|
|
|
Business News
PITTSBURG —
I always wonder in the winter, when everything is completely frozen and the only available water is the flowing shoals of the rivers, how do wild birds and small mammals survive without water? There are times here in the Ozarks when there is absolutely no available water for days. In northern states there are weeks when water isn’t available.
Right outside the window of my office here on Lightnin’ Ridge, there’s a little bird feeder, which a dozen species of birds visit and empty in about two days. During that last session when we had rain beginning to freeze, long icicles hung from the little roof of that feeder. As the temperature warmed, those icicles began to drip, and a red-bellied woodpecker, feeding on the seeds below, took advantage of the situation by tilting his head sideways and sipping the dripping water with the tip of his beak. I watched all kinds of birds come to the feeder that day, and he was the only one getting a drink from the dripping icicles. The feeder is only a couple of feet from the window, but wouldn’t you know I couldn’t find my camera!
There are several dominant species in the collection of birds which feed there. The red-bellied woodpecker is one, and the bluejay and doves do not seem to worry much about being chased away. Nuthatches, though small, are not bullied by much of anything, but titmice and chickadees have a rough time of it. The nuthatch never eats anything at the feeder; he just dashes in, finds what he wants and takes it to a nearby giant white oak, where he stashes food in the bark. I think a big pileated woodpecker, about a foot long, gets some of his stash on occasion. I can watch birds come to that feeder for hours, and it fascinates me. It is something to see some species come to the feeder that you seldom see there, like the white-throated sparrow. On this ridge-top, I have seen about every kind of bird. Not long ago an eagle sat on the limb of a tall oak only a few yards from my office, and the little pond I built a hundred yards from one window is visited on occasion by migratory waterfowl. In January, about five years back, a roadrunner came up my driveway. I haven’t seen one since!
Remember when I was puzzled about six or seven bluebirds returning to the bluebird nesting box in December? Joan Jefferson, from Freeman, MO, sent me an e-mail saying that many bluebirds stay all winter and they like to group together in nesting boxes they used in the spring and summer.
“We actually see more bluebirds in the winter when they come to our heated birdbath for a drink or quick bath than we do in the summer,” Ms. Freeman states. “We have also watched our two Carolina Wrens come to their former nest box about 4:30 in the evening during the winter and spend the night together in the security and warmth of the box hanging under our house’s eaves.” And now I feel guilty because I don’t have a heated watering place for my birds. Guess I will have to invent something, since I can’t afford to buy anything but bird food. Grain has become so high the last couple of years I have to cut back on ammunition just to pay for dog food and bird food.
You can contact me via email at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com
I always wonder in the winter, when everything is completely frozen and the only available water is the flowing shoals of the rivers, how do wild birds and small mammals survive without water? There are times here in the Ozarks when there is absolutely no available water for days. In northern states there are weeks when water isn’t available.
Right outside the window of my office here on Lightnin’ Ridge, there’s a little bird feeder, which a dozen species of birds visit and empty in about two days. During that last session when we had rain beginning to freeze, long icicles hung from the little roof of that feeder. As the temperature warmed, those icicles began to drip, and a red-bellied woodpecker, feeding on the seeds below, took advantage of the situation by tilting his head sideways and sipping the dripping water with the tip of his beak. I watched all kinds of birds come to the feeder that day, and he was the only one getting a drink from the dripping icicles. The feeder is only a couple of feet from the window, but wouldn’t you know I couldn’t find my camera!
There are several dominant species in the collection of birds which feed there. The red-bellied woodpecker is one, and the bluejay and doves do not seem to worry much about being chased away. Nuthatches, though small, are not bullied by much of anything, but titmice and chickadees have a rough time of it. The nuthatch never eats anything at the feeder; he just dashes in, finds what he wants and takes it to a nearby giant white oak, where he stashes food in the bark. I think a big pileated woodpecker, about a foot long, gets some of his stash on occasion. I can watch birds come to that feeder for hours, and it fascinates me. It is something to see some species come to the feeder that you seldom see there, like the white-throated sparrow. On this ridge-top, I have seen about every kind of bird. Not long ago an eagle sat on the limb of a tall oak only a few yards from my office, and the little pond I built a hundred yards from one window is visited on occasion by migratory waterfowl. In January, about five years back, a roadrunner came up my driveway. I haven’t seen one since!
Remember when I was puzzled about six or seven bluebirds returning to the bluebird nesting box in December? Joan Jefferson, from Freeman, MO, sent me an e-mail saying that many bluebirds stay all winter and they like to group together in nesting boxes they used in the spring and summer.
“We actually see more bluebirds in the winter when they come to our heated birdbath for a drink or quick bath than we do in the summer,” Ms. Freeman states. “We have also watched our two Carolina Wrens come to their former nest box about 4:30 in the evening during the winter and spend the night together in the security and warmth of the box hanging under our house’s eaves.” And now I feel guilty because I don’t have a heated watering place for my birds. Guess I will have to invent something, since I can’t afford to buy anything but bird food. Grain has become so high the last couple of years I have to cut back on ammunition just to pay for dog food and bird food.
You can contact me via email at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613. My website is www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com
