Author Archives: Richard

The Supply-side Economics of Bird Feeding

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Ever watch a Black-capped Chickadee or White-breasted Nuthatch pick away at the feeder, discarding stuff left and right until a sunflower seed pops up?

Eat the millet — it’s good for you!

I have a deck littered with millet and other rejected seeds as Nuthatches, Chickadees, and finches select the good stuff.  So why did I buy bags of mixed seeds?  It seemed to be an economical way to feed birds but the only folks happy are the chipmunks and red squirrels, and an occasional night-time raccoon who vacuum up the leftovers.

Last week, Mary got sick of sweeping the deck (as did I)  so she bought a bag of black oil sunflower seeds — the feed we have used in years past — and the birds no longer have a choice.  (Well, they still do because I have to integrate the rest of the mix into the feeder — but of course, even camouflaged with sunflowers, it still gets left there.

When I read this article from BirdWatching Magazine, I thought, “Well, I think we did the right thing.”   Here’s an excerpt:

As a result of this year’s drought and high temperatures, agricultural prices are expected to reach record-setting levels. Economizing on bird feeding is a priority. Below are tips that will help you do so while increasing both your enjoyment and your feeding’s value to birds.

Sunflower-seed prices are high, for sure, but switching to cheaper mixes that include a little sunflower seed and more generic “bird seed” is an excellent example of being penny wise but pound foolish. Most birds ignore a lot of the seeds in mixes, especially inexpensive ones, and not only are those filler seeds a waste of money but some attract nuisance wildlife such as rats. Just as bad, seed that doesn’t get eaten rots, exposing your birds to disease-causing bacteria and fungus.

Many of the smaller seeds in mixes are popular with birds that don’t need subsidies from us and cause problems for native birds. Although it’s counterintuitive, in the long run, you’ll spend less by offering sunflower seed alone. You’ll still be providing food for the widest mixture of native birds, including chickadees and nuthatches, finches, small woodpeckers, jays, and doves…

 

We’ll feed sunflower seed, niger seed for the finches, and suet for the woodpeckers.  That should keep our birds, and our farm supply store, happy this winter.

Our Airstream Takes A Ferry Ride

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The repairs by Colin Hyde to our Airstream are finished.  It took nearly eight months from the mishap but once we got started, the work looks great.  Here are a couple of final photos.

The interior back in place

The two end panels all fixed and the awning and trim reinstalled.

Today, I went over and picked up the ‘Stream and brought it back across Lake Champlain.  It was a beautiful day and and easy trip — excepting the fact that the electric jack seems to have died.  Just another project to tackle before snow.

The truck and Airstream riding the ferry homeward.

A calm day on Lake Champlain, looking back toward the Adirondacks

The sister ferry passing us on its way to New York

So now the trick is to work on the interior and get the walls polished so that I can install the beds and cabinets.  We are thinking of using it for our Thanksgiving trip — if it’s ready by then.  

Another Birder License Plate

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A Twitter friend, @Birder_Katie, sent me a photo of her boss’s license plate.  It’s a cool one.

A cool birder plate on a cool car.

You can see some others here.  Do you have a photo of a birding plate?  Send it and we’ll post it.

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An Original DUCKumentary

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On Wednesday, Nov. 14, at 8 p.m., “Nature” premieres “An Original DUCKumentary.”  Vermont Public Television will broadcast this new film by Ann Johnson Prum, who produced “Hummingbirds.”  It follows a wood duck family, discovering how a male and female create a bond and migrate together across thousands of miles.  They nurture their brood of chicks, then head to their wintering grounds.

The film includes two sequences shot by Vermont’s Bryan Pfeiffer — one from Marshfield and one from Montpelier.  It also includes footage of a hooded merganser nest at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier.

VPT will also air the program in its overnight schedule http://www.vpt.org/show/88/3004, and it will be available on demand at pbs.org/video.

Naturally Curious — Book Review

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Naturally Curious is a wonderful book given to me last year by my daughter upon the recommendation of the owner of her local birding supply store.  I have started reading it again this Fall.  It is set up by month so I started with the November chapter but then realized that we were just through October so I backtracked.  I love the detail and all the factoids on a variety of natural items.  Naturally (pardon the pun), I gravitated to the birding sections but learn a lot from the insect and plant sections as well.  Right now, I’m trying to learn more about ferns — although I should have started a few months ago — most have been killed by frost.

This is not a book you can’t put down — I take a break for a few months and then start again, like I’m doing now.  I kind of savor the content — not wanting to get too far ahead but rather following the months as they occur.

