Rain? What is rain?

We haven't been seeing many wild turkeys ever since the farmer changed a field to hay instead of field corn but we've recently started seeing a few groups. One is a group of 5 males. Another 2 females and 11 young and a third group is a female with 3 young. Thinking about where they go, I think now that our field grass is tall with seed heads and lots of insects, they have lots to eat.

Pat, we've been in a mild drought but yesterday started a week of on again off again showers. I heard around the Boston area they got hardly anything and on the Cape nothing. Hope you get some soon.

After all the alerts and talk about impending thunderstorms, they all faded away and we got nothing, nothing, here in Plymouth. I was out this morning with a hose watering in the Rosetone I put down before the "storms" expecting at least some wetting

I'm still not seeing any turkeys here. I don't know if they're still in the woods or if someone else has a better buffet for them.

I always enjoy watching when adult birds bring fledglings to the yard and try to get them to feed themselves.

A common grackle fledgling (on the post) had been brought to the feeder by an adult which had been feeding it just before I got the camera. Another grackle appeared and the fledgling watched and finally got the idea - there's food there that I can reach myself! It took some seed and ate it - a major milestone for a fledgling.

Claire

After another 1.75" of rain through the night, I would happily share with all of you. As of 8AM this morning, we had standing water out back. Glad all those new trees are in raised beds. And, it just started to rain right now - 12:31PM. For about the 5 past summers, we fell into an area of drought as forecasted storms split in half over the CT River and left us dry. So I have enormous empathy for all who need rain and wish you RAINDROPS .

This guy stayed out in the rain for more than hour waiting for a chipmunk supper.

Red-tailed hawk

Jane

Claire, you got gypped! We've had rain off and on for two days. Right now the sun is out heating things up but I can thru a shower on the way home from grocery shopping. The video is great!

That red-tailed hawk is welcome in my yard, too. I think we have one. He screeches a lot. During one rain he sat on the blue bird box with his wings held out a little bit. Hopefully he was snoozing after a chipmunk dinner.

defrost - glad you mentioned it - I'll give all our RT hawks (many) a map to NH. Boy, these guys, who live 2 houses up, squawk all day - beginning about 5:15AM. The neighbors have commented on the constant talking that sounds like complaining. They must get a sore throat! Anyway, I'm lousy at video making, but I tried Saturday morning focussing on our new Spirit Garden and the hawk took over. It's a wonder I didn't fall over trying to get this guy in focus. Warning - video could produce dizziness: Spirited hawk

This is him, still talking:

Ah, boy...what's wrong with this picture?

Armed with a stainless steel pot lid and a soup spoon, my clanging out a window made him jump down. I waited and sure enough, he was back in 2 minutes and showed me how he did it! From a serviceberry tree branch to the left of the red feeder, he literally took a flying leap from the branch, ran over the top of the red feeder then swung and clung to the tube feeder then sat down to eat. Serviceberry branch pruned within the next 2 minutes and when I got back into the house the scene had changed back to the regular customers.

It's fun feeding the birds, uh-huh.

Jane

Checking them out, but they're not cooked yet.

Jane, thanks for the video. It was fun and great opportunity for people without hawks to hear them.

I almost never hear red tails, so thanks for that, Jane. And so nice to see the update on how the spirit garden is settling in. The bell is beautiful!

You're welcome and thank you, (smile).

The next day - -

This last thread section began with rain and thanks TO rain, I was able to get the shepherd's hook out of the ground after Somebody ran and hit it enough times to bend it over to a tilted position in softened ground . He then aimed to lower the baffle - which he did quite successfully - by jumping onto the pole OVER the baffle and viola! (this was his plan B after the serviceberry dead branch amputation)

That takes thinking, IMO. If there were no seeds for him on the ground, okay; I've been hungry a time or two. But the whole diner to himself ?...no.

After playing the pot lid and wooden spoon cymbal out the bathroom window again, rubber shoes were donned and with a 6 lb. sledge in hand, the shepherd's hook is again upright in new holes, birds are back on both feeders and the athletic squirrel is shooting daggers at me while spitting squirrel swears. If we hadn't had so much rain, he would be fat and happy. Alas, drop by drop, it all changes.

Until the next time...

Jane

I found his missing feather. If he stops by, I'll glue it back on.

Jane: Maybe your hawk has a molting disorder like the cardinal I saw a few nights ago?

I see bald male cardinals occasionally and it doesn't seem to be a big issue for them; although this guy seemed a little embarrassed that I was photographing him.

