So what's so sad about the Mourning Dove?

I woke up this morning to the woo hoo hoo of a Mourning Dove and sure enough when I looked out the window, there the dove was. This is a first for our yard. We used to get doves at our old house but don't normally get them here.

My son was saying -"Hey Mom, there is a gray big bird in our yard with a small head". Well that's one way to describe a Mourning Dove I guess. Then, he asked why they were called Mourning Doves. I speculated that it is because their song is kind of mournful.

Doves are ground feeders and like to forage on the ground. They like seeds including cereals like corn and millet but this mourning dove seems to be enjoying the sunflowers in our Mother Nature's Chickadee Mix.

Mourning doves are gentle birds and doves are symbols of love and peace. It makes me sad to report per the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America. My dove is safe though in our backyard - just has our noisy dog to cope with from time to time.

How to attract gold finches and other finches to your yard.

I am very pleased to find goldfinches in my yard again this spring. Spring and summer are great times of the year for feeding finches. Goldfinches become a beautiful yellow in these months and house finches, purple finches and pine siskins are plentiful. So how do you attract these little birds to your feeders?

Start with the right feeder: Purchase a tube thistle finch feeder. This will be a long cylindrical feeder with small perches and very small seed holes.

Put the feeder in the right location: Mount the feeder in a tree or bush where you have seen finches before. You can move the feeder closer to the house once you have regular visitors to your feeder.

Choose the right food: The variety of ingredients in Mother Nature's Finch Mix is designed to attract redpolls, pine siskins, goldfinches, housefinches and other finches. It is also a more economical choice than feeding pure nyjer seed. Our Mother Nature's finch mix contains ingredients that these small birds love including nyjer seed, finely chopped sunflower seed, canola seed, canarygrass seed, and gold proso millet.

Do you have tips on attracting finches to your yard? I'd like to hear about them. Drop an email to seed@chinridge.com or comment on this blog.

Who's coming to dinner in your backyard?

I was just reviewing the results of the Wild Bird Feeding Industry's Project Wildbird study. This research project was a landmark study of seed and feeder preferences of wild birds in the United States and Canada that began in 2005 and wrapped up on December 2008. What is interesting about the study is that scientists have identified the most bird preferred types of bird seed. They have also identified which birds are most plentiful at backyard feeders in North America.

The study showed that the most preferred types of bird seed were: black-oil sunflower, chopped sunflower meats (we call these fine and medium sunflower chips), nyjer seed, and white millet. Of these, black oil sunflower in shell attracted the most species of birds and the highest number of birds. So if your goal is to attract many different types of birds and a high number of them then black oil sunflower should be a main ingredient in your bird seed mixes.

The study also tracked the most common birds at backyard feeders. Those were in order of most common to less common: House Sparrow, House Finch, American Goldfinch, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Cardinal, Black-capped Chickadee, Mourning Dove, Pine Siskin, Common Grackle, and Purple Finch. Now my own experience is slightly different - as I said in a previous posting I rarely get cowbirds in my yard and Northern Cardinals are not usually found in Alberta. In my back yard the most common birds are probably robins but of course robins don't typically eat at feeders. From my bird feeder perspective I would say the most common bird is the House Finch, redpolls (depending on season), goldfinches, siskins, grackles and Northern Flickers (who eat my suet and some of the bird seed). I see the odd nuthatch but they are pretty rare, the occasional jay and crow, and I have yet to see a chickadee in my current backyard.

I am doing a poll of my facebook friends - what are the most common birds at your feeders this spring? Drop a comment on the facebook wall or email me at seed@chinridge.com

Winter's back in southern Alberta

Woke up this morning to snow! I don't think it froze over night but it is obviously cold enough at higher altitudes to have snow falling. Unfortunately this canceled our Town's parade that was supposed to be today.

On the upside though, this morning I spotted a beautiful yellow goldfinch in my yard. My finch feeder was wrecked in a wind storm a couple of weeks ago and I haven't replaced it yet. I have got to do that tomorrow. I guess the other feeders in the yard or other birds in the yard must have captured the goldfinch's interest. It was too quick for me to get a good picture of it but I do have a picture of another unusual visitor to my yard.

