Ojai Naturalist

As fall was underway in 2018, my thoughts turned to the return of our hermit thrush Patience, who has been coming back here for the winter the last three years (see essays, “Theatrical Thrush”, “Winter Arrivals”, “Winter Arrivals; And Then Some”). Migratory birds will return to the same wintering or breeding spots if they have had success there previously. I guarantee you that Patience enjoyed her three winters here! We had already had our other winter arrivals, white-crowned sparrows, dark-eyed juncos and yellow-rumped warblers, and I was getting anxious.

Well, on October 23, she returned for her fourth winter! She showed up on her favorite rock by the jade trees, which I have dubbed Mount Precious, doing her little wing shake and waited there until I got back with the worms. She immediately flew to my hand for a worm. Patience is back!

I must note here that I had recently changed the way I feed the birds. I had started putting the dried mealworm dishes closer to where I sit when I feed the birds. The farthest is at ten or twelve feet and some are as close as on the patio table where I sit. This was to keep out the ground squirrels and scrub jays. I also started feeding them in the late afternoon only, well kind of. In the morning I would be at the table, doing whatever, and I would put a dish of dried mealworms opposite me and have walnut pieces for the seed eaters, who also eat the dried mealworms. I also have the live mealworms for the hand feeders. These feeding sessions last only an hour to an hour and a half and always under my supervision. This causes the birds to identify more with me as being a great source of food. This further breaks down their fear of me and lets them act in a more natural way when I am around them.

Putting a feeding dish up on the table really paid off. When birds see other birds eating or gathering food they will come in and check things out.

And check things out they did! It gets a little crowded at times, especially when the food first comes out. Everybody wants their share! It is also very interesting to observe them working out the pecking order, both within and across species. This first rush lasts about twenty minutes and then suddenly you notice that the birds are all gone. They then come back in about fifteen or twenty minutes and will usually get in three to four feeds during the feeding session.

Of course, we still have our year round birds coming in, some of which are the hand feeders, however most are ones that I will throw food to, either on the ground or onto the table. It is quite hard for a bird as small as the Bewick’s wren to find a spot in the pecking order, they being the omegas here, not even close to an alpha. However they do find their chances to get in. We have two other Bewick’s wrens that come to feed; one is Buddy’s mate and the other is from the north side of the property. They do not come to hand so I will toss out a worm onto the table and they will fly down from their chair perches to get them.

Our oak titmouse, Tweeter, will take from my hand but it’s mate will not, so I toss the food onto the table for the mate. With this behavior I have come to realize that I can know which of the two birds I am feeding, even when they come by alone, otherwise I would not have a clue as to who’s who.

Another bird that was here last winter and showed up again this year was a Northern mockingbird. I fully expected it to be around last spring since it is a year-round resident, however it never showed. Well, it came back this winter. It perches on Mount Patience, or other rocks, and I toss it live mealworms. We’ll see if it stays this spring.

Since I now have more birds coming up onto the table with me, I decided to see who else I could lure to my hand. It’s a lot like fishing–you use good bait, make a good presentation and reel ’em in. It worked on a White-crowned sparrow fairly quickly. I have to think that he is a bird who has been here during previous winters. It seemed very eager to come to come get a worm. It had been watching the other birds take from my hand, and I’m sure that helped. I named this bird Whitey

Considering that I only put one feeder dish of dried mealworms up on the table in the mornings, instead of the three of four that I put on the ground for the afternoon feed, the birds all get along fairly well. There is a pecking order as to who feeds when, however everyone seems to be able to get their chances. The California towhees used to be the top bird at the feeders, but they have been replaced by the California thrashers as top dog, I mean bird.

In the winter we usually get a small flock of Yellow-rumped warblers. Last winter and this winter we seemed to only get one. Last winter it would come to the worm dishes when the bluebirds came in. This year was the same, only one and it would show up with the bluebirds to feed. Since all the birds, well most anyway, were coming to the table the warbler did also.

