Can't we all just get along?

If you look past the terrible photo quality (I had to shoot through the screen on the sliding door), you will find the two craziest mockingbirds in the southeast. These two have been sparring over who gets my yard as their territory for at least a year. They often use my patio as their boxing ring, and the fights can get pretty vicious. Sooner or later one will run the other one off, to sulk in the trees in the side yard and make a racket. But, before you know it they'll be at it again. They even fight on the wing in midair.

This fascinates me because I have 3/8 acre with many bushes and trees, edible berries and fruit, and full bird feeders. However, they don't think this town's big enough for the both of them, and they are committed to fighting it out. The strange thing is the mockingbirds will band together to run off other encroaching birds like grackles. And then take after each other like nothing happened.

Meanwhile, every spring they nest in the bushes and try to scare away any people that come near. Given the ferocity of their squawking dive-bombs, I have gladly yielded the yard to them on many occasions. Mockingbirds are MEAN. They ganged up on my cat Sasha once and badgered her to the point that they had her begging at the door to be let in. Another cat from the past, Peep, wouldn't walk outside without looking over his shoulder for them, afraid they would launch a sneak attack.

Crazy, crazy birds.

Up to my neck in birds

The news in the Southeast recently has reported there is an outbreak of salmonella poisoning among Southern songbirds, especially goldfinches and pine siskins, although other birds, such as cardinals, have also been affected.

Boy, can't tell it from my yard.

I have had more goldfinches this year than in the last ten years of bird feeding. I always have loads of cardinals, robins, chickadees, nuthatches, doves, sparrows, wrens, thrushes, purple finches and house finches, but seldom have seen a goldfinch. Now, every time I look into the back yard, there's one perched on my thistle feeder.

I just went to look - there's one out there right now.

And now there's two.

If you feed it, they will come.

I almost quit buying Niger thistle seed because there was so little interest in it compared to the other feeders. I mean, what self-respecting bird would nibble daintily on a teeny-tiny thistle seed when there's a big load of sunflower right there? I have seen little black cap chickadees and purple finches pin a seed to a branch with a foot and peck for a whole minute to crack the hull. They're so little, one seed must be a breakfast for them.

But now, it's all about the thistle. They will empty half the feeder in one day. Remember how tiny thistle seeds are? That's a lot of peck-peck-peck. I'm just glad that the seed is sterilized so the effluvia from the feeder doesn't turn into a thistle patch in the back yard.

Boy, my lawn guy sure wouldn't like that.

As for under the sunflower feeder. . .I'm waiting for someone to invent a back yard vacuum cleaner to pick up all the seed hulls.

Meanwhile, the mourning doves have been meticulously examining all my window sills for possible nesting sites. Coo-coo. "Honey, what do you thing about this one?"

We've gone to the birds here.

Avian Subsidy Program

I like birds. Always have. I have had pet birds (don't right now because of the feline queen of the house -- she's an indoor only cat and locking up one excitable heavy-on-the-hunting-instincts cat with a poor terrified caged bird 24/7 doesn't seem fair for either of them). So, I feed outdoor birds and create the all-birds-all-the-time channel outside the sliding door for the cat and myself. In our house, each window is a different cat-TV channel for her to watch. The chipmunk channel is out front. Danger-speeding-cars is on the bedroom window.

This bird-feeding stuff is great in theory but the suckers are eating me out of house and home. If I've let the feeders run out, the chickadees will sit in the top of the dogwoods and cuss me out while I fill them. Of course, the chipmunks and the gray squirrels are contributing to the speedy depletion of seeds, but the birds do plenty of damage. Especially the mourning doves. I must have 20,000 living in my trees alone. And the goofy things can't find a better place to nest than the grapevine wreaths on the front and back porches. I had three nests this year. But that's another post.

Anyway, all the birds in bird-dom are out back gorging on free seeds. Well, they're seed-eaters, that's the plan. But along come the woodpeckers, and that's where I get cranky. These are bug-eating birds, darn it. So why are they eating my expensive black oil sunflower seeds? Because they're lazy, that's why. Nature loves a mooching opportunity. And not just on the feeders. I had a red-headed woodpecker wolf down half a suet cake in one sitting. But what can I do?

For now, I just suffer the cost and keep filling the feeders. But, the more I feed, the pushier they get. This morning, I looked out the bedroom window to see a downy woodpecker clinging to the side of the window and industriously pecking on my brick house. Was this a protest action? A couple of the feeders are empty. I better get out there before the natives get restless.