I think this is a cowbird. It was a bit of a process of elimination for me as I do not regularly get cowbirds in my yard. I used my ipod application Chirp Bird Songs USA ($2.99)to help me identify it's call. I'll do a separate article sometime on ipod apps for bird identification. My parents say they had a baltimore oriole at the farm this morning which I have never seen personally but looking at the Cornell website I guess that would still be within it's summer range. In any event, it seems that spring storms bring interesting birds to backyard feeders.

Will we get the sunflower seeded?

Oh my goodness! We have had about an inch of rain since 3:00 AM this morning and there is more in the forecast. Of course this has shut down our seeding operations on the farm and our sunflower crop isn't completely in the ground yet. We think this rain is going to keep us out of the field til about June 2nd now which is getting quite late for seeding sunflowers.

Speaking of sunflowers, did you know that black oil sunflower is the top choice for seed eating birds. You just can not beat black oil sunflower in a feeder. You can feed black oil sunflowers in shell or you can feed the sunflower kernels (we call these sunflower chips). Sunflower chips especially chips that are not whole and have been chopped in some way are the perfect no mess bird food solution. They will not sprout under the feeder, there are no shells to clean up and birds love them so much that they will totally clean up the feeder and the ground if any spill.


Now back to the agronomics of sunflowers. Sunflowers have a fairly long growing season. Fields are seeded usually well before now in the spring and then sunflowers will grow quite tall - up to 50 - 60 inches tall at maturity. Sunflower fields burst into bloom in early August and are a beautiful sight to behold. We have calls from people asking us when the sunflowers will be in bloom so they can come and take pictures. By late August, though, the blooms are starting to die off as the field ripens.

Sunflowers are usually the last crop to be harvested in fall, since fall frosts are necessary for drying down the crop. Most of our sunflower crrops do not come off the fields until late October to mid November.

We still plan on seeding the remaining fields we have penciled in for sunflower. We just have to hope for a long and mild fall.

Wet fields and wet lands.

The fields are very wet this spring. In fact so wet that some of our farm equipment is getting stuck in the field. This is unusual in our neck of the woods in Southern Alberta. There are all sorts of little sloughs in the fields too and lots of Mallard ducks are enjoying these new watering holes. I was getting concerned about what was going to happen to these ducks when the watering holes dry up. Would they nest near them and then run out of water for their little ones?


I searched for information on this on the Ducks Unlimited website which indicates that Mallards ducklings are usually all hatched by the end of May. Then it takes 2 months for them to be able to fly. In my opinion this could be a bit tight for any ducks that have nested near small sloughs in the field which should have dried up by the end of July. Let's hope our ducks have picked larger watering holes to nest at.

Water in the backyard

Big storm here last night: We had a big rain storm here on the farm last night complete with lightning and thunder. We got another 1/2 inch of rain, which can only be helpful for the crops that are already seeded. Of course, it does slow down the rest of the seeding progress. However, as I see the robins enjoying the puddles in the yard I am reminded how important water is to your backyard bird feeding program.

Birds love water and while open water is more available in the summer than in the winter, a bird bath will attract more birds to your yard at any time of year. Birds love to play in water and have a quick bath. They enjoy having a quick drink especially when it is warm outside. The sound of running water seems to attract birds to the backyard so a fountain or even a bucket of water dripping can be an attraction.

When buying a bird bath remember to buy a shallow birdbath - no more than 2 1/2 inches deep at it's center. Second, it should not have a slippery bottom. If it does, consider adding aquarium rock or small pebbles to the bottom to provide a non-slippery surface. Finally consider what your bird bath is made of - for example concrete bird baths may be attractive but plastic bird baths are less likely to crack in cold temperatures.

Keep bird baths clean: Bird baths can become a breeding ground for mosquitos and with West Nile Virus transmitted through mosquitos you need to be careful to ensure the water is changed regularly and that bird baths are scrubbed out periodically too.