Black Capped Chickadees, Juncos, and Northern Mockingbird on Clark Avenue

Submitted by RAG on Tue, 02/16/2010 - 20:48.

Birds on Clark Avenue. http://rag14.weebly.com/birds-on-clark-avenue.html

RAG - Resident Advocacy Group
http://rag14.weebly.com/index.html
http://twitter.com/RAG14Tremont

 

Photos are from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Juncos on Denison Avenue

We've been seeing Juncos for about two weeks now. Haven't caught any chickadees eating at the feeders resently, but yesterday there were 7 cardinals, male and female. And my poor robin sits in the Dogwood staring at me and my computer. He hops to the gutter for drinks of water every once in a while.  he joins the birds at the feeders every day.  I think he is lonely.

 

birds

The poor robin will have company in a few weeks and be lonely no more. RAG, please post the location of the sighting of the northern mockingbird. This is one of the birds that I have not seen in the city.

I really wanted the American goldfinch in my yard and hung a black thistle sock a couple of years ago. Eventually a pair showed up, then hordes of them arrived with their bright color.

 

northern mockingbird

I first saw it about 2 weeks ago. There is a very dense bush that many birds like. Right now it still has red berries. I don't know what the bush is. It flowers in late spring / early summer. The mockingbird and robin both were eating these berries. This is the first northern mockingbird I've seen. Apparently they are here all year.

Cooper's Hawk

I have seen hawks on 3 occasions (Clark, Starkweather, and South of Lorain) swoop down quickly and grab live food over the last couple of weeks. They are not the peregrine falcon hawks. They look like  the Cooper's Hawk.

If there is a siting of the northern mockingbird, I would like to know as I have not seen one is the area. I understand that they are good hiders.

We were lucky  to have a flock of black crowned night heron take over a tall evergreen near me a while back. They came in February of that year, and raised their hatchlings. They stayed until hard winter came but returned the next spring to repeat the nesting. Dusk was heron meet up time around here. Flocks from other areas would arrive, these birds with their 4 foot wing span and vocals that sound like duck with sores throats, then off they would go to fish somewhere near by. They would return with fish for the Juveniles, and take off again.

A new house was built near by, and they have not returned, though I look every week. The construction must have been too much for them.

Sounds of spring

It is all in the songs of the birds. The juncos came to my feeders a couple of weeks ago, the red breasted finch showed up last week, and today, I saw the grackles. I also spotted a crow, the first that I have seen on my street in over a year. 


cooper's hawk

 Hearing the shrieks of little chickadees this morning, I walked out to find out what all the fuss was about. Being happy to have attracted these birds and having fed them throughout the long winter, I feel a little protective of these silly birds. 

Sitting in a power line over a tree was an immature Cooper's hawk. What a gorgeous creature! I walked around him, admiring him, as he watched me. I asked him to please leave these tiny birds alone. He finally left, gracefully, gliding with little effort.

Cooper youth

 

This fine image is from lloydspitalnikphotos.com

LIke a ballet dancer, spectacular physique!

You can see that the Cooper is different from the Red Tail...

 

cooper dance

 thanks for the image. It is sort of what I did when he did not leave when asked nicely. I waved my arms around, and he decided that this was just too much hassle. The Cooper's hawk is a federally protected bird, so doing a kind of dance to encourage them to move on is the limit.

Birds of a feather - flock together

This evening around 6:00 pm., in a big tree (lost most of it's leaves in the big wind storm) behind my son's house were what looked----and sounded like hundreds of birds.  They were clearly holding a meetin' and discussing some serious business - all speaking at once.  I watched for more than 15 minutes and none of them moved. I'm sure the chatter was about heading South for the winter.  I just thought the bird congregation was so interesting.

They were so loud you could hear it in the house with the door closed. 

jerleen birds messengers of gods - warning of earthquakes etc.

imminent but unverified threats

 Don't worry about earthquakes, Guy. We have imminent but inverified threats of attacks by terroist. Does anyone know what the hell that even means?

 

 

 

 

 

those birds came from over here

We have a couple of trees on my street that are giant nighttime bird hotels. It has been this way for many years. They go to a large tree behind me, hundreds, chatter, grow silent, fly away, return, repeat several times. Eventually they go roost in the trees in the front.

We have new people on the street that find the number of birds just too much. Bird poop on the sidewalks, bird chatter, etc. Last week, a staffer at the Cleveland Department of health came out for two nights and shot "screamers" into the trees to scare the birds away.

So in the end, these birds will be someone else's problem. Then they will return.

I need to call to find out how much this cost the taxpayer to have someone come out at 7:30 on the weekend.

I just find it amazing how

I just find it amazing how these little feathered creatures have their own way of organizing a get together on such a grand scale.......simply by word of mouth.