Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Cold Birds
The poor birds were COLD and HUNGRY this morning (-11 when I got to work; probably colder at 7 AM out the other end of town where it's all open)! They must've used up a lot of energy keeping warm last night. I had gotten up early, so Toby and I went out to fill feeders. Two little pine siskins were clinging to the thistle feeder. They refused to move, pecking slowly at the seeds within. I stood there, a little more than a foot away and waited for them to fly off (siskins are usually pretty skittish birds), but no dice. I reached into the bag of seed and held up my hand next to the birds - I could've touched them if I moved my hand a half inch closer. One took off, but the other still hung on. Finally, it's stress levels must've gone into overdrive and it, too, flew off. I filled the feeder with the remaining thistle seed, and added more sunflower seed to the sunflower seed feeders, peanuts to the peanut feeders. Although it was subzero out, standing there in the shelter of the house and facing the morning sun it wasn't too bad - but once out in the wind it turned pretty brutal.
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The Beekmantown feeder has been pretty active the last couple days - those birds always know something.
ReplyDeleteWe've had large groups of sparrows (2 or 3 different kinds) coming in the morning and annoying the chickadees. Today, they all seem to be playing together. Not huddling, but definitely more tolerant.
Our feeders too have been swarmed this week, and with siskins for the first time ever. I thought they were goldfinches wearing an extra striped coat. Not really. But they sure do look like first cousins. Our chickadees and nuthatches are all pretty tame; sometimes I almost have to shoo them off the feeders to fill them.
ReplyDeleteI love your blog and I'm so glad you seem to like mine. Thanks so much for your kind comments. If you'd like to find a way to connect, you can e-mail me at www.donnelly.jackie@yahoo.com
Hi, well thanks to Adirondack Life, i just found your blog........thankyou.........i'm abit south, in central new york on chenango lake.........well. sunday and monday i couldn't fill the feeders fast enough.........all those siskins and gold finch,,,,,,,,,chickadees just took a back seat to all the commotion.......looking forward to checking in here now (for the winter anyway).......cross country skiing has been real good here too....
ReplyDeletepeace, B..