Birding for Beginners

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Comment by Bird Nerd on September 7, 2009 at 9:30pm

Fall migration should be starting soon! Hope to see some interesting activity.

Comment by Bird Nerd on August 10, 2009 at 5:59pm

Good idea........we are having quite the heat wave here in coastal VA!!!!!!! I filled up the bird bath with fresh H2O and the baby cardinals are having a blast!

Comment by Sam Crowe on August 8, 2009 at 8:25am

Sounds like a pretty good selection on year-round basis. I think the goldfinches winter in your area and Pine Siskins might show up at the thistle.

Suet attracts some warblers, either resident or migrants.

The best addition for attracting more birds is an in/on ground water feature with running water. Takes a little time to set up, but can attract lots of birds.

Check out Linda Alley's backyard birds for the fall of 2007.

http://www.pbase.com/wingsandthings/fall_2007

Comment by Bird Nerd on August 7, 2009 at 8:27pm

Quick question - do you change the type of seed based on the seasons?? Right now the finches are loving the thistle and the other birds seem to like the "songbird mix" that I got....... it's attracting cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, titmice, etc.
Should I offer anything different for fall?

Comment by Sam Crowe on July 29, 2009 at 7:15pm

Lorrie, is the image in your gallery, if so which one is it? The bird labeled Unknown Bird 7-26-09 is a Northern Mockingbird. May be partially leucestic.

Here are some of the images of leucestic images we receive.

http://www.birdzilla.com/birdnews/leucistic-birds.html

Comment by Will Sloan on July 13, 2009 at 8:30am

Actually the mix I'm using already contains black oil sunflower and cracked corn as well. It's a mix I found at Wal-Mart that's supposed to be a year-round all type's mix. I'll pick up some suet and see how it will affect the current activity. I remember my mom using suet when I was much younger and we had a lot of blue jays and cardinals as a result. This mix seems to be only attracting small birds like finches but the sparrows have been also coming up to it.

Question: If I were to spread some of this seed on the ground, would this deter the larger, more aggressive birds from visiting the feeder? Also, would it be better to use cracked corn to prevent germination?

Comment by Sam Crowe on July 12, 2009 at 7:08pm

Both Will and Lorrie are attracting some great birds with their seed mixes, which include milo and millet. Generally mixes with lots of milo or millet do better when spread on the ground a they are popular with birds like sparrows, doves and some buntings.

Black oil sunflower is the best choice for hanging feeders.

Comment by Will Sloan on July 5, 2009 at 9:32am

Well your input will be valuable for true beginners like me. Thanks for joining!