Feathers and Fuzz

one woman's cure for the empty-nester blues

Feathers

Goldfinch Nearly Becomes Hawk Food

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I think most of us cheer for the underdog.  In this video an American Goldfinch (the underdog) nearly becomes hawk food.  It’s close, but the Goldfinch wins the day.

Actually, it’s not all that rare for the hawks to miss.  As able hunters as hawks are, they have their own headaches.  Many birds announce a hawk’s presence … the Blue Jay and the American Crow being notable among them.  In fact, the Crows will gather together to chase a hawk out of the area — and they are VERY persistent about it!  Providing ample vegetation in the area of the bird feeders is another hawk-headache as it gives birds a place to escape an attempted attack.

That said, I swear my hawks watch as closely as do the smaller birds when I head out to refresh the bird feeders each afternoon.  They all see this time of day as “dinner time” … seed for the hungry birds, and birds for the hungry hawks.  It’s pretty common for the feeders to stay vacant for quite some time after a refresh.

As I said under Lessons Learned, I get that predation is vital to the balance in nature.  Got it.  I’m still cheering for the Goldfinch!

Nectar Feeder: Hummingbird vs Lizard

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It’s late July and the Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds have begun to load-up on nectar to, literally, fatten themselves up in preparation for their fall migration to lands as far away as northern Panama.  It is hard to image something the size of a peanut making such a long journey, but they do.   And it gets better.  Most hummingbirds who return in the spring will appear at the same feeders they left behind the previous fall.   (Really?  I can’t find my way to the gas station without GPS!)

It’s no surprise, then, that a female hummingbird was quite distressed when a lizard invaded HER feeder during the fattening-up month of August last year.   The lizard’s acrobatics are actually quite impressive.  The poor little hummingbird tried her best to scare him off, but she got about as much traction with her fear tactics as does the White-Breasted Nuthatch.  None.

 

The good news is, the lizard didn’t eat much and Ms. Hummingbird regained ownership of her feeder.  She was quite pleasingly-plump when she departed for a warmer climate in late September.