Cleaning Feeders

Everybody has a different opinion when it comes to cleaning bird feeders. I’ve read that feeders should be cleaned every 3 weeks, every month, I have a customer who scrubs and disinfects the tube feeders every time they’re refilled. When people ask me when they should clean their feeders I tell them, “When they’re dirty.” I’m not trying to be funny, why clean your feeder if it isn’t dirty? Some feeders need to be cleaned more often, certain designs either catch bird droppings or allow the seed to get wet. So check the feeder for droppings, especially where the birds will be eating. It’s also a good idea to dump out the remaining seed before you refill, you can dump it on the ground for sparrows and doves or if you’re trying to keep your pigeons to a minimum, dump it into a bucket and make sure it is clean, dry and not clumping. Before refilling the feeder, inspect it for the dust and dirt, clumped seed and poop. You may be able to dump this out if you check at every refill and you’ll lengthen the time between major cleanings.

If things are looking and or smelling a little off, now is the time to break out the brushes and bleach. Remember though that bleach doesn’t disinfect in the presence of organic matter so you have to get all the junk out with soap and water first, then soak feeders in a 1 part bleach to 9 parts water solution.

The type of seed also makes a big difference in the length of time between major cleanings. Seed mixes, especially those containing cracked corn will have to be cleaned more often, cracked corn goes to mush in wet and humid weather and the uneaten portions of the mixes will eventually spoil.

All the way to the other end of the price list is hulled sunflower, but it too fouls up the feeders in a hurry, same reason as the cracked corn, the waterproofing is removed. I think feeding hulled sunflower in extra large or poorly designed feeders is a waste of money. My favourite feeder for hulled sunflower is the Aspects medium tube, it’s not too big, has a great seed deflector on the bottom to keep the seed flowing toward the holes, is very waterproof and has a quick release base for easy cleaning. (And a lifetime warranty.)

Feeders with the quick release base will go longer between major cleanings if you remove the base every time you refill and wipe out the dust before it turns to goo. You can do it with one hand, even when you’re wearing gloves.

There is lots of advice and information on cleaning bird feeders, less however on cleaning the ground under them. The feeders I use don’t get very dirty at all, but the ground sure does. Since I don’t use trays, the hulls and poop go to the ground under the feeders. For the most part the lawn mower bagger takes care of the mess in the summer and the snow blower does a great job in winter but there is still some mess left behind.

One of the reasons people tell me they feed mixed seed is to give the ground feeders something to eat when it gets tossed out. The problem with this is, unless you mix your own seed, there is likely to be junk filler in the mix that nothing eats. This waste lays under your feeder mixing with the bird poop, breeding all sorts of microorganisms. I think it’s more hygienic to feed the ground feeding birds in a separate area where they aren’t eating off the mess or being poop bombed from above. You can also control the amount of seed, making sure there isn’t too much or too little.

Be careful when cleaning under bird feeders, the danger isn’t from touching the stuff it comes from inhaling airborne spores. It’s very rare to get sick, but it could happen. It may be as simple as not raking when the droppings are very dry and be conscious of which way the wind is blowing, keep up wind from the dust. Even on the lawn mower, it comes second nature to me to blow the junk with the wind; growing up we cut 5 acres of lawn so I spent most of my teen years on a tractor lawn mower. We also had an almost 200 pound Newfoundland dog, when the you hit one of his old dried out bowel movements, it was like hitting a white ant hill. You soon learned to blow the grass with the wind when you were cutting over his favourite place.

Be careful too if you’re brushing out any of you feeders with a dry brush, don’t do it indoors and stay up wind.

More than a decade ago there was a huge invasion of Common Redpoll, a small percentage of these birds were being found sick around feeders stations. A warning went out to disinfect all bird feeders, I suggested to also move the feeders to a new area but was told by the experts, that wouldn’t make any difference. I still disagree, what would be a greater danger of transmitting disease, the inside of a nyjer tube that has never contacted a bird and it’s droppings or the ground beneath where hundreds of birds have been eating and pooping? What could be easier? When you hang it back out, put it on a different branch. I do it all the time and there is little mess and no dead grass under the feeders. On the iron hangers, I move them closer to the house for winter, but throughout the year I rotate around the yard, leaving one or two stations empty for a while, I have lots of feeders and it’s easier than moving the post.

When I feed on the ground, I change the location every time I scatter seed.

I often suggest feeding millet within a brush pile to keep pigeons away. A brush pile is a sparrow magnet by itself, but scatter millet inside it and they go wild. The problem with a brush pile though, you can’t always tell how funky things are getting inside and it’s not easy to move to a new location...or is it, I making one now that is portable. I started with a frame 2 feet by 4 feet for the bottom and nailed thicker twigs to make a pup tent like structure over it, then nail smaller branches from the bottom to the top cross piece. If none of the openings are over 2 ¾ inches, the pigeons won’t be able to get inside. With everything securely attached, you can drag it to a new location periodically. Since it has to be a little smaller than some brush piles you may want to feed on a ground tray to keep the seed in the middle, this way pigeons won’t be able to reach the seed from the outside. You may want to make one or two of the twigs removable so you can access the seed.

Last week’s quiz was the most fun I’ve had for a long time, I issued a challenge to New Brunswick naturalists and I proud to say that you readers are ahead of them by about 15%. As of Wednesday, there still hasn’t been anyone with a 100% score, (although one person did come close, the judges ruled that the answers to true and false questions shouldn’t be ambiguous.) If you haven’t done it yet you can find the quiz on line at timestranscript.com or there’s a direct link to the quiz (and my ribbing of the naturalist community) at twitter.com/thebirdgarden or e-mail me and I’ll send it to you.

