And exciting news for Grackle fans!
My good friend at eccentrichippo.com has made these fabulous Grackle earrings that shine in all kinds of colors just like the Count himself. You can get them at their Etsy shop here.
Come grab a chair and unwind
Mourning Doves seem infatuated with the camera and love to pose. This one spent a lot of time just sitting right in front of it today, and when I watched, it relaxed me a lot. (The music is a copyright-free clip called "Fantastic and smooth relaxed jazz ballad".)
The sun was out today!
And there were lots and lots of Juncos. Here you can see a bit of the hierarchy thing that they have going on. Some tolerate feeding next to each other, others don't. The trills and "sledgehammer" noises are to assert dominance, I'd say. It was windy, so there is side noise.
Mourning Doves
are here year-round and in large numbers and can sometimes be overwhelming with their feeder dominance, but they make up for that with their spirit and their funny portraits. They seem like a happy bird, if there ever was one. Which is funny, given their name. This is your happiness talisman for the new week. May good things happen ❤️
It’s been a week…
I’ve been keeping myself busy with lots of work, baking and the birds. And this Friday night, I made a little collage with some of them. I am thoroughly enjoying the Junco abundance this winter, and it is nice to see some of the woodpeckers and also Nuthatches come out of their shell a bit. I hope you all can relax a bit this weekend, maybe take a nice walk to clear the head. Much love! (The music is a copyright-free clip called The Funny and Bad Orchestra by Bruno Portinho)
On the coldest day of the year,
I stepped out all bundled up in the morning and thought I had heard something strange - a Robin! Robins are the state bird of Michigan, and I know they somewhat hang around in the winter but I never see them until around March. So this was very unusual. I was hoping it would also visit camera spots, and well… it did! Came for a sip at the ground bath. I know they will go for peanut butter and suet but I also still have some dried worms if it hangs around. The weather will remain cold but not as bad as today.
Borby friends and Squirrel Appreciation Day
we are expecting the coldest day and night of this winter so far, and the birds are in great shape. I am loving all the Junco activity, they are so entertaining and absolute master borbs. When they start puffing up you know it's really cold. It's supposed to be 3 F (with a real feel of -17!)/ -16 (real feel -28!) °C in the morning, so bundle up and use face cream for protection when you go outside. Frost bite is no joke!
And it is Squirrel Appreciation Day! I use baffles on my feeders to keep them from eating me out of my savings but they find plenty of food otherwise, and "pay" by entertaining. Below you see some of the resident flying squad and two regulars from the day shift.
When times are rough,
I am especially happy for this hobby because it distracts me and keeps my mind busy. And I never get sick of seeing birds, trees or gorgeous skies. We live in a pretty awesome place here on earth. And I hope we can continue with that. And I will continue to share what makes my heart happy, here from my little yard 💓I have not made up my mind yet in regards to staying on Meta or not, but all of this current social media mess has strengthened my decision to try and keep this website alive, no matter what. I have closed my Twitter account a while ago, and once my data is downloaded, I will also leave TikTok. Leaving Meta is a bit harder because it also means I would leave an opportunity to make a tiny amount of money with my work, which helps me continuing. I do also have a Patreon account, if you feel like helping a bit.
The birds are loading up
before the big cold arrives, and that does not always happen fully peaceful even if there is plenty for everyone. That seems to be something that can be applied to our human world too. I hope you all have it warm and are with good people while we wait for the big cold. And I may not have any blue in this clip, but go Lions 🦁
Sometimes, things align
and something fun happens. When this Cardi landed, timing was perfect, and the CY95 trailcam snapped an awesome picture. I counted six Cardinals in the yard today! I think they are starting to gather when it gets really cold, and we are expecting a temperature drop in the coming days that is not for the faint of heart. I am personally very happy about it because it makes me feel like we are having a proper winter. I could do without a deep freeze into April though, which happened in my first two years in the US. Stay warm and enjoy the snow as much as you can!
Expressive friends today,
one of the several Cardinals came when the sun was out for a bit, and the Blue Jay made a funny face, maybe because it arrived to an empty bowl. I refill as much as I can but when I work, the bowls may be empty for a bit too before I make it back out. It is getting really cold here this week, so I will make sure to refill frequently.
Another Junco post,
but they are the dominating bird here right now and so entertaining. I read that they have a strict hierarchy at the feeder, and here you can see and hear a bit of them sorting things out. It is so fun to see them puffing up their chest like two angry little men going at each other. They eat hot bark butter from WBU here. I use that to keep the squirrels at bay during the day. They still check it out but only quickly 😆 With the snow flying, I was reminded of a snow globe, so I made the video look round.
