I just finished my third summer of house sitting at The Woodland Creature Motel and let me tell you a bird book or app has significantly improved my birding game. I'm not really a birder. I went to a talk at the library earlier in the year and the speaker chastised me about my statement of that I wouldn't be into it or obsessed with it. He scoffed and laughed at me saying that one can't help but be obsessed and it'll ruin your life. I still have to disagree with him. While it is fun to spot birds, sort of like a game, or like Pokemon (which I don't play, but I do know about), who will make it onto my Seen List next? However, it's only a habit at The Woodland Creature Motel for these reasons. A] The lady has bird feeders set up (which I have to fill daily as part of my house caring duties while I'm there). B] The birds show up, all throughout the day. C] Cigarette smoking has to be done outside (& the birds zooming around is like a television program, it's hard not to notice). and D] She has binoculars. Why wouldn't I watch the birds? I recently got an app on my mobile, the Merlin Bird ID from The Cornell Lab, because a friend of mine does watch the birds she feeds in her backyard, and talked about the app. There were birds here and I was curious what they were (They were Carolina Chickadee's if you were wondering. Of course I'd be interested because they were tiny, sounded like squeak toys and looked like Siamese cats with those masks!), but I thought I'd use the app while at The Woodland Creatures Motel. Now, the app helped her yard go from Squirrels, Blue Jays, Cardinals and the occasional some sort of Wood Pecker and some small brown bird to a list of 25 different birds, which I'll get to in a minute. The point is, now that I'm back at home I don't have to smoke outside. We should and it would be nice to in nicer weather, but that's neither here nor there because we don't smoke outside (& this isn't a post about the cons or pros of smoking) and the weather is gross and sticky and hot for most of the year. There's even a bird outside I can hear making it's call right now. Am I interested? Not really. I'm not out there, I'm not seeing it; and besides, birds aren't even one of my favourite things in nature. I'm much rather find trees and plants and mosses and fungi or explore caves or study sea creatures or pet cats or see raccoons. But I'm not opposed to seeing birds in nature and am quite excited over most nature things (bugs are not included in that list), so if a bird is sitting on a mailbox or flies right in front of me, I'm all, "Ooh! A bird! How fun!" But I will never be the person that wakes up at 3 am to trudge through the wilderness to sit still for hours just to see a bird. I'm just not that person. I wouldn't do that for a glimpse of the elusive snow leopard and I love cats and mountains and the cold. Now I do really like Crows and Blue Jays, but I always have. Does that mean I want one landing close to me or on me? Not really? Do I want a lot of them surrounding me? No. I also really dig Penguins, but the images of a lone scientist standing in a mob of thousands kind of gives me the heeby jeebies. It's too many birds, I don't want to be in the middle of that. But I digress. So, what did I see through those binoculars and also what did I learn (because that is also important). First I learned there's a heirarchy at the feeders. Squirrel trumps Blue Jay. Always. Blue Jay trumps all the other birds on the feeder list. Always. Woodpeckers Trump everything except Blue Jays and Squirrels. If a feeder was unoccupied and a Squirrel made it there before the Blue Jay, the Blue Jay would take evasive maneuvers and fly off. If a Blue Jay made it before a Cardinal or other bird, the other bird would take evasive maneuvers. The same is true if a "lesser" bird was occupying the space already. If a Wood Pecker, Blue Jay landed they'd leave in a flurry. If a Squirrel showed up the Blue Jay would immediately leave. Fascinating. The second thing was that Cardinals, while fussy with each other at feeders will protect other Cardinals' fledglings. I just assumed all of the non red Cardinals were female (some weren't even cardinals using the binoculars and bird app - but for the most part they were all Cardinals); some were babies. Fledglings. I might not have even noticed except one was away from the feeders near the drive way and it's wings were moving oddly almost like it was slightly nervous or wasn't used to any of this or of feeding on the ground or flying. Looking through the binoculars it seemed young and then a male Cardinal hopped over and fed it a seed in it's mouth. "Aww! It IS a baby!!" There were other Cardinals feeding on the ground, but the closest was another male. A Blue Jay swooped down to the larger pile of fallen seeds and immediately both males jumped in between the Blue Jay and the baby. The Blue Jay just cocked it's head to the