We got a wee bit of snow. We’re still trying to dig out of it. After watching the feeding frenzy at Neil’s on Friday, I felt certain that the weather folks were “for serious” when they reported one to two feet of snow was eminent the next day. Saturday morning I woke up to seven [ Read More ]
In case you have not heard, we’re buried under an old school blizzard dumping up here. The local weather folk were predicting with barely restrained glee the potential for a massive storm. And though many of us have heard in the Twin Cities that we could get 1 – 2 feet of snow, many of [ Read More ]
Well, we’re about to get Snomaggedon in the Twin Cities this weekend (12 inches with blizzard conditions). The birds are going bonkers at the feeders so I set out the Wingscapes camera to grab some images. The jaunty blue jay is loving the crumpled up peanut suet mixed with black-oil sunflower seeds. And then he [ Read More ]
Earlier in the summer I reported that an empty hive feel victim to a wax moth infestation. The frames were nasty and full of webbing and tons of squishy larvae. This gross combo did lead to me finding a way to combine my love of beekeeping and birds: It took some convincing, but the birds [ Read More ]
It’s that special time of year when migration is in the early stages and any sign of spring is a welcome sign–even the first few small flocks of common grackles like the one above. They really are a pretty bird in the right light. But soon, grackles will be driving people who feed birds a [ Read More ]
For those like my mother who lives in Indianapolis (who are getting Rainmageddon) and cannot experience the white Christmas we are enjoying in the Twin Cities, I thought I’d put out my Wingscapes cam to get some photos of birds and the falling snow. I forgot that I had it set to take video, so [ Read More ]
A couple of weeks ago, I saw a squirrel loafed out on the top of the telephone pole outside our kitchen window. It seemed to be staring in, willing me to put seed out on the ledge of the kitchen window. It would then be able to walk the wires to gain access. I’m not [ Read More ]
Recently, Dennis Donath who I volunteer with at Carpenter Nature Center sent out an email announcement to bunch of us that a local large scale retailer was going to have one heck of a deal on bird seed, specifically black oil sunflower. It was one of those Black Friday deals of black oil sunflower seed [ Read More ]
Last Saturday was the Minnesota Ornithologists’ Union Paper Session (a boring term for annual gathering). One of the presentations was from John and Lisa Loegering about attempts to produce Nyjer in North America. Let’s get some basics down about this seed first, on the off chance that someone reading this doesn’t know about the tiny [ Read More ]
Well, now here is an interesting article from BBC News on how bird feeding id affecting birds over in Europe. The traditional thinking with bird feeding is that birds use feeding stations as a small part of their diet, using various other sources for food. But a study on a European warbler called a blackcap [ Read More ]