Cornell's All About Birds site says: I Have A Bald Bird At My Feeder. Is It Sick?

Claire

Poor little cardinal chap - keeping eating, it'll grow back. Who knows what the RT hawks are talking about or how a feather ends up in front of me almost every time I mow? I save them. Got a yellow feather last week. Don't know which bird that came from. The loud hawk talking continues all 4 seasons, so I don't think that is associated with a missing feather. Could be a crow got his lickings in for a hawk- done dastardly deed. A pair soars (how I got the picture from our front porch) every day the sun shines brightly between 11AM and noon. Not on rainy days. Then sometimes again, around 3PM. The turkey vultures also make lazy circles in the sky at the same time.Oklahoma

I just know that the couple has at least one kid this year because now there are 3 making lazy circles and squawking up a storm. At least they bathe regularly.

That wet hawk looks like how I've been feeling in the current humidity.

At least I can (and do) sweat - birds don't have sweat glands so they need other mechanisms to stay cool.

How Do Wild Birds Keep Cool in Summer?

I remember a saying my mother used: "Horses sweat, men perspire, and women glow." There's been a lot of glowing lately.

Claire

Claire, our mothers must have gone to the same Victorian school of propriety. Mine made me carry a hat pin in my purse in case I was attacked. The pin only attacked me, so I dumped it quickly.

Dumping head feathers seems to be a July wardrobe theme. A female here for your male. Good shot of her ear, though.

Were there not a pile of BOSS on the ground, I would have felt worse removing the tube feeder this morning. However, even nursing mothers have to abide by some rules. After performing the pot lid symphony again, I went out to examine how much damage she may have caused by gnawing at the feeder holes. Just starting to destroy it, so down it came. That setup isn't cheap and she appeared to have no pockets. New mother or not, her athletic skill and fortitude are applaudable. Up the birch, bounced up and down on a soaked branch and just in time, sprung herself onto the top of the shepherd's hook. I'll think of something - once we dry out. Got another 1 3/8" of rain this morning. Equal balance in life would be nice.

Jane said: "Got another 1 3/8" of rain this morning. Equal balance in life would be nice."

Yeah. We got a whole 0.1 inch of rain overnight (whimper).

The squirrels here don't do any damage to the feeders except when their weight causes the seed dish to fall off. I added the dishes to tube feeders I already had, and maybe I sometimes don't tighten the bolt properly. As long as I can find the bolt in the debris under the feeder (not a guarantee) I just put the dish back on.

My mother always said those things with a laugh; I think her mother (my grandmother) was the Victorian, not my mother.

Claire

I was thinking the other day that I'd never seen a red squirrel on the feeders, just gray squirrels. Sure enough, today I saw this guy feeding on a tube feeder. It jumped off as soon as it realized I was watching (the grays should be so suspicious).

Usually it takes me opening the door and stepping outside to get the gray squirrels moving. I open the door and hear the THUD, THUD of squirrels jumping off the feeders.

Claire

Ah, proof of putting your psychic power into action! So, good...now you have even more squirrels in your energy field, hehehee.

Birch bouncing branch springboard has been removed, feeders back up, mourning doves thrilled, squirrels not so much.

It has been raining here on and off since Sunday, and we are now up to about 2 1/2” according to my rain gauge. Location is spotty; today we left the house in downpour, but half a mile down the road it was totally dry. It has been dark enough during the day the we are seeing deer out midday. The broad wings hawks have been calling, and we saw an osprey out over the river yesterday, though downriver from our property.

NHBabs, did you get hail about a week ago Tuesday? None here but garden friend in your town did plus had a tree come down. Our meadow which is usually dry by August is now showing signs of being very boggy. Good thing my husband has already done the brush hogging he wanted to do. Young wild turkeys are now the size of banty hens. None of the birds seem to be interested in the three tomato hornworms I tossed into the driveway. Hope that's the only three. I didn't have any hornworms last year. Our hawk(s) are very noisy. People in other states might not have seen the news that there have been two cases of black bears invading homes to get food. One homeowner in a wheelchair was injured when she surprised a bear in her kitchen. I've read that up in Alaska, cabin doors open out so bears can't push them in.

Defrost, we only got a tiny amount of hail, but folks less than 5 miles away had it piled up. It was a fearsome storm regardless since we got most of an inch of rain in a quite short period of time.

Thank heavens our bears still are afraid of people!

