Photo by Chris Bosak
A Blue Jay grabs a peanut from a feeder in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 2016.
Here are a few more shots of the Blue Jays eating peanuts from the feeder that my friend Lorna gave me. Click here for more of that story.
I don’t know why, but I get a kick out of watching birds carrying away whole peanuts.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Blue Jay grabs a peanut from a feeder in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 2016.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Chipping Sparrow raises its crest while standing on a log in Danbury, Conn., summer2016.
Here are a few more leftover photos from 2016. I like these photos because they show an interesting bird behavior.
My new home in the woods is popular among Chipping Sparrows. They are very common in the immediate area, much to my delight. They visit my feeders and hang out among my trees.
Sometimes, however, one gets agitated about something or another. Maybe my cat got out and was around; maybe Blue Jays or crows were around; maybe it knew I was close by with a camera. Whatever the reason, this guy or girl wasn’t happy at the moment.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Chipping Sparrow raises its crest while standing on a log in Danbury, Conn., summer2016.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A male Downy Woodpecker eats from a homemade platform feeder in Danbury, Conn., fall 2016.
Here are a few more photos that I took in 2016 that never saw the light of day. These photos are good for showing the difference between male and female Downy Woodpeckers. With many woodpeckers, the male shows more red than the female. In the case of the downy (and hairy), the female lack red altogether.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A female Downy Woodpecker eats from a homemade platform feeder in Danbury, Conn., fall 2016.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Red-breasted Nuthatch grabs a sunflower seed from a feeder in Danbury, Conn., in Dec. 2016.
It’s been a good year for Red-breasted Nuthatches in southern New England. Here’s another one that visited my feeder this winter (even though winter hasn’t officially started yet.)
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Blue Jay grabs a peanut from a feeder in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 2016.
This post is for my friend Lorna, a tough young bird. The Hour family is thinking of you.
The feeder is an Enchanted Bird Venetian Bronze feeder by Good Directions. More importantly for this post, though, it was a gift from Lorna when I bought my house in Danbury last year. Well, it works Lorna, as you can see from these photos. More photos to come in the following days, too.
Thanks again, Lorna, and be well!
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Blue Jay grabs a peanut from a feeder in Danbury, Conn., Dec. 2016.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Tufted Titmouse tries to figure out how to pick up a peanut off a deck railing in Danbury, Conn., in the fall of 2016.
I am entertained by birds doing just about anything, but one of my favorite sights in the backyard is watching birds grab peanuts and fly off to store or eat them. I put a handful or two of peanuts on a platform feeder or on the deck railing itself and wait for the birds to discover them.
If the Blue Jays arrive first, forget it, the peanuts will be gone in a matter of minutes. Same goes for the Red-bellied Woodpecker. One or two of them empty the feeder in minutes, too.
I like when smaller birds, such as the Tufted Titmouse above, go after the peanuts. Their bills aren’t large enough to simply fly in, grab the nut and take off. They need to pick the right peanut and position it just right to grab it.
If you’ve never tried offering peanuts in the shell to birds, give it a shot. It has great entertainment value.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Tufted Titmouse visits a feeder in Danbury, Conn., in Nov. 2016, during the Audubon Park My Bird Week media challenge. Both the feeder and seeds are from Audubon Park.
Here are a few more photos from my Audubon Park My Bird Week media challenge.
Here’s the original post, which explains the challenge.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A White-breasted Nuthatch visits a feeder in Danbury, Conn., in Nov. 2016, during the Audubon Park My Bird Week media challenge. Both the feeder and seeds are from Audubon Park.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A pair of Tufted Titmice visit a feeder during the Audobon Park My Bird Week media challenge in Danbury, Conn., in Nov. 2016. Both the feeder and seeds are from Audubon Park.
I recently accepted a challenge from Audubon Park to participate in a media challenge whereby members of the media, using an Audubon Park feeder and bird seed blend, feed birds for a week and tracke the birds they see.
I already had a feeding station set up, so I knew the birds would quickly discover the new feeder in the area. I planted a new pole set up to hang the feeder on. Well, it took a matter of minutes for the Audubon Park feeder and seeds to get broken in by “my” birds.
At first it was my favorite regulars — Black-caped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, and White-breasted Nuthatch — that visited the feeder. Continue reading
Photo by Chris Bosak
A junco looks for seeds on a dried up plant at Weed Beach in Darien, Conn., in Jan. 2015.
Here’s the latest For the Birds column, which runs weekly in The Hour (Norwalk, Conn.), The Keene (NH) Sentinel and several Connecticut weekly newspapers.
…
I was wondering when the first one would show up. Mid to late October is typically when the Dark-eyed Juncos start showing up throughout the southern half of New England, but I hadn’t seen one yet and October was quickly fading away.
Eventually I noticed something that looked out of place on a low branch of a hemlock that juts into my backyard. Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice and White-breasted Nuthatches had launched an all-out assault on my feeders in the morning and never stopped as the sun continued to get higher in the sky.
Clearly this bird on the hemlock was not one of those three species. I had seen enough of those birds to be able to identify them in my sleep.
Obviously, the bird was a Dark-eyed Junco. It was an adult male Continue reading
A Red-breasted Nuthatch perches near a birdfeeding station in Danbury, Conn., Oct. 2016.
A White-breasted Nuthatch perches near a birdfeeding station in Danbury, Conn., Oct. 2016.
Here’s a side-by-side (well, really top-to-bottom) comparison of the two nuthatches in New England. The White-breasted is more common throughout much of the region. It is also larger than its cousin. The Red-breasted is more common in the northern parts of New England and visits the southern region in the winter in numbers that vary greatly from year to year.
Birds of New England.com 