The Yellow-rumped came in a little differently than the other birds. It would hover over the dish to snag a worm. That made it really tough to get a really good photo of it. Eventually it calmed down enough and started landing, and I managed a better photo that shows the species more clearly.

The Dark-eyed juncos that winter here do not come up on the table to feed. They do, however, approach close enough so that I can throw them little pieces of walnut. They have now associated me with being responsible for the food being provided. During the winter the juncos replace the Bewick’s wrens as bottom of the pecking order.

One of the California towhee pairs are coming up on the table to feed together. This pair contains the new Tow-Tow II.

Tow-Tow II and it’s mate are from the south and are the South Tows and the other pair are the East Tows. The East Tows come up on the table also but are more skittish at this point. Since towhees are territorial, as are most animals (us included), it will be interesting to watch the dynamics between them unfold over time.

The other really cool event this winter were the California thrashers. Since the feeders were brought in closer the thrashers followed. This enabled me to quite easily toss out live mealworms to them. They very quickly focused on me. The more aggressive one, Slasher, came to my hand in just a few days!

The other thrasher, Dasher, would only come within a couple of feet of me and I would toss out its worms. I decided to keep this behavior unchanged so that I could recognize which bird was which. I have done this with other pairs of birds over the years and it really helps. I think that Slasher is the female of the pair based on its aggression. It was much the same with Tow-Tow and its mate. However I can not say that with any surety.

Winter was coming to an end when on March 18th we had our first spring arrival and it was the Hooded orioles. All the wintering birds were still here. The first to leave was Patience, the Hermit thrush, on March 23rd. The Rufus hummingbirds had already arrived for the spring on March 20th. Not only that but spring really encroached when the California thrashers started stacking worms in their beak to take back to nestlings! That was on March 24th, the day after Patience left. The thrashers are very early nesters. Their nesting season is from December to June with March through May the peak times. I will have plenty more information on the thrashers in my next essay.

Most of the White-crowned sparrows left on April 7th, except for two who left on April 18th. Last fall we had two Hooded orioles that stayed three weeks after the others had gone south. Some birds seem to miss the text messages I guess. We had a fun winter with our winter friends, however I must say that Patience will always be the star in winter, as long as she shows up.

Absolutely nothing is permanent in nature. The only constant is change. My relationships with the birds and other animals are always changing. One thing that does stay the same is my enjoyment of these relationships. Last year I lost three birds that fed by hand; the bluebird pair Bonnie and Clyde, after three springs, and Tow-Tow, which was a five year relationship. This year I gained another winter bird, besides Patience, that takes from my hand– that would be Whitey. With the resident birds, I picked up Slasher and Tow-Tow II as hand feeders. In the end I haven’t lost anything. What I have really gained is more wonderful experiences with my friends!

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

We, being the animals that we are, shed hair. Dogs shed. Cats shed. You notice all the hair that builds up in your hair brush don’t you? How about a white, long haired cat that likes to get up in your lap, good luck with that. It is one of the criteria of being a mammal: having hair. Yup, animals shed. Birds also shed and this is called a molt or molting. While feathers are actually very durable, they do wear out, as with all things in life, and must be replaced. However, because feathers are necessary for flight, there are certain periods of molting, and also sequences, that are followed.

All adult birds molt at least once a year. Many birds will molt twice a year. Few birds molt three times a year and it is very rare to have four molts in a species. The prebasic (formerly postnuptual) period of molting generally occurs after breeding. This is when food is still plentiful and the demands of breeding are over. Feathers make up 4% to 12% of a bird’s body weight, and this requires the bird to use a lot of energy to replace the lost feathers.

Within the same species the sequence or progression of the molt tends to be relatively the same; in many birds the body feathers are molted progressively in “waves,” beginning on the head, face, and throat, extending backwards toward the tail. There is usually a symmetrical loss of feathers from both sides of the body, which balances feather loss, so that the bird still functions.