I wish I knew how to do one of those “answer on line quizzes”, I don’t, but many of you showed me that you could paste it into an email, answer it then send it to me. If you didn’t get 100%, you may try again and I’ll enter each quiz in the draw, so the more times you try, the better odds at the draw. You’ll see that I’ve offered an additional $20 gift card to the first (clear) perfect score and you’ll likely be alone in that category so you could get $40 and believe me, bragging rights.

I’ll take entries up to midnight October 1, as the answers and explanations will be in the next days paper. I’ll announce the winners in the October 9 column. Who knows, maybe we can get a picture of the winners with those giant novelty cheques.

Quiz

Did I mention there was going to be a quiz?

100% - Grandmaster, I’d like to shake your hand.

85-99% - You should consider making this a career.

60-84% - You should send me your resume.

Under 25% - Maybe a career as a weather person where this would be considered a high score.

True or False:

1. If you want to attract small birds you should feed small seed. _____

2. It takes 36 hours in your birdbath for mosquito eggs can hatch into adults. _____

3. Great-crested Flycatchers, Blue Jays, and Hairy Woodpeckers all use the same size bird house. _____

4. 7x50 binoculars are 15 times more powerful than 7x35. _____

5. Chickadee, nuthatch, jays, woodpeckers and blackbirds are attracted to peanuts. ____

6. A Bald Eagle is bigger than a Golden Eagle. ____

7. It’s impossible to keep squirrels off your feeders. _____

8. A nesting colony of Chimney Swifts may have 20 nests or more per chimney. _____

9. To save money, mix white millet in with the nyjer seed, finch love it and it won’t attract pigeons. _____

10. Hummingbird nectar has to be dyed red. _____

11. When it’s time for hummingbirds to migrate south, they pick a day when conditions are right and fly nonstop to South America._____

12. Plastic owls will scare pigeons away from feeders but the more desirable birds are unaffected.

13. Mesh feeders work well for black oil sunflower and peanuts but aren’t a great choice for nyjer. ____

14. New Brunswick eagles migrate south before our rivers freeze over. _____

15. Pigeons aren’t able to eat nyjer from the proper feeder if you don’t use a tray. (so at least you can feed finch) ____

Multiple Choice:

1. Woodpeckers drum on your stove pipe at dawn because

a. they want you to fill the suet feeder.

b. they think you should be awake too.

c. they’re trying to attract a girlfriend.

2. The best thing you can do to attract waxwings is

a. feed nyjer seed.

b. feed sunflower seed.

c. feed suet.

d. plant native fruit trees.

3. Platform feeders attract

a. doves and jays.

b. goldfinch and chickadees.

c. cardinals and grosbeaks.

d. all the above.

4. In New Brunswick, American Goldfinch

a. hibernate.

b. migrate.

c. stay all winter in a duller winter plumage.

d. both b and c.

5. All the experts say hummingbird nectar should be

a. 1 part sugar: 2 parts water.

b. 1 part sugar: 1 part water.

c. 1 part sugar: 4 parts water.

6. Tree Swallows require houses

a. with at least 4 compartments.

b. placed 2 per pole.

c. placed about 100 feet apart.

7. A good way to attract more birds to your yard is to

a. use mixed seed.

b. use a variety of feeders with the proper seed in each feeder.

c. add a feature with moving water, like a fountain or dripper.

d. both b and c.

8. A Blue Jays all time favourite food is

a. sunflower seeds. (they’ll do anything to get them)

b. millet. (they’ll do anything to get it)

c. corn. (they’ll do anything to get it)

d. peanuts in the shell. (they’ll do anything to get them)

9. In the spring, birds repeatedly fly against your windows because

a. they want in your house.

b. they see their reflection and think it’s a competing bird.

c. Oprah’s on.

10. Suet can be fed year round if

a. the temperature stays below 10 degrees Celsius.

b. you don’t have any starlings at your feeders.

c. it’s double rendered.

d. both a and c.

11. Suet could attract

a. woodpeckers

b. chickadee and jays.

c. warblers and orioles.

d. a and b.

e. all the above.

12. Unless you are going to feed continuously throughout the winter you should

a. take your feeders in so the birds will migrate.

b. hire a service to come by daily to fill your feeders.

c. feed when you can, in nature, when a source (i.e. flower or weed seeds) runs out, birds move around and find another.

13. If you want to get started birding you should have

a. expensive binoculars, a spotting scope with tripod, digital camera, several field guides and bird songs recordings.

b. a reasonable pair of binoculars and a good field guide.

c. a spouse who is into birding or doesn’t care if you’re never home.

d. both b and c.

14. A good field guide should

a. fit in your pocket.

b. list similar species together.

c. have arrows to quickly point out the differences between species.

d. all the above.

15. To attract more hummingbirds you should

a. place several feeders that are not in sight of each other.

b. buy really big feeders with enough ports so everyone can feed together.

c. choose a variety of plants so you will have blooms throughout the season.

d. both a and c.

e. both b and c.

You can find me on Twitter, each Saturday I tweet the link to the Birdman column in the Times and Transcript online. Go to twitter.com/thebirdgarden for all things birdy.

Outdoor Cats

When you write a weekly bird column you eventually have to come around to the topic of outdoor cats. It’s a very touchy subject that pretty much divides the population. I admit the disappearance of a favourite cat was the initial reason we had for keeping our cats indoors, we searched for weeks, my wife would get up in the middle of the night to call and rattle the food container in an attempt to lure the cat home. Even years later when we saw a similar looking cat we would stop and check it out.

The fact is though when you let your cats outside they are going to be injured or killed, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

A few months after we lost Bob our new cat escaped from the house. I made posters and offered a $50 reward, people thought I was nuts, “50 bucks for a cat?” For me it was simple economics, if we didn’t get Marble back, I’d have to get my wife another cat. Then I’d be looking at 3 vaccinations at $50 bucks a shot, the neutering at $150 and the sleepless nights that my wife jumps out of bed every time a mouse scratches in the walls, oh yes, and I’d miss the cat.

