Bird Songs

November 11, 2004

Notes From the North
Family just rousing. 25 degrees and clear ... well ... slightly gray skies ... so road/slush/mess too frozen to clean up nicely with the plow. I'll wait and hope it warms up a few degrees and plow this afternoon.

Fed the birds this morning. And just sat and watched for ... oh ... must have been 20 minutes or more. The camp robbers come first (grey jays), gliding in and grabbing as many bread pieces as they can stuff in their beak, then gliding away as another glides in. Perfect harmony. 7 or 8 of them. Taking turns perfectly. Only once did two glide in from opposite directions as the one that was there perched on the edge to glide off. Those two hopped over each other on the feeder and were obviously embarrassed and uncomfortable because of the gaffe, but they did their business and glided away as another came in. I don't understand the taking turns ... there is plenty of room on the feeder. But it is a social thing and their timing and communication is amazing.
I also put out a bunch of rice left over from a chinese box ... so it had bits of other stuff and interesting flavors. But the camp robbers couldn't grab it and go like they could with the bread. So, after the bread was gone, they kept coming back and eating for 15 to 20 seconds before gliding away to let the next one take a turn. But this kept the jays at the feeder much longer than usual.

Which distressed the pine grossbeaks who showed up ... impatient for the jays to finish. Beautiful, bright red males and somewhat drab females, the grossbeaks are seed eaters. They eat the sunflower seeds that I put out with the bread and rice. Large birds, but not the size of the jays. Group of about 5 or 6 of them kept waiting for their turn, but the jays stayed at the feeder for the rice.

The jays would leave for a bit and the grossbeaks would try to sneak in: while the jays are away; the grossbeaks will play. Or eat in this case. One of the male grossbeaks was dominant and another tried to be at the feeder with him, but neither the dominant one or the dominant one's mate would allow it. Grossbeaks were comfortable with three of four of them at the feeder at once, but the two males could not be there at the same time.

Fascinating pecking order politics. Grossbeaks finally gave up without getting much since they couldn't get feeder time. Camp robbers finally got full. Now the little seedeaters like the chickadees are there once the bigger birds left. Of course they have their own caste systems and hierarchies. And all the groups had cheaters (who were often roundly chastised). Arguments ensued. Some birds were loud and aggressive; maintaining their place at the feeder by squawking and shoving. One was just "make my day" quiet and tough (and was given wide berth when he arrived for his turn). Others, usually mates, worked in pairs ... one eating while the other protected the feeder by faux attacks on interlopers, then switching roles until both had had their fill. Indeed the longer one watched, the more one could observe remarkably complex patterns, and social, even cultural, behavior.

It is amazing how much one can learn about people and politics by watching a bird feeder.

In the meantime, I watched a coyote on the other side of the lake .... right in a line from my chair out the glass doors to the feeder ... so I had the whole panorama. Coyote picked his way along the lake sniffing and bouncing. I watched him for the whole 20 or 30 minutes that I sat there. He's a regular winter denizon of the edge of the lake ... first time I'd seen him this year. After awhile, I let the dog out of the garage and fed him on the deck. Coyote noticed him right away, but the dog paid attention to his food first and only after he was done did he turn and acknowledge the coyote. Then he leapt off the deck and charged out onto the frozen lake, barking and wagging his tail. Coyote came over and they stopped about 100 feet from each other and exchanged greetings, then went their own ways. They know each other well from past years.

It was just a wonderful relaxed "Disney" morning on the homestead. Sure beats watching nature shows on television.