End of August Update

Found one dead House Finch dead that hit a window on Wednesday. It looked healthy from what I could tell; no House Finch Disease signs around the eyes, etc., but the eyes were kind of closed so I can't be 100 percent sure, but didn't see any redness around the eyes either.

Thursday I saw four baby cardinals at the feeder in various stages with the mother that is molting and has essentially a bald head.

Thinking of various other feeder setups that are spread out from one another. One for cardinals that prefer to eat away from other birds, and also for the House Finches, as some do carry House Finch Disease and I don't want to have them too close together to other house finches or other birds that could get it.

A few recent videos:

Deja Vu

Around this time last year I would see two cardinals feeding the fledgling baby. Now I see a female feeding another fledgling again. There's nothing like seeing parents feeding their young. And now that I see quite a few birds molting, there are some unique identifying marks and can tell birds apart more.

Common Grackles and Blue Jays

Summer Update

A Northern Mockingbird sat at my feeder, seemingly guarding the highly sought-after peanuts, as he often does, but as he or she was, I saw it poop a big one in my sauce cup where the peanuts were. I went outside to clean it up and noticed the poop was red and messy, getting all over my peanuts. I thought, is that blood? Then I came to the conclusion that, you know what, it's probably from eating berries. I might start offering berries at my feeder. I'm not sure what kind I would offer, though. I guess grapes would be the most common. But I did wonder why it pooped in the peanuts. Maybe a territorial marking, or even trying to ruin the rest of the peanuts for the other birds after it's done eating? Who knows.

On an unrelated note, I had jury duty yesterday and was reading a book I got for Xmas, called The Private Lives of Birds. I read a chapter while waiting. It was very enlightening and interesting. I haven't sat and read a book in a while...

After having experienced every season of birding, I now find myself planning for each season. Next spring I am going to offer a bunch of nesting material early, like human hair, pre-packaged moss or other nesting material I can find. Spring went by waaay too fast. I loved the nesting season. Winter will definitely be busy, with a bunch of cold, hungry birds, not to mention all the migrants that come from the north. I find myself already planning for the winter, like where will I put all the feeders, what kind of food to put in each and the layout, for ground feeders especially.

Common Grackles with Injured or Infected Legs/Talons/Feet/Claws

I've had a lot of grackles the past month or so and notice a few with things wrong with their legs or talons. One was missing the entire leg nearly. Another had a closed/clinched talon that doesn't open (saw some time ago) and the one recent one I've been noticing is one that has a completely swollen talon on his left foot, about three times the size of the other unaffected talon of his. It looks really bad. He doesn't put any weight on it either. I've tried to google some info on this and it might be Avian Pox. If I could capture him I would and send him to a wildlife rehabber. I'm not sure how curable or treatable Avian Pox is. I've also noticed two more House Finches with House Finch Disease. I sent one finch off with it to a wildlife rehabber last week, but not sure I'll be able to capture any of these birds unless they're within reach and not moving much like what happened with the House Finch I took to the rehabber.

Kmart Clearance Birdfeeders and Other Bird Stuff...FOR CHEAP

I went to Kmart today and picked up this awesome three-chamber, 12 port bird feeder for $2 dollars! I was shocked. It's normally around $18, and even higher at some online stores. I got home and filled it up and it works perfectly! I don't normally go to Kmart because their prices are too high normally but their clearance can be unbelievably cheap. I highly recommend going their to see if you can find some dirt-cheap deals like I did. Here's a picture I took of the $2 dollar feeder:

Perky-Pet 3221 Grandview Wild Bird Feeder with 12 Feeding Stations

UPDATE 8-9-2011:

I went back and got the rest of what they had, which were three more of the feeders pictured above, and one six-port one, which was only $1 dollar! And I picked up an 18 lbs. bag of premium bird food with nuts, etc. for $9 dollars, regularly around $18. But I went to a few other Kmarts and their prices were sky-high as Kmart usually is. But if you can find the stores with the dirt-cheap clearance items, snatch it up quick...before I do! ' ' )