Indoor cats live longer healthier lives and in my experience make better pets. Marble is 18 years old now, his house mate was also 18 when she died.

Outdoor cats face many dangers, cars, disease, poison, people, dogs, coyotes, fleas, ticks and mites. They say the number one disease in outdoor cats is abscesses caused by a bite from another cat. I can only guess what that costs today to be treated, anesthesia, surgery (although minor still costly), and drugs. Most of these problems are eliminated or at least greatly lessened by simply keeping your cat indoors.

An added bonus, if everyone was to keep cats in, the second biggest cause of the decline of bird populations (next to habitat loss) would be gone.

Cats will kill anything they can regardless of need; healthy well fed cats kill more than under nourished ones.

I’ve had people tell me that it’s “just nature”, it may be in a cats nature to kill, but they aren’t a native species so our birds haven’t evolved in ways to defend themselves.

I’ve also had countless people stop by to tell me they don’t feed birds because their cat goes outside and they aren’t going to feed birds only to watch their cat kill them. The old out of site, out of mind defense, just because you don’t see them, they’re still killing birds.

One of the reasons I chose to write about cats was, Sunday when my son came home from riding lessons he was toting a new kitten that was dumped off at the stable. This guy is extremely happy to stay inside, even shying away from outside doors. I can only imagine the terrors he faced in the couple weeks he was abandoned. We’ve also rescued adult cats that were formerly used to going outdoors, every one of them has been content to stay inside and watch the bird feeders from the comfort and safety of the window sills. So it can be done, of course the cat is going to cry at the door for a day or two, that’s what they did when they wanted out.

There are a few companies that specialize in outdoor cat enclosures, these are accessed from a window or pet door and cats can come and go as they wish. We chose to build a screened in sun room so we can enjoy it with them, when cats want out they meow at that door now, they spend 3 seasons in the sun room and 1 in front of the wood stove.

Enough of the lecture on cats.

Coming up on October 10 is the 16^th annual Big Sit, this “listing” event may be right up your alley. You create 17 foot diameter circle, sit inside and count all the birds you see and hear for 24 hours. Sounds good to me, choose a circle you don’t have to walk to, the mosquitoes should be scarce, maybe I could even work on some bird houses on the quiet times. The big downfall for me is the whole 24 hour thing, but the organizers have that covered too, you have teams, so all I need is someone who can stay awake past 9 p.m. to listen for owls.

The Big Sit makes a great fundraiser for clubs, you can get sponsors for a few cents per species. You don’t have to tally any rare species, counting the common birds on this day during fall migration will, over years, show trends and identify declining or increasing populations.

It could be argued that events like the Big Sit are more friendly to the environment than other bird-a-thon events like a Big Day or the World Series of Birding that have birders driving here, there and everywhere in search of another species. It’s likely easier on the birds too, that’s my reasoning, as a lazy birder, and I’m sticking to it.

In closing, I’d like to share with you how my week started--my son comes down stairs Sunday morning (the same day the new cat arrived, I should have stayed in bed and not answered the phone) while I’m reading up on Big Sits and I say, “Hey Buddy, you want to do a Big Sit?”

He says, “Just did one upstairs.”

“No, I said, ‘sit’ Son, a Big ‘Sit’.”

Bird Myths

I’ve been keeping a list of bird related myths for quite a while now, when I first opened the shop I’d hear some of these on an almost daily basis. With so much information and so many people observing birds, most of these myths have gone by the wayside, but some still persist.

For instance, less than 20 years ago it would be routine for me to hear someone state that hummingbirds didn’t perch. I’m not sure where that one came from, maybe it’s because you can’t see their feet all that well when they fly, or maybe it’s because they belong to the order Apodiformes: “A” meaning without, “pod” meaning feet. Of course hummingbirds do have feet, but they weren’t made for walking, the best they can do is shimmy along a perch if they land too far away from the feeder hole. However they can use their stubby little legs to reach over a wing to scratch their heads. I haven’t heard this for years, but at first I was laughed at when I tried to sell a hummingbird feeder with perches.

Then came the short lived myth that you had to remove the perches to keep the birds flying while they fed. The theory was when a hummer drank cold nectar in the morning it got something akin to a super brain freeze and could die. If hummers had to hover, they would generate heat and wouldn’t drink too, much too fast. The biggest problem for me was that the best hummingbird feeders on the market don’t have removable perches, so people thought they had to buy more expensive, harder to clean feeders, just so they could remove the perches during cold periods. I’m glad this myth has disappeared, I don’t miss it.

Did you hear the one about the hummingbirds migrating south on the backs of Canada Geese? Raise your hand if you’ve ever believed this to be true. This used to be a common myth, often I’d have to politely debunk it several times a day. I don’t think anyone still believes this but just in case, it’s now the first of September and most of our hummingbirds have left, the geese however, (except for our non-migratory imported Ontario geese), aren’t even here yet. I think hunting season starts sometime in October and runs almost until Christmas, when our migrating geese head out, so even if a hummer could hitch one up and ride it south they don’t leave at the same time of the year.

Which leads me to the next myth and the reason I’m writing about myths this week. This one is alive and well, I’m getting a couple calls a day asking when the feeders should be taken down so the hummingbirds will migrate. The answer is you don’t have to take them down, they will migrate on their own even if there is a great source of free nectar, they’ve been doing it for centuries, it’s in their genes. Hummingbirds migrate in response to the shortening day length, and sun light sure does dwindle in August, from the first to the last we loose 1 hour and 45 minutes of light. If that doesn’t send all migratory birds on there way it at least has them packing their bags. So if your neighbour leans over the fence and says, “Yep, you better get those feeders put away.” Volunteer to come over and mow down all his remaining flowers, you wouldn’t want them to keep the hummers from migrating.

