I'll Be Back When The Dog Is Not Chasing Squirrels!
Sep 13, 2020 17:50:35 #
California Towhee - Melozone crissalis
This towhee was on the lawn and raised flower bed foraging with visits to the large pottery saucer feeder when a squirrel came along to raid the bird food. My little dog went after the squirrel and the towhee decided to get out of the way until the place settled down. They are among the species that like millet so if you have towhees you can ignore the "don't buy feed with millet filler because birds won't eat it." I let some of the spilled millet seed sprout and grow in my yard and get shots of doves and towhees eating the seeds when the plants mature. Better images than all the shots of them on feeders.
Towhee are birds of the brush shrubs and bushes of the chaparral and have readily adapted to shrubs etc in yards and parks. They prefer to forage near places they can duck for shelter. In my front yard they will get fairly far from their shelter when I am sitting on the front porch. I guess they figure I am safe and I scare off the things dangerous to them. In spring and early summer when they are after insects, grubs etc to feed their babies I have had them foraging less than 5 feet from me. Especially if I just watered the lawn (I like to sit in front and water with a hose sometimes.) and the bugs and grubs are disturbed and moving around. They will also forage beside and on the driveway when there is a car to duck under. I have seen one gather grubs and pile them on the concrete of the porch near me until they have all they carry in one trip then take them off and return to do it again later. The nest and babies must have been fairly nearby based on the turn around time. The same bird also splashed in a water dish and flew through the spray from the hose.
They eat mostly seeds of grasses and herbs plus berries such as elderberry, coffeeberry, and poison oak, acorns, and garden produce like peas, plums, and apricots. The will also eat spiders, millipedes, and snails. They like millet and a flat tray, saucer, picnic table or seeds just tossed on the ground will attract them.
They will build their nests from 3-12 feet high in small trees, shrubs, bushes etc. They like oaks and if a tree has poison oak growing on it they will often build their nests inside the vines. The poison oak keeps many animals away and they eat the berries.
5DIV, 100-400L mk2 @ 400, 1/640 @ f/7.1, ISO_640
handheld at a bit over 30 feet in warm late afternoon light
This towhee was on the lawn and raised flower bed foraging with visits to the large pottery saucer feeder when a squirrel came along to raid the bird food. My little dog went after the squirrel and the towhee decided to get out of the way until the place settled down. They are among the species that like millet so if you have towhees you can ignore the "don't buy feed with millet filler because birds won't eat it." I let some of the spilled millet seed sprout and grow in my yard and get shots of doves and towhees eating the seeds when the plants mature. Better images than all the shots of them on feeders.
Towhee are birds of the brush shrubs and bushes of the chaparral and have readily adapted to shrubs etc in yards and parks. They prefer to forage near places they can duck for shelter. In my front yard they will get fairly far from their shelter when I am sitting on the front porch. I guess they figure I am safe and I scare off the things dangerous to them. In spring and early summer when they are after insects, grubs etc to feed their babies I have had them foraging less than 5 feet from me. Especially if I just watered the lawn (I like to sit in front and water with a hose sometimes.) and the bugs and grubs are disturbed and moving around. They will also forage beside and on the driveway when there is a car to duck under. I have seen one gather grubs and pile them on the concrete of the porch near me until they have all they carry in one trip then take them off and return to do it again later. The nest and babies must have been fairly nearby based on the turn around time. The same bird also splashed in a water dish and flew through the spray from the hose.
They eat mostly seeds of grasses and herbs plus berries such as elderberry, coffeeberry, and poison oak, acorns, and garden produce like peas, plums, and apricots. The will also eat spiders, millipedes, and snails. They like millet and a flat tray, saucer, picnic table or seeds just tossed on the ground will attract them.
They will build their nests from 3-12 feet high in small trees, shrubs, bushes etc. They like oaks and if a tree has poison oak growing on it they will often build their nests inside the vines. The poison oak keeps many animals away and they eat the berries.
5DIV, 100-400L mk2 @ 400, 1/640 @ f/7.1, ISO_640
handheld at a bit over 30 feet in warm late afternoon light
Sep 13, 2020 17:55:06 #
Sep 13, 2020 17:56:04 #
robertjerl wrote:
California Towhee - Melozone crissalis br br This... (show quote)
Robert, you did it again. Not only a fantastic photo of one of my favorite birds but the details on how to attract and keep them around to get the photos like yours.
Greg
Sep 13, 2020 18:57:20 #
Sep 13, 2020 19:05:00 #
Sep 13, 2020 19:05:12 #
CLF wrote:
Robert, you did it again. Not only a fantastic photo of one of my favorite birds but the details on how to attract and keep them around to get the photos like yours.
Greg
Greg
Thank you.
House finches, some sparrows and some doves love millet also. And I found it is good for making bread, porridge, brewing alcohol and animal feed in general. Also good for a gluten free diet. Millet also is high in minerals, some vitamins etc.
Sep 13, 2020 20:00:29 #
Great shot Robert. We have Towhees here in NC as well. I’ve taken to feeding Sunflower seed hearts because they leave zero residue in the ground (our feeder is at the garage door entrance and when we use seed that leaves hulls and residue, it gets slippery over time and rain - and we are both too old to take a fall on concrete). We used to have big time squirrel issues, right until a pair of Owls moved in. Haven’t seen a squirel trying to get on the feeder all year - what a pleasure!
Sep 13, 2020 20:25:50 #
Sep 14, 2020 03:34:10 #
TriX wrote:
Great shot Robert. We have Towhees here in NC as well. I’ve taken to feeding Sunflower seed hearts because they leave zero residue in the ground (our feeder is at the garage door entrance and when we use seed that leaves hulls and residue, it gets slippery over time and rain - and we are both too old to take a fall on concrete). We used to have big time squirrel issues, right until a pair of Owls moved in. Haven’t seen a squirel trying to get on the feeder all year - what a pleasure!
Thanks
Your towhees look a lot different from our CA type.
I have thought of using the shelled sunflower seeds but am afraid they will go too fast. Squirrels raid my feeders but not as much as they would like to. I arranged all the feeders so they would have to get on the ground to get to them and I have a squirrel repellent named Tara. So they have to wait until she takes a nap and then hope to slip in and out without waking her up. Some times she has backup but my wife's Shin Zhu Toby would rather just look out the door and bark. Tara chases them. Her Daddy was an Irish Shorty Jack Russell and she takes after his side of the family.
Sep 14, 2020 06:58:48 #
Sep 14, 2020 08:11:45 #
Sep 14, 2020 08:21:29 #
Yikes, that is a bird of a different color. Thanks, as always, for the great photo and the details.
Sep 14, 2020 08:30:44 #
Sep 14, 2020 08:54:13 #
Your background stories are great.
That afternoon light added a lot of color to that bird!
Mike
That afternoon light added a lot of color to that bird!
Mike
Sep 14, 2020 09:42:01 #
robertjerl wrote:
Thanks br Your towhees look a lot different from o... (show quote)
You’re right - our Towhees do look substantially different.
Tara is cool and she looks like she’d be a terror on squirrels. Personally, I hate them, and we were overrun before the Owls moved in - now I never see any. I’m afraid that once they’ve exhausted the food supply, they’ll leave. You are correct about the