The Birdie Diner
& our feathered guests

The Mockingbird, State Bird of Texas, has
a jaunty personality. He don't take
no guff from nobody! We were
quite pleased when this one decided
to join us at Chez Bear!

Well, we never thought of ourselves as bird people -- the only birds that I could recognize on sight in Vancouver were Pigeons, Seagull. Robins and Canada Geese.  Ask Joe sometime about his experinces with them when he rode his bike along the seawall to False Creek -- you don't want to get in their way!  But, pretty much your city birds.  And I was never that interested in birds until we came to Houston and I discovered the Grackles. Now, most of the natives to this area just hate them, calling them pests, but so far they haven't done anything to change our feelings for them.  They're such a boisterous, tropical sounding noisy (but in a happy way) bird that I wanted to find out more about the birds in this part of the world.  After a while we though it might be nice to buy a feeder and nourish some of the feathered residents, so in January of 1999 we did and it's been an experience!

It's warm enough here that we have the windows open from February through May so we can hear the birds calling and scattering seeds as they eat.  It's really rather soothing.  We had closed the windows in the summer (while the air-conditioning ran full time) but in the fall we opened them again and enjoyed the birdsounds again.  At first we just attracted House Sparrows and the occasional brave squirrel (who have gone from  cute little fuzzy things to birdseed stealing gluttons in our minds), but then a pair of Purple Finches (thanks Bruce for the identification!) found us and a pair of Inca Doves.

Then the Brown-headed Cowbirds descended and wreaked havoc -- greedy little characters.  We bought another feeder at that point -- with a greater capacity!  I must admit I really like their call even though they're a bunch of disruptive rowdies.  They only stayed for about a month or two in the spring.  After the first spring we had food out, they did not return, and we wondered why.  The mystery was solved this fall when we saw some try to get at the food we had out and the Mourning Doves (also known as Turtle Doves, we just found out) chased them away!  They haven't been by since.

Our Northern Cardinals (male & female) stayed around all year as did the Blue Jays who raised a family and told their friends where to get the peanuts.  The sound of the birds feeding and calling to each other is something that we enjoy and we hope they'll continue to tell their little friends about the free food here. We were even able to open the doors on Boxing Day 1999 (when we had an open house) and enjoy the sounds of the birds with our guests.  On that day they were extremely pleased with themselves when they chased away a band of  Crows.  Okay, we don't really like crows either, but the blue jays made quite a ruckus to get the crows to move along and after some resistance, the crows left.  After chasing the crows away, the blue jays sat in their tree making happy triumphant sounds for quite a while.

The birds above were our spring 1999 collection -- some of them moved on after creating havoc for a while, and some have stayed.  The cowbirds will not be missed, but I suppose we will see them again this spring.  The Blue Jays are still around as are the finches and the sparrows.  Recently arrived to chow down at Chez Bear are some Mockingbirds, a couple of Mourning Doves and a couple of Black Pigeons, properly known as Rock Doves.  Yes, once we started with all this bird watching, we had to get a book so we could identify what we were seeing.  Anyone who can only identify Robins (and they do come here to winter) and the like would never know a Rock Dove from a Mockingbird!  So we keep the book close by in case we get any new visitors.  We have also had a few Starlings.

Having the feeders has been great -- we witnessed a Blue Jay pumping himself up for a call that I had only heard in the past and never knew which bird made it.  It's a sound that I associate with late summer evenings and was pleased that I finally knew which bird made that sound.  It was very difficult to get pictures of some of these birds -- they are very skittish and will fly away at the slightest movement.  So we actually set up something of a "duck-blind".  We kept the sliding glass doors closed and closed the blinds as well and just peeked the camera lens (on a tripod so we could leave it there all the time) through a gap in the blinds and focussed on the little dish of food we put out to lure them into our sights.  It worked pretty good, although the light wasn't that good most of the time that they liked to visit us.  This photo of the caardinal is one of those who fell into our trap -- it was the only way we could get him on film!
 

While living at the apartment (until January 2002), we attracted quite an array of birds (we thought) and a pretty good collection for an apartment. One Saturday morning in Nov 1999 as we were reading the paper and making lattes, we were enchanted by a visiting Carolina Chickadee -- what an adorable little fellow.  We had a few of them hanging around the apartment after that.  We loved watching them grab a huge seed (compared to their tiny size) and flying into the tree where they held it in their toes and pecked it into pieces small enough to eat!  Adorable.  Unfortunately, they are so quick and tiny that I was never able to capture an clear photo of any of them.

We first met a Tufted Titmouse in January 2000.  It was his distinctive, almost high pitched whistle-like vocalization that attracted Lynda's attention that morning.  I could hear him, but where was he?  I finally spotted him in the tree outside the bathroom window -- and what a treat he was to see.  That crest at the top of his head is so expressive.  We had a pair hanging around the 'feeding station'  after the fall of 2000 whenever they were in town.  Interestingly they don't eat from the hanging feeders -- they're so tiny, I thought they would.  I guess we just make it too easy with those dishes...

