Bird Baths
Here is a great example of how you do not need to break your budget while attracting birds to your yard. Putting out bird seed, suet and so forth and making a home feeding station brings in all sorts of feather friends, as can erecting nest boxes for specific species, creating a brush pile, allowing grass and flowers to grow for natural seeds and nectar, or giving them nest building materials like fur. However, even some just regularly provided clean water can do the trick, especially in times of extreme heat, drought, or frigid cold (if heated!). Here is little more than a plastic tray with...
Read MoreMourning Dove
This Mourning Dove was doing what many birds had been recently – hanging out in the warm sun wondering why it was so cold again! But those days are over as we accelerate with rapid nesting and hope that temperatures stay away from the freezing mark or anything near it. What sort of nests and eggs do you have in your yard already?
Read MoreMourning Dove flocks
Is it just me or have you observed large flocks of Mourning Doves in unexpected or insignificant areas this autumn, too? Certainly a bird feeder in a yard can be a good place to find even dozens of individuals but it felt like we have had a lot more than usual around to me. Don’t forget to examine those flocks, if you have them. There can be anything from the Eurasian Collared-Dove, a White-winged Dove or a Common Ground-Dove mixed in, if you’re very lucky. Scott Kruitbosch Conservation & Outreach Coordinator
Read MoreHappy Halloween!
Happy Halloween! I do not have any cute kids in costumes so I thought I would share my Shetland Sheepdog, Zach, looking the most serious he ever has in his life. That playful boy will be three years old next week and he is a hardcore birder, conservationist and biologist. He was raised as a puppy on hawk watching, waterbird monitoring and waterfowl hazing. He learned to always look up and enjoys watching doves flying around the neighborhood, sparrows scratching at the grass, ducks and geese swimming offshore, gulls feeding on the rocks and raptors screeching by. He has a heck of a life list...
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