by Winding Pathways | Sep 9, 2015 | Birds, Nature
An old legend has it that seeing a bluebird guarantees a day of good luck. At Winding Pathways we’re enjoying daily good fortune because a pair of these delightful birds is raising youngsters in our yard.
In the days of diverse farms with hedgerows separating fields, closely cropped pastures, and wooden fence posts that often had nesting cavities, bluebirds were abundant.
The switch to metal fence posts didn’t help them, and then farms grew larger, hedgerows and posts were ripped out, and pastures and hayfields became oceans of corn and soybeans. None of the changes helped bluebirds just as pesticides eliminated their insect meals.
Fortunately, bluebirds readily move into bird houses, and this spring we erected one in the corner of the only lawn we continue to mow. The box is mounted on a steel post with a predator guard below the house to keep marauding raccoons away from the birds.
We didn’t expect bluebirds to move in. There aren’t many around and they are notoriously fussy about nest sites. Good news came when a pair moved in and raised what’s likely their second brood of the summer.
Bluebirds are fun to watch. Ours perch on the flagpole and a post that holds a big bell at the entrance of our labyrinth. We delight watching them beeline to the lawn and emerge with a tasty bug to feed their youngsters.
Bluebirds nest in suburbia. Anyone with large lawn has fair odds of attracting them. If you erect a box in early spring, remove any “squatting” sparrows, avoid pesticides, and add a predator guard to keep raccoons at bay, you just might attract bluebirds and be assured of good luck.
DID YOU KNOW THAT SOMETIMES BLUEBIRDS CAN BE SPOTTED IN THE DEAD OF WINTER, EVEN IN THE FRIGID NORTH? When cold weather arrives bluebirds shift their diet from insects to frozen and dried fruit. They often moved from grassy to brushy places. Look for them in thickets even in the dead of winter. So be sure to plant fruit bearing shrubs like High Bush Cranberries along with other native species.
For more information about bluebirds or nearly any other species go to Cornell Lab of Ornithology and click on the photo of bluebirds or the species you would like to learn more about.
by Winding Pathways | Apr 11, 2015 | Birds, Nature
Most woodpeckers are homebodies. Downy, hairy, red –bellied and most other woodpeckers are nonmigratory. Search a woodsy area and chances are they can be spotted or heard year round. Many will come to the backyard for a suet feast. Most woodpeckers are easy to observe and identify. They are noisy and move frequently making them easy to spot. They often call and drum as they move from tree to tree. The yellow-bellied sapsucker is an unusual woodpecker. It’s migratory in part of the country, secretive and challenging to find. Patient observation helps locate one hugging an April tree in the upper Midwest.
This colorful bird is about the size of the familiar hairy woodpecker. Despite its name the yellow belly is hard to see. More visible is a red crown and white stripe down the wings. The bird nests and summers from the Yukon across the continent to New England. Some spend the entire year in southeastern states down to southern Mexico, but many migrate north to nest. Winding Pathways is in Iowa where sapsuckers only pass through. They are most common in April.
Obvious evidence of sapsuckers with horizontal holes dripping sap.
Although more secretive than other woodpeckers sapsuckers are fairly common suburban and woodland birds. They leave unmistakable evidence of their presence.
Sapsuckers ingest sap and eat the insects that are attracted to this sticky substance. Birds drill holes in thin bark, especially of maples, birches and pines. Sap oozes out of the wound, and the birds return for nutritious dining. Usually the holes, called wells, are perfectly round with several forming a horizontal line. Sapsucker wells rarely harm a tree, although scars can remain on the bark for several years.
An outstanding information source for yellow-bellied sapsuckers and hundreds of other bird species is a website sponsored by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology. Go to allaboutbirds.org and enter in the species of interest. Photos, videos, maps, sound recordings and interesting tidbits of information will appear. The lab also offers a free smart phone bird identification app. Click on the website tab for information.
by Winding Pathways | Feb 2, 2015 | Birds, Nature
Show Birds Some 
on Valentine’s Weekend:
Join the Great Backyard Bird Count!
This in from The Audubon Society. Join other birders for this family event from the warmth of your home! You cannot beat that!