I thought I was losing my mind when I saw a large black bird hanging from one or our feeders in the summer of 2000.  It was much too big for any of our hanging feeders, but there it was.  I got closer to try to figure out what it was -- not a Grackle, not a Crow...  Hmmm.  Then it fluffed it's wings to try to get a better position and I saw the flash of red on the shoulders.  I double-checked in the field guide we have, and sure enough it was a Red-winged Blackbird.  According to our field guide, he's supposed to like marshes, swamps meadows and pastures, but in Houston, undeveloped areas aren't too far from anything.  He hung out here for about a week and then moved on. I have seen one at the house too -- but again, he didn't stay for long.
When we went to Newfoundland in June and July 2000 we got to see quite a few birds that I certainly had not seen.  First was our trip to Cape St. Mary's, through wind and fog and rain, we saw Kittiwakes,Gannets and Murrs (oh my!).  Also whales!  It was an amazingly foggy and windy day (yes you do get both, in quantity in Newfoundland) but the fog parted for us to see Bird Rock and the sound of them all was amazing.  Then coming out of the door at Joe's parent's home we saw a whole Cedar Waxwing family!  This band of six flew into the tree outside Joe's parent's place just in time for us to see them on our way out the door.  It was quite a treat for me as I had wanted to see them for a while.  We still haven't seen any here in the winter.  The last sighting was by far the coolest.  We got to see Puffins when we took the O'Brien's boat tour out of Bay Bulls to Witless Bay Ecological Preserve where we finally got to see Puffins!  Did you know baby Puffins are called Pufflings?  They are the cutest birds, and they have to work soooo hard to fly! The day was quite a success all around, I finally got to see both puffins and an iceburg.  That was another thing that I had been wanting to see for a long time.  It was great!

 

The female cardinal, or as we  like to call her, Mrs. C,  has a striking beak and is just  as cautious as her husband.	This Tufted Titmouse is  wondering where the  food is!
This little cutie visited us in Dec 2000 -- Joe  was the one who finally identified the  Orange Crowned Warbler.

One of the last "new" sightings we had before we moved to our house in January 2002 was an Orange-crowned Warbler. who came to visit us in Dec 2000.  Joe first identified this mystery bird after several days of saying to each other, "What the heck is he???".  He's been eating here for about a week and we hope he will stay a while -- he may have been attracted by the suet that we recently put out. Orange-crowned warblers only winter in this area so we won't get to see him for long.  After that one, except for holidays, we saw mostly the same birds we'd seen before.  The Mourning Doves were year-round companions, serenading us with their mournful coos.  Acutually when we first moved into the apartment, we wondered if we had owls!  Shows how little we knew at the time.

September 2, 2002:  Joe saw a hummingbird at our feeder by the kitchen window!  He was very excited to see it there, so now that we know that they know where we are, we can make sure that we keep that feeder full.

 

July 2002 on vacation in the American Southwest: we saw Swifts (at Mesa Verde) -- the ranger identified them to us, they were to far away and moving too swiftly for us to get a really good view.  We also got a good photo of our first Mystery Bird as seen in the photo on the right..  He's a lovely fellow, I just don't know what he is.  Perhaps a swallow of some sort?

In Bryce Canyon we saw a Steller's Jay (the Provincial Bird of BC).  He led me on quite a merry chase.  Unfortunately, he managed to get in such a position that it was impossible to photograph him without falling into the canyon!  The little birdies love to torment me when I have my camera out!

At the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum we saw lots of birds, some of whom we could identify.  Like the Gambel's Quail, Cactus Wren, and Wild Turkey.  Some of them were in an aviary -- is that cheating?  We saw quite a few of them on the Desert Museum grounds but some were much easier to photograph in the aviary -- more used to people, I suppose.
 

I was enchanted by the Gambel's Quail's adorable  feather on the top of his head.

This Cactus Wren seems to be looking for a cactus..

Who are you little birdie  playing in the Prickly Pear?

This fellow might be a  Black-necked Stilt

This one is a Killdeer!

We also saw some birds that we have yet to identify.  Mostly because we have the Field Guide to North American Birds Eastern Edition and we were in the western part of the country.  That and we've been quite lazy.  So if you recognize any of these birds, please let us know what they are!  For instance, these two yellow fellows below... Any ideas?

 

Juevenile Male Yellow- Headed Blackbird.  Thanks for the ID Bruce!

My you're lovely too!  Bruce says you're some kind of Grosbeak

We haven't really been able to birdwatch to the same extent at the house as we did in the apartment.  Part of the problem is that it's the middle of summer and we don't have an unobstructed view of the feeders when we have the door closed.  With the large covered deck we have out back, it's hard to get a really good view of the feeders.  We have one right outside our bedroom window which sometimes makes for great 'listenings' as we hear cardinals 'chip'ing happily as they munch on seeds.  Lynda had a great view of a Mommy Cardinal feeding her voracious youngster as he flapped and 'chipped'.  It's hard to see though because usually everyone flies away when they notice the blind moving and we peek around it to see them.

We are planning on getting a new super feeder sometime in the near future --  replacing some older and frailer feeders.  And once it cools off a little, I'll take my camera and zoom lens outside and sit very very still....  I am hoping next year to get a Purple Martin house.  Some neighbours down the street have to I have hope that we might be able to attract some single Purple Martins looking for a mate.  Their houses aren't cheap, but think of all the aggrivation we'll save with all the mosquitoes they'll eat!

Well at the house, the squirrel problem is non-existnat since we've moved away from the pine forests that they inhabit.  I certainly haven't revised my opinion of squirrels (bird-seed theiving, fuzzy-tailed rats), but it's such a relief not to have to constantly fight with them.  They always won!  Oh, occasionally Joe would peg one squarely with the squirt gun, but even when he did, nothing would deter them.  They'd be back as soon as we'd sat back down.  So I am much releived to be participating in the squirrel wars anymore.  Back when we were in the thick of the fight, we found a wonderful book, Outwitting Squirrels, by Bill Adler, Jr.  It made us feel vindicated in our squirrel war and has lots of suggetstions for keeping squirrels out of your feeder.  A humourous look at the squirrel-wars, Bill Adler, Jr. had us laughing for hours.