Waiting for chow

[Silvers]

We have a covered feeder behind the house and usually put down about 600 pounds of shell and cracked corn over the winter = 2/1 mix. Feeder has lights wth a motion sensor underneath the roof, and the critters sure keep our spirits up. This year we have way more birds than usual, along with a resident herd of deer, tons of squirrels, turkeys and once in a while a gray fox or two after the cracked corn. Raccoons when the weather breaks, they're just too much for our dog "Kaiser" and he lets loose with the barking. Critters are having a tough time this winter. So yesterday I got out to the feed store for another 300 pounds, that will make it 900 pounds for this winter. Here's the scene this morning, check out that dogwood tree to the left:


About 7 doves waiting for chow ..... what's taking you so long? Deer eat up everything at night so I put down a new ration every morning and evening.


Here's what we call our sugar shack. No coffee on the porch this morning.

[Jim Cloninger]

Great photos, Frank. I also feed the birds in my back yard. I am mainly trying to keep a small covey of California quail afloat. I also get alot of doves. Just lately, there are some Euroasin doves showing up. Do you have any Euroasin doves?
Jim

[Silvers]

Thanks JIm. That's neat on your valley quail. I saw a lot of them on the plant grounds when we lived in the San Joaquin valley many moons ago. I'm not a big time dove hunter but my buds Allen and Freddy are. I checked with Allen and he told he he's heard about them but hasn't seen any hereabouts.

[loggy]

I have a feeder for the birds here in Idaho. I only use a couple of hundred pounds of feed. We get house finches, jays and assorted other small birds. There is a small bunch of pheasants that stop by most days. We also see a few mule deer. There also seems to be a growing number of Eurasian doves making the circuit here every year.

[Stan Hillis]

Great pics, Frank. I feed 'em too, but in the summer. They're waiting on me to plant crops (peanuts, corn) now so that they (deer and hogs) can move in and demolish my efforts.

Interesting that you have dogwoods up there. I never would have guessed that. They are the first thing in the woods to really bloom in the spring, here. Got one in my backyard. I've been cleaning up the yard all day, hauling off limbs the ice storm broke down. Took all day. I noticed that our camellias are blooming. Do you have them in PA? Ours bloom in late winter when everything else in brown and bare. Camellias and magnolias are two that I very much enjoy.

SRH

[abner]

Thanks Frank, Loggy, and Stan for the pictures and bird stories. I love to feed the birds, but had to stop--too many pigeons. First it was one or two and then 10 or more, what a mess. I live in the city on 40' X 100' lots--I know what you would do, I can't. Now, I feed Humming birds and use Nyger seed for Finch and a couple Western Gulls drop by for scraps of meat. Nothing that will attract the pigeons can be put in the feeders and the pigeons will not compete with the Gulls only Crows, and the Gulls leave very little.

[Silvers]

Well, more snow today and a brisk wind to help fill in the shoveled and plowed areas. One local town is at 68" of snow and counting for the season. No camellias up this way as far as I know but dogwoods are very common. Very pretty and the first real sign of spring with their white flowers. There's another dogwood right next to the sugar shack's porch; we went through great pains to protect the tree when the shack was being built. Mountain laurels are very plentiful too and add a nice splash of pink to the woods in May when spring turkey season is in. I forgot to mention the blue jays - there were 13 jays at the feeder yesterday morning. We do get some of the local farm silo pigeons, good birds and not very many at all, and they're welcome with enough grain for them. Crows will visit the feeder occasionally but they do it in stealth mode, no cawing or carrying on, and I have the perception they mainly time the visits when no vehicles are in the driveway. Gulls were absolutely unknown hereabouts until about 20 years ago when the large landfill 15 miles away started accepting garbage from NJ. Within a few years gulls were almost a plague down that way to include raiding gardens and the dumpsters at the fast food places, etc. Local legend has it the gulls followed the garbage trucks coming from Jersey. Fortunately pickins are slimmer up here in the mountains, no gulls as yet.

[Mills]

Beautiful spot!

[loggy]

The Idaho weather was warmer than usual the first part of last week. Yesterday morning the wind was blowing and it was trying hard to snow. We had a few red winged black birds show up in the snow at the feeder. They were the first of the year. I always associate their calls with spring fishing so they were a welcome sight. Our home is not near a stream and the birds were on their way to some place else. Maybe spring is on the way!