Let me give you example of the type of information I just find fascinating, this from a writeup on yellow-bellied sapsuckers:

“By far the most frequent visitor to sapsucker wells, other than sapsuckers, is the ruby-throated hummingbird. Like the sapsucker, it is in search of sap as well as insects that are attracted to the sap, and has been seen following sapsuckers as they visit their wells. Tree sap is similar to flower nectar in the amount of sugar and nutrients it contains.  When hummingbirds first return to New England in early May, flowers are few and far between, so tree sap, available to hummingbirds thanks to yellow-bellied sapsuckers, is a lifesaving substitute. It seems more than coincidental that the spring arrival of the ruby-throated hummingbird and the height of yellow-bellied sapsucker drilling occur at the same time.”

This is one of those “read a little, absorb, read some more” type of book.  While it’s focused on New England,  it has a lot of information that is applicable in other sections of the U.S.  It’s one of those books I go back to, time and time again once I finished it.    I highly recommend it as a book to have on your bookshelves.  It’s a great holiday gift for an budding naturalists in your life.

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Buffleheads Coming & Going

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We are going through a patch of crappy weather with spitting rain and temperatures in the high 30’s or low 40’s.  It’s good wood fire weather and not much fun fiddling with tripods, scopes, and cameras.  But, hey, it’s Vermont in November so suck it up and get out there.

Yesterday I took a look at some local bodies of water for new arrivals but only ran into Black Scoters  and these nine Bufflehead way out on Wrightsville Reservoir.

The nice thing about Bufflehead, aside from their “spiffiness,” is that they tend to cruise along and not dive and disappear like Hooded Mergansers.

I went back early this morning to Wrightsville and found only a solo male floating away on the deserted reservoir.  Was he new?  Did his buddies leave without him?  We’ll never know but I suspect he’ll be on his way on the north winds we are getting today.  He’s come a long way from his breeding grounds and still has a way to go before winter.  Neat little birds — great to have them around for a while.

Thursday Digiscoping

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I went out with my larger camera and in spite of temperatures in the low 40’s and cloud cover, found some active birds to practice on.  I had forgotten my remote control so I shot in bursts to try to cut down on camera shake.  I fiddled with ISO settings, ending up with 2000 to get any decent shutter speed.  Here are a few birds I found:

A Ringed-necked Duck on Berlin Pond. Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon EOS 60D, 50 mm lens, & Vortex DCA adapter.

I found a great spot for sparrows at Wrightsville Dam and in spite of the dog’s help, running to and fro, I grabbed a few images.  Sparrows have left our property and I was surprised to see so many species frolicking and singing away.  They won’t be around much longer.

We have recently started to see American Tree Sparrows migrate here and should have them around all winter.

This is the first Fox Sparrow I’ve seen this year. They are likely on their way through to a little warmer climes.

Hoodies Are Here

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A visit this morning to nearby Berlin Pond revealed a few Hooded Mergansers, one of my favorite birds, and a raft of Black Scoters out in the middle of the pond.  Hoodies are fun the watch — the males look so dressed up and important, especially with their crest up.  The females often look like they’ve had a bad hair day with the rusty crest fluffed up.  I’m still figuring out which camera to use digiscoping but here’s some shots I took of them:

Hooded Mergansers on Berlin Pond – 10-31-12 Vortex Razor HD, 20-60 eyepiece at 20x, Canon SD4000, Vortex DCA & PS100 adapters.

Male Hoodies with their crest up look pretty spiffy.

A poor digiscoped shot through the trees of a raft of Black Scoters. I originally called these American Coots but the yellow beaks made me change my call.

I’m going to experiment again with my Canon 60D for digiscoping and see if that results in sharper images.  We’ll see if that helps with clarity — although I think that it just takes more practice and better camera settings to match conditions.  Nice challenge for this Fall.

A Couple of Storm Birds

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In spite of forecast for high winds and some rain, we escaped Hurricane Sandy with just a little wind and showers.  And so while we we likely didn’t get any rare birds blown in, we also are much more fortunate than our southern neighbors in New York, New Jersey, and the mid-Atlantic region.  The scenes of destruction put things in perspective.

Yesterday in the late morning, I drove down to a doctor’s appointment.  I had put the scope and binos in the truck, just in case.  As I drove by the Wrightsville Reservoir, just down the road from my house, I saw a couple of specs of white on the water as I raced by.  I turned around, drove down to the boat launch, and set up my scope.  A Bufflehead and a grebe were across the water, just resting in place.  I digiscoped a couple of shots and jumped in the truck to get to the doc in time.  Here’s what I saw:

After the appointment, I stopped on my way back.  The grebe had moved away from the Bufflehead and was even further off.  As I was driving off, two birder friends, both more skilled than I, drove up and we spent some time scoping the bird.  It was diving frequently and the light was bad but we settled on a Horned Grebe.  One reason is that the Red-necked is quite a lot larger.

The Bufflehead and the Horned Grebe are nearly the same size so having them side-by-side was a big help.

This is my first Vermont Horned Grebe and thus, first in Washington County.  I’m hoping that we might get a few more strays today.

Images by Dick Mansfield

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