This Week In My Garden: For The Birds

I'm joining all the Outdoor Wednesday lovers over at A Southern Daydreamer for

this week's party.  Please bring your outdoor images and join in.

Last week I shared the new finch feeder I had just installed and it quickly became apparent

that it wasn't going to be enough to feed the whole flock of finches that live in my garden.

So they now have a new feeding station that is gravity fed from the plastic container on the top.

As they eat the seed from any of the four socks it is automatically refilled.  As the single sock

from last week became empty it became saggy and few birds could hang on to it, which caused

a lot of bickering and complaining from the whole flock.

Last week's "sock" feeder. (Click image to enlarge)

And the newly expanded feeding station!

All of today's images were taken on Monday through the kitchen windows.

The 3 dozen or so hummers that live in the garden keep me busy making sure they have enough to eat and will screech and cry if their feeders are empty.  They go through a minimum of 2 quarts of their sugar water per day and are a constant source of amusement with their aerial acrobatics.

The quail still visit the garden, but have mainly stayed outside the garden wall since Spring, while raising their broods of chicks.  Now that most of the chicks are getting bigger they sometimes bring the whole family to the garden late in the afternoon.  On this particular evening only Mom and Pop appeared at the feeder.

The Acorn Woodpecker flock that lives in the oak trees at the back of our property have become regular visitors to the garden, feeding on many of the blooming succulents in the garden, but they also take full advantage of the seed bowl.  They are always on the lookout for the garden bullies .... the Scrub Jays, who think they own the garden and all its contents.

Above is a female with the black stripe between her white face and red topknot.

And a male who has a white forehead with no black stripe between it and the red topknot.

Below is another of the female members of the community.  Only certain females

breed in a given season and the rest of the flock of Aunties and Uncles help with

the care and feeding of the chicks.

And she lets out an ear piercing alarm call as one of the bullies arrives on the scene.

She gives the bully a piece of her mind and then gives way.

It was very windy yesterday, blowing Mr. Blue's feathers all askew.

In addition to all these show offs we have lots of smaller equally charming little birds that

come for their several meals a day.  They just move out of the way until the more aggressive

members of the bird population move off.

Some of the little guys have also been taking advantage of the new finch feeder,

but they generally stick to the seed bowl.

Male House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus)

And the Bullock's Orioles that have until recently been the shyest of all the birds

living in the garden.  They generally hang out in the Canary Island Palms and

flit away at the least bit of movement or noise.  With all the feeding activity going on

lately, they have been coming closer and closer to this easy source of food.

They've tried without much success to feed from the hummer feeders, but the perches

are too narrow for their big feet and they spend all their time trying to balance.

 Pecking on the glass didn't seem to bring about the desired result.

OK, now I've got the balance part of it down, but still can't get a drink!

And the hummers were not pleased with the intrusion.

So yet another feeder was added to the garden, but the problems began almost instantly.

The hummer feeders have ant-guards on them and  without them the ants will

instantly invade the feeders.  The green plastic is impregnated with ant repellant and 

is supposed to last just one season, but these have been in place for 3 years and 

are still very effective.

This poor male is being berated by not one, but two females about the ant problem.

The ants were biting his feet and she just never shut up!

The females got exasperated and left.  I went and cleaned up the ant problem

and the poor guy finally got his drink!

This post is "for the birds" and for all the enjoyment they provide each and every day.

Thanks for coming by again for a visit to my garden and Happy Outdoor Wednesday!