Those bear stories are unnerving! I'd rather deal with predators on a much smaller scale, like the caterpillar I saw today while I was out watering my dry garden.

I found this caterpillar on a viburnum. It is apparently parasitized by some sort of wasp larvae, and while I filmed it another wasp came by and investigated. I have no idea whether it's the same type of wasp that infected it originally. The caterpillar is not having a good life.

I suspect it may have been chewing on the viburnum leaves since they were intact the last time I looked at them.

Claire

is it a tomato hornworm? I've found 3 so far, all on the same tomato plant.

I stuck a pot of common honeysuckle, a sort of gift plant, by the screen porch behind the stairs. It's a neglected out of the way area. The shrub has grown tall and scraggly but looked good in December with some Christmas lights on it. I've been trying to decide what to do with it. Today I went out early and saw a small grayish bird gobbling up the berries. Also, the granite birdbath had two frolicking robins. I think the grayish bird might have been a female cowbird.

It could be a tomato hornworm, but I don't have any tomatoes to attract them. Maybe the moth got lost from a neighbor's garden and the caterpillar is trying to make do with what's here. There are nightshades around which are in the same family as tomatoes.

Could your grayish bird be a catbird? Catbirds love berries, cowbirds not so much.

Claire

As a squeamish wimp, I can't watch the video, Claire, picture is bad enough. However, I did see something similar on FB about Japanese beetles being tortured by this (Not-My-Design) parasitic method. Info for non-wimpies...click Yuck

When I get to heaven, I'd rather be in the rainbow making dept. This bug thing is gross.

I did hesitate to post the pictures and video, Jane, and I considered a trigger warning. I'm not comfortable with the situation either, but I decided it's part of the natural world, like hawks eating birds, and I thought it might be of interest.

Claire

Not to worry. Remember you’re talking to someone who chooses not to put both vowels in sn*ke. I just think the person who named this egg-laying fly, Winsome, had a whole different slant on life. Never heard of a Winsome fly before.

First time this happened here. Looked out my window and thought, "Is he moving?". Took picture, walked outside and sure enough, his little head was stuck inside the bird feeder. Aloud, I asked for every available spirit to help me help the bird. I'm not a panicker, so with the assurance that I had, the little guy was grasped with love and being very careful not to break his leg, I was able to help guide him out in reverse. Once out, I checked his legs and gently placed him on the ground where he stood for about 2 nanoseconds before flying upward into the crabapple tree. The feeder was immediately filled to prevent him from doing an encore performance.

Poor little guy! I've had a nuthatch trapped inside a hopper feeder, and another bird got its leg caught on one of those add-on cardinal perches. I freed both of them and they seemed OK, but it could have been a disaster.

I noticed both birds seemed to be calm during the rescue. I don't know if they were reacting to my non-threatening actions or whether they had given up.

Claire

This may be a stretch for some, but it happened. This morning I had the windows wide open and was playing a soothing meditation chant. The sound went out the windows, naturally, and there was a visible difference in the birds behavior at the feeders. They slowed down. This went on for about 15 minutes to the point where the mourning dove opened her ears (hole in side of head) and then she dozed off.

Jane (ohhmmmm)

I'm not too surprised. I once was playing a Vivaldi recording while I was out on the deck and some blue jays seemed to be singing along with it. After all, songs and calls are important in their lives.

Do Birds Listen When You Play Music?

Claire

This morning a brightly colored Baltimore oriole was blending in with two different stands of daylilies. I'm not seeing many orioles now, mostly fledglings. They may be leaving the vicinity now that the babies are mobile - this is the usual time for the start of the fall migration.

Claire

Claire, that oriole picture looks like fine Japanese art. Sensational colors! I saw one BO this Spring, that's it. Lovely.

NHBabs - thanks for the lesson. I did not know about the balancing of flight feathers. I have two, so if he wants them back...

We have bouquets of flight feathers around the house that various birds have dropped, set in vases like flowers.

That’s neat,NHBabs. I have one pot on the porch to hold the feathers that fall onto my path. Some have floated down directly in front of me, some were already on my pathway. I always hope my favorite spirit put one in place for me to find. Hey, a girl can dream. (Too logical to simply think a bird lost it, lol.)

Chickadees. I'm not getting any this summer. I'm telling myself that maybe they are eating tons of bugs. I have both straight BOSS feeders and some with mixed seed that has about 40% BOSS, and they are going to neither. What do your Chickadees prefer, please.

