A Promising Start

[FarmerHarv]

Thanks for the tips Archer! I picked up a couple of heated waterers and a good supply of mixed feed for the winter, but never thought of beef fat. Looking forward to getting a few new winter visitors and hopefully getting some good pictures.

We had almost three weeks without the annoying chirp of a single HOSP, but another swarm of at least 50 moved into the cotoneaster hedge a couple of days ago. The DRSTs are doing good work and have bagged about half of them, and with luck they'll all be cleared up again soon. At least until the next batch moves in from town.

Since the HOSP were gone, I was amazed at how many finches and other sparrows we had that are able to hang out at the feeders and baths unmolested. House finches, Goldfinch, white crowned, lark and white throated sparrows are there in the dozens now...it's amazing what's been hidden under the house sparrow blanket here.

And to think all of this came about because a single purple martin landed on the shop one day.

[Archer]

Good to hear that you are enjoying new birds. I have just started with the feeding for the winter and have been surprised at the number of visitors allready. Purple finches have been coming in numbers and I have not had them at my feeder last year, White breasted Nuthatches as well as red sided nuthatches are also common right now. Sparrow control has lots of benefits. Keep up with your reports, I am enjoying them.

[FarmerHarv]

Good thing Costco carries bird feed in really big bags, because these little guys can Eat. Had a pretty good sized flock of house finches here for quite a while, but we were gone for week and when we came back they had all disappeared, along with the mourning doves and most of the nice sparrows. There's been a pretty steady supply of HOSP still coming out, and the DRST have been doing their job at keeping them contained, and the yard was eerily quite for a week or so.

And then about a hundred dark eyed juncos showed up, along with another batch of different types of sparrows. They really cleaned up around the feeders, and I gave them an extra bit of food on the deck when the (evil) snow appeared. While watching them I kept seeing one little fellow with no tail feathers (we named him Notar, for NO TAil Rotor) that would just sit and eat. Turns out he also has one lame foot, and though he seems to fly pretty good he can't hop very well.

So it looks like the rest of his flock has taken off for warmer weather now, and he's the only one we've seen at the feed for a few days. I assume he probably can't make the flight south with no tail, and was wondering if there was anything we could do for him to help him through the winter? He'll have plenty of food and water, and we wonder if we should try to do more or just let nature run it's course?

[TheSmiths]

This is a very late response but did you contact a wildlife rehabilitation person about the junco?

[FarmerHarv]

Heh, I was going to, but by the time I got around to looking them up he had pretty much fixed himself (used a coin toss to decide if it was a he or she). His tail feathers grew out and he hopped a little better each day, and then after a couple of weeks the last five stragglers (including Notar) all disappeared. We assume they left for warmer climates, and aside from a half dozen HOSP we are completely birdless here now. Hopefully they remember the mountain of food available and come back here next spring.

[TheSmiths]

Good to hear he recovered. The dark-eyed juncos arrived here a week or two ago along with some red-breasted nuthatches. The nuthatches certainly are fearless little birds.