Garden Pic Wednesday: Mockingbird Training

-

I've been watching various birds the frequent my feeder teaching their young fledging's how to feed themselves. 
Today's photo is a Eastern Mockingbird Parent on right teaching the Fledging sitting on the suet cage that,"this is the cafe where we dine on suet."
It's actually quite amusing. You can tell the fledging has no idea what's really going on. 
The parent and junior land on feeder and/or suet cage. Junior keeps eyes on the parent. The parent feeds junior a couple bites, then flies away. Junior just follows them with his eyes, then just squats on the suet cage, wondering what's going on.
Sometimes, Junior will help himself to a bite or two of suet, but mainly is waiting for parent to return.
Clearly the parent is trying to transmit the idea of feeding themselves.
One pair of Mockingbirds have 2 fledgings, who also dumbly squatted there when the parent flew off.
The two Mockingbird families have been working on this for a couple days now.


They aren't the only ones.
After the Mockingbirds left, I saw a Downy Woodpecker and his Fledging both land on the suet cage. The parent fed the youngster 2 bites, then flew off, but the Downy kid seemed to get it and continued eating the suet a bit before flying after the parent.
Also a larger Red Bellied Woodpecker and his Junior stopped by the feeder, but that off-spring seemed totally get it. (Red Bellied Woodpeckers have a red head as well and their back has a checkered look.)
The Purple Finches also have been showing their fledging's both the seed inside the feeder as well as the seed on the patio. They land in a flock of 4 to 6, but you can tell the fledgings because they sit near the parent fluttering wings, mouth open hoping to be fed. The parent will give them a seed or two, then walk away as hit to feed themselves.

A bird feeder has huge entertainment value.
I like it because it brings birds into range for me to see easily. There is actually a shield on the pole below the feeder to keep squirrels out. A Master Gardener at a recent Garden Club meeting suggested using Marlin fishing line for hanging feeders from tree limbs as it's too thin for the squirrels to grab; it's actually such a fine metal you need to handle it carefully as it can cut; but friends who tried it said it worked perfectly for stopping squirrels.
I have nest boxes and having a ready food source inspires the birds that like those to use them. 
 Birds also reduce insect pests in a yard & garden.
Just putting out something shallow that holds water for birds to bath in will attract them!

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for leaving a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

Good Eating Monday: Peach Cobbler Dump Cake!

-
Image
Yes, I tried another new Pinterest recipe and this one is a winner! The primary dictionary definition of a "Dump Cake," is an easily made cobbler in which cake mix is dumped over canned fruit or pie filling.  This recipe was pinned from Del Monte, which means it's been a recipe that's been created & tested in a corporate test kitchen. That's one benefit of all those label, can & box recipes provided by manufacturers on their product packaging. You can even buy cookbooks featuring nothing, but package & label recipes of which many are vintage. The only changes I'd suggest is add one more 15 oz can of fruit. It can be more peaches, cherry fruit cocktail, regular fruit cocktail or whatever you want. (So, I've noted 4 cans of peaches in the recipe.)   It just needs a little more volume on the fruit quantity.  And stir a teaspoon or two of cinnamon into the fruit! Otherwise, this is an excellent, quick dessert you can serve hot with v
Read more

Friday Finds: Crystal River, Florida!

-
Image
Todays "find" is a few photos I took in Crystal River, Florida. We recently drove down to Homosassa Springs, Florida to visit Hubby's half brothers & sisters, though our motel was in the adjacent hamlet called Crystal River.   The Days Inn there was a Denny's attached, so it was a great place to stay! We live on the Panhandle and Crystal River/Homosassa Springs are on the western side of the Peninsula south of Gainesville, but north of Clearwater about a 7 hour drive away. The area is small town America, both towns situated around  two large rivers that pour into a delta on the Gulf and are surrounded by State and National wildlife preserves and parks. I took this shot below off a pier looking across the wide expanse of river at boats and residences on the opposite side: This next shot is across a river bayou is typical of the scenery in the area: lots of Live Oak trees draped in Spanish Moss: Here's a view down one street in
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: Say What?

-
Image
Today's Mama Kat blog writing topic is,  "Write about something that made you laugh this week." I call it audio auto-fill. You know like what your phone does, except this is what your brain does when your ears hear words you can't quite make out clearly, so your brain "fills" in with other words---sometimes with hilarious results. Hubby and I have had two of those this past week: We were eating dinner and I said, "Tomorrow I need to refill the bird feeder." Hubby's  fork stopped in midair as he looked at me like a horn popped out of my forehead. "What did you say?" he asked. I repeated. He chuckled. "I thought you said you had to sell some beer tomorrow." Another day we were eating lunch. Hubby likes to eat chocolate rice cakes with peanut butter and honey. Sometimes he makes a peanut butter rice cake sandwich with two rice cakes. I'd seen him slather one rice cake with peanut butter, then, when I looked
Read more

Mama Kat Thursday: A Sweaty Problem

-
Image
The Mama Kat prompt today is the word: "Glistening." Glistening immediately brings perspiration to mind: my hubby's perspiration in particular. Actually, he's NOT a sweaty guy, but he does have a sweaty problem: about a year ago his armpits developed an allergy to stick antiperspirant. He's been using Old Spice deodorant and, before that, Brut for decades with an occasional dose of Speed Stick.  (He's over 60.) But, sometimes, as we age, our bodies change, and a sudden onset of a sensitivity to something isn't uncommon. So we tried switching brands.  We bought some Arm & Hammer stick deodorant. His armpit didn't like that either. He tried my Secret, the one strong enough for a man, but made for a woman--and, nope. He reacted to it, too. So, he gave up deodorant altogether and just started using Gold Bond Powder spray instead.  At least it wasn't irritating. But Gold Bond has no deodorizing properties, a fact he recently aire
Read more

Garden Pic Wednesday: Fall Red Salvia!

-
Image
This is the time of year my Red Saliva recover from the heat of summer and put on a show until it freezes! I have lots of orange Marigolds and pink & yellow 4 O'Clocks adding brightness to autumn, too! Today, I planted that Dwarf Butterfly Bush that came in the mail recently. I also moved a Bridal Veil shrub to a new spot, since it wasn't doing well where it was. Hopefully it will take off and really look good there!  Bridal Veils bushes have long arching branches that get covered with small, white flower clusters in spring, thus giving them the name. I also moved planted a pink Lantana I hadn't gotten around to planting until now and moved several small volunteer Mexican Heathers.  Both the Lantana and the Mexican Heathers are along the new edge of the back bed I enlarged slightly.
Read more