The Bluejays had been squawking since before 6 this morning but didn't get fed until 7:30. I didn't even get the second tray hung when a cranky Bluejay, who figured he'd waited long enough, flew onto the first tray for his peanut, about 8" from my face! Somehow we've picked up another 4 Bluejays, so we had 10 Jays screaming into the trays this morning. We've nick-named our Jays the Blue Bombers, and this is why.Once the first surge is over, they go about 50' back into the woods for a strategy session. Here they begin their raucous noise making session all over again. We think they're figuring out their next tactical strike, which usually occurs within minutes.
We feed both shelled and whole peanuts, and the savvy Bluejays will weigh up to 4 or 5 peanuts before making their decision. This routine continues for half the morning until the peanuts are gone. The only bird who has enough guts to stand up to this onslaught is Big-Momma, a female Harry Woodpecker that's not afraid of anyone, and if you saw her beak, you'd know why.
We have 7 other feeding stations besides the peanut trays, can you guess what our bird food bill is each month?
We just came in from taking Punkin out after lunch, and the Goldfinches are so loud they're almost deafening. We had a bunch of finches winter with us and most never left. Unfortunately, the one I really wish would have stayed didn't. It was this most amazing Goldfinch that was almost entirely white except for the barest hint of yellow on the top portion of it's body, and you could only see the yellow with high powered binoculars. It showed up at the same time 4 Blue Birds did, all of which stayed for about 2 weeks before moving on.
I should have known then it was an omen . . . just a few weeks later we had a "winter hurricane" take 25 trees down. On second thought, maybe it was a good thing it moved on . . . .
It's mid afternoon and for the first time a Cardinal is using the "Cardinal" feeder, it only took over a year to get them to use it, dah! Hopefully the Evening Grosebeak family will come back again this year, they used the Cardinal feeder a lot last year.
Of course it's that time of year again when we're bringing in the feeders every night an
d taking them back out in the morning because the bear wakes up around April 1st. Which also means we're back on bear watch . . . . (Photo taken last fall when a two year old Black Bear was back to visit us "again". )
