hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) (04/16/91)
Can anybody out there tell me the best things to include in a bird feeding station and how to get the birds to notice that you have prepared a feast for them? I'm new to all this but I would really like to start attracting birds to my yard. I have two cats -- can I feed birds safely? Also, what is the best field guide for So. Calif (coast). How do you use a field guide. Do you just keep flipping through it until you recognize the bird you are trying to identify or is there some system? I posted this once before (I think) but didn't get any answers. maybe this time I'll have more luck. Thanks in advance for any suggestions -- Sheri PS We already have some horned owls nesting (I think) in some big canary pines. Can anyone tell me anything about these birds?
tfisher@NPIRS.Purdue.EDU (Tom Fisher) (04/17/91)
From article <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, by hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings): > > Can anybody out there tell me the best things to include in a > bird feeding station and how to get the birds to notice that you > have prepared a feast for them? Try hanging an aluminum pie pan (the cheap disposable kind) somewhere in the vacinity. The sun reflecting off it will attract attention. > > I'm new to all this but I would really like to start attracting birds to > my yard. I have two cats -- can I feed birds safely? Cats and birds *DON'T* mix! Sorry. > Also, what is the best field guide for So. Calif (coast). How do you use > a field guide. Do you just keep flipping through it until you recognize > the bird you are trying to identify or is there some system? Peterson's Field Guide is probably the most popular. And yes, just flipping thru is about as good a system as any (I'll bet there will be arguments about *that*). > I posted this once before (I think) but didn't get any answers. maybe > this time I'll have more luck. You're welcome. Good luck! > PS We already have some horned owls nesting (I think) in some big > canary pines. Can anyone tell me anything about these birds? They love to eat small animals - maybe even cats :-) :-( ! -- ============================================================================== Tom Fisher tfisher@npirs.purdue.edu | "...if by chance we find each Phone (317) 494-6616 | other, it is beautiful." - F. Perls
john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) (04/17/91)
Sheri Hastings (hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov): +-- | We already have some horned owls nesting (I think) in some big | canary pines. Can anyone tell me anything about these birds? +-- Tom Fisher (tfisher@NPIRS.Purdue.EDU): +-- | They love to eat small animals - maybe even cats :-) :-( ! +-- I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills. Another interesting fact about this species of owl is that it is *the* major predator of skunks. Owls don't have much of a sense of smell, skunks are a plentiful resource, and both of them are nocturnal. Some museum study skins of Great Horned Owl are still quite fragrant after several decades. -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, NM/john@jupiter.nmt.edu ``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber
hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) (04/17/91)
In article <1991Apr17.072124.3028@nmt.edu> john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: >I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban >cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills. > >Another interesting fact about this species of owl is that it is >*the* major predator of skunks. Owls don't have much of a sense >of smell, skunks are a plentiful resource, and both of them are >nocturnal. Some museum study skins of Great Horned Owl are still >quite fragrant after several decades. >-- We have lots of skunks around our house. (My dog has been sprayed twice already this spring.) Maybe that's why the owls hang around. I've actually seen them carrying rabbits away. These particular owls are pretty bold. Once one swooped down and grabbed a rabbit less than ten feet from me. It was so fast. I didn't even see it coming. I've also seen them carrying mice, snakes, and lizards. Do they bother any other birds? I like to walk at sunset and that is when I usually see these guys (gals? how do you tell them apart?) with their prey. Alas -- my poor dear kitties. (I lost a cat last year. We found the skull of something that could have been a cat under the pines where these owls hang out.) I think I'll bring the cats in at night. Several people have suggested that I put bells on the cats if I am going to attract birds to the yard. That seems like a pretty good idea to me.
sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH) (04/18/91)
In article <1991Apr17.163718.27746@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov> hastings@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Sheri Hastings) writes: >In article <1991Apr17.072124.3028@nmt.edu> john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: > >>I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban >>cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills. >> >seen them carrying mice, snakes, and lizards. Do they bother any other birds? Not that I know of, being nocturnal it's usually little four legged critters that they are after. >I like to walk at sunset and that is when I usually see these guys (gals? >how do you tell them apart?) with their prey. > The only way I know of is by voice. Female supposedly higher pitched. >these owls hang out.) I think I'll bring the cats in at night. > Wise. If owls don't get them Coyotes might. We have lost cats to both. >Several people have suggested that I put bells on the cats if I am >going to attract birds to the yard. That seems like a pretty good >idea to me. > Especially at this time of year, even if you don't have feeders out right now. It is nesting season as well as lots of migratory birds passing throught the area right now. Our youngest cat got an Orange-crowned Warbler today, even though belled. Karen was furious and I'm afraid the kitty will be confined to the hous for a week or so as punishment for such a deed. She managed to get it away before the cat did much damage but Sam Conroy's messages from a year or so ago tell me that the bird will die anyway. One of her cage birds died today also, so she is not fit to even call on the phone. -Sid
rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (ArchTeryx) (04/18/91)
sid@jato.jpl.nasa.gov (Sid Johnson WB6VWH) writes: >Especially at this time of year, even if you don't have feeders out right >now. It is nesting season as well as lots of migratory birds passing >throught the area right now. Our youngest cat got an Orange-crowned >Warbler today, even though belled. Karen was furious and I'm afraid the >kitty will be confined to the hous for a week or so as punishment for >such a deed. She managed to get it away before the cat did much >damage but Sam Conroy's messages from a year or so ago tell me that >the bird will die anyway. One of her cage birds died today also, so >she is not fit to even call on the phone. Probably the reason is that I have heard from more than one source that feline saliva contains bacteria that is a powerful avian pathogen, that the birds have little or no defense against, and is fatal very quickly. So that even if the cat gets a scratch in with it's teeth, and gets a little saliva into that scratch, most birds are doomed. I heard a story of a falconer of a cat that managed to nip a Red-Tailed hawk; the hawk came within an inch of dying from the resulting infection. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- R. Cody Buchmann ^.^ "ArchTeryx" "Of *course* I understand you--I speak email: rcb33483@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu 1406 intergalactic avian dialects!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
wybranie@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Wybraniec) (04/18/91)
The first thing I'd recommend for a bird "feeding" station is water. Fresh water in good weather, fresh non-frozen water in winter. And much better if this water is running, moving, dripping, spraying, splashing, falling. You can only attract seed-eaters with seed, but all birds need water. I have a concrete birdbath and have a dripper attached to the outdoor hose. This dripper is worth its weight in gold in my opinion. I have a "Y" attached to the faucet and each half of the "Y" can be turned on/off independently. So I have the spigot set to *barely* on. I buried the little hose under a few inches of grass/mulch between the house and birdbath (must think of lawnmowers and squirrels). This provides water movement which is very attractive and no scum grows in the bath. In the winter I take out the dripper, disconnect the hose, blow it dry and leave it buried; and plug in the Blue Devil heater. This senses water temp and only turns itself on *in water* and keeps it about 40 degrees. Since our hoses freeze in the winter, I carry about a 1/2 gallon out every other day to keep the level up, and I scrub/brush it about once a month. My birdbath was a gift and is not particularly shallow nor does it have gently sloping sides like they should. So I put in a piece of slate to make a section of it shallow. If you do this, you too can be known as the neighborhood nut who gives the birds a "heated jacuzzi with shower facilities, and a deep and shallow end to the pool!" :-) Each of these gadgets is about $40. Second, black oil sunflower seed, with the shell still on. Put this (I use a cup or two a day) on a raised platform. Try to keep your platform more than 10 feet away from tree branches or house or deck or anything a squirrel can jump from. All my branches in the vicinity are pruned way back, but there are incredibly acrobatic squirrels out there. Occasionally I'll still go and scare a squirrel off the plat- form, but in general I've conceded defeat. Throw millet on the ground (I use a cup or two a day). Try to have this ground space be open - that is, no bushes/porches a/c units nearby that cats can hide behind and get close enough for a pounce. I have 2 cats and *do not* have a problem. The above, IMHO, are the basics. DON'T buy the wild bird *mixed* seed. What happens is that the birds who like black oil pick it out (the companies don't put in much of this good stuff anyway), and the ground feeders wait for the millet to fall, and the rest goes to waste. Once you become crazy, add whole peanuts and suet and hummingbird nectar. My neighbors only jokingly think I'm nuts because it is such a pleasure to look or sit outside with all manner of fauna avia flitting about! And on a predatory note: remember that all this is also the instructions on how to build a hawk feeder. Good luck. Be patient. Suzanne (Northern Virginia)
quezon@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Quezon) (04/18/91)