side and looked at them like, "What...? I just want some seeds." He did grab a seed then and fly off. So it was interesting that the male was feeing it's baby and that another male stepped in to help protect it. I wouldn't have thought that's how that would go down. So, onto all of the birds, yeah? Before we begin, none of the following photo's are mine. The Blue Jay at the top is. I took my digital camera the first year and could zoom in and that's the image I captured. Didn't take any bird pictures last year or this year, but this year there's a list. Great Blue HeronI've seen this bird at the start of every house sitting stint, but only once during each stay. The first time I saw it, I was sitting out front smoking and to the west it glided between The Woodland Creatures Motel and the next house making for the back yard. It was frightening at first because I've never seen so large a bird up close (well one that can fly because I've seen emu's and ostriches, both of which kind of scare me because they're too big). But it glided sideways like in a depiction from an old Chinese painting. It's legs were down and wings out and one higher than the other; facing me. At first all I noticed was utter silence in the neighbourhood and a large shadow, then I noticed... what? I man bat? The Mothman? Something huge with long legs and huge wings kind of eerily gliding in an odd way only 3 feet above the ground. And it was gone around the corner of the house. I shot out of my chair and dashed for the side yard and saw it go into the trees and presumably into the creek. "It was a bird... Ok, cool. (as in good, it's not a paranormal monster)." I quickly made my way to the creek that butts up at the back yard of The Woodland Creatures Motel. And there was this enormous and graceful bird. "It's a stork!... or a crane? or... ehh....?" I looked it up in the supplied bird book, and while I was pretty certain that Great Blue Heron was the match for the bird I saw, I still wasn't 100%. But I saw the same bird twice again, but never as dramatic. I'd be in the backyard filling those bird feeders and would just look at the creek, and from up river the Heron would float in front of me, downstream and land on this fallen tree that hung over the creek. The first time (the second year), he did this, but after landing for maybe 20 or thirty seconds glided off further downstream, but which I can't see that far because there's a lot of leaves and trees blocking the view. This year, he landed on that fallen tree and just stayed. The bird id app is a little better than the book at The Motel because it'll tell me what birds can be seen in my area and during which times of year, pinpointing it rather well. So, it, indeed, is a Great Blue Heron that I've seen for the past three years. The bird app says it's uncommon to see this bird, so that's cool. Siamese Canuck'sSo, I always called them Canadian Geese, but would just think, 'Oh the Siamese Cat Birds!!" I recently found out that Canadian was wrong and they are called Canada Geese. I don't like that at all, so I changed it to Siamese Canuck Geese or Siamese Canuck's for short. Much better, right? So, I hear tell that Canuck, used by Americans, is a mean term. However, I follow Canuck The Crow online, and I knew there is a hockey team called The Canucks. But, not until a few weeks ago did I realize that Canuck meant Canada/Canadian, and of course it's OK for Canadians to use this term. So, I'm just clarifying. I like Canada and I like the way the word sounds and would never use it as an American does in a mean way. Besides these geese are Canucks, since they're from up there! Now, I am not a fan of geese. They are large and mean. I don't want to be near them. And while these are geese, they look like Siamese cats and I like that they're from Canada, so I like to see them. I encounter them a lot here, in this patch of water or near one here and there about town. And when I drive past I'm all, "Siamese Kitten Birds!" and get all happy. There is a large, probably man-made lake near The Woodlands Creature Motel. All of this is the suburbs too, mind. A development from the 1950s. So, it's odd to see a Heron or Geese in the middle of a neighbourhood in south Mississippi, but there you go. So, I have driven and walked by this lake since the first time house sitting here and so I know there are Siamese Canucks there. However, I'm actually counting them because they waddled up the road and into the front yard and ate sunflower seeds on two separate occasions one day! I had driven by the lake on my way back to the Motel. The next day, three of them are parading down the hill and proceed into the neighbours yard and then into the front yard and ate seeds at the big tree. I was all excited. Apparently this has never happened before because even the neighbour lady across the street came home and came over and was all, "Oh wow! Look at