A Visitor for Breakfast

Yesterday morning while I was washing dishes, all of the birds that were feeding in the backyard suddenly disappeared. I was wondering what could have caused them to scatter so quickly so, when I looked out the window, I saw this guy, most likely a Sharp Shinned Hawk, sitting on the fence...


Yeah, if I were a bird, I would have scattered too.

This Quail is going to Bail

I was sorting the photos on my computer, when I came across some photos taken a few years ago. I can't believe that I never posted these before, so here they are...

Here's the little guy be-bopping down our driveway...


Perusing the neighbor's lawn to see if there's anything interesting...


Hey, what's that thing on the top of my head... :)


Of course, a blurry closeup...

A Mother's Work is Never Done

I heard a lot noise outside the other morning and when I went to look, I caught these guys on our back patio ...



I threw out some stale bread for the birds and this mom decided that it would be a great meal for her babies. They followed her all over the yard trying to get their fair share. They even ended up on our barbeque AND on the handle of our power edger (Yes, lined up in a nice row with mommy in the middle)! Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera, they had moved to the patio.

The Early Duck Gets the Feed

My wife and daughter were outside the other night refilling the bird feeders, when all of a sudden four objects came flying down from our roof. Heedless to the fact that there were people only a few feet away, they were determined to satisfy their hunger. Since I didn't want walk out and scare them away, here's a photo taken (sorry for the fuzziness) from our kitchen window of 2 of the ducks (with a gratuitous butt shot of a third) :-)...



These guys stuck around the entire time that my wife and daughter were outside. When the ducks were finished eating, they kinda just walked around... getting the "lay of the land."

Ducks on Parade

For her Oceanography class, my oldest had to do a field study report on a body of water and she decided to it on the canal by our house. This report and the data she collected needed to span a series of six weeks. So, one day when we were taking photos and getting water samples, we came upon a mother duck and her ducklings.

We think that they're Wood Ducks...



Here's a closer look...



These guys are quite a change from the usual Mallards we usually see. Oh, and due to our POS camera that cannot seem to take decent photos in sunlight, in order for you to see them better, I had to really lighten the picture using PhotoScape.

Birds of a Feather-Part: Deux

Well, my wife went and did it and now we have to pay the consequences! We have been having a multitude of Goldfinch coming and eating their thistle seed which, by the way, is pretty darn expensive. It had gotten so busy at the feeders, that they were actually eating off of the ground, which Goldfinch usually do not do. So, one her way back from work last Saturday, my wife picked-up another Shepherd's Hook and some thistle socks to add some feeding stations for the Goldfinch.

Well, it didn't take more than two minutes before they swarmed the feeders. Although they are still feeding off of the ground, there are now three more feeding socks to attach themselves to.


Here's a photo taken through our kitchen window. By the time we got the camera, a lot of them had already flown off, but here are the ones that stayed. I know, the screen is a mess and those rips in it are courtesy of Yum Yum...



Not as many birds, but a better view of them...



Finally, a much better view. As you can see, my wife used electrical ties to secure the Shepherd's Hook to the post, which the birds use as perches...

I Think We're Going to Need a Bigger Feeder

Yes, I was thinking of that famous line from Jaws when I wrote this. But, it's true! You can see, these ducks climbing all over each other trying to get at the food; quaking up a storm and just being, well...ducks.




In the photos, you can see some of the ducks running toward the camera and the other feeders, where there were an additional eight or so ducks gobbling down some food. We get this "duck convention" at least twice a day now, with more coming all the time. Usually it is 20 + ducks at the morning and evening feedings, with a few stragglers flying in throughout the day.




This is in addition to the plethora of other birds and squirrels that filter in throughout the day. Oh, and let's not forget the Starlings, who have just recently re-discovered our yard and remind me of yet another classic movie: The Birds.

Ducks Я Us

Yesterday, I was awakened by a loud banging sound coming from our roof. I figured that maybe Santa was paying an early visit this year (yes, I've been SO good), but before I could even get out of bed, I heard a commotion coming from our backyard. Looking out the back door, I saw fourteen (yes, 14), ducks fighting and eating from our feeders. That banging I heard on our roof, were the ducks landing and then taking off to finally land in our backyard.