A good many species have a prealternate (formerly called prenuptual) molt during late winter or spring, usually it is a partial one. The prealternate molt tends to make the males have more prominent plumage than the females.

In most male ducks the full adult plumage at the end of the breeding season is replaced by a dull basic plumage (formerly called eclipse plumage), in which the males resemble the females. This period lasts for about two months.

Most birds molt wing and tail feathers, so critical for flight, symmetrically and one or two pairs at a time. As a result of the gradual, balanced loss of feathers, most birds are able to fly at all times. Before I ever started bird watching, I would see a raptor soaring and notice that a wing or tail feather was missing. I used to think that some yahoo was shooting at them. It is nice to know that I was wrong on that. One last fact; any single full feather lost between molts is replaced immediately.

These molts that birds do take some time. I don’t know if the molt lasts a full month, but it is close to that. I have been watching some of the birds here molt every summer for several years now. They look so disheveled, and I find that I really feel for them. I do have one question in my mind about being in a molt; besides looking really bad, do they feel bad? Like, is it itchy?

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

Having had so long a relationship with our beloved California towhee, Tow-Tow, who we lost last spring of 2018, I feel a need to pay her homage, so here it is.

We have had California towhees since we moved here in 2004. They are a very common bird in our area. They are basically a big, fat, brown ground sparrows. They will scratch in the leaf duff, making a lot of noise, very much like a chicken. I had started to feed the towhees in 2013 and was enjoying their company. I don’t remember the exact time that I started calling Tow-Tow, Tow-Tow but I do recall why. I was always calling out ” Tow-Tow, Tow-Tow” to her when I wanted to feed her. It was plain and simple. Calling Tow-Tow a “her” came about because over the years we noticed that she would get very plump in the spring, and then she would show up all svelte after she laid her eggs, so I presumed it was a female.

It got to the point that when she would come around the corner of the house and I would call to her, she would run the thirty feet over to me to be fed. She was the first bird that I had the opportunity to establish a true relationship with. We were well aware of each other.

With the towhees being so close to me, I often was shown little insights into behaviors of all sorts. In some years there would be a hatch of green caterpillars that, while they were mostly up in the trees, also fell to the ground in good numbers. Two different caterpillars could be noticed. One was a green larva that was slightly smaller than the mealworms I use, the other was considerably larger and was a sphinx moth caterpillar.

Most birds mate and rear young in the spring because of one fact: more food. There are a whole lot of larval insects around to keep young fledgelings healthy. The larva can also be an indicator of when a bird is feeding hatchlings because the birds will be stacking the worms in their beaks to take back to their nests rather than just eating them immediately. This stacking of worms in their beaks helped me to find Tow-Tow’s nest in 2014. After I would fill up Tow-Tow’s beak with worms, she would fly off to the south yard. I decided to try and follow her. When I followed her around the corner to the south yard, I lost sight of her. I waited there patiently until she returned to me for more worms, and I filled up her beak again. Off she flew to her nest, ten feet away from where I was standing! I could see her nest! Well, that worked pretty well.

Tow-Tow’s nesting effort of 2014 ended in failure (see essay “Nest Watching Wonders”). Towhees make their nests very low to the ground, usually within a couple of feet of it. This particular nest was also a little bit open to view and therefore a prime candidate for predation. Birds are pretty much forced to mate in spring because of chemical changes in their bodies, so Tow-Tow would attempt to have more broods over the years and we would see lots of them.

When one has a relationship with a wild bird, or any animal, over the course of a few years it can open up insights into that animal’s behavior. One distinct behavior of the towhees was shown to us one spring while they were doing a bonding ritual that they do. We had seen it before, however we were inside at the time and did not hear the calls that they apparently make. This time we were at the table in the north yard and the towhees were eight feet away from us. One towhee, I would presume the male, would pick up a small twig and bring it as an offering to its mate. What we got to hear this time was the low, soft chip notes that they were making while they did this bonding ritual. It was fascinating!

