Overlook Circle

A few weeks ago we were hosting fox sparrows, who finally moved on after about two weeks of being very well taken care of in our yard. It seemed that the weather would improve, and it did briefly, only to get cold again. Some areas of the metro got quite a bit of snow, and we were right back to highs in the 30′s with snow/rain. For the last few days, we’ve had increasing numbers of yellow-rumped warblers. They get their name from the bright patch of yellow the males have on the rump (females have the same markings, but duller.) Since it’s such a distinguishing feature, they have also earned the nickname “butter butt.”

It’s one of the first warblers we usually see during migration, coming from the southern US and Mexico, on their way to nesting grounds in Canada and the arctic.

Yellow-rumped warblers are normally not feeder birds, but are one of the few warblers I know of that will come to feeders if they are hungry enough. There have been many reports of them all around the city, at suet feeders and in large groups foraging along neighborhood streets. It seems they are everywhere, delayed in their migration because of the cold last week.

They are mainly insectivores, but will eat fruit in the winter. Since there haven’t been many bugs around recently, they are having a hard time finding food. Usually they are seen higher up in the trees hawking insects (flying out from a perch to grab an insect in flight.) However when there are no insects, they are forced to forage on the ground. I scattered suet pellets and dried mealworms on the ground for them, and had a flock of probably 2 dozen gobbling it all up. Like most warblers, they move around constantly and quickly so it’s hard to get an accurate count!

So for the last few days, they have been pretty much everywhere in the yard – on the feeder, under the feeders, on the deck and in trees, in the garden and in grassy areas where I had scattered food for them. They seem to really like the suet and have no problem getting inside the caged feeder. I even had one coming to the mealworm dish for live mealworms that I had put out for the chickadees!

I’m sure they will move on soon, but it’s been fun hosting them and watching their antics. These warblers are fairly tame and are usually easy to watch up close by just sitting quietly. With all the difficulties that we humans create for birds, sometimes it’s nice to just give them a helping hand in a time of need. We’ll see them again in the fall, migrating on the way back south. Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative.

The snow has pretty much all melted, but we have yet another winter storm on the way. I’ve been spreading seed, raisins, dried mealworms and suet pellets on the ground for the fox sparrows, robins and hermit thrush (yes, I did get my new yard bird!)

Over the weekend I saw a nice looking Cooper’s hawk perch up in the oak tree just to the left of the feeders. This morning I still had at least 15 fox sparrows and plenty of juncos, they must know about the impending winter storm.

They are all very well fed so they can continue their journey north anytime now. I’m glad I could give them a bit of a helping hand during this weird weather. I guess when they finally leave, I can really believe that winter is actually over. Supposedly it will get up to 60+ degrees this coming weekend, but I’ll trust the birds to let me know when spring arrives!

This morning during the snow storm, we had quite the feeding frenzy of sparrows! Many more juncos than I’ve seen all winter, plus a couple song sparrows, several tree sparrows, and more fox sparrows than I’ve ever seen (at least 8, probably closer to 12.) There were many scratching around the ground below the feeders, but also several back in the spruce trees and others in the garden going after seeds. If you look closely at the photo, you can see several birds on the ground.

Rather than cutting down the garden in the fall, I leave my plant stalks in the garden all winter to provide food for the birds and also some visual interest. Ideally we could burn it in the spring, but I doubt the neighbors or the city would approve of that. So usually I just cut it down, but this year I’m going to pay someone to mow it all down for me.

Fox sparrows are one of my favorite native sparrows. They are relatively large/plump, with a very noticeable reddish color. They are usually seen during migration but will occasionally stick around for the winter (I’ve had them over winter in the yard a few times.) Mostly ground feeders, they can also be seen doing a double-hop motion as they scratch up ground cover looking for food. They don’t often perch up in a tree like this one, but will often be found under a feeder or digging around in a garden.

Another sparrow I saw today, but haven’t seen in the yard very often, is a song sparrow. Actually there were two of them this morning mixed in with the other sparrows. They aren’t uncommon in the area, though. I think of them as looking like a chipping sparrow, but with a very heavily streaked chest.

Juncos are also a type of sparrow. They spend their winters here and nest in Canada and Alaska. Very common feeder birds in the winter and especially tend to congregate around feeders when it’s snowing. They are mostly ground feeders but will also get up on a bird feeder and eat seed, or hop around on the deck railing. We nickname them “snowbirds” because of their association with snow and winter. I like juncos, but I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see them leave because that means spring has truly arrived!

I thought my camera supported h.264 encoding, when I originally started investigating how to live stream. It’s the video format required by most streaming hosting services for live streaming. However it turns out that the NetCam SC only supports MJPEG, so I’ve been looking for a way to transcode MJPEG into h.264, and haven’t been very successful at it. Since the camera also has a BNC video out connection, I got an Axis M7001 video encoder which is a small dedicated device that will take the video from a BNC connection and encode it to h.264. So that’s what I have running right now. The video quality isn’t quite as good as I want, but I think it’s good enough for my needs at the moment. I also signed up with click2stream.com. It seems like a pretty bare-bones service, but the plans are reasonable and it works well as far as I can tell.

I think if I had it to do over again, I might go with an Axis camera, since they offer several models with h.264 support out of the box, and other features I like. But, I’m happy with the quality of the StarDot NetCam I have, and considering the investment I’ve made in it at this point, I’m sure I’ll have it running for several years!

I always say I only keep one list, which is my yard bird list, but I realized that have an unofficial wish list for yard birds. Last year I had Harris’ sparrow on my wish list, and the year before, white-crowned sparrow. There are only so many possible birds that could visit, based on habitat and location, but here are a few that I think might be possible, even if some are a stretch. Check out the MOU Species Occurrence Maps to see what species have been reported in the state, and what season.

• Hermit thrush – we’re in the right habitat for them, so it’s probably the most realistic bird on this list. UPDATE: seen on 4/19/2013, woohoo!
• Carolina wren – not common here, but there are occasional reports in the area.
• Tufted titmouse – we are just north of their normal range, so it’s not likely but you never know. They probably don’t read the bird books so maybe one will decide to show up in my yard. The photo on this page is one I saw in Wisconsin.
• Eastern towee – they are not listed as common for this area but it’s very possible that we could see one here.
• Screech owl – I’ve never seen or heard one around the area, but I don’t see why not. And I have an Owl Shack ready just in case!
• Saw-whet owl – a few years ago there was one just a couple miles away, and I think we have good habitat. They are just hard to find. I think the chickadees will let me know.
• Merlin – they are seen at the MN Valley refuge which is just down the hill. I know they like to nest in tall pine trees which we have plenty of. Although, if they nested here, all my other birds might leave. And my neighbors would hate me because these birds are loud and aggressive. So I should be careful what I wish for.
• Yellow warbler – I’ve seen many other warblers in the yard during migration, just not this particular one.
• Pine grosbeak – theoretically possible, according to Cornell I’m within their range.
• Red-shouldered hawk – they are around the Twin Cities, I’ve seen them in Mendota Heights and we also sometimes have them at the Raptor Center.

Maybe 2013 will bring some of these to my yard, or maybe something entirely unexpected!