emptied out were those under that tree--just a few feet away, the birds were still stuffing their faces. I had to go out to refill one feeder in the back earlier, and I will have to go do all of the feeders on the side of the house before dark.

According to the weather forecast, we are expecting bitterly cold weather for this area with possible ice. It is 60 degrees right now--high of 25 the next two days with night temps in the single digits. Keep the food and water going.

Good birding!

PBS Program on Hummingbirds

KERA's schedule shows a program on hummingbirds Sunday, January 10 at 7 PM.

Good birding!