Towhees are stoical birds. Nothing much seems to bother them, that is, other than another towhee in their territory, then they will fight. Not too much though, usually it is just a quick squabble. Besides showing up for the food I offer, towhees and all the other birds also show up for the water here in my yard. Not only to drink but to bathe. Where I live the habitat provides most of the bird’s needs. Where I live is also in Southern California, which means: not much water. To combat this I have eight bird baths. On the south side of the house I have three birdbaths, one on the ground and two off it. On the north side I have five, two on the ground and three off. What’s that saying, “Build it and they will come.” It works!

Mostly though, the birds come to eat. I have the best and easiest to find food around these parts. They also bring their fledgelings in from time to time. Sometimes they would be quite close to us. It was always enjoyable to see the youngsters. After all, we did feel like grandparents pretty much.

Some years Tow-Tow would have a second brood, some years not. I don’t really know why. The food resources that I would make available to them were kept constant. I feed them every day, however I only feed the birds when I am able to be out there with them. That is so I can keep the undesirables out, like the ground squirrels. Animals can get very pushy over food. The bluebirds, Bonnie and Clyde, would fly right in front of our faces when flying in to let us know that they are here. Patience, the Hermit thrush, would fly to our faces and back from its perch on the chair next to us when we were not paying attention to it. And all the birds we hand feed would come on top of the table and check us out very closely whenever they would come through.

When Tow-Tow would fly up onto the table, she is a ground bird remember, you would hear a loud thump. One always knew when it was Tow-Tow. The last month before Tow-Tow disappeared she added something to her checking us out for food routine. If our hand was on the table she would come right up to it to see if it held any food. First she would look around the area of the little finger and then move to the index finger and thumb. She would then inspect inside the hole that the finger and thumb make when resting on a table. Having found no worms she would then peck our index finger! That’s right, peck our finger! She did it twice to me and twice to my wife. Talk about a brazen bird! But hey, we did, after all, have a long standing relationship going on. She should be allowed that discretion. Not only was it allowed, we loved it! Tow-Tow was always a calm and peaceful presence in our yard and we enjoyed her immensely, to say the least. I am already grooming a replacement for Tow-Tow. This California towhee is already coming up onto the table to eat, so it is only a matter of time before she is taking food from my hand. I even have a name for it already, Tow-Tow II. In memoriam to Tow-Tow.

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

As spring arrives there is an abundance of activity from our avian friends. Bonnie and Clyde, the bluebirds, are nesting in the same hole in a tree that they had used the previous two years. The Oak titmice actually used the bluebird box that we had put up close to us at the table in the north yard. However, the first shock of the spring was that we had another pair of bluebirds nesting on the south side of the house!

One of this pair was probably an offspring of Bonnie and Clyde. While I can see Bonnie and Clyde’s nest opening in a silk oak from where I sit in the north yard, this other bluebird nest was in a pepper tree that was situated so I could see the opening from where I sit in the living room, way cool! The bluebird nesting box that was being used by the titmice was even closer to me than the nests of the bluebirds were when I was in the north yard at the table.

Of course, there were other bird species that were also nesting. My Bewick’s wren, Buddy and its mate, were feeding nestlings and a second Bewick’s wren was also feeding young, although it appeared to be a single parent. I say that because it never came in to feed with another of its species. The White-breasted nuthatches and two California towhee pairs were also feeding hatchlings.

While Buddy the Bewick’s wren would come to hand, its mate would not. This resulted in my just throwing live mealworms onto the table for them to pick up. I also would throw the worms onto the ground when the birds would be foraging there. The single wren also would come to the table to get worms, though not from the hand.

Our dear Tow-tow, the California towhee, and its mate, would come to the top of the table to get worms for their brood. The other towhee pair only came by and fed on the ground. Tow-Tow and its mate nested south of us and the other towhee pair nested east. The Oak titmice were nesting twenty feet away from our table in the bluebird box. One of the titmice, Tweeter, was a hand feeder. Both these parents would feed at the table for nuts and dried mealworms. Tweeter had been with us for a few years already while its mate was new.