We still have all our feeders out, and all but a handful have left. The next time we clean them we will only put out a few and later only one or two of our most conspicuous feeders so any late travelers coming through from further north can stop a while and refuel. This is also the time to be looking for any species other than the Ruby-throated, as it tends to be quite late in the season when they show up.

There are still some questions around red food colouring in hummingbird nectar. I think it’s agreed on that the new red colour isn’t harmful, but if you’re using a commercial hummingbird feeder and not the kid’s hamster bottle, it likely has quite a bit of red on it. If the hummers don’t see that it’s unlikely that red nectar is going to make that much difference. The strongest arguments I can come up with for not colouring are: if you spill it in the house or on your deck, instead of a sticky mess you have a sticky mess and a red stain; and if you leave the jug of red nectar in the fridge your kids will drink it.

Probably the most persistent myth ever is the old “birds choke on peanut butter”. Even though there is no evidence of this ever happening the myth won’t die. It likely lives on because at the end of every mention about peanut butter not being harmful to birds they say, “But if you’re still worried about choking birds, mix in some corn meal.” You don’t have to mix it, some birds love straight peanut butter, I’ve actually seen a nuthatch pick the cornmeal out of the mix and drop it to the ground. I wish birds did like corn meal it’s much cheaper than the other ingredients that go into suet cakes.

Last fall I had the bottom of a container break out and about 20 gallons of peanut butter plopped out on my driveway. For the next week a mixed flock of about 200 blackbirds, Blue Jays, (my dog, some raccoons and I think at least one skunk), feasted. Not even one blackbird required the Heimlich, in fact, the only things I noticed that were different were a very soft luxuriant coat and some interesting bowel movements on the part of the dog. The resident squirrel did have a mental break down trying to get all that peanut butter for himself, I don’t think he slept for a week. He still twitches when he walks by the spot.

I still get the “birds feet stick to metal perches” one quite regularly, fact is, they don’t. I’ve found a few reasons for this: birds don’t have sweat glands in their feet (if they did why would they be sweating on a day they’re feet would freeze down?), another reason has to do with birds having natural heat exchangers in their feet to conserve body heat, so the warm foot won’t stick to the cold metal.

Whatever the reason, it’s obvious that their feet won’t stick to metal, you see hundreds of birds perched on uninsulated hydro wires, wire fences, metal railings, etc. I had one otherwise intelligent customer refuse to buy a high quality feeders because they had metal perches but he bought a 4 arm iron hanger. I almost blew it when I asked how he kept the birds from landing on the hanger while awaiting a turn on the plastic feeders.

Here’s a few more quickies:

Birds explode if they eat rice. Not true, where rice grows, lot’s of birds eat it, if it were true it would be the end to pigeon problems, I’m sure it’s been tried. I still think you should throw bird seed at the bride and groom though...I don’t sell rice.

If you touch a baby bird it’s parents will abandon it. Not true, if a bird does fall from a nest you can return it. Researchers measure and weigh nestlings daily and return them to the nest where they are still tended to by parents.

Bird seed won’t spoil. Not true, just because there were viable seeds found in the pyramids doesn’t mean the 5 year old seed in your basement is still good. Seed dries out and looses nutritional value, most seed has at least some weevils or meal moth larvae and over time they will eat the seeds and reproduce and eat the seeds and… After a while there is nothing but empty shells and a basement full of moths. I’ve already been selling some feeders that are for Christmas presents. I warn off buying the seed early though, the seed that is available for sale now is close to a year old, there will soon be a new crop harvested and that will be better seed. Now is a bad time to buy a pallet load of seed, even if it seems like a good deal. To keep those insects dormant as long as possible keep your seed in an unheated space for the winter.

New Products?

Every month there are new products on then market that are supposed to entice more birds to your back yard or make your life easier. If you subscribe to any birding magazines, most of them have a new products section each month. When you run a shop, you get flyers with what’s new and what’s hot on a daily basis. I have to admit, I don’t read all of these and often rely on a customer’s request it before it comes to my attention, there are a few that I think would be a great idea, if they worked, some that I was pretty sure were duds right from the start, (but I bought them anyway) and a couple that I’d have to file under “if you’d buy this you’re a true bird nut”.

One of those things that I’ve seen advertised a lot is the Audubon BirdCam, I thought about it and placed it in the “it would be great if it worked” section of my wish list. It’s a motion activated digital camera that you place near your feeders and snaps pictures of what ever comes by. A version of this is used by researchers, for example in Fundy Park where they are trying to get a picture of the elusive Eastern Cougar, a camera like this is set up near scent posts. I thought it would be great to not spend hours in the cold or heat or mosquitoes or even the kitchen window to try to get pictures of my feeder visitors. At about the same time I was going to try one out I had an order from a very good customer who is also my guinea pig for testing new products, I let him buy things, test them out and report back to me. If it’s a dud, it ends up in my yard if it passes inspection I’ll add them to inventory. I’m still waiting to see some pictures taken with the camera, you never know with the shots taken for the advertisement, I imagine they would neglect to say, “It snapped 2 million shots and this is the only one fit to print.”

My guinea pig also tested out the Hawk Eye Nature Cam, it’s the one you can place right inside a bird house and watch the comings and goings on a monitor. I still can’t believe the luck, it was set up in one house and all the other houses were removed to “force” the bird to go to the one with the camera, and it worked, I’d be moving it all over the yard for years trying to get the right house.

They were able to watch a Tree Swallow pair build a nest, lay and incubate eggs then feed young, no doubt the best thing on TV this summer.

Also available is the Timelapse PlantCam so you can record your plants growing if that’s the kind of thing that floats your boat, I’d just like to find out which cat keeps eating ours and throwing it up on the floor.

Last summer, when some Riverview rats were displaced by road work and ended up foraging under bird feeders, I was asked to order some SeedHoops to keep seed from being knocked on the ground. These are 30 inch screens that hang under the feeder and catch spilled seed, unfortunately they catch wind, snow, bird poop and every pigeon in the neighbourhood. Fortunately by the time they arrived from my supplier the rats were back underground...out of sight out of mind, and I still have a case of seed hoops.