Owls do take birds. While most owls are primarily nocturnal, they are occasionally out on the prowl in the early twilight or late dawn hours. This brings them in contact with birds unlucky enough to be out a little late or a little early. Not only do owls take song birds during the dusk or dawn hours, but they will attack and consume other owls they may encounter at night. For example, a Great Horned Owl or Barred Owl will take any owl smaller than himself, such as Screech and/or Saw Whet Owls. Great Horned Owls are known to have devastated Peregrine Falcon hacking towers. If the owls find a hacking tower, they will return night after night to attack and eat the Peregrines until there are no falcons left or the tower is relocated. Great Horned Owls can be a significant cause of failed Peregrine reintroductions. A.J. Quezon David Taylor Research Center
grp@Unify.com (Greg Pasquariello) (04/20/91)
In article <1991Apr17.163718.27746@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) writes: > In article <1991Apr17.072124.3028@nmt.edu> john@nmt.edu (John Shipman) writes: > > >I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban > >cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills. > > > >Another interesting fact about this species of owl is that it is > >*the* major predator of skunks. Owls don't have much of a sense > >of smell, skunks are a plentiful resource, and both of them are > >nocturnal. Some museum study skins of Great Horned Owl are still > >quite fragrant after several decades. > >-- > > We have lots of skunks around our house. (My dog has been sprayed twice > already this spring.) Maybe that's why the owls hang around. > > I've actually seen them carrying rabbits away. These particular owls are > pretty bold. Once one swooped down and grabbed a rabbit less than ten > feet from me. It was so fast. I didn't even see it coming. I've also > seen them carrying mice, snakes, and lizards. Do they bother any other birds? Yes, they will eat Red-shouldered Hawks and Barred Owls. --- Greg Pasquariello grp@unify.com Unify Corporation Be good and never poison people
steve@zoo.toronto.edu (Stephen Smith) (04/20/91)
Sheri Hastings (hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov): +-- | We already have some horned owls nesting (I think) in some big | canary pines. Can anyone tell me anything about these birds? +-- Tom Fisher (tfisher@NPIRS.Purdue.EDU): +-- | They love to eat small animals - maybe even cats :-) :-( ! +-- John Shipman (john@nmt.edu): +-- |I've heard that Great Horned Owls regularly catch well-fed suburban |cats in the wealthy Bay Area suburb of Los Altos Hills... | |Another interesting fact about this species of owl is that it is |*the* major predator of skunks... +-- There are a number of Great Horned Owl roosts in a local Toronto ravine which I've been snooping about of late. These sites represent the work of at least 8 owls. By far the most abundant prey item found seems to be rock dove, with mourning dove a close second. This evidence is from both pellet analysis and butcher-block leavings. After doves, meadow voles seem to be the next abundant prey item. Other animals having the misfortune to cross the palate of this gang of gourmands are: deer mice, short-tailed shrew, crayfish, a salmonid (really), crow (touche), woodpeckers, and something that had a skull distressingly screech owl-like. As the same local has skunks, cottontail, and house cats, I assume they also have been ticked off the owls' eat-it list - I've just never found the evidence. --- -- +==========================================================================+ + Stephen Smith || uunet!attcan!utzoo!steve steve@zoo.utoronto.ca + +==========================================================================+
dans@yang.earlham.edu (04/22/91)
In article <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) writes: > Sheri writes: > "Can anybody out there tell me the best things to include in a > bird feeding station and how to get the birds to notice that you > have prepared a feast for them?" It is important to have good seed. What type of seed you use should depend on the type of birds you wish to feed. Most birds like black oil sunflower; the ones that don't (as much) are often the very birds you don't want to feed: pigeons, doves, etc. Make sure, however, that you get BLACK OIL SUNFLOWER, not striped sunflower. Safflower is much beloved by cardinals, and not by starlings. This is almost miraculous. Beware of mixes. Often the mix you get in the supermarket or hardware store contains seed that the birds don't eat. It's there because it's cheap and adds to the weight of the package. If you use a mix, try to make sure it contains seed the birds eat. At the Audubon Naturalist Society in Chevy Chase, Maryland, we use (if I remember correctly) 50% black oil sunflower, 40% white proso millet, 5% red millet, an 5% split peanuts. > > "Also, what is the best field guide for So. Calif (coast). How do you use > a field guide. Do you just keep flipping through it until you recognize > the bird you are trying to identify or is there some system?" I recomend the Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds, the new third edition. It is organized by family, so you can generally find the right page quickly. It contains little arrows that point to distinguishing features of the bird. Also, the text and the pictures are on the same page, so you don't have to wait until the bird you have identified as a pine grossbeak has flown away before you find out that pine grossbeaks don't live in that part of the country. > > Good luck! --Dan Schatz
lgorbet@hydra.unm.edu (Larry P Gorbet ANTHROPOLOGY) (04/22/91)
In article <1991Apr21.142938.12830@yang.earlham.edu> dans@yang.earlham.edu writes: >In article <1991Apr15.225115.3695@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov>, hastings@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov (Sheri Hastings) writes: >> Sheri writes: >> "...what is the best field guide for So. Calif (coast). ... " > > I recomend the Peterson Field Guide to Western Birds, the new >third edition. It is organized by family, so you can generally find the >right page quickly. ... This is *not* a "flame the field guide" (in fact, about 3 or 4 days a week, when I get up, I would make the same recommendation:-)), but Peterson is only sorta "organized by family". E.g., he has the swifts buried with the swallows, among a bunch of other passerine families; the family is intact but in an odd location, away from the others (hummers) of its order. I don't have my copy at hand, but I think there are actually one or two birds that are not with their families. All for more-or-less defensible reasons (on this I *do* disagree with RTP), but still not quite by family, if you meant in pretty much taxonomic order.
