Any bird feeders?

Yes Pug. Just slightly bigger than a Goldfinch.

I’ve got 3 prs of grosbeak that are regulars, more goldfinches than I can count, and more Orioles than I’ve ever seen at one time.
Highest Oriole count at one time, 15. I feed them grape jelly. For almost a week, they went through a 30 oz jar a day! Since the trees leaded out there’s been less, about a jar every 3 days.

Need help identifying a bird that has been by a few times recently.

It is really dark colored, almost black. Pretty large for a bird, I figure its a little over 100 lbs. I can always tell that it has been at the feeders because all of my seed is gone and my metal hanging pole is bent at a 90 degree angle.

One other note, my dog will leave most of the song birds alone, but when this particular bird shows up he feels the need to chase after him. This lead to me finally catching a photo of this rare bird

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IceNEyes1986 wrote:

Yes Pug. Just slightly bigger than a Goldfinch.

Indigo bunting it is. Lucky, I only saw two on two separate occasions in my 45 years in Mn.

mplspug wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>IceNEyes1986 wrote:</div>
Yes Pug. Just slightly bigger than a Goldfinch.

Indigo bunting it is. Lucky, I only saw two on two separate occasions in my 45 years in Mn.

After doing a little more research here at work, I figured it was. I have never seen one before. They sure are pretty!! Thanks for confirming!

@skinnywater, Those 100lb birds can really do some damage! I live in some good bear country but have been fortunate to not have any get into my feeders yet.

Oh jeez, I thought he was off his rocker. A 100# bird. I could almost make a bird out of it too like a ink blot test. Now I see it.

Came across this while fishing this weekend. Yea Tom for northerns!!

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Took this up north!

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Female bluebird will be very dull/dingy, with just a slight blue and orange in the same spots as the male.

That’s a hummingbird.

Saw a lone Sandhill crane in Cottage Grove. It was feeding in last years corn stubble. I’ve never seen any on the ground here. And it seems unusual for it to be alone. I don’t know where the nearest colony is. Maybe Carlos Avery or western WI?

We have a few Sand Hill’s around P4. Most of the time we hear them but don’t see them.

Had my feeder up for a week now and a few sparrows are starting to find it. They took about 1″ of black oil sunflower seeds.

I need to talk the fw into a bird bath in the same location…

I don’t think I have ever seen a lone Sandhill.

Sandhill Cranes don’t need a colony to nest. Pairs will nest in a lot of unusual [to us anyway] places and while only one might be seen you can bet the mate isn’t far away and likely on the nest baby sitting.

The Downy Woodpecker chicks have been zeroing in on my suet blocks and just in the last couple days the catbird chicks have been frequent visitors to the suet too. Its been pretty entertaining. The woodpeckers sit on one side pecking away when a catbird lands on the other side. Neither wants to give up the goodies and soon one or the other will work its way over to the edge and take a peek at who’s on the other side. The big stare down happens and finally they just go back to doing what they were doing.

We bought a nifty peanut butter feeder last week and its been hanging now for several days. This morning, in the rain, I checked it from the window and there sits a hummingbird on one of the perches with its tongue going a mile a minute licking the wet surface. Must be sugar coming out of the peanut butter that its after. Strange.

As I type I have a parent Downy Woodpecker working a suet block maybe five feet from me thru a window. The block hangs on a shepard’s hook. There’s a juvenile Downy on the hook and the parent takes from the block to feed it. This has gone on for about five minutes and finally after some coaxing the young bird finally flew to the wire cage and is now pecking the suet on its own.

My feeder disappeared. I suspect my wife had something to do with it. She doesn’t like the weeds that grow under it. Also has mentioned “it’s summer now, they can find food.”

Saw a hummingbird moth on my day lilies this morning. They are a cool animal.

Yeah, those things are pretty cool.

I just learned that the large green caterpillar that I saw last fall was from the hummingbird moth. Bizarre critter

We got these on our passion flower. They are going to ravage it like the monarchs did on out milkweed.

I believe it is a fritillary caterpillar.

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Most of the moths seen around here feeding in or on flowers are Sphinx moths and nicknamed “hummingbird” moths because the look similar. Friendly suckers for sure and can be easily approached as they feed on nectar. Some of the “skipper” moths can get sort of large and might be seen as hummingbirds as well. Most Sphinx moths are nocturnal but there are a couple that are daytime critters. I think the best time to see these is late evening.

Here’s a cool site for identifying moths and butterflies.

https://www.insectidentification.org/butterflies-and-moths.asp

I like skippers. We have at least 2 varieties just going by size. One gets pretty big. I like them (skippers) because they seem more agile than butterflies and approachable.

I always wondered what a woollybear caterpillar became, turns out it’s the banded woollybear caterpillar moth!

Can you tell what kind of winter we’ll have by the width of the band on a woollybear?

Rod Bent wrote:

Can you tell what kind of winter we’ll have by the width of the band on a woollybear?

Or by the direction it travels in the fall?

I can’t.

I saw the crane in Cottage Grove again. Same field as before which has beans now. But today it’s mate was with it. They stayed out there through a torrential rain and high winds!

Yeah they really don’t seem to care about the weather.

Here’s an unusual pair….a juvenile downy woodpecker and a juvenile female oriole. Its odd to see an oriole on suet, but this one and another, a male juvenile, have been pretty common on this feeder this summer. Our oriole feeders we have a hard time keeping filled and the jelly jar is gone in 4 to 5 days.

Sorry for the fuzzy picture but it was taken thru a screen. The feeder is only about 5 feet away thru this window, no more than six from where I am typing this.

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This male just showed up. Dirty window and all I took the picture. lol He was here for about four minutes and of course he did a shift as I hit the shutter. lol

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last nite as i walked by the jelly feeder there were 4 wasps in it……….time to put the jelly feeder away and put up wasp traps!!!!!!!!!