And then we had our nuthatches on top of that! They were mostly nut feeders, not that they wouldn’t scarf up a worm in a New York second, let alone a minute. The nuthatches both came to the table to feed on pieces of walnut that I would throw out to them and would also eat the bird kibble, which is my name for the dried mealworms that were placed in ground feeders. They also received a live mealworm from me on occasion. Wow, that has us helping out two Western bluebird families, two California towhee families, two Bewick’s wren families, one family of Oak titmice and the White-breasted nuthatch brood. That makes eight bird families that we are helping feed!

The California towhees, Tow-Tow, and its mate, were the first to have fledgelings thts spring. They showed up at the feeders with three fine looking youngsters.

Buddy and its mate seemed to have fledged three. The other single Bewick’s wren’s fledgelings I never really got a count on, as the mother never brought them in close enough. The same held true for the towhees on the east side of us. It was a very busy area here at the time so maybe they weren’t comfortable enough to bring them in like Tow-Tow did with hers.

The Oak titmice, using the bluebird box, did their thing so quietly and quickly that they had their hatchlings fledged before I realized that I had never took a photo of them at the nesting box! How shameful of me! I did, however, get a photo of their nest. Just as an excuse, the bluebird box is behind me, back to my left, and when I’m sitting at the table and there is so much going on here at all times, I failed to notice their activity. At least I had a count on their fledgelings, which was three. The White-breasted nuthatches brought two young in tow when they came through feeding. There were young everywhere we looked! Bigger things were still to happen, however.

Early into the feeding of Bonnie and Clyde’s first brood of this spring, another male shows up to help with the feeding. That is not so unusual and we had seen it before (see essay “A Bluebird Bonding Continued…”). Clyde was a little aggressive towards this new male, however he did not chase it off entirely because he had mouths to feed in his nest and this new male was, after all, helping to feed the young. Within a week and a half, before this brood has fledged, Clyde disappears! I did not know the reason for this departure. The new male helped Bonnie fledge three youngsters from that brood. Within a couple of weeks the new male is aggressively chasing off the new bluebirds and feeding Bonnie food because she has started making some more eggs to lay and needs the food. Apparently this new male will be the father of this second clutch.

I was also putting out bird kibble for the bluebirds on the south side of the house. They did very well and fledged four youngsters. Because of the upheaval with Bonnie and Clyde’s first brood on the north side, they also seemed to pick up a fledgeling dispersed from them.

Within a week or so our beloved towhee Tow-Tow stops showing up, just like that! Right after that I notice that I am only seeing three titmice coming by now instead of the five we had at first. One is definitely Tweeter because he feeds from my hand, and the other two appear to be fledgelings. Also at this time the second brood of Bonnie and her new mate are fledged and they are being fed up in the oaks. The main thing that happened during this time frame that might explain things was when a Cooper’s hawk alighted in a large oak limb some fifty feet away from me. I thought it had landed awkwardly and continued watching it. It suddenly started plucking feathers of a bird! It had the bird in its talons when it landed and that caused the awkwardness.

I made note of where the feathers were landing on the other side of the fence so that I could gather them and identify what species it might be. Within a few minutes the hawk leaves and I go round up the feathers. Upon identification they belong to a Oak titmouse. Could this be how we were losing our birds?

Bonnie is still feeding her second brood at this point and then something strange happens. The calls of the fledgelings when Bonnie went up to feed had stopped. Not only that, she was returning to the table with the worms still in her mouth, having to eat them herself. Finally, she disappeared herself within a few days! That was a whole lot of birds to lose in a short period of time. Could the Cooper’s be the culprit? If it would eat a tiny titmouse it would surely take a fat, slow flying bluebird fledgeling, that’s for sure. We have a lot of Cooper’s here and as a result I have seen a few kills (see essay “Predators and Prey”), so it is highly possible. Also, I do not see any animal giving up on a habitat that contains lots of food. Oh well, I’ll never know.

