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Wednesday, January 6, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Don’t feed deer.
Feed birds!
Don’t feed deer. The deer
don’t need the help; they
will become so pestiferous
you won’t be able to stand it
— and if you keep it up long
enough you’ll have cougars
running all over your place.
Birds, however, are
another matter entirely.
Feeding birds and going
to the post office are fun
projects for me. There’s a lot
of just plain good times that
take place in the Sisters post
office. Really, the times I
have gone there and haven’t
been stopped by someone
for a bird question or wild-
life story is very rare, and I
love it.
The other day a young
woman stopped me while
Roger was helping me mail
something and asked, “Jim,
what are these tiny, long-
tailed birds that come to my
feeder, all talking to each
other and so active?” I said,
“Kinglets.” Immediately
another voice piped up,
correcting me and said,
“Bushtits.” And he was right.
Bushtits run around
together about 10 or so
in a bunch. They visit my
feeder and immediately
latch onto the flickers’ suet
feeder. “Oh, look at this!”
they exclaim. “Isn’t this
just deeee-licious!” and set
to work pigging out on the
suet. With the feeder just
outside the kitchen window
it’s entertainment that money
can’t buy — unless you con-
sider what you’re paying for
the bird food at the various
places in Sisters where it’s
available.
Providing water for birds
is just as important as pro-
viding food. When ponds
and other water sources are
locked up with ice, local
birds will appreciate your
heated birdbath. If you don’t
have a heated birdbath, you
don’t have to spend much
to provide a heated water
source — just get one of
those heated dog bowls and
put it out. The birds will
flock to you.
Then there’s the quail.
This time of year they can
sometimes be hurting for
scratch, so, like the sucker
I am, I supply it. In all the
years I’ve lived at Sun
Mountain I have seen our
quail population go from tiny
to wonderful, and I think it’s
because of the scratch my
neighbors and I give them in
winter.
And if you want to
increase your quail popula-
tion and make them even
happier, don’t burn the next
pile of limbs you collect.
Place them someplace where
it doesn’t bother you (away
from a structure in the event
it could somehow catch fire).
Make the pile big enough so
you can place a thin piece
of waterproof plywood on
it about 10 inches off the
ground, pile more limbs on
top of that, and it becomes a
perfect quail sanctuary.
Unfortunately, we also
have stray, feral and out-
door cats that also enjoy the
activity around my feeder.
Thankfully, the resident coy-
otes thin ’em out at times.
If you’d like a unique
method of keeping feral cats
away from your feeder, I’ll
share it with you, but you’ll
have to send me an email:
jim@northwestnaturalist.
net. It involves “staking out
the territory.”
Feeding deer will attract
predators, and so will feed-
ing birds. I have a Copper’s
hawk and a sharp-shinned
(accipiters, aka bird hawks)
that stick around all winter.
They’re the clean-up-crew.
When a junco, house spar-
row, finch or quail on its last
legs turns up, they’re imme-
diately recycled by one or
the other accipiter.
I had a Cooper’s hawk
one year that got into chas-
ing the birds off the feeder
by making an F-16 style
fly-by. As he pulled up he’d
spot the one that was too
slow in making its escape, or
the one that hit my window,
double back and pounce on
it. Watching a bird hawk
in action is as much fun as
watching the bushtits mob-
bing my suet feeder.
Feeders are also a won-
derful way to record pop-
ulation trends of local
birds, and once in a while
a strange bird will come
to visit your feeder; a bird
photo by Jim AnderSon
A pile of bushtits pigging out on the flickers’ suet feeder, 10 in all.
from out-of-state or even
out-of-country. This usu-
ally happens in winter
when the winds and storms
drive a migrating species
off in a direction it/they
hadn’t intended. If you see
a stranger on your feeder,
please try to photograph it
immediately; if that fails ask
someone to help you write
down its description, then
mark it all on your calendar.
If you think there’s
time, please call me:
541-480-3728. I’ll do my
best to get there for a voucher
photo. Such events are
important to bird organiza-
tions that keep track of them.
An example is the hawk owl
that has comes down from
Canada to visit. There are
only two county records of
that happening, and I was so
fortunate to see the last one
that visited us in southeast
Bend.
Happy birding, all! See
ya at the post office…
Offering
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& Body Care!
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541-549-1784
161-C N. Elm St.
January 13 – February 25
Reception to meet the artists.
Friday, January 22, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
People’s Choice Awards and Silent Auction
The community may vote at the library for the awards
between Wednesday, January 13 & Friday, January 22.
All are invited!
For information, contact Zeta Seiple at 541-549-6157
or Paul Alan Bennett at 541-588-0156.