them! Does (insert lady I'm house sitting for's name here) know? Wow. I've never seen them do this!" The lady I was house sitting for had never had this happen either, because I was so excited that this thing out of the ordinary was happening and I could witness it, that I sent her a picture and exclaimed about it. She was not happy. Apparently she hates them. Probably has had personal run-in's with them up in Canada while visiting family, because it didn't seem like she'd had run-in's with them here. Now, I didn't want them to waddle up to me on the front porch or sleep in the chairs or bring all twenty of the other Siamese Canuck's from the lake up here, but otherwise I thought it was cool. They came back later that same day and then I started getting nervous about the things I've just stated. The lady said to shoo them off. I'm glad I didn't have to, as they just never came back. I named them though. Because, of course, I did. After characters played by Canadian actors. One is Alex P. Keaton (for Michael J. Fox), one is Captain Kirk (for William Shatner), and one is for Gil (for Sebastian Bach's character on Gilmore Girls). I'm sure at least one was a female, but whatever. These are their names now. Mississippi KiteThis one we saw once. It was flying overhead at The Motel and we just knew it was not a crow, because I know crows, they're actually one of my all-time favourite creatures and are my top favourite bird. But ID-ing underside flight photos and the calls it makes singled it out as nothing but the Mississippi Kite. It's a raptor and she's kind of cute isn't she? Hawks I don't find very cute. Red-Tailed HawkSaw this one a few times. Heard it mostly, which is mainly how we identified it. I've seen them before at our zoo. Our zoo takes, for lack of a better term, all the reject animals, which I love them for. Animals that were abused or were illegal pets, animals that less friendly zoos had, or animals that have been injured and can't be released back into the wild. They have a pair of Red-Tailed Hawks because they were injured. One is missing an eye and one it's wing will never work properly again. Seeing them at the zoo I was told that they're cry is the one used for western films and that Red-Tailed Hawks get injured a lot in this state, mostly from cars hitting them. Sad. So, a couple of times them just flying overhead and giving a cry over The Motel. Twice being chased by badass Blue Jays. Once high up in the front yard. The last time the squabble was lower and I could see a shadow pass over the window and the Blue Jays squaking and giving chase. Then they treed it. I could look out the back window of my room at The Motel and it was in this tree probably thinking, "Holy fuck! What the hell?!" and the Blue Jays were circling it; advancing and retreating in flight. It was pretty close so that was cool to see. The Blue Jays scared it away. My first year at The Motel, I was watching the telly and in the blink of an eye out the back door I saw a scuffle on the ground and realized it was a larger bird on top of a smaller bird. There was trashing for .5 seconds and then the larger one lifted off and was gone and there was nothing but feathers left on the ground and floating in the breeze. It was intense. It was super sad and also fascinating at the same time. I mean the hawk's gotta eat too, I just don't want to witness it. It was probably a Red-Tailed Hawk, as on this visit, when I knew what they were, they seemed to be the one's swooping in trying for a kill. Blue Grosbeak [female]I assumed that anything about the size and colouring of a female Cardinal was a female Cardinal. I probably wouldn't have noticed this one had it not separated itself from the rest of the birds (who were all female Cardinals pecking at seeds on the ground. It looked not right (for a female Cardinal) & looking through the binoculars, it certainly wasn't right. The bird ID said it was a female (or possibly juvenile) Blue Grosbeak. I only saw one at a time and only about three or four times the entire 24 days, so I'm assuming it was the same one, but I could be wrong. Ruby - Throated Hummingbird [female]These are hard to spot as they're super tiny and super fast. The bird ID only gave one option for hummingbird and that was the Ruby-Throated one, however none of them had any red so I'm assuming they were females that we saw. I have seen males before, so I know how striking the red can be and isn't missed. There were more hummingbirds the previous years, and this year I saw them (or was it just the one?) about five times. Every year, on just one occasion one has zoomed right beside my head. The buzzing from their wings is so loud and sonorous that you think it's a giant bee or something until you realize that it's an adorably tiny bird. American CrowNone of these landed at The Woodland Creature Motel, but I heard them and saw them flying overhead on several