Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Steve’s Bird Of The Day #60.
Hi everyone! Today’s bird is one I have been trying to photograph for 4 springs now, the “American tree sparrow”. This little bird is a beautiful mix of browns, black, white and gray, with a black spot on his chest, just noticeable in the pic above. These birds eat 30% of their weight in food each day and 30% in water each day. A day without food means death for these birds. They breed in the far north at the tree line and even on the tundra. They are ground nesters, both help with making the nest and caring for the young. The female lays an egg each day, or every other day, until there are 4 to 6 eggs, but they all hatch within hours of each other and not necessarily in the order they were laid. They eat almost exclusively insects during the summer, in fall and winter nearly all seeds. They can live up to 10 years, the oldest recorded is 10 years 9 months from a bird that was banded. They are mostly a ground bird and readily adapt to being around people and are easily attracted to feeders. They winter from southern Canada to the southern parts of the US. Females and young tend to winter further south than males.
I hope you all have a wonderful day and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
Coffee Time #106. Thursday’s Thoughts.
Good morning everyone! It’s a beautiful spring morning here today! And the coffee is ready to share with everyone. It’s 32F (0C) this morning with the sun shining beautifully and the temp is supposed to rise all the way to 63F (17C) this afternoon. What a change in the weather, a beautiful change, so I will be out enjoying it today, especially since tomorrow we drop back down to a high of only 39F (4C) with flurries in the forecast again. This up and down temperature I will admit can be hard on a person’s body. At least for me anyway, perhaps others don’t feel it the way I do. The air was very still this morning when I went out to feed the birds, not even the slightest breeze.
The birds were already out there waiting for me at 5:30, soon they will be waiting at 5. Actually I’m sure that some were likely out at 5 this morning, it gets light early now, and will keep getting earlier as the weeks go by. However, that doesn’t mean I will be going out earlier with their breakfast. I figure that 5:30 is early enough for now. I already noticed a big difference in the number of birds around this morning, I would say only half are here now, the rest are already spreading out and moving on northward. More will leave today with that south wind when it begins to blow later.
So I was out quite a bit yesterday taking pics by the hundreds. And I got some really nice pics too. Including a tree sparrow. This is the fourth spring trying to get a pic of that one and I finally did it. I actually got quite a few very nice pics of that one, and there was only the one bird, and I’m sure he will be gone today. I won’t be showing that pic this morning though, I will save that one for my Bird Of The Day post later today. Jasper had a busy day yesterday, mostly with Chase who was determined to have his time at the feeder. And Jasper was just as determined to keep him away.
Meanwhile Freddie was stuffing himself on the squirrel food and watching all the action. I gave the squirrels their own feeder up close to the window and they really like it. The idea was to keep them as far from the bird feeders as possible so they don’t scare the birds away. So far it’s working out very nicely. There are lots of evening grosbeaks here this morning too, I would say at least 30 of them, mostly males, so the feeders are very bright and colorful today. Hopefully I can make it down to the river this afternoon and see if there is any activity down there. I hope that more ducks have arrived. Have a wonderful day everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2021 Steve McLeod.