The bird bird deluge
did not happen today, but the feeders and bird baths were still busy. When I first started watching birds here, I read about heated bird baths and was astounded that something like this would even exist. There was no need for that in the middle of Germany where I grew up. So I got one of these magical things, and then a second, and now I have four in total with three in current use. And I am still astounded at the magic they do during frozen days. I have two of my favorite one, which is the beige one you can also see on my bird bath livestream. They come with a thermostat so they only keep the water from freezing when needed, and do not heat it. The one in this video here is one I got new last fall, because I wanted another smaller round one to mount higher up on the shed. It is holding up well so far but time will tell. None of them make my electricity bill go up like crazy.
(You see a Cadinal, a Junco, a male Redbellied Woodpecker, two MoDos and a female Redbellied Woodpecker visit. This was recorded with the CY95 trailcam. The music is a copyright-free clip named "Playful fun simple whistling and guitar(1573259)".)
Winter means Dark-eyed Juncos,
and as you know I love them. They have a lot more personality than can be seen from afar and are quite feisty. Usually the slate grey and white ones are dominant but this year quite a lot of them have all kinds of brown and peach tones. They are females and youngsters from last season. So I guess they did good with breeding last year. Tonight, we are getting a nice big new layer of snow, and I hope tomorrow will be a fun birding day.
The sun continues
to hang low and make itself rare throughout the days, making the solar panels on the trailcams work hard to keep the cams awake. And even though the food gets eaten, there is nothing really exciting happening and I am not in the mood to brave the cold and try out new camera locations right now. So we are all doing the survival thing and hanging in there. But there are still some surprises too, like a Titmouse today, which I also haven’t seen here in a bit. I know they are regulars around here but as I said before, my yard has been odd since last spring/ summer, and things are still not feeling like in previous years. I guess that is why I enjoy everybody who is coming right now.
White-breasted Nuthatches
are around year-round in my area, but they have not visited feeders in a bit. Yesterday, there were many, and they again competed with the Juncos for food bowl domination (pic 1). You can tell male and female Whitebreasted Nuthatches apart by looking at their heads. In my little chart, the males are on the left. Their head cap is jet black. The females on the left have a lighter grey color there.
It’s National Bird Day,
and what better way to celebrate than with a lovely bunch of the current regulars? These were all taken over the holidays when we had a nice amount of snow. I would love to see as much of the US as I can but I am always happy I ended up in Michigan because we get all four seasons here, and it is such a great spot for wildlife, nature and birds. The variety we are getting to see here at any season is quite astonishing and can truly help to survive bad moods and dark times.
Coming to my yard at this time are lots of Mourning Doves, House Finches, Dark-eyed Juncos, Chickadees, Blue Jays, Woodpeckers, and every so often surprise visitors like the Brown-headed Cowbird lady in the last photo here. (I added the names to the photo captions and will try to remember to do this more.)
Happy National Bird Day!
Happy new year!
I have not posted here in a bit but the holidays were busy and afterwards I was rewarded with a nasty cold that is still lingering on, and I did not feel like leaving the bed. I am beginning to feel better finally, and today bundled up and went outside to tend to feeders and baths. Everybody seems to have been happy about the offerings, and I am happy to see that the Flying Squirrels are also still around.
While I was bed-ridden, I have pondered if I should give up this website to save some money and continue to only post on all the social platforms I post on. But then I also felt bad about that because it’s been five years here now and I do enjoy having this platform for longer formats as well. I never really know how many people are actually checking things out here but it feels like a better portfolio than just social media profiles. And we never know how long anyone will stay on any of the platforms anymore anyways…
That being said, my content was getting more video-oriented last year, not because I necessarily wanted that but because my tech changed and because the bird pop here was less diverse than in previous years, maybe because of me being out of it in late April and March. And video content is less stressful to post on social media than here with embedding links and all that. I do hope for more bird photos this year again.
For the time being, this website is safe, and I hope the socials and Patreon will generate enough to keep it alive. (You can find me on FB, Insta, Threads, BlueSky, Tumblr, Mastodon, TikTok and Youtube as @ostdrossel)
I wish everyone a good new year, with maximum amounts of joy to counter anything that is not joyful. I will do my part with birds and wildlife. If anybody has an idea how to keep the livestream links stable so that I don’t have to add them to the page again whenever I restart them, I would be happy to hear about that. Thank you all for the continued support ❤️
Big Red
and his merry gang of friends in some photos from yesterday. Cams are out and ready today too - with snow on the ground and beaming sun, perfect conditions to harvest wonderful bird footage. I have to work today but the mood is definitely Christmassy with all that beauty outside. Snow and sun days are my favorite. Stay warm and have fun today!
We woke up to a winter wonderland
this morning! Everything looks pretty and there is quite a bit of activity but I loved these quiet moments at the bird bath. Until the thirsty MoDo arrived, that is 😆 They always drink as if they have a hangover. (You see a Junco, a female Cardinal, a male Cardinal and a Mourning Dove.) Stay warm today! (Music is a copyright-free clip called: A simple piano with a kindness like sunbeams filtering through foliage (1378519)). You can watch this bird bath on my Youtube channel as well.
