For whatever it's worth, I have a small feeding station in front of my
apartment offering premium blend from WBU, nyjer seed, and suet. I usually
only see about a dozen species there in a day but some of them in large
numbers. Unfortunately, one species that visits in large numbers is the
house sparrow.
I put the suet out because one day I saw a downy woodpecker fly in, look
around, and fly away again when he didn't find anything to eat.
Unfortunately, he hasn't been back since I put the suet out. The only birds
I've ever seen use it are the Carolina chickadees and the Carolina wren.
1. The dark-eyed juncos, mourning doves, and song sparrows are always the
first to arrive. They show up at the crack of dawn. As many as 28 mourning
doves have shown up.
2. The goldfinches and house finches start filtering in just before sunrise.
Within minutes, there are 90-100 goldfinches and about a dozen house
finches. They usually start tapering off around 3:30 with only a few
stragglers left by 4:00.
3. Starting at sunrise, the Carolina chickadees fly in to grab seeds and fly
off again. They're at it all day.
4. The house sparrows usually don't show up until about half an hour after
sunrise.
5. An adult female Cooper's hawk includes my feeder tree in her rounds
showing up at about an hour after sunrise and again in the middle of the
afternoon. I'm very appreciative of the fact that she has never taken a
finch.
6. The Carolina wren shows up in mid-morning. It comes and goes throughout
the day until about 3:30.
7. The blue jays don't show up every day but when they do, it is in
mid-morning through early afternoon.
8. The mallards that feed under the feeder usually show up about once an
hour beginning around 1:00 PM but not every day. I've seen as many as 12
mallards equally paired.
9. Tree sparrows, white-throated sparrows, and white-crowned sparrows are
only occasional visitors but come in the afternoon if they come at all.
10. The female cardinal usually comes alone in the afternoon. The male
cardinal will occasionally come with her but they usually only show up
together during evening twilight.
Al La Sala
Columbus, OH
-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brian
Hart
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2010 11:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] FW: Holiday Greetings! And a question: What about
daily patterns at bird feeders?
Hi Guys,
Interesting subject! I spend a lot of time watching the feeders on the
weekends, collecting data for Feederwatch. I don't have any hour-by-hour
data but I've noticed a few things:
1. Some of the smaller bird's behavior doesn't seem to change much, such as
Chickadees, Titmice, Nuthatches, and Downy Woodpeckers. They're still up
with the sun, caching food all day. Larger birds like Cardinals, Redbellies,
and Jays, seem to sleep in, and straggle in to the feeders later in the
morning.
2. Birds visit the feeder more on sunny days than on cloudy, snowy, and
windy days. My tube feeder is always empty at the end of a calm, sunny day.
And I've seen them eat half a cake of suet in one day. On a cold, windy,
snowy or overcast day, the feeder is still half full sometimes at sunset. I
don't understand this, seems backwards to me. Maybe their activity level is
higher on calm sunny days requiring more food, I don't know.
3. The two hours before sunset is the absolute busiest time at the feeders
for large and small birds. This is when I see the largest numbers of
cardinals, mourning doves, juncos, sparrows, and finches.
4. I've only recently started putting out mealworms, and the bluebirds
haven't discovered them yet. But the bluebirds do come to the heated
birdbath a couple times a week, but I've only ever seen them between the
hours of 10 & 2.
Happy Holidays!
Brian Hart
-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Valencic [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 8:59 PM
Subject: Re: Holiday Greetings! And a question: What about daily patterns at
bird feeders?
Dr. Bob's question took me back to the summer of 1974 when I did my 8 week
stint at Cranberry Lake Biological Station in the Adirondack's of New York.
I was a student at The State Univ of NY, College of Environmental Science
and Forestry, studying to become a wildlife biologist. During our second
'4-week semester' (July) I took a field ornithology class. One of my fellow
students spent most of those 4 weeks sitting at Whoosh Pond - a beaver pond
surrounded by a wet meadow and bordered by hardwoods and conifers. The
fellow was watching warblers fly between the woods and the open meadow
around Whoosh Pond (I don't know what kind of warblers - I was new to this
birding thing). At the end of the session he reported to the class on the
movements of those birds throughout the day from first light to dark. I was
amazed that there was a definite pattern to their movements. I did not
think about it then (or is it that I can't remember??) but they were
probably feeding their young on the abundance of insects that were found in
that wet meadow which was an all day job.