“New York, NY, Ithaca, NY, and Port Rowan, ON —Give Mother Nature a valentine this year and show how much you care about birds by counting them for the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC). The 18
th annual count is taking place
February 13 through 16.”Anyone in the world can count birds at any location for at least 15 minutes on one or more days of the count and enter their sightings at The Audubon Society
Backyard Bird Count. The information gathered by tens of thousands of volunteers helps track changes in bird populations on a massive scale. The GBBC is a joint project of the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the
National Audubon Society with partner
Bird Studies Canada.
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| Snowy Owl by Jane Ogilvie, VT Click image to download for print |
Bird watchers fell in love with the magnificent Snowy Owl during the last count when the birds were reported in unprecedented numbers across southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes states, the Northeast, and down the Atlantic Coast. Expect Snowy Owls to show up in higher numbers during this year’s GBBC, too. “”It’s called an ‘echo flight,'” explains Marshall Iliff, eBird Project Leader at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “After a huge irruption like we had last winter, the following year often yields higher-than-usual numbers as well. The abundance of lemmings that produced last year’s Snowy Owl irruption likely continued or emerged in new areas of eastern Canada, more owls may have stayed east after last year’s irruption, and some of last year’s birds that came south are returning.” “”This may also be a big year for finches,” notes Audubon Chief Scientist Gary Langham. “GBBC participants in North America should be on the lookout for larger numbers of Pine Siskins and redpolls. These birds also push farther south when pine cone seed crops fail in the far north of Canada.”
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| Common Redpoll by Helena Garcia, Quebec Click image to download for print |
“Bird watchers from 135 countries participated in the 2014 count, documenting nearly 4,300 species on more than 144,000 bird checklists–that’s about 43% of all the bird species in the world! In addition to the U.S. and Canada, India, Australia, and Mexico led the way with the greatest number of checklists submitted. “”We especially want to encourage people to share their love of birds and bird watching with someone new this year,” says Dick Cannings at Bird Studies Canada. “Take your sweetheart, a child, a neighbor, or a coworker with you while you count birds for the GBBC. Share your passion and you may fledge a brand new bird watcher!” “The Great Backyard Bird Count is a great way for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect with nature and show some love for the birds this Valentine’s Day. Participation is free and easy. To learn more about how to join the count, download instructions, a slide show, web buttons, and other materials, visit http://gbbc.birdcount.org/. While you’re there, get inspired by the winning photos of 2014. “The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Bird Unlimited.
by Winding Pathways | Jan 6, 2015 | Birds, Nature
Step out the back door this winter and scan the sky. You might spot our national bird soaring overhead.
A few decades ago eagle populations had been decimated by DDT poisoning and odds of spotting an eagle in Iowa were long. That’s changed as eagles began increasing in the 1990’s across the country. Although still not abundant, they are increasingly common in both rural and urban areas.
Eagles aren’t shy and don’t seem to mind being around people. They sometimes even nest inside city limits, usually in a large tree near water and cruise over neighborhoods in their search for food.
Winter is the most likely season to spot an eagle. During summer months some nest in warm states but more fly north to raise their young along remote lakes and streams in Minnesota, upper New England and Canada. When those northern lakes ice over in late fall eagles gradually move south until they find open water and plenty of fish. Dams create turbulence and factories sometimes discharge warm water that keep water open in otherwise frozen rivers. Eagles love these places and concentrate there, often even in the downtown of large cities.
Eagles will dine roadside on carcasses.
Eagles enjoy eating fish but also feast on deer killed by cars and nearly any dead animal they can find. Don’t be surprised to see one on the edge of a highway having a venison breakfast.
Mature bald eagles of both genders have characteristic white tails and heads. When soaring at high elevation white feathers are nearly invisible against the sky and the bird looks headless and tailless.
Young bald eagles are nearly as big as their parents but their tails and heads are dark. White feathers don’t form until they are three or four years old. A high percentage of young birds are a sign of successful reproduction and a growing population.
by Winding Pathways | Sep 29, 2014 | Birds, Nature
Corn is one of the world’s most important agricultural plants. It’s loved by both people and wildlife. Corn is readily available and inexpensive. When used appropriately, it is an outstanding addition to a backyard feeding station.