So that I could keep an eye on the feeders on the south side of the house, I moved them to the patio on the east side where I could purvey them. With this placement, I could better keep the ground squirrels from eating the bird food, which they had been doing.

All the remaining bluebirds had now formed one flock. I was using four food dishes at this point. Two south of the table in the north yard and two just west of it. Animals pay attention to what other animals are doing, especially when it comes to eating. Last winter we had a couple of birds come to the feeders because they had observed the other birds feeding. We would get some Yellow-rumped warblers to come in with the bluebirds and we finally had the Northern mockingbird come down from the oaks to feed also. I fully expected the mockingbird to be around this spring, however it never showed, which surprised me a bit. Anyway, we did pick up one more bird that I was interested in, a California thrasher!

Actually, we picked up four thrashers, both parents and two fledgelings. I named the parent thrashers Slasher and Dasher. Slasher, for that long curved beak that they use to forage in the duff, and Dasher for the way they run along the ground. They seem to run more than a roadrunner does! The thrashers are extremely shy brush birds. Any attempt to throw them food previously only resulted in scaring them away. It was nice to have a drawing card to finally attract them closer. While we lost some birds, Bonnie, Clyde and Tow-Tow, which was shocking to say the least, we have gained others this spring. It is said the only constant in life is change. Life is always changing. Life is also tenuous at best here on this planet. That is the way it is in nature. New relationships will form and others will end. What I look forward to is that the experiences never end, only some of the characters change.

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

As fall is approaching in 2017, my thoughts turn to our winter visitors that we start getting in October. More specifically our dear Hermit thrush Patience.  She had been here the previous two years ( see essays “Theatrical Thrush” and “Winter Arrivals”) and I fully expected her return this year, barring some catastrophe.  The White-crowned sparrows and Dark-eyed juncos were the first to show up in early October, in a small flock of each species.  As the month progressed, I thought more about Patience and her returning.  On October 23rd I glanced over to the rocks next to me and there she was on her favorite rock!  Patience was back for her third winter!

How did I know that it was Patience? She waited on her favorite rock while I went into the house to get some live mealworms for her and she immediately flew to my hand for a worm. It was Patience for sure. This is the third winter that she will be staying with us. Birds will return to the same nesting territories in spring and this shows the same awareness for wintering birds as well. Why wouldn’t a bird return to a place that provides for them? They are very aware of what is going on around them and seem to have some memory of past encounters.

The only other question that remained was, would Agro, the other Hermit thrush that also showed up the last two winters, be here also? As I mentioned in my previous essays Agro would chase off Patience to the other side of the house and I would have to feed her there. Well, Agro never arrived, which let me enjoy the relationship I had with Patience a whole lot more.

As I mentioned previously in this essay, the first to arrive were the White-crowned sparrows. They started out with a small flock of four or five birds and grew from there. They would feed on the dried mealworms and also take small pieces of walnut that I would throw out to them.

And then there were the Dark-eyed juncos, which are cousins of the White-crowned, again in another small flock of four or five. They are cute little birds, much smaller than the White-crowns. They are also extremely timid. They could only get to the worms when the other birds were not around and of course I threw them pieces of walnut also, which they ate heartily. Another winter visitor here that was not new to us in the winter but had started to come to the mealworms on the ground was a Yellow-rumped warbler.

It had been following and watching the bluebirds feed and was now enjoying the worms also.

The Yellow-rumped is the fourth wintering bird that we are feeding now, however this winter was going to have a few surprises in the form of our year round residents.

The first to get my attention was a Bewick’s wren. When the wren would come by very close to me while it was foraging and checking out what the other birds were all eating, I would throw out a worm for her to consume. The wren soon focussed on me as the source of her delight. Since things were very busy around the feeders and it was the smallest bird here, besides the hummers, it was tough for it to find an opportunity to feed. The wren started to call to me with a soft “pit-pit, pit-pit-pit” from the tops of some tall Aloe Vera plants and I would throw a worm up over the metal fence corner post for it to gather. I decided to call this bird Buddy.