I would love to log the comings-and-goings of our feeder birds but the
mortgage calls (I owe, I owe, so off to work I go). I hope someone has had
the time to do so and I look forward to their response.
Happy Holidays,
Matt Valencic
Chagrin Falls, OH
From: Ohio birds [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robert
Setzer
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2010 6:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [Ohio-birds] Holiday Greetings! And a question: What about daily
patterns at bird feeders?
Holidays are a time of reflection. I have a reflection and question to
share.
Does anyone know of studies where data have been analyzed to show daily
patterns of bird visitations at feeders?
I can envision a graph of birds seen over time, but on a micro-scale- maybe
a month of records with dates down the vertical and hours at the top.
Most of the recorded emphasis is on occurrence of birds by month by
generalized location (e.g., county/state/hotspot etc.), but no indications
are made of the time of day.
I am curious about why birds are active at certain times of day. I know
during the warmer months, birds are most active near sunrise and sunset, but
winter seems totally different.
For example:
I normally have coffee and do some reading in the morning for about an hour
around first light. That is when I mostly record my feeder birds. Lately I
see few birds until later than usual. By the time they start showing up, I
get busy doing other things. Today I had the best activity between 3 and 4
pm. It was still light but no birds after that. I suspect (which means I
made a hypothesis) they were "hunkering down" for the night. This seems
"standard" now.
Lately I have been recording exact times for when I see birds at the
feeders. My observations vary widely depending on my own activities, but it
seems mid-morning (hypothesis: it warms up enough to make feeding productive
enough to spend the energy) is active. Then there is a lull (why - birdie
naps?). Then - like today - activity in the 3-4 pm timeframe (for me it's
cookies and milk - not seeds and suet - before bedtime. Were the birds
hunkering down?).
I can envision someone somewhere keeping records of all birds seen through
the day with time stamps, then plotting daily activity in a graphical
format. Whew, what an effort! Yet for someone who has their computer or
craft table (or whatever activity suits them) near a feeder view, it would
not be a huge effort. Kind of like the hawk watch guys who spend all day
just watching birds. (Though I wonder if even they time-stamp sightings .)
Hey! For you guys who sit at home (like me mostly) in winter it might be a
fun activity and might really produce some interesting data.
Any answers on posted analysis of past data? Any "takers" to record and
time-stamp sightings going forward?
In the 3-4 pm hour today I put together a great Polish sausage, asparagus
and potato dinner and saw:
Black-capped Chickadee 2
Tufted Titmouse 1
American Tree Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1
House Finch 4
Pine Siskin 1
American Goldfinch 8
House Sparrow 4
Compare with morning coffee (8:15-9:15 am)
Mourning Dove 34
Blue Jay 3
Tufted Titmouse 1
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 6
House Sparrow 10
And with lunch at 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Tufted Titmouse 2
American Tree Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 2
House Finch 1
American Goldfinch 5
Interestingly the e-mails generated by eBird - from which I copied the above
lists - did not time-stamp my observations. But I would not really expect
them to do so at this point. After all, they are working on a national
scale, and just expanded to allow global entries I think, so it is currently
beyond their capacity. (Nor should they be concerned!)
I was just thinking about this question tonight and want to know if anyone
knows of any studies that talk about when birds are most active feeding in
the winter. Then why do they do so? So many questions!
BTW, my most exciting observations today were the American Tree Sparrow who
might be becoming a regular (I hope) and only my second sighting of a Pine
Siskin this season.
Comments? What patterns do YOU see at your feeders?
And . Happy Holidays to all in my extended birding family! It means SO much
for me to be part of your family! May your new year be feathered, fluffed,
flighty, fulfilled and fantastic!
"Dr. Bob" Setzer
Streamwood Estates, Rochester Hills (Crooks & Hamlin), Oakland County
"Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day." Teaching a man to "bird"
is much harder!
Blog: <http://drbobsbirdblog.blogspot.com/>
http://drbobsbirdblog.blogspot.com/
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Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at
www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
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______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at
www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
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