Spooking the Sparrows

I love all my backyard birds - even the house sparrows that flock in dozens & empty the feeder I refill in about 20 minutes flat, even when they kind of yell at me when the feeder is empty. recently I bought a bird feeding station kit where I can hang about 4 different feeders, it includes a suet cage and a tray and also a small bird bath. I also got a woodpecker feeder for adding peanuts and sunflower seeds. 

The problem was some of the sparrows decided they liked this feed better than their regular mix. It was fine for the most part, but they were aggressive towards the woodpeckers and the nuthatches. The poor downy woodpecker below, tried and tried, but couldn't get a morsel when the sparrows were there. 

After a lot of research into sparrow spookers, I settled to make a Magic Halo! Most of the commercially available ones are for keeping away all birds and this is the only thing I found that helps to keep sparrows away from feeders. I used a plastic bowl, drilled a few holes in it and dangled 6 jewelry wires from it. And it really worked like a magic! It's been a few days since I have put this up and the sparrows are sticking to their feeding station. Almost all the other birds - woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and a few red-winged black birds and grackles have been visiting the woodpecker feeder without having to fight with the sparrows! Every once in a while there is an errant sparrow on this feeder, but they hardly stay on. 

A blurry photo from inside the kitchen doors to show the sparrows sticking to their station & the ground :) Now I am tempted to get one of these stations for the front yard too!

Frontyard

Today the suet feeder in the backyard was empty - with so many birds at the feeders, it seems like a daunting task to keep all of them filled all the time! The White Breasted Nuthatch was having a tough time competing with the other birds on the regular feeder and managed to discover the feeder in the front yard. He even managed to bring a friend along today & this is the first time I have seen 2 of them at the same time. 

The doves also love the front yard more! Sometimes its useful to have the red-winged black birds (female in the picture below) come around to splash some seeds on the ground for the doves.

Downy Day

Among all the visitors to the backyard, my favorite is the Downy Woodpecker - the smallest of all the North American Woodpeckers, he is elusive and I have to sit still for a while before he will land on one of the pear trees. Last week he found his favorite suet in the feeder & gave me a chance to get some nice shots...

...till one of the blue jays chased him away for a bit! He came back & hung out for a while and I only accumulated about 5 dozen pictures of him :)

Fur, fur, Baby!

The sparrows have learnt to expect a hoard of soft fur when the dogs get shed in the backyard. They wait for me to finish shedding and as soon as the dogs run away, they swoop down to fetch their treasure. Eyes on the prize, they completely ignore me & the camera...

Backyard Birds

Recently I have taken to having my DSLR camera with me when I sit out in the backyard with the dogs. We have set up a few bird feeders and a couple of bird houses. It's been wonderful to see so many different birds come to the yard and there's also quite a few of them nesting! Here are some clicks from a couple of weeks back...I am hoping to keep this blog alive with at least posting a few pictures now & then :)

2015 Art Calendars

2015 Art by Bala calendars are almost here and will be shipped starting Nov 4! It is Animal Paintings themed, with high resolution images of 14 of my henna style textured animal paintings. Printed on high quality premium glossy card stock paper and measures 8.5" x 11". There is also room to write on the dates. Only $15 + $3 shipping within US. Get yours today!

You can now purchase them directly from my website!
Click the link here: http://www.artbybala.com/calendar

Guest Babies

We had two beautiful American Robins fledge from their nest last week. The nest was by the rose plant on the arbor in the backyard. Yay!

 

The Peacock's Tail

Everytime I see a peacock proudly showing off its tail, advertising his higher quality to a potential mate, the one thing that comes to mind is the Handicap Hypothesis - where the male displays his "quality" to the female through costly traits. In this case, the long tail of the peacock makes it more vulnerable to predators, but a surviving peacock uses the tail to communicate his fitness potential. I am sure many peahens found this guy here quite attractive! Back to blogging after a big break :)

Playing Peek-a-boo!

Krazy Kiddo

Off? Are you sure recliners are not for my comfort?

Lone Elk Park @ St. Louis

Our last weekend in St. Louis we went to the World Bird Sanctuary and drove through the Lone Elk County Park. We didnt get to go hiking here as dogs are not allowed. There were plenty of wildlife and it was an awesome place to to spend a wonderful evening.

The herd of bison had quite a few calves running around

The elk that chased Shankar back to the car

More Tigers!

These are two of the five Amur Tiger cubs at the St. Louis zoo, born in April 2008. And no, they don't look like they are cubs, but they have a lot more to grow! I think there are 3 females and 2 males and they are absolutely beautiful to watch. Except when I see them frolicking in the mud, there is a temptation to hold them down and give them a nice bath :)

Brrrr... Its Cold!

Mocking Bird in the rain in Galapagos, June 2005. It was no where near as cold as it is in Wisconsin now.

Sea Nettles

These beautiful Sea Nettles can be seen at the New England Aquarium in Boston. I love watching jelly fishes at the aquarium! This picture makes me think about how they communicate (they only have a nerve net and not a brain).

Animals are Amazing!!!

How could I not share this? Paul Nicklen and a Leopard Seal.

Cataloging Books

Shankar got me "Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink", the latest book by Jane Goodall for my birthday last week. With each addition to our personal library, there is a need to electronically catalog all our books. I have been thinking about expanding my Amazon Listmania, to include all the books we have. But with the new ebook readers being able to sync with Google Books, I decided to go the google route! It was easy to search for and find the books, add to my library and label them. I finished adding most of my cookbooks (all those in English), and one other bookshelf in the house. Click here to access My Library!

Favorite Animal

As I was waiting for the little zoo train at the St. Louis Zoo yesterday morning, I ran into Natalia - a little girl from the Dominican Republic who is in the US to get a surgery on her leg. One of her legs is much shorter than the other, and she had recently been fixed with a shoe, that helps her walk (and run). Since the train was running late, we decided to walk around some of the exhibits. Natalia, who mostly speaks only spanish told me her favorite animal is the 'elefante', which is also one of my favorite animals :)

The St. Louis zoo has four Asian Elephants, and the male is in an enclosure by himself. The three females, one of which looked like a calf, are together. They also have a separate enclosure with a pool where they can go for a swim. It would have been so cool to see them also swim, along with the baby Hippo!

Hippo under the Water!

I spent this morning at the St. Louis Zoo. I had a great time, walking around and taking a ride in the train around the 90 acre zoo. The first part of the zoo was the River's Edge and had Rhino, Hippos, Cheetah, Bush dogs and elephants. In spite of having been to so many zoos before, I saw so many animals for the first time and it was thrilling. The most wonderful experience of the day was watching a baby hippo swim!

This is the first time I am witnessing a hippo actually swim - this baby was basically doing circles in his pool, with the mom and dad watching from a corner. He has gracious movements, and it was fun to watch him swim along with hundreds of fishes. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera on this trip and the pictures were taken with my iPhone.

I am thinking of...

... all the birds of the Galapagos and the disease ecology of their parasites and pathogens...

Galapagos Hawk

Pausing to reflect...

A coyote we saw at the Grand Canyon in 2007