Eventually I worked Buddy in closer and closer until I had Buddy right next to me in the jade trees by the table. It is a good staging spot for birds when they are feeding around the table. I had also been using the little “pit-pit” call to alert it that a worm was coming from me. Buddy picked up on that really quick. There also were some rocks underneath the jade trees, one of which was Patience’s favorite.

At this point I was still throwing worms out to Buddy. When both birds were here at the same time I had to feed Patience first and then throw out to Buddy while Patience was eating hers. I finally decided to tempt Buddy to my hand for a worm. She did eventually come but it was a bit different, just like Bonnie the bluebird had done early in her taking worms by hand. Buddy would only come to an open hand for a worm. It would not come if you were holding it with your fingers. However, come it did! It would land on my fingertips, take two hops forward and grab the worm. It was extremely adorable!

There were more visitors to our food dishes that winter which we had not had previously. Other year round residents of our yard were paying attention to all the birds actively feeding now. They knew that it was food and would come in closer to investigate. One of the birds investigating was a Spotted towhee. I gave it further incentive by throwing out nice pieces of walnut, since they are, like the California towhees, just big fat ground sparrows and therefore like nuts. When I would work with the Spotted towhee, throwing him pieces of walnut, I would use the call that the spotted would make foraging, just like I did with Buddy. The towhee’s call was a loud “braaack”. That also brought to mind a name for the Spotted towhee, Braaack Obama. Kind of a silly name maybe but it worked for me.

Another bird that I had been hearing up in the oaks above me for a couple of weeks finally came to the feeders. I knew that there was a Northern mockingbird up in the trees from hearing it’s calls. Well, it finally came down to feed.

I also started throwing out worms to it in order to get it’s focus on me and who and what was responsible for the worms. After all, that is my modus operandi isn’t it? Let them know just who Daddy Food Bags is around here. I am pretty sure that is my nickname with all the birds, “Daddy Food Bags” or something equivalent. I also was using the mockingbird’s call, a loud “chew”, to alert it to the coming worm. All three of these new birds would recognize and focus on me when I would use the appropriate call of their species. This was getting to be a whole lot of fun!

Another bird that I caught while fishing with meal worms and walnut pieces, this is a lot like trout fishing with flies, was a White-breasted nuthatch. They are small little birds with short legs and a low posture, which led me to it’s name, Shorty. Yeah, I know, real original isn’t it? I got it’s attention with worms and then used walnut, which is less expensive. That gives me four more year round birds that are very focussed on me, Daddy Food Bags. It is all very enjoyable, as you can imagine. However, the sole purpose of this is to remove their fear of me so that they will act totally natural in their behavior when they are around me. It lets me see little insights, from time to time, of their relationships with all the other birds and even other species. Everything is interconnected and intertwined on this planet and my feeding of the birds and other little creatures helps me see this up close and personal. I find that so incredibly rewarding!

Your’s in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce

I mentioned in a previous essay that the adult bluebirds, Bonnie and Clyde, had not pushed off their young from from spring of 2016 until late January of this year. By early spring Bonnie was begging Clyde for food with wing shakes and open mouth just like a fledgeling. She does this because she is growing eggs for the nest and needs the extra food. Once she lays the eggs Pops (the name I normally call Clyde) will feed her while she incubates them. We had been watching them as they refurbished the nesting cavity that they used last year (see essay ” A Western Bluebird Bonding”) and we were excited at the prospects! While incubating the eggs Bonnie will leave the nest from time to time and feed at the table. One thing is certain however: if she is stacking worms in her mouth, she has hatchlings!

They made countless journeys to the nest over the next three weeks or so to feed the little ones inside the hole in the tree. One morning it was different. The parents were not flying to the hole but up into the far reaches of the oaks. The young have fledged! The young will stay up in the leafy branches of the oaks for their safety until they become proficient flyers. We knew it would be only a matter of time before they were at the table.