donnelly@cbnewsj.att.com (jeffrey.m.donnelly) (04/23/91)
YIKES! This morning I saw a Coopers Hawk eating a bird that it presumably caught at our feeder. I didn't want to disturb it so I couldn't get close enough to it to see what the prey was. Judging from the size and the guests that frequent our feeder it was probably a mourning dove (God they're slow). (I must have missed the capture by seconds because it was still plucking feathers) Our feeder is sort of in the open with trees available about 8-20 feet away. I use a platform with a feeding station on a pole above it. This works out nicely since some of the seeds that fall from the feeder land on the feeding tray for other birds to eat. Some seed does fall to the ground and this is where the doves tend to hang out. I understand that hawks have to eat too, but I don't particularly want them eating the birds that come to our house to eat. Feels sort of unhospitable. What should I do if anything to make our feeder "safer"? Will this hawk think "Oh great! I never new this place was here, I'm gonna hang out here forever"? What tecniques might a Coopers Hawk use to catch its meal? Like do they sit quitly in a tree waiting for the unsuspecting bird to turn away? Or do they just fly down and grab the first stupid bird that flys in its direction? Oh well, maybe the dove was sick and thus slower than usual. One can only hope. Jeff (A somewhat shocked bird watcher/feeder)
www@ingres.com (Bill White) (04/24/91)
In article <1991Apr22.195905.24247@cbnewsj.att.com> donnelly@cbnewsj.att.com (jeffrey.m.donnelly) writes: > >YIKES! > >This morning I saw a Coopers Hawk eating a bird that it presumably caught >at our feeder. [stuff deleted] > >I understand that hawks have to eat too, but I don't particularly want them >eating the birds that come to our house to eat. Feels sort of unhospitable. > >What should I do if anything to make our feeder "safer"? > >Will this hawk think "Oh great! I never new this place was here, I'm gonna >hang out here forever"? I had a similar experience a few years ago in New Hampshire. I worried that it would get to be a pattern, but it only happened once. > >What tecniques might a Coopers Hawk use to catch its meal? I was lucky enough to witness the whole thing: The hawk streaked in out of a wooded area next to the house and all the birds at the feeder scattered in a panic. One of them crashed into the window and dropped to the ground stunned -- and the hawk was on him in a flash. Gripping its victim, it paused there on the ground a few seconds and glared right into my eyes, then it lifted off and carried its meal back into the woods. I don't know what kind of hawk this was. All I remember about it now was that it had bright red eyes. Oh, by the way, ours were evening grossbeaks; beautiful birds, exciting as it was to see this, I was really disturbed to see one of them get eaten! > >Jeff (A somewhat shocked bird watcher/feeder) --Bill
gss@edsdrd.eds.com (Gary Schiltz) (04/26/91)
In article <7162@oasys.dt.navy.mil>, quezon@dtrc.dt.navy.mil (Quezon) writes: > > Not only do owls take song birds during the dusk or dawn hours, > but they will attack and consume other owls they may encounter > at night. For example, a Great Horned Owl or Barred Owl will > take any owl smaller than himself, such as Screech and/or Saw > Whet Owls. I remember calling owls in Manhattan, KS once. While we were listening to a Screech Owl calling, we heard a thud, followed by no more Screech Owl calls, followed by Great Horned Owl calls. We felt bad that we may have contributed to the little fellow becoming someone's meal. Now, when owling, I always quit calling as soon as I get a screecher to answer. > Great Horned Owls are known to have devastated Peregrine Falcon > hacking towers. If the owls find a hacking tower, they will > return night after night to attack and eat the Peregrines until > there are no falcons left or the tower is relocated. Great > Horned Owls can be a significant cause of failed Peregrine > reintroductions. This is, in fact one of the reasons Peregrines have been hacked in downtown Detroit -- the predation pressure from Great Horned Owls in the upper peninsula of Michigan was quite high. However, the Peregrines have been more successful in their natural habitat in Michigan than in Detroit, despite the pressure from owls. Although there have been at least one active nest in downtown Detroit, the eggs have been infertile. There is speculation that the gulls they eat along the Detroit River have too high a level of toxics. > A.J. Quezon > David Taylor Research Center ---- /\ What cheer, /\ | Gary Schiltz, EDS R&D, 3551 Hamlin Road | / o< cheer, <o \ | Auburn Hills, MI 48326, (313) 370-1737 | \\/ ) / cheer, \ ( \// | gss@edsdrd.eds.com | \ / cheer!!! \ / | "Have bird will watch ..." |