We usually have only four to six, all pairs, feeding from our yard, so this mass invasion came as something of a shock. My wife tried to get some good photos, but with our POS camera, these are the best she could do. Unfortunately, the ducks flat-out refused to stay still for this photo-op...

The Bird Cop

Here is a typical Fall day at our feeders. As you can see (sorry for the bad photo), it's pretty busy...

A Bird in the Hand...

My wife and kids went to Hummingbird Banding Day in Pearl Idaho a few weeks ago and here is photo of our oldest, holding a hummingbird that had just been banded. The hummingbird will lay there for a few seconds before flying off. Thanks again to Debbie from Boise Daily Photo for inviting us...

Let Sleeping Ducks Lie

Here is the photo that I wanted to post yesterday...





Here's what happened to my site...

Somehow the coding got messed up. When I tried to post a photo (proper sized), it would bump the sidebars down to the bottom of the template. It would also not display anything after the photo-code. Also, it would not let me enter any coding.

I think (????) I know what happened. I enabled the new mobile-friendly code they (blogger) offered, but I did not continue reading that it is only for traditional blogger templates; mine has been highly altered.

So, how did I fix it? Well, I have a few testing blogs that I use to test new templates and new coding configurations. Currently, one of these blogs has the same template (minus all the widgets),as my main site, so I just deleted the template on my site and replaced it with the one on my testing site which solved the problem.

Quake Attack Part Deux

***NOTE: for some reason, when I placed this photo (properly sized) after the first paragraph, Blogger did not show the rest of the content AND it threw my sidebars to the bottom of the template, so I had to delete the photo until I can figure out what the heck they are doing. I will post the photo in a separate post when I get this mess sorted out. Thank you for your patience.


This is one pair of at least two that frequent our yard several times a day. This time, instead of sleeping in the grass by our back door (one of their favorite spots) they chose the feeder itself. Based on my vast duck-keeping experience, this is one way I know that they are probably out of food. However, last Saturday, they let us know in a more direct fashion.

Last Saturday, my wife was planting our veggies in the garden, when the ducks decided to pay a visit. They flew in and waddled over to the feeder to begin their mid-day meal. Unfortunately, there was not enough food, so Mr. and Mrs. Duck decide to take matters into their own beaks and go straight to the top...my wife. She watched them come over to the berm and then Mr. Duck climbed the stairs and, while looking directly at my wife, began quacking at her. He then walked down, looked back at her, then walked right back up and quacked again. Seeing that his point had been made, he walked back down where both he and Mrs. Duck gave a final admonitory quack and then flew off.

Needless to say, after my wife told us about this, she went ahead and restocked their their food supply. Later that afternoon, they came back and were perfectly content to enjoy their repast and settle down in the grass and rest.

Quack Attack

These ducks have become daily visitors now.

Taken just before he flew down to join Mrs. Duck, here is Mr. Duck on the roof of our neighbor's house...






Here are Koko and Yum Yum enjoying a little "Dinner Theater"...


If you look closely, you can see the ducks through the screen

It's for the Birds

The Goldfinch are back in force this Spring. What you see in the photos that follow is pretty normal for most of the day. Usually there will be between 20 and 30 feeding at one time. In addition to the Goldfinch, we also have other feeders that are visited by doves, other finches, Red Winged Blackbirds, ducks (yep, they started to come back this week), starlings (who eat us out of house and home), the occasional hawk who comes for a quick meal, and squirrels (who have their own feeder).

This is for the Birds

Here are a few of our backyard guests...

Waiting for Dinner

This guy here (we believe it is a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk), comes around every week or so to dine on some of our dinner guests. He usually gets one and then will sit on the fence and eat it. However, today he was out of luck, so he just sat there for well over 30 minutes looking around. You cannot see it in this photo, but there was a squirrel feeding at our squirrel feeder. Sorry about the picture quality, but our camera leaves much to be desired.





A few weeks ago, I opened our patio door to go outside, which naturally scared the birds and caused them to fly off. Well, a Sharp-Shinned or Cooper's Hawk swooped down and grabbed an Oregon Junco midair. When he landed, the hawk covered the junco with his wings and then just glared at me. Naturally, I stepped back inside.

Birds of a Feather...

flock together...