Project FeederWatch- Week 2

I just completed my second count for Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project FeederWatch. I happen to have today off so I was able to spend more time than usual watching the feeders in my backyard.

It was a light week, compared to last week:

Black-capped Chickadee- 4

Blue Jay- 1

Dark-eyed Junco- 2

Tufted Titmouse- 1

White-breasted Nuthatch- 1

Northern Cardinal- 2

Song Sparrow- 1

The Song Sparrow was the only one that threw me off because I'm not used to seeing them when they start to bulk up for winter.

Here are some additional pictures of my second feeder, hung on a fallen scrub pine tree. It doesn't look too nice laying on our back lawn, but I haven't had the heart to cut it up because the birds love it. Considering the open landscape of our back lawn, it's nice to give them someplace to hide from raptors while they're visiting the feeder.

Here is a Black-capped Chickadee at the feeder. They especially love this feeder because I only fill it with the black oil sunflower seed, and it's a lot easier to get at it since there's a tray on the feeder.

Here is a picture of some bittersweet vines that cover the trees at the back border of our yard. One of the questions on the Project FeederWatch questionnaire was about the presence of fruited trees/shrubs in your yard. The birds seem love the bittersweet berries- I saw a Tufted Titmouse and some Chickadees climbing on them just now. Since I know it's poisonous to humans, I had never thought of birds eating it. I just did a search online and found some information in online gardening forums saying birds do eat it.

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