We were curious as to how many young have fledged this spring. The parents had been eating great since they got here over a year ago and we wondered if that would affect the clutch size this year. We only catch glimpses of the young when they are up in the oaks and it is very hard to determine just how many birds you are seeing. Once they start following their parents around on their search for food they will arrive closer and we will get an accurate account.

Arrive they did and soon they started feeding themselves at the table. It was still very hard to get a count of the young at first because they come in and out so quickly. Once they settled down we found that they had three fledgelings, the same as last year. As the fledgelings are maturing and feeding themselves, I notice that Bonnie is doing that little wing shake and open mouth that fledgelings do and Pops is feeding her.

That can mean only one thing, she is having a second brood! Within a few weeks the first brood has been dispersed from the area and Bonnie lays a second clutch of eggs. This was very different than last year, when they kept their young for several months. Last year they did not have a second brood, which is probably why the young got to stay around so long. I would have to say that Bonnie fed pretty well here since she is having a second clutch. Food resources play a big role in clutch size and number of broods that a bird has. As the bluebirds were feeding this second brood they received some help from one of their sons from the previous nesting effort of 2016.

Year old bluebirds can sometimes end up with a part of their parents’ territory when they move out. If one of the young from the previous year have a nest failure or fail to nest they will sometimes help their parents to care for this years youngsters. One of the sons from 2016 showed up with a female to help out with the second brood. Probably because there was no genetic investment on her part the new female only stayed for a couple of weeks before she flew the coup, so to speak. The son, who I called junior, stayed the course.

As the young started to show up by our feeding area I tried to get a count on the youngsters. At times I would be able to count at least four fledgelings. That would be more than the previous broods that they have had with us. Wait, is that a fifth fledgeling that I just saw? Yes it is, Bonnie laid five eggs! Wow, Bonnie must be eating extremely well!

With having to feed five young this time I am sure that Bonnie and Clyde appreciated the help from their son. We felt that we had also played a dig part in the process. So much so that we really felt like grandparents! When the second brood started to feed more on their own I moved the feeding dishes up onto the table to bring them closer to us.

At the table the birds are feeding only three feet away from us. It’s up close and personal. It does take some time for the little ones to get used to us. Even with their parents flying to our hands for worms. The only time that the young birds would always come in without fear is when Pops comes in to the table. Then it is a bit like Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”. OK, OK, I exaggerate. However, it is so cute when all five youngsters fly in at once upon his arrival and immediately attack the food! What a dad!

At this point the young still have their streaky breast and upper back feathers. They are, however, showing the color blue that will show their individual sex as bluebirds. The males have more cobalt and the females are more of a sky blue. The problem is trying to get a clean look at them when they are all present. At first I was able to count two males and two females. Eventually I was able to recognize three male fledgelings feeding together at the table with us. OK then, three males and two females it is. The first brood this year was sent away so quickly that I never had a chance to determine their sex.

As the summer wore on and the young bluebirds became more accustomed to us at the table, I noticed that one of the male fledges seemed to be very interested in the mealworms that we were feeding to it’s parents. Which is a bit strange to me because the son, Junior, who came back to help the parents this year never showed any interest in taking a worm from our hand in the one year plus that he was with us.

So what the heck, I offered him a worm and by golly he took it! When I offer worms by hand at the table I start out by offering a worm while my arm is lying on the table so that they can just hop over to it rather than fly over. They seem a lot more open to approaching this way in the beginning. I decided to name him Bright Boy, since he had the sense to figure out what was happening. Within a day or two he was flying right to my hand! This feeding of Bright Boy went on for a couple of weeks when suddenly I noticed Pops chasing Bright Boy away from the feeding area! Within a few days Bright Boy was never to be seen again. Could this be a territorial dispute by Pops over food resources? I think so. Regardless, it was an interesting and informative breeding season with the bluebirds. I saw different behaviors and aspects of bluebird life that I had not observed previously. I will await the wonders of next years breeding season with much anticipation!

Yours in Nature,

Backwoods Bruce