Deer Me, My Little Chickadee

Aw, isn't she sweet?

How much closer do you want us to get to these critters anyway?  Again this is right up beside the house, and they are after the deer corn we put out.  I've put out orange peels; not interested.  I've put out apple peels; not interested.  Corn?  They'd practically give up their lives for it.

We've set up a spotlight, turn it on at dusk, and turn it off before going to bed.  We've had as many as eight deer coming into the spotlight at one time to feed on the deer corn.  Because it's right beside the house we're not worried about hunters taking advantage - even though I think it's against to law to hunt with a spotlight.

This is an American Robin - I think it's the very first robin I have ever seen!  Robins eat worms a lot so you see them down on the ground so lawn pesticides are a real danger to them.  They also eat fruit and berries.  If they eat honeysuckle berries exclusively they get totally snockered!  Robins can produce three broods in a single year and sometimes live up to 14 years.

Add this would be a Purple Finch.  I know.  I know.  It's not a good picture - but it's the ONLY time we saw this guy, so it's as good as you're gonna get - unless you want to go to this website:  http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/purple_finch/lifehistory/ac .  The reason we may not get another shot at this little guy is because the common House Finch is takin' over their territory - 95% of the time the Purple Finch loses out to the House Finch.  I feel pretty lucky to at least get to see one.

This guy is looking at the seeds in the bird feeder like a kid looking at a gumball machine.  Red-bellied woodpeckers can live over 12 years.  Their tongues can stick out up to two inches past the tip of their beak - all the better to eat bugs buried behind bark or in holes.  I can't figure out why they're called red "bellied" when it's their HEAD that's red...  they can only be found in the eastern U.S. (including east Texas where we're from.)

We've only seen this guy a time or two.  He's either a Downy Woodpecker or a Hairy Woodpecker.  (Hairy?  I thought birds had feathers, not hair?)  They live to be almost 16 years old and can be found all over North America into Canada, Alaska and down into Central America.

This, of course is a (Northern) he Cardinal.  (That square of black face always makes me laugh.)

and this is a she Cardinal. She is one of the few female song birds to actually sing. Cardinals can live up to 16 years.  (Who knew?  I always thought most birds lived only a couple of years.)

We have here a Tufted Titmouse (a mouse with wings maybe? I don't think so.)  These guys take a LOT of seeds from the feeder.  They are hoarders.  They take one seed at a time, though, so I don't know that you could say they are greedy...  Somewhere, within about 130 feet of this feeder are all kinds of stashes full of our seed.  And they hoard something else: hair.  They steal hair from everything - opossums, raccoons, woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits, cats, dogs, PEOPLE.  And they'll steal live and in person!  All of this to line their little nests for those babies in the spring.  (Maybe that's where John's hair has been going to :-)

Last, but not least, we have Mr. Titmouse's relative:

my little chickadee.  A Black-capped Chickadee to be exact - and way cool!  In the Fall, chickadee's allow some of their brain neurons to die and replace them with new neurons so they can imprint where they hid this winter's stash of seeds.  How cool is that?  There sure are some things in my life I'd like to forget...  Also, when a Chickadee sings, chickadee-dee-dee, the more "dee's" the greater the threat of danger.  No dummies here!