Just when you thought you’ve seen it all another gem arrives in the mail, this time from BirdWatchers Choice, the W is a pair of binoculars, clever, but it doesn’t make up for the fact that they’re selling canned fly larvae. That’s right maggots, and a 70 gram can costs me $6.60 US before shipping, that’s $94.29 per kilogram...wholesale...for maggots...and to think, all this time I’ve been throwing them out.

The can reads: soft and moist, easy to handle, farm raised. I wonder if they have many requests for farm tours and what do the owners say when people ask what they do for a living. I thought I had it bad, I usually don’t tell strangers what I do, people think I’m nuts if I say I can earn a living making bird feeders and houses, I can’t imagine the comments when you say you’re a maggot farmer, would you even bother to put it on a resume or would it be easier to say you were in the penitentiary for those last 5 years.

If you bought a can, where would you store it, you wouldn’t want your teenage kids finding it when they come home late at night with a bad case of munchies.

I’ve been thinking of a new product for a few years myself, and if a maggot cannery can fly then my idea for deer repellant should be a hot seller. It came to me when I heard of a company selling Scandinavian wolf urine to keep deer out of your garden. I thought, “Why would Canadian deer be afraid of Scandinavian wolves.” If you really want to keep them away, (and this is my product), you should use Albert County deer hunter urine, this is a predator our deer are familiar with. If your deer are really smart and know when hunting season is over we’d sell Albert County deer jacker urine, the label would have one of those 4x4’s with enough lighting on the roll bar to land jets. The secret ingredient, Jack Daniel’s, if that doesn’t keep the deer out of the dahlias, nothing will.

Maybe I should do a business plan, now that I’ve put it on paper it looks like something ACOA would really get behind.

I’ve noticed quite a few posts on natureNB lately about earwigs in bird feeders, most seem surprised by this, for those of you who have one of my feeders that were made over a year ago this is likely a common occurrence. Now I make a “new and improved” feeder that is 95% more earwig free (although I don’t actually advertise this fact)...I bevel the top spacer to eliminate the area between it and the roof where the earwigs like to hide. I’m pretty sure that’s all it is, a hiding place, the discussion was weather or not they were attracted to seeds, I don’t think so as they’re in the empty outdoor display feeders as much as the full ones, (don’t worry we tap them out before we sell them). They hide in almost anything we have outside, now I make it a habit of dumping my work boots before putting my feet in, I shake the shirt I wear welding before I put it on, they’ll hide in anything.

In closing, one last earwig story, warning for those who already have an earwig phobia, stop reading now.

During the last peak in the earwig cycle I was visiting my parents in PEI, my father was complaining that his shower had no pressure. Thinking it was calcium deposits from their extremely hard water, I got a cup of vinegar and soaked it. It seemed clean though and nothing was bubbling so I took it off, it was one of those hand held jobs and at the beginning of the hose there was a screen, it seemed clogged…(last chance to put the paper down), when I opened the tap with no head attached a 5 inch plug of earwig pieces shot out into the tub, hummm, that’s likely to affect pressure. Then I started to think that the kitchen and bathroom sinks had screens too...and yes they were plugged with earwig pieces as well. I guess the earwigs like it under the dark cool cap on the well and many fall in, are chopped up by the submersible pump and delivered to all rooms in the house; so you decide, should the new product be a flavoured protein drink or the vermin-proof well cap.

It’s going to get worse before it gets better...

A question I hear a lot is “How can I get rid of the black birds?” The first thing we have to clarify is which black bird you have. The problem birds seem to be crows, grackles and starlings; with Red-winged Blackbirds sometimes ruffling the feathers of the home owners.

This time of year the most common complaint is about grackles, and the inquiries have started coming in earlier this year, which makes sense since they arrived about 2 weeks early this spring. I’ve been seeing what looks like like small flocks of grackles preparing for migration for a few weeks, but quite a few people confuse them with starlings, ( and vice versa) and sometimes even with crows. What difference you say.......the big difference is in how you control them.

Grackles are no doubt the hardest one to control because they like almost all seeds and especially seem to like the favourite of most small birds, the black oil sunflower seed. You can limit the access by using only really small feeders, removing trays and shortening or removing perches all together. The mesh feeders seem to work pretty good as well, but not excluding them all together.

The worst thing you can do is feed mixed seed, the seeds the other birds don’t like and fling out of the feeder are like a magnet to grackles (see my past rants on mixed seed).

If you do this you will cut down the numbers of grackles coming to your yard, hopefully they will move on down the road to someone else’s house with nice large grackle friendly platform feeders. I have a rather large yard and feed cracked corn in large open feeders and spread it on the ground in the fall. When I do this I rarely get grackles on my small sunflower feeders. So if you have the room get the 40 kg bag of cracked corn from your local feed mill ($16 plus or minus $2) and feed the black birds in the far corner of your land. If you don’t have the room, tell your neighbours how great crack corn is at attracting birds maybe even give him a large bag to spread around his yard.

I usually only go through about one bag each fall and I feed a lot. My goal is to attract and identify some rarities that tag along with the large flocks; and I have had success, a few Rusty Blackbirds and one Yellow-headed Blackbird. If you really want to make people take a second look, spread the corn in designs like crop circles, when a couple hundred birds are eating in the grass, you can’t see the corn, only the birds. I use an old 5 gallon water cooler bottle full of corn to “draw” my patterns. Yesterday the circle was all blue with jays, while we watched it turned black with the grackles.

The bright side of the grackle is that they migrate, (crows and starlings are a year round pain). They have already started gathering is large flocks in anticipation of departure, but if you have a problem now and you don’t cut down on the trays and perches, it is likely to get worse before they all leave usually around the same time the leaves drop.