occasions. Once a stupid Mockingbird was chasing one. I know it happens, I see it happen a lot. I detest Mockingbirds and am thinking about petitioning my state to nix it as out state bird in favour of the Blue Jay (I'd try for the Crow, but I know they'd never go for that). I thought about taking some shiny pennies and throwing them skyward to glint in the sun and let them hang out out in the drive after their descent; hoping the crows would come for the shiny gifts, but I'm thinking that lady wouldn't want crows in her yard, so I did't. I don't know it that would work, but I'm thinking about doing that here in my own yard and tying pretty, shiny, colourful ribbons to things so the crows will come. My friend who feeds birds said she's going to buy cracked corn to feed the crows at the park (near where she recently started working). How does one obtain cracked corn and exactly how is that labeled for sale? I only know of that stupid Jimmy crack corn and I don't care song and it's all that comes to mind as far as knowledge of the topic goes. But I digress. So, I can identify crows no problem because, as I said earlier, they are my all time favourite bird, and one of my top favourite animals. I see and hear them all over the place here. When I hear them I look up to see where they are and smile. I even recently saw two on the side of the road, on the ground. It's the closest I've been to them. Except that photo up there, which I took. I got into the car, he landed. I grabbed the camera, leaned out the window and said in reverent tones, "Hi, there. Is it OK if I take your picture?" I got one photo; that one above. That was the position he was in after landing before I grabbed my camera. I said, "Thank you." and he flew off. It's one of the highlights of my entire life, that moment. Brown-Headed NuthatchOh my gosh, this is a cute bird. I was sitting there having my morning coffee and I heard all this racket. Like some weird animatronic squeak toy just chittering for a good minute. "What in the heck bird is that?!" It just looked like a non-descripted small, brown puffball of a bird, but I'd never heard any make that noise before. After it finally stopped chittering and hopping about on the feeder, I looked through the binoculars and saw not a brown puffball, but a brown, white, and grey puffball with a long beak. "Oh please tell me that's the adorable Nuthatch one I saw!". The binoculars had made several brown puffballs stand out and the bird ID kept throwing this Nuthatch one in as a possible match because it was brown and about the same size. So, seeing it's picture come up a bit is why it was slightly recognizable. That morning was the only time I saw or heard it at the feeders, but I was pretty excited. He was sooooooooo cute! Tufted TitmouseSo this is another one the bird ID would bring up as a possible match sometimes. The name and image were cute so I was hoping to see one as well. A few hours after the Nuthatch, I looked at the feeders and there was a small puffball with a crest that wasn't brown. I'd not seen that before from this distance. Looked through the binoculars and double checked with the bird ID and yes, a Tufted Titmouse! It was cute and not chattery, didn't stay long either. A few hours later it was back for just a minute or two and I never saw it again. Carolina WrenI'll get to the other three brown puffballs I saw before either this or the Nuthatch further along, but for those I was seeing them a lot. This one showed up before the Nuthatch, but it's lower on the list because I saw it more times. This one was slightly larger and different looking than the others, so I got out the binoculars and bird ID and deciphered Carolina Wren. Saw this one maybe four or five times? Grey CatbirdThis is one of the first ones I ID-ed, though it didn't come around as often as other birds, but they were at the feeders a good bit. In fact I was ID-ing it with the bird app and peering at it through the binoculars and it was looking straight at me. But that's just ridiculous, right? It looked away and then tilted it's head back to me. I decided to take the binoculars down and in the scant seconds that took, that bird was practically in my face, taking evasive maneuvers only when it was 1.5 - 2 feet away realizing I was some scary human monster. Apparently the glass was making some interesting glint and he thought it was food? Scared me half to death, because who wants a bird in the face, right? They're pretty cute birds, even though they aren't small puffballs. I mainly here them giving their baby cry call that never ends more than I see them. Carolina ChickadeeThis little tiny, almost miniscule Siamese kitten of a bird (see it's masked) is the entire reason I downloaded that bird ID app in the first place. The Sister and I walked out our front door here at out house and were heading to our car and heard this tiny adorable mixed group chattering in