Bird Feeders and Sleeping Birds
Yesterday I started feeding the birds again after the feral cat took the cardinal a few weeks ago. Rumors have it that the cat was seen about a mile + away from my house. I hope it lost some interested with my empty feeder and gets lost in the deep woods. I will keep my eye open for any cat tracks and if found again, I will stop feeding for a second time. I enjoyed seeing my feathered friends again during my lunch break. I was amazed that chickadees returned within minutes of placing the feeder back in its spot on the tree.
This morning I had an unusual find in my window feeder at the office. If you remember the discussion from last month when I talked about sleeping birds at night; well I found a songbirds roost! In this picture below you will see this circle spot where the bird’s body heat melted the snow in the corner of the window. It obviously had its head facing the corner of the window due to the heaps of scat on the outside of the circle. You can also see a feather laying there after it probably preened its feathers in the morning. The bird was gone once I made it to work but I was extremely excited to find something to share with my blogging friends. Hope everyone enjoys the weekend.
Mon@rch's Nature Blog 
I remember you talking about sleeping spots. I would think they’d prefer more cover – that’s interesting…
I hope that darn cat gets lost. I like cats but they don’t belong outside of their own property. My dogs are trained to chase them and I’m happy about it!
16 February 2007 at 9:54 pm
I always wonder where they disappear to at night.
16 February 2007 at 10:02 pm
Mary – you would have to see how the window is set up! Was a very protected area out of the weather and I thought an interesting spot for it! Also, probably got some heat from the building than being out in some shrubs somewhere! I have found other areas in the building (like on the frame of an open window where they spent the night (saw the scat)! .
Regarding the cat, don’t even get me started with them!
Laura – have to go somewhere! I liked how this photo showed its overnight story with the feather, scat, melted snow, ect..
16 February 2007 at 10:06 pm
Beautiful slate-colored junco photo! Okay, so in this photo you don’t have much DOF right? I like that because you focus on the bird instead of the stuff behind the bird.
So will the bird clean up it’s spot and sleep there again tonight, or just sleep there in all of that stuff? Wouldn’t you love to capture her sleeping there!
17 February 2007 at 1:27 am
The Junco photo does have DOF (Depth of Field) because the background is blurred making the observer focusing on the object! If I was zoomed out some, we would want less DOF because then you could see what was going on in the background (but keeping it out of focus because it is the bird you want everyone to focus on, not the background)! You don’t want any DOF on the bottom picture because you want everyone to see everything clearly (seeds, scat, melted snow circle, feather, ect..! The picture is telling a different story! Regarding the little bird, not sure what it will end up doing! I will keep everyone posted!
17 February 2007 at 9:10 am
How observant you are to notice that sleeping spot! It tells a story. Thanks for sharing it with us.
17 February 2007 at 9:13 am
Love to think about where the birds go at night-I keep tabs on a chickadee that sleeps just outside our side door (there’s a picture on my last post); we’ve now turned off the motion-sensitive light and refrain from going outside more than necessary, even using the front door and forging a path through 20″ of snow to meet the pizza man, just to keep that little bird’s sleep restful…
17 February 2007 at 8:24 pm
Very lovely picture of the junco. I get a swarm of those everyday now at the feeder.
This is the first time I’ve ever fed birds and I can’t believe all I’ve been missing out on. Getting nice pictures of the birds is icing on the cake.
17 February 2007 at 10:34 pm