If the black birds that are causing your troubles happen to be smaller with a short tail, longer beak and spots, than you have starlings. I’ve got good news and bad news: Bad news first? They don’t migrate. They will be with us year round, for ever. They are easily one of the smartest birds, well maybe smart isn’t the right term, they are one of the most “adaptive” birds at my feeders. So it can be a little troublesome to “limit their consumption” from your feeders. They wouldn’t even be that much of a problem except they travel in gangs (if that’s not the correct term for a group of Starlings it should be) of sometimes 50-100, bully the other birds and they devour only the most expensive food. The favourite is peanuts and peanut butter suet and they will be attracted to seed tubes with mixtures that contain peanuts and corn as well.

The good news is, it’s easy to feed the small birds and exclude Starlings. They won’t do acrobatics and hang off a small tube or mesh feeders containing only sunflower seeds. So the chickadee, nuthatch, Goldfinch, Purple Finch, grosbeaks and much more can eat in peace. They won’t eat nyjer, so you can feed all the finch, and they won’t eat millet so you can feed sparrows, junco and Mourning Doves.

The biggest problem with starlings is if you want to feed woodpeckers, more chickadees, nuthatch and Blue Jays. If you feed suet you will likely see starlings, you can limit their activity with the up-side-down suet feeder, it doesn’t work 100% but probably about 85%. In my yard, a cake that would only last 2 days in the regular feeder when starlings are at their worst; in the up-side-down it will last over 10 days. The starlings can only hang on for a few seconds as opposed to the whole day on the regular feeder.

If you want to feed peanuts, the quarter inch wire mesh peanut silos work the best, if you don’t use the tray, starlings will have a hard time, the smaller guys cling to the wire. If it’s Blue Jays you want to attract, try the peanut in the shell feeder, starlings don’t bother these and if the grackles become a problem you can move it really close to your house where they are quite uncomfortable to approach, the Blue Jays aren’t shy at all, they will actually come right inside if you let them. Last year I fed peanuts in the shell inside the door of my shop, but the jays got a little carried away, coming all the way in eating out of all the display feeders, that didn’t even bother me too much, it was when they started opening their own bags of peanuts on the shelf that my wife put her foot down. Even if they opened one bag it wouldn’t be so bad, but I guess they wanted only the best nuts and every bag was opened. (not to mention the droppings they were leaving behind on the new feeders). This year the feeder is back outside the window where if I show my face at all the grackles beat it to a more distant feeder, I still can’t fill any display feeders if I want to leave the door opened though, some jays seem to have a long memory.

If crows are a problem, the tricks mentioned above should take care of them. Make sure it is crows you have, it’s surprising the number of people who confuse them with grackles. We have a crow feeder, it’s just a box on a pole high enough to keep the dog out, any left overs and scraps that the crows would otherwise rip out of our garbage bag go into this feeder. We have maybe 6-8 crows that hang around and they never bother the feeders, they rarely even eat the corn that I spread on the ground.

Another installment in: Birdy Words You Should Know

You might hear: I finally traded in my old porros for a new pair of roofs.

I’ve never really stopped to think how odd this statement must seem to non-birders, but honestly I hear it or something similar often. They are referring to the prism system in their binoculars, porro prisms are the more traditional type with the large lens spaced wide apart and the barrels take a little jog before the eyepieces to get them close together to match your eye space.

Roof prisms have a more straight through design. It used to be considered that you could get a better binocular for the money if you chose porros, but technology has changed and roof prisms are greatly out numbering porros both in purchases and models offered by companies. Roof prism are more compact, tougher and they are able to be made with extremely close focusing options; it’s common to be able to focus at 4 feet, some models even less. (More on why you would want that a little later.)

Having said this, I still feel that the low end porros are better than low end roof prism, generally speaking, that would be under $195 but there are exceptions, you need to compare for yourself. A good roof prism will have “phase corrective coating”, and just because they say, “fully multi-coated” they don’t necessarily have the phase corrective coating.

You might hear: I stuffed some suet in a snag and the woodpeckers went wild.

Again, I not lying, I’ve heard this on several occasions, in bird land a snag is a dead tree that is still standing, aka a woodpecker magnet.

Suet, technically speaking, is the big chunks of fat around the kidney of cattle. Also a woodpecker magnet, so if you combine two magnets you get one really powerful one. I know more than one person who has a large bore drill bit on a cordless drill to make even more stuffing holes in snags.

In bird land though suet has become fat with any and all kinds of mixtures added, there is berry, dried fruit, insects, meal worms and all have some seed thrown in to make it look even better to the buyer, not necessarily though to the end user. Remember, if a woodpecker won’t eat the seed on a feeder he is unlikely to eat it in the suet mix either. Most suet mixes have cheap seed like millet or corn added as filler, so make sure the $5 a pound “Premium Insect Suet” you are about to buy isn’t half full of 13 cent a pound corn.

A little more on suet versus fat.

You can get fat from almost any source, you can drain the fat off you meat when cooking, lard is the fat around the kidney of a pig, shortening is vegetable fat and all these can be mixed with seeds, peanut butter, corn meal, oat meal even a little flour to stiffen it up. But, you have to watch that it isn’t melting in the summer, the way woodpeckers feed, with their breast pressed against the holder and even up-side-down under the holder to get the last pieces, the melting fat will drip into there feathers and is very hard to get off in the bird bath. It can hinder flight and the insulation value of feathers.

Even raw suet, which is great to feed in winter will drip in summer. If you want to feed suet in the summer it should be real suet and “double rendered”, that is, cooked then strain off all the bits and let it harden. When you heat it up the second time, (the double part) you can add your secret ingredients and pour it into molds. The longer the mix “ages” the harder it gets, so if it’s a little soft, keep it in a cool place for a few days.

You might hear: It’s just another LBB.