the cypress tree. "Look! Look how cute they are!" she cried. I turned to look and there were four or five of them hopping around and chirping up a storm and they were so, so super cute. But the reason I saw them that one time at my house in early July isn't the reason they're on the list. No, they're only the list because after three weeks of house sitting at The Woodland Creature Motel, they finally arrived. Small groups would hop in the trees and come down to the bird feeders that are more equipped to handle smaller birds. They'd talk and chirp and talk and chirp and talk and chirp some more. Noisy little things, but at least they're chattering is equally as cute as they are. Saw them on several occasions in both the front at back yards. Red-Headed WoodpeckerWoodpeckers are cool. They're weird how they go up trees more like a squirrel than a bird and while listening to the calls on the bird ID, I know I've heard them before, but really I just know them for their knocking sounds. This one would be my favourite out of the two I saw. It also didn't show up as much as the other, but it did show up more than other birds. The lady that owns the house has a bird house with a metal roof on the tree near the bird feeders. Both types of Woodpeckers will claw onto the other side of the tree (where you can't see them), then lean their head out and peck on the metal roof. They'll do this several times before swooping over to a feeder. Every single time they arrive they had to do this and at least three times. Are they announcing to other birds they are here? To other Woodpeckers not to feed while they're there? To other Woodpeckers that soups on? I don't know. Red-Bellied Woodpecker [adult & juvenile]I was always confused by both types of Woodpeckers, because they are both red-headed. Though this one is red-bellied, you're not likely to see it as it's their way lower belly near their legs which is generally covered by tree or bird feeder, etc. I think the naming people missed to boat here on a proper title. It's barely red-bellied. Instead it should be the Gingie Punk Woodpecker or the Red-Stripe Woodpecker or the Haute Couture Woodpecker (it looks very fashion forward, admit it) or something. It's like the whole Killer Whales should be named Sea Panda's or that Raccoons should be named Trash Panda's, etc. Anyways, these (or just this one male?) showed up a lot. Every day, sometimes more than once a day. Always did the knocking on that metal bird house roof too. I don't know if it was one or more than one or if they were male or female, but then another one appeared, that second photo. "It's either a female or a baby... lets look it up." So I did. Apparently a juvenile Red-Bellied Woodpecker. It was cute because it was being a Woodpecker, trying out the tips and tricks for survival, where the adults knew how the show went at this particular yard. As in the adults know to knock on the roof several times and then feed at the feeders. It's just what they do. The juvenile didn't knock on the roof, and though he did eat at the feeders, he'd also crawl up the main tree (There are two. The big -or main- tree, probably a Black Gum, then the smaller River Birch -where the bird house is.) to this knot in it and do his wood pecking thing to hunt for bugs, because that's his instinct. He just hasn't learned, like the adults, that apparently there is no good eating at that particular knot. American RobinAt first I couldn't tell the difference between this one or the other similarly sized ground feeding orange and blackish-brown bird, but the Robin has a white ring around it's eye and that's how I can spot who it is easily now. They didn't show up as much as the next bird, but they showed up a bit. Bee-bopping their way on the ground for whatever lives in the grass. Eastern ToweeI'll give that bird guy one thing, he stated that you'd see the Eastern Towee way more than you'd see the American Robin in your yard and I found this to be true. However, he did sort of make it seem like you'd never see the Robin; made it seem like they were elusive or super rare and I didn't find that to be true. But eight times out of ten, the bird I'd see on the ground was this one, the Eastern Towee. They are markedly different, the Robin and the Towee, but at first glance (just your eyes looking out across a lawn) they appear to be exactly the same birds since they're the same size (I only saw them on the ground) and they're the same colours), so unless I wanted to sit there and think about it, the spot (or lack) of colour around the eyes was helpful in quick identification. These birds don't stay around long mainly. It's like the book I just read where the mountain faerie girls mantra was "Get what you came for and get gone." House Sparrow [female]This is one of the brown puffballs that I referenced. Without binoculars they kind of all look the same. These were at the feeders A