Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Wildlife Management Birding

Here, they are definitely migratory--tho I have seen them fairly late in the fall. Sadly, I have known them to get caught here also, having removed four mature dead ones from a single box one spring. I never realized what Squid observed about bb's and ts's. I have boxes on two utility poles about 10ft apart. One always has bb's and the other has tree swallows.

I don't have any troubles w/wrens tho. Are we talking house wrens or Carolinas?? My Carolinas always nest in my wood piles while my house wrens occupy a much smaller house of their own w/a one inch hole.

I confess I've failed miserably at attracting a colony of purple martins. They check me out yearly but never stay. I think hosps are the problem tho I work hard to keep them at bay.

Placing two boxes in close proximity to one another is a great strategy if Tree Swallows are common in one's area. Use that method in a few spots and it seems to work annually. While Carolina Wrens are uncommon in NE, we have a few due to warming climate it seems recently. I love them, songs are very cool. The wrens I have to fight every year are House Wrens - they are very common here in SE NE.

Dave,
I lost a few Bluebird housed to squirrels (or, perhaps rats!). I started using the brass entry hole protectors that last 3 that I built and, so far (knock on wood) no issues. they are pretty cheap when you buy them from the web.

I need to build some more. I'll take your advice on that. I'll also use some PVC around the posts and, if needed, I'll grease them.

grease is a good idea if you don't have baffles... We didn't have either last year and a snake climbed up the galvanized pole into one of the houses. We're not sure if the birds had left or became snake food. Jodi bought some baffles recently and we will be installing those this weekend, perhaps???

Interesting about the brass entry hole, I have to try that!

Today still two feet of heavy wet snow, and a BB was on a small tree just outside the window during dinner. Healthy, fat, and handsome.

In the winter they are just hard to spot, you just need to listen for their distinctive chur-ups to know they are present. We do have a lot of cover and forage, so we may see the stragglers more than most.

I may try a purple martin house this year, a local store has some great cedar ones. From what I understand you have to put some nesting materials in there to "seed" the birds. It sort of tricks them that it was occupied safely before and they may move in.

So I look out at the pond today and see 3 black birds in the hole from the aerator. Don't have my new binocs yet so I think cormorants. Throw on the boots and a coat and head down to run them off. When I get there, number 4 pops up from dive. About the size of a good size duck, black backs and head with white breast and body. They flew away with the rapid wing movements of a duck. I did not have a camera and I dun see that well anymore so that's all you get for a description. Any thoughts on what they were?

Edit: I have ruled out penquins

From my experience, you can rule out cormorants as well. I couldn't scare them off; they'd just dive every time I tried. There are some "diving" ducks but I don't know what they are... I "googled" diving ducks and the only two that seems to match your descriptions are ring-neck duck and tufted duck

Bill D, if this happened around my place I would say American Hooded Merganser might be what u saw.
Tracy

Bill the cormorants around us are slowish to get off the water and climb circling the pond. They don't blast off like ducks. Very wary tho- I can't get close to them at all (not to harm them) te he. Those do sound like mergansers to me also.

I guess this may be one of those things I will never really know for sure. Got new binocs today so maybe I will get a better look if they return.

Male Ringneck Duck?

Yep!!!!!!! or the Tufted. Pretty sure they were one of those two.

Look up what a Scaup looks like........

Another possible candidate for sure

Can anybody recommend a good birding book? The one I have now is:

Birds of North America
Golden Field Guides from St Martin's Press

What I don't like about this book is all the pictures are artist's renditions, not actual photos. I am looking for a good comprehensive North American guide with real photos.

The weather was great here today. Sunny and 60.I was working at a customers house today and was able to set outside while waiting for some grout to dry and listen to the sandhill cranes flying overhead.

Bill D. I have "Birds of North America" and also have the very good book "The Audubon Society Field Guide To North American Birds eastern region" which has all photographs of the birds.

Sibley's guides are the best IMHO, and there is a fantasic app based on the artwork to help you figure out what you saw or heard. Bird calls, drawings, maps, behavior. It costs money but worth it.

We have had two Canadian geese dropping by everyday since the ice has been off. 12 degrees this morning so skim of ice is back on the pond. The two geese showed up, skidded across the ice and dropped into the very small hole of remaining open water. I thought they would just leave. I was amazed to see them swim directly into the ice in the side of the hole like miny icebreakers and eventually created a path in the ice in a big loop. They are now happily swimming around and around the loop! Anybody ever see anything like that?

Edit: The path they created is just wide enough for them to get thru.

Scaups - The greater and lesser scaup are very common pond visitors as soon as the ice goes out in north central US. Shorty - great picture wherever you got it.
See pictures of the male and female greater scaup in this link that includes a few other common 'ducks'.
http://www.higginslakeeec.com/SwimmersItch.htm

So Scaub's break up the ice as well?

Canada geese are 2X-3X as big and necks twice as long as those on as scaup. The first birds you saw were likely scaup. Scaup are probably not big enough to break thin ice to make a path for swimming. It would take a larger heftier bird such as Canada geese to be ice breakers. You probably have a pair of adventuresome clever geese to figure out the can break thin ice to extra room to swim.

Pair of Hooded Mergansers feasting in the pond this morning. Should I be concerned?....Very cool looking bird with that big hood!

Bill D, I would not be concerned > Enjoy


Tracy