What they mean is little brown bird, some birders just skip over all little brown birds without even trying. I’ve heard, “It’s just another LBB” while the bird was still scratching up seed 20 feet away, a quick look and there was a striking White-throated Sparrow. There are many LBB’s around, but each species is different and quite beautiful. I’d find it acceptable to say, “There’s an LBB in that birch tree at three o’clock”, if you are calling it to the attention of other birders and I might not push you in the river if you right it off as an LBB if it got away before you had a good look.

I’ve also heard LBJ and I used to think it was American birders confusing the term with their former president, but apparently it stands for “little brown job” which, to me, is even more annoying.

You might hear: I built a roosting box for chickadees.

The first time I printed labels for my roosting boxes I slipped in an “a” for an “o” and was trying to sell roasting boxes. I was getting weird questions and the odd dirty look until I noticed my mistake.

A roosting box is a place for birds to spend the night, it’s similar to a bird house but larger, the hole is on the bottom, there is no vent holes at the top and the inside is lined with numerous perches. This design allows groups of birds to safely get into one cavity and share the trapped body heat.

You might hear: There wasn’t much bird activity in the heat of the afternoon so we decided to do a little dragonflying.

Sound exciting? It is, New Brunswick has enough dragons and damsels to keep you hopping for several summers. I found and incredible website called Odonata of New Brunswick, (there’s a link on our blog) it lists the damselflies and dragonflies found in our province, complete with species profiles and pictures. This is better than the books and you might see some familiar names who have contributed to the many pictures. Get ready for this...New Brunswick has 37 species of damselflies and 97 species of dragonflies. I think I can identify about 4.

Another similar activity to keep birders busy on the hot days when their prime focus are keeping to themselves, is butterflying. Again New Brunswick has a whopping 85 species of butterflies to challenge your identification skills. Once you get hooked on dragonflying and butterflying you’re going to want one of those close focusing binocular I mentioned earlier. Some species require very close looks to get positive identification, but mostly they are just incredibly beautiful and you are going to want as good of views as possible.

If your binoculars are 8x42 and they have a close focus of 3 feet, that means the object appears 8 times closer or 4 and a half inches away. I don’t know about you but my eyes won’t even focus on objects that close.

If anyone is interested in New Brunswick checklists for dragonflies and damselflies or butterflies contact me and I can e-mail it to you.

Birding New Brunswick

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More "Birdy" Words You Should Know

A group that’s always held my interest, even before I was into birding, is birds of prey. When I went on my first hawk watching field trip, I was told it’s easiest if you first separate the accipiters from the buteos from the falcons. I just nodded, I’d heard the word falcon before but what were the others mentioned? I had no clue, luckily an old saying came to mind: it’s better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you’re an idiot than to open it and remove all doubt. So, there I stood, watching specks in the sky and trying to absorb as much of the chatter as possible, hoping no one asked my opinion.

When I got home I quickly looked into buying all the titles of the books I saw floating around and after getting my first hand me down computer I bought a couple of cd-roms with great video-game-like hawk watching quizzes. After almost 20 years, I’m able to identify most hawks that fly over our yard without running inside for 5 different field guides.

Accipiters have relatively short rounded wings and a long rudder like tail that gives them the ability to follow prey through thick bushes. They usually fly with several wing flaps then a glide. We have three species, Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s and Northern Goshawk, the most common hawk to see around feeder stations is the Sharp-shinned Hawk, it can be seen scouting around the yard with it’s characteristic flight pattern, when prey is spotted a sprint through the trees is likely to follow. Telling the sharpie from it’s close relative the Cooper’s Hawk in considered one of the toughest identifications for the hawk watcher, in general, the Cooper’s is larger, but there is overlap, an immature female sharpie might be larger than an adult male Cooper’s. They say to rely on several “clues” to come up with your ID.

I still haven’t checked off Cooper’s on my life list. Maybe I should put that on next years to do list.

The Northern Goshawk is a little easier to tell apart from the other accipiters, it’s larger and thicker, and has a distinctive plumage. They too can be seen around feeder yards, bearing down on an unsuspecting pigeon.

Buteos have broad wings, wide bodies and short tails, they’re able to soar for long periods. Buteos are the main subject of most hawk watchers, hundreds can be seen on a one day hawk watching stint as near by as New Horton in Albert County. Locally the buteos include the Red-tailed Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk and the occasional Red-Shouldered Hawk.

Most people hear “falcon” and they think Peregrine, but there are 3 falcons commonly found in New Brunswick, and yes it’s great to think of the Peregrine Falcon again as somewhat common. We also get the Merlin who looks much like a mini Peregrine and the one who nests in houses is the Kestrel, a beautifully coloured falcon about the size of a robin. Compared to the accipiter, falcons have long tapered cycle shaped wings and a short tail, they fly with constant flapping compared to the intermittent flap glide of the accipiter. Falcons rely on speed in open spaces, rarely continuing the chase into bushes.

So, if you’re on a hawk watch and you hear, “Buteo at 10 o’clock.” You can at least narrow your guess down to 4 species, or less, first it’s not likely a Red-shouldered, Rough-legged overwinter here and leave early, Broad-winged feed mostly on cold blooded animals so they arrive last and leave first. Red-tailed hunt mostly mammals to they will arrive first and leave late. If the first 250 buteos spotted were Red-tailed, you’ll likely be safe guessing Red-tailed, but you never know for sure.

You might hear: “We went on a birding trip to Grand Manan and I picked up 3 lifers.” They weren’t talking about picking up hitchhiking escaped convicts, they were referring to 3 new birds they added to their life list. Most birders keep a list of the birds they have identified, there is the life list, day list, year list, yard list, province list, county list, many even keep a yearly province list, yearly county list…you get the picture. I keep a life list and yard list, I’m not big on paper work.

Some try for big days, tallying up the species they can see in a 24 hour period, there are areas where a skilled birder can get over 200 species from midnight to midnight, (not individual birds, species) and some put their lives on hold and shoot for the big year record, crisscrossing the continent following migration and rare sightings, (the record is 745 species).

