Bright glints of azure flashed in the air as we neared the Garraway’s yard on Monday’s KissMe walk.
I pulled up my iPhone’s eBird app to record “four eastern bluebirds.” Atop their nestbox a male wing-waved. Stopped mid-street, I entered into eBird a northern cardinal, two golden-fronted woodpeckers, 2 Carolina chickadees, and, a blue jay. The timer feature of eBird showed “three minutes.”
eBird is soooooooo easy. Just a few years back folks were paying a lot of money for software that took some effort. Now, through Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s app, it’s free. It’s easy.
And, Cornell’s “Merlin Bird ID” is a handy app (App Store and Android) to identify birds. From eBird sightings, Merlin knows what birds have been reported recently in and around Mountain City (or wherever you might be) and at this time in past years.
Merlin asks, “What size was the bird?”, “What color(s)?”, and “what was bird doing?” Ta DA! Like magic, Merlin shows photos of the most likely birds. Upon your selection, it provides the bird’s sounds and a map of the species’ distribution.
Pretty cool.
On these warm days, cavity-nesting birds start claiming their nestbox for their first nesting. The bluebirds at the Garraway’s bluebird nestbox from Texas Bluebird Society give good hope for an upcoming nesting there.
Bluebird nestbox distribution happens right here in Mountain City. Searching for your nearest nestbox distributor on the Texas Bluebird Society website, my name pops up. Ta DA! Like magic, bluebird nestboxes are available. The organization gives a free nestbox with a $15 membership and sells nestboxes for $17, including sales tax.
Ron spotted a new woodpecker hole in the trunk of a tree in our side yard. Downy’s, ladder-backs, and golden fronted’s frequent our peanut feeders, and, now, our shelled sunflower seeds.
Tractor’s Supply has the best prices I’ve found on black-oil sunflower seeds and shelled sunflower seeds. Some birds that cannot crack the seeds flock to the shelled. The price seems high. But, there’s no waste and no shells littering the ground under the feeder.
Lesser goldfinches returned this past week to our thistle feeders, filled with Wagner’s thistle from Home Depot. So far, they’re not dripping all over the feeders. Rather, four or fewer at a time. Tractor Supply sells thistle socks.
I bought the last of some wildlife attractant vines this past weekend when we went shopping for farm fresh eggs and grass-fed meats. The pungent smell of the Dutchman’s pipe vine blooms should attract a full buffet of flies for ash-throated Flycatchers that should soon nest in our front yard. The vine is planted at the base of our “Wildlife Tree”, the snags we saved when oak wilt took the life from a Live Oak.
Please keep tidbits coming in this week! [email protected]