LOT, but not as much as the next and final brown puffball. House Finch [female & male]There were loads of female House Finches are her feeders for little birds. It was hard to get a grasp on ID-ing either because they don't mind feeding together, the lady Sparrows and Finches. But the female Finches had greater numbers than the female Sparrows and were there multiple times a day, while the Sparrows were there every other day or only once a day. The Finches seem like little old ladies to me of the bird world. Can you see it? I did see one male (or I'm assuming it was just the one) only twice during my entire time there. "Wait, there's a puffball, but that red bit is new, lemme break out the field glasses for this." Mourning DoveTheres birds were there in groups of between three and ten feeding on the ground for what seemed like hours, but was probably only twenty minutes. During that lecture I went to in May one of the librarian ladies attending talked about how her family are bird hunters and have been for awhile and they get the special bird hunting stamp (which I'd heard of, but assumed it was a stamp like an ink and rubber one that a game ranger would stamp into a book like a passport. Not an actual postage stamp issued by the USPS!) every year and their big thing are these. They shoot and eat Mourning Doves. Every time I saw them this month that's all I could think about and cringe. They're probably really tasty or people would have stopped eating them a long time ago, but it just seems sad to eat something so small where you have to eat a lot of them. It's like eating frogs or squirrels. It's just sad. Somehow though that same sad mentality doesn't extend to aquatic creatures, because though I don't like the taste of crawfish, it doesn't bother me that people eat them. And I love me some shrimp, so I also have no problem there. Only found out with the bird app that the sound they made when taking off is the sound of their wings. It's not just them talking, as I'd always thought. So that's cool. There was actually something dulcifying in watching them mill about in their little groupings on the ground beneath that big tree with the squirrels. Blue JayAdorable! And apparently they aren't really blue? Their pigment is brown? That's all it said online at Backyard Chirper (I didn't go to the site, I was just looking for an image and wondered what the Are Blue Jays rare? question in the search query meant. They aren't, but them eating other birds' eggs is rare if you were wondering.) Anyway, I love these birds. I love all Corvids in fact. Plus these are SO blue! I don't care what Backyard Chirper says. They're rather big birds though, so it's weird if you end up close enough to one just to realize exactly how much larger they are than the likes of the Carolina Chickadee (obviously I knew they were bigger, but they're pretty massive, and aren't the size of say the Cardinal, which is what they seem like size wise in passing). Plus they're so bad ass to gang up on and chase a raptor that's trying to eat their family. Awesome. I'm telling you, that Red-Tailed Hawk was bewildered and possibly frightened when it was stuck in that tree. The wife of the bird guy (the guy that gave the lecture on birds) decided to quip up at the end to state just how much she hated blue jays, pretty much intimating that if they all died out, she wouldn't care (& would be glad). I didn't like her. But I'm glad this yard gets so many Blue Jays and that they were there all day every day. Cardinal [male & female & juvenile]These were the big ticket items, so to speak. The all Cardinal Show. Cardinals all day, every day. Male Cardinals at the feeders, standing sentinel, squaking at other males to get out of the way. Female Cardinals milling around on the ground, sometimes eating at feeders, squaking at males, having cat-fights with the other females.
Only the one time did I recognize a juvenile, because in a sea of brownish red they all looked the same. So there could have been other female Grosbeaks... or not. If that one hadn't of hopped out of the group to do it's own thing (it was female Cardinals, Squirrels, and Doves in the group), I'd never have known. If the juvenile hadn't of been twitchy and away from the group acting young and like everything was new, I wouldn't have put the binoculars up and noticed the male Cardinal feeding it by mouth, knowing then for certain that it was a baby. My mom adores Cardinals. I'm not a fan. I don't hate or dislike them and the males are really pretty with that bright red, but they're very bitchy to each other and other birds, so I'm not too thrilled. Plus they seem to be everyone's favourite and well, who's going to like the other birds?
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AuthorA girl from South Mississippi who finds herself in exploration. Archives
November 2019
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