There are people who are referred to as “twitchers” these are people only concerned with checking off another box in the list. They don’t really care about observing the bird, taking in the habitat, watching behavior, just getting a glimpse and moving on, usually they don’t get out of the car, or even shut it off. They’re called twitchers because they get all twitchy at the thought of adding another check mark, although I see it in books, I’ve never heard anyone called a twitcher, but I’ve met quite a few people who fit the bill.

The Bird Quiz

I'm still hoping someone will get 100% on the quiz. So far though nobody has gotten every answer right, even if I allow for the answers that are a matter of opinion. I even challenged the subscribers to the natureNB listserve. I guess I made it too hard, next time I'll try to take it easier on you guys.

You still have almost 2 weeks to get your answers in.

To further sweeten it, I'll give an automatic $20 gift card to the first 100% and leave your name in the draw (so if you're the only one in the Grandmaster category you're guaranteed $40).

If you already took it you can try again, I'm just not going to tell you which answers were wrong.

Oh well, with $40, I'll be able to take my wife out to a romantic dinner for our 20th.

Dwayne

Birdy Words Defined and Explained

Some “birdy words” explained, so you can follow a conversation with a hardcore birder.

You might hear: “We’re going on a pelagic trip next week.”

This means looking for birds that normally hang out over the “open sea”. Groups will often charter boats and head off shore to look for gulls, gannets, skua, jaeger and more. These birds are often seen during whale watching trips. Technically, I suppose if they say pelagic trip they should be going out on the water, but if they say, “...going after some pelagic birds”, they may just be going to Pointe du Chene for fried clams and check out what wanders close to shore or steals fries off the next picnic table...not nearly as impressive.

You might hear: “I’m a little slow getting started, we were owling until the wee hours.”

Sounds like a wild time, and maybe it was, they were out after dark in search of owls, either by sight or more often simply listening for the calls. One might mimic the owl calls or play pre recorded calls through a portable player or over the vehicles sound system. I’ve been...one night we saw a Saw-whet Owl, heard a Barred Owl and a Great Horned Owl. The Great Horned was at first distant but within seconds it was so close I couldn’t help ducking and waiting for a territorial owl to strike my head. It was not impressed by the intrusion, I was quite eager to give it some space.

If you walk up to a couple of birders who are arguing whether the vocalization they just heard was song or a call, you might want to just keep walking. There is a difference but it’s not an argument you want to enter.

It’s usually only the male that sings, he does so to claim territory, attract a mate and to communicate if he already has one.

Many species don’t have songs but claim territory with flight displays, but most birds to have calls, they’re usually shorter and have different function than song. Some calls indicate alarm, aggression, or a quick contact call to keep in touch. If you are outside after dark in about a month you’ll here various single note whistles and chirps, these belong mostly to warblers and some sparrows. They are keeping in touch with each other while migrating south at night. Stand there for a while and you’ll likely hear hundreds of call notes, you’ll be wondering where they all came from since you only see a few in the day time.

Legend has it, there are people who can identify each bird from this call note, but how would I know if they were wrong? They all sound the same to me.

Some birds make non-vocal sounds considered by some to be song, woodpecker and grouse play the drums (my favourite part of any song), the winnowing of a snipe and the buzzing of a hummingbird is made with stiffened tail feathers during courtship flights.

The wing whistle of a Mourning Dove taking off is considered an alarm call, while the wing whistle of the Black Scoter in flight is a great way to keep track of the flock while migrating at night.

You might hear: “I saw a warbler high in the canopy, when I pished him down, it was a Bay-breasted.”

Pishing is blowing air in short blasts through closed teeth, like you do to call a cat. A curious bird will come a little closer to see what’s making the noise and you should be able to get a closer look. Some describe it as an art, but the only tricky part is knowing when to stop. I’ve been with people who are standing nose-to-beak with a bird and they are still pishing, when the bird flew away I’m sure I heard it mutter a few choice expletives, I know I was.

You want to hide yourself somewhat, pish a couple pishes, and wait. The best thing that could happen is for a chickadee to come along and scold the pisher, chickadee’s being one of the most pishable birds. If you have a chickadee over you scolding, sit tight, stop pishing and wait to see what comes along to join in the scolding. Sure you may have won the county pishing competition but you’re still no match for a chickadee when it comes to attracting other species.

If you’re out with a group, etiquette states that you should ask if we agree it’s OK to pish, if so you should have a designated pisher, both for the birds sake and your own, you don’t want to get stuck in the middle of 30 octogenarians all pishing at once.

You should have an idea of which birds are pishable (I hope that’s a word, I use it so much I’m used to it), for instance; warblers are very pishable, shorebirds are not, I’ve heard of some pishers at Mary’s Point who came close to being thrown into the bay. Chickadee and finch...very pishable, hawks not so much, continuous pishing on a “hawk watching” cliff is probably dangerous to your health too (if you’re with a group).

One hawk that is quite pishable though is the Northern Goshawk, here’s an exercise for you “over pishers” out there, next spring, stand under a goshawk nest and pish, you’ll likely get great close up views (and a few scars to brag about over drinks with other birders, don’t mention the pishing though).

Juvenile Laughing Gull

Here is the Picture of the sea bird we tried to ID at the Market today.
The picture was taken at 1:24pm on Wednesday Sept. 8th
We were about 3 miles off shore and about a mile or 2 west of Cape Enrage when I took this picture.
The bird had no fear of people. It stayed with us for about an hour. It would peck at the chum ball we had set up to attract sharks. Then it would circle the boat (flying) and hover about 2 or 3 feet over from my head and about a foot above it.
While in the water it kind of looked like a morning dove. The boat captain said he had been on the bay all of his life and has never seen one of these birds before.

Let me know what you come up with

thanks
Don LeBlanc