The Lincoln’s sparrow is one of the agressive house sparrows’ victims.

Today the winds have been strong with gusts of about 12 miles per hour. Thunder and lightning occasionally punctuated the quiet ambience of an overcast rainy day. Dark and gloomy clouds spent the day sailing across the sky propelled by the brisk spring breezes. Nonetheless, the dark and stormy weather did not deter the birds from taking care of their appointed tasks.

I prepared to sit at the table to gaze at the goings on. I filled two tray feeders with the best seed mixture the bird store has to offer. Peanuts, tiny suet balls, chips of walnuts, almonds, pecans, and sunflower seeds. Fresh nutrasaff and white millet was sprinkled into the ground feeder and last but not least I brought in the suet log. The only taker for the suet for most of the day had been the house sparrows. It only takes a few minutes for them to devour $12 worth of suet laced with peanut butter and insects. So, I took it inside. The idea was to put it out again if the downy woodpecker made an appearance. Most of the seed was undercover so all stayed dry despite the rain.

Before long, a wet, raggedy looking baby robin lit in the one and only leafless tree in the yard! Within minutes, an equally raggedy, wet looking male robin flew in with a worm in its beak and parked next to its offspring. The protein snack was transferred, and the parent flew off in search of more food for its baby. This explained why the robin parents were agitated for so much of the morning. Alarm calls rang out loud and clear as a pair of American robins flew frantically around the yard. Of course, as I suspected, they were protecting their youngster from those who might want to harm it or even eat it for lunch. Crows and ravens are notorious for snatching young birds from the nest or snagging recent fledglings for lunch or dinner. They will even eat an adult bird if they are able to snag it.

As I continued my watch, into the afternoon, the rain subsided somewhat becoming more like a shower than a deluge! Still the downy woodpecker had not made an appearance. However, as dusk approached the male downy showing off the bright red patch on the back of its head came into the yard hoping for a late-night snack. But the suet was gone. The downy flew to one of the arbor posts. It peeked to the left and then to the right. It appeared as if it was giving me a signal to bring on the suet! So, I carefully carried the suet log to its hanging spot on the arbor. The downy held tight, but the minute it was available, he came in and voraciously downed the suet until his hunger was satisfied. Energized, it flew off. It will be back tomorrow!

House sparrows are one of the most aggressive birds in my backyard. They chase other birds away from the feeders and even from seed that falls to the ground. Lincoln’s and white-crowned sparrows as well as black-capped chickadees and the red-breasted nuthatch are just some of their victims. Thus, some birds, like those just mentioned prefer to come at dusk when the house sparrows are done for the day or at dawn before the house sparrows are up and about. As sparrows tend to do, they scratch for seeds, while the chickadees and nuthatches feast on the suet as well as the seed in the feeders. The game camera has been catching these backyard shenanigans, which begin the minute sun begins to rise, daily.

My backyard birdwatching for today is about to come to an end. The sun has just set, and the darkness is beginning to fall. A little clay-colored sparrow is the last to leave the garden. An American robin is still proclaiming his territory in song from a neighbor’s backyard. Otherwise, all is quiet.

I now await the dawn chorus which begins around 4:30 a.m. It signifies the beginning of another exciting day in my backyard bird garden. If you sit and watch your backyard for a while, binoculars in hand you too may witness bird shenanigans/behavior like you have never seen before! Happy birding!