It’s surprising how little most people know about its history. Corn is a human created plant that does not exist in the wild. It has no ability to reproduce on its own, and without people planting and tending it, corn would become extinct.
Wheat, oats, rye, millet, rice and barley originated in the Old World. In contrast corn is New World. Domesticated from a wild ancestor in Central or South America thousands of years ago, corn cultivation gradually spread north and east as Native Americans traded seeds. The Spanish conquistadors named it “maíz” from the Taino Caribbean culture whose people called it “mahiz.” By the time of Columbus, corn was an important human food throughout what became the United States. Early European explorers brought seeds back to Europe and it was soon grown around the world. Today China is a major corn grower but the production epicenter is the American Corn Belt. Billions of bushels are grown in Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana, but cornfields can be found in nearly all states.
Geneticists have developed dozens of corn varieties. Best known may be the delicious sweet corn enjoyed at summer picnics or as popcorn at the movies. It is a major ingredient in livestock feed, and most corn is indirectly eaten as beef, eggs, poultry, pork, and even domestic catfish. Corn derived ethanol powers vehicles and it is used to produce syrup to sweeten beverages and has hundreds of industrial applications.
Corn is an outstanding wildlife food. Gardener’s know! Keeping deer, birds, and raccoons out of a patch of sweet corn is a major challenge.
Corn is readily available for wildlife feeding in grocery, farm and bird feeding specialty stores. It’s usually less expensive at farm stores and can be purchased either as whole (sometimes called shell), dried on the cob or cracked. The shell corn name comes from the Native American practice of using a clam shell to scrape hard kernels off the cob. Shell corn is intact kernels too large for most songbirds to swallow but eagerly eaten by deer, wild turkeys, blue jays, squirrels, pheasants and many other species. Cracked corn has been run through a machine that breaks the kernel into pieces small enough to be eaten by tiny birds as well as all those that can eat the full sized grain.
Corn is not the best choice for the most desired feeder birds. Chickadees, finches, cardinals and many others prefer sunflower seed. Corn’s advantages are its low cost and attractiveness to English sparrows, pigeons, starlings and other less desirable species. These birds prefer to eat on the ground. At Winding Pathways we sprinkle cracked corn on the lawn a distance from the sunflower stocked feeders. It helps lure less desirable birds away from the more expensive seeds. Almost daily a flock of wild turkeys visits the yard and devour every scrap of corn.
Squirrels and deer also love corn and readily gobble it down. It’s sometimes possible to buy dried corn still on the cob and many people enjoy watching mammals chew the kernels cobs.
by Winding Pathways | Sep 18, 2014 | Birds, Nature
Nearly half of all American households set out a bird feeder. Most are stocked with sunflower seeds, and birds love them. The story of this seed is an interesting mix of nature, science, and culture.
Domestic strains of sunflowers were developed from a wild ancestor that’s common along roadsides and in vacant lots across much of North America. Blooming in midsummer, it is the Kansas state flower. Wild sunflower seeds have always been an important wildlife food that were also eagerly collected and eaten by Native Americans.
Wild sunflower seeds were brought to Europe hundreds of years ago. Ironically, Old World scientists developed cultivated varieties of this American plant, which became an important crop in the Soviet Union long before improved seeds were imported to the United States during the Cold War. Sunflower cultivation remains more important in Europe than North America, and Russians eat thousands of tons of them each year.
North and South Dakota and Kansas are major American producers of commercial seed that ends up in feeders all over the continent. An average yield is around 1400 pounds per acre.
Domestic sunflower seed comes in two general types. The smaller black seeds, called black oil, are processed into cooking oil or sold for feeding birds. The larger striped seeds, called culinary or grey striped sunflower, are usually used for human food and make delicious additions to baked foods. They are often salted in the shell and sold in small bags as snacks. In the Dakotas most people call them “crack and spits”. Birds love both types, although the black oil type is usually much less expensive.
Native Americans and wildlife know a good thing. Sunflower seeds are a nutritious food as appealing to people as birds.