No bird feeders in the summer because NH Fish and Game recommends taking them down by April 1 to prevent problems with bears. We have a few goldfinches, lots of robins, and a few other birds in the yard. The robins are going after worms and bugs. Our neighbor farmer used to grow field corn in the field next to us which the wild turkeys loved. Then he changed it to a hay field so we no long have lots of wild turkeys in the spring but now we have a few wild turkey families parading thru the yard. I think now they are getting seed heads and bugs. I plant flowers for the hummingbirds but we usually only have one or two. They like scarlet runner bean flowers a lot. We are lucky to have a lot of wild food available so there really isn't any need to have feeders out in the summer. It would be interesting to find out where the chickadees are. According to this website, at this time of year they want insects (80-90% of their diet). https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-capped_Chickadee/lifehistory

Pat: That's an excellent reference that defrost49 posted. I rarely see chickadees now, although I got a glimpse of one this morning, not on a feeder. I do hear them and sometimes see them flitting around in the trees.

They'll be back when the insect population declines.

Claire

Pat, the chickadees that use my feeder are pretty much absent May - September. Once in a while one will zip in for a seed, but they do bring their babies for water. Last month I saw 2 parents and 3 kids bouncing around the shrubs that surround our deck. Looked like the parents were teaching the kids to get sawfly and any other available protein from the leaves of the Kwanzan cherry, chokeberry, and the birch. I saw the chickadees watching sawflies eat the birch leaves and the bird is a lot faster than the worm - good. It is because the chickadees and the titmouses eat sawfly, that I do not spray anything in my yard (save poison ivy). A good group of hungry birds does the trick - every year. Don't despair - they know you're there and will be back.

Jane

Okay, an invisible critter. A couple of days ago, I saw this fungi in the scraggly part of our yard, took its picture then, and saw it there yesterday as well.

This morning I mowed and noticed that the whole thing was gone. Stem, everything right out of the ground, not a speck left. Anybody know if this fungi is eatable for the not so fussy mystery gourmet?

Jane

I knew that < :-)

Nice fungus, Jane. I have no idea if it's toxic or not - maybe the spirit of Alice in Wonderland munched on it and is off investigating rabbit holes or chasing toads.

I'm seeing more of what I assume are molting issues with birds in my yard.

This morning I saw a cardinal with spots - maybe a juvenile male getting his adult plumage.

And yesterday a bald grackle appeared at a nearby feeder.

The bald head makes the grackle's eye look even more sinister.

Claire

Sadly, the Havahart trap on the ground in the high tunnel intended to catch tomato thieving furry varmints caught a sparrow. What the heck? I'm going to guess it might have been attracted to ants on the peanut butter bait. I didn't check the trap for more than 48 hours so the poor bird was dead.

For good news (but no camera handy) I watched a female hummingbird enjoying the Scarlet Runner bean blossoms. She liked one blossom in particular and actually perched on either the trellis or a bean stem while she was enjoying the nectar.

We have had regular hummingbird visits every morning at the Major Wheeler honeysuckle. I have seen only one at a time, but both male and female, so there are at least two. In past years as long as I was indoors, they pretty much ignored me, but this year they are far more skittish, and I haven’t been able to get a single photo.

Edited to add that I just saw two females fighting over who got to visit the dark red hollyhocks, so there must be at least three.

Hummers here are bulking up. Lots of long drinks and lots of chasing quite often. I think there are a steady 5 at the feeder. 2 males, 3 females. All started with Buddy.

Speaking of perpetuating the species, this guy must be in pain. Heavy, painful molting all over and the kid still wants to be fed. May want to rethink that 'go forth and multiply' thing a bit more in the future, lol.

I think this monarch's wings look like they are aged and thinning. The topside could look like pollen or dust, but then I cropped another shot and you can see there are 'cracks' or wear in her wings visible from the underside. The next group born is the one that goes to Mexico - so I think.

https://www.monarch-butterfly.com/life-span.html

Jane

Couldn't resist. I saw her drink then land in a lilac where she had a rain bath. 26 shots in 55 seconds, then she was off again. Just flip quickly through if interested: Hummer in Rain Bath

Jane

The ability to focus and show intention is often witnessed best in birds, IMO.

Jane

Imagine being the colors of your food... not good.

This thread is getting long and slow to load for some, so I just posted Birds and other mobile features in the garden 2018 #4. As always, feel free to continue the discussion here but please post new material on the new thread.

Claire