c/early-morning-birds

That neighbor who said to put out mealworms for bluebirds

My neighbor kept telling me to switch to mealworms instead of seed for attracting bluebirds. Finally tried it last spring and she was dead right, two pairs showed up within a week. Has anyone else had luck with a specific food type that someone insisted on?

Found a secret robin hangout behind the dumpster at work

I noticed the same pair kept flying behind the restaurant dumpster every dawn for a week, so I checked it out and there's a little overgrown ivy patch where they've been nesting - anyone else got a random bird spot they'd never expect?

The mailman stopped me mid-sentence to point out a goldfinch I was too busy to notice

I was rushing out the door last Tuesday and he just held up his hand, pointed to a branch above my mailbox, and said 'look at that little fellow enjoy the morning.' I never really saw those birds before, just heard them chirping. Has anyone else had a stranger redirect your attention to something beautiful in your own front yard?

Had a feeder setup talk with my neighbor and it stuck with me

I was out last Tuesday at 5:30am refilling my tube feeder and this older guy across the fence started waving me over. He said "you're scaring off the goldfinches with that thing" and pointed at my cheap plastic feeder. He was kinda gruff about it but he showed me his platform feeder with this special mesh bottom he made himself. He said he gets 30+ finches every morning because the seed doesn't get wet and moldy. I thought about it all day and swapped my feeder the next week. My count went from like 5 finches to maybe 15 on a good morning. Has anyone else had a random neighbor change how they do things with a quick comment?

Switched from a cheap tube feeder to a platform tray last fall and my finch numbers tripled overnight

I got so tired of the little guys fighting over those tiny ports that I finally broke down and built a simple tray feeder from some scrap wood I had lying around, and now the goldfinches and house finches practically line up on the railing waiting their turn, has anyone else made a similar swap and seen wild results?

That early morning pigeon flock in Prospect Park changed my whole walk route

I used to go the same path every day at 5:30 AM through the north end of Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Saw lots of robins and cardinals but never paid much attention to the pigeons under the benches. Then one morning about 3 weeks ago a whole flock of maybe 40 of them rose up all at once when a dog ran past, and the light hit their feathers making this blue green shimmer I never noticed before. Now I take a different path each day to see what I've been missing. Anybody else had a bird you see all the time do something that made you look at it different?

Serious question, are early birds better off staying quiet or singing loud at dawn?

I was out at Miller's Pond last Tuesday around 5 AM and watched a robin belt out its song for a solid 10 minutes straight. A few minutes later a hawk swooped in from the tree line nearby. That got me wondering if all that noise actually draws predators or if it's worth the risk to claim territory. What do you think, does singing loud help more than it hurts?

Hit 50 different bird species in my backyard this morning

I've been keeping a simple list of birds I see at dawn for about two years now. Never really thought I'd see more than maybe 30 types around here in Ohio. But this morning a brown thrasher showed up at my feeder and pushed me to exactly 50 species. That number surprised me and now I'm looking at my yard different, like what else might show up if I just pay attention longer. Anyone else keep a running count and get surprised by a milestone like that?

Counted 18 different species at my feeder this morning and that's a record since I moved to Vermont in March

The black-throated blue warbler showed up right at 6:15 AM and I just sat there with my coffee wondering how I missed so many birds living in the city all those years, has anyone else's backyard list jumped after relocating to a new state?

Took me 3 tries to figure out why the chickadees stopped coming to my feeder

I spent like 4 weeks last spring wondering why my usual morning crowd of chickadees just vanished. First I thought it was the seed, so I bought a fresh bag from a different store, nothing changed. Then I moved the feeder to a different tree branch, still no birds. Finally I realized the sunflower hearts had gotten damp and clumped up at the bottom of the tube feeder, they were probably tasting mold. Has anyone else dealt with birds avoiding a feeder for no obvious reason?

Last week my sparrow count dropped to nearly zero for 3 straight mornings

I usually see around 20 sparrows at my feeder by 6am but last Tuesday through Thursday there was barely a single one. Turns out a neighbor's cat started roaming the block at dawn and spooked them into hiding. Has anyone else dealt with a cat scaring off your early morning birds?

My backyard finch feeder went from empty to chaos in 3 days

Had zero birds for two weeks straight, then suddenly 12 goldfinches showed up at once yesterday morning. Turns out the thistle seed I bought at the hardware store was just stale - swapped it for fresh from the feed mill and now they won't leave. Anyone else have finches that are picky about seed age?

That expensive bird feeder I swore was a gimmick actually works

I was dead against those clear tube feeders with the metal perches. Thought they were just overpriced junk for people with money to burn. Then my neighbor let me borrow hers after a big storm took out my old platform feeder, and I saw 3 goldfinches and a house finch on it within 30 minutes. Now I'm kicking myself for avoiding them for 2 years, has anyone else had a similar flip on something they wrote off?

Hit 75 species in my yard this year and the 75th was a surprise northern flicker

I was just sitting there with my coffee at 6:30 AM on Tuesday, not even trying to find anything new, when this big flicker landed on my suet feeder and suddenly I was at 75 species without even realizing I was close to that number.

Fancy birdseed mix was a total waste of $25

I ordered that premium blend with dried fruit and nuts off Etsy, thinking the cardinals would love it. They just picked out the sunflower seeds and left everything else to rot in the feeder. Has anyone else had better luck with just black oil sunflower?

Had a robin follow me for a full mile along the creek path last Tuesday

I was walking my usual route along the creek at 6am. This robin kept hopping from branch to branch right next to me, chirping the whole way. I stopped at a bench to rest and it landed two feet away and just stared at me. Has anyone else had a bird act like it was trying to tell you something?

Vent: Stop calling every little brown bird a 'sparrow'

I was out at 6am this morning by the creek behind my house and saw this sweet little bird hopping around in the weeds. My neighbor walks by and goes 'oh look a sparrow' and it was a Song Sparrow sure but people lump all LBJs (little brown jobs) into one group. It drives me nuts because there's like 40 different kinds of sparrows alone in North America and then you've got wrens and finches and buntings that all look kinda similar but behave totally different. I only learned this after I started keeping a field journal last spring and actually looking up every bird I saw. My wife thought I was crazy but now she can pick out a House Finch from a Purple Finch by the streaking on the belly. Anybody else have a pet peeve about misidentified birds in your neighborhood?

Always thought bird ID apps were for amateurs...

I was totally skeptical about using the Merlin app for identifying birds by sound. For years I just went by sight and gut feeling, thought an app would be cheating or something. Last Tuesday morning around 5:30 I kept hearing this weird two-note call I couldn't place fishing through the fog over the creek. Pulled out my phone, hit record, and it instantly said it was a Swainson's Thrush - I'd been hearing them for weeks thinking they were something else. Has anyone else had a moment where technology proved you dead wrong about a bird you thought you knew?

Mallard at the drainage ditch changed my mind about feeders

There's a drainage ditch behind the SaveMart lot on Meridian. I noticed a mallard pair there every morning for two weeks. They were eating bugs and seeds off the ground entirely ignoring my fancy tube feeder. That convinced me birds prefer natural food sources and I stopped buying seed mixes. Anyone else have birds that ignore feeders and just forage nearby?

Picked a quiet bench over the bustling feeder this morning and it paid off

Just checked my local Audubon data and winter finch sightings dropped 40% in one season near me

I was browsing the Cornell Lab feeder watch maps last night and saw that pine siskin counts in my county went from 87 to 52 between December and January, has anyone else noticed fewer irruptive finches this year?

My neighbor said my finch photos were all 'too far away' - ouch

She was blunt about it, said they looked like blurry dots, so I finally moved my chair right next to the window last Tuesday. Got a close-up of a goldfinch mid-sneeze that actually has detail now. Anyone else get called out on their bird pics?

Last week was a weird one for my backyard birds and it has me worried

I usually see 15 to 20 house finches at my feeder every morning without fail. But last Tuesday through Thursday, I counted maybe 3 total each day, and they looked ruffled and kind of slow. I checked my seed bin for mold or bugs and found nothing wrong, so I think something else is going on. My neighbor mentioned she saw a sharp-shinned hawk hanging around the power lines a few days before, which might have scared everyone off. Has anyone else had a week where their regular birds just vanished like that?

Put out a new suet feeder and a blue jay showed up within 20 minutes

I've been trying to attract more variety to my backyard for months, so I grabbed a wire suet cage from Ace Hardware on Saturday. A blue jay landed on it before I even finished refilling my coffee. Has anyone else had a bird show up faster than you expected after changing something small?

Woke up at 4am for a wood thrush, spent 2 hours untangling my tripod legs instead

Finally heard that fluty song from the woods behind my house so I ran out with my camera but my tripod legs were all twisted up from storage. Took me from 4:15 to 6:00 just to get them sorted, and by then the bird had flown off. Has anyone else had a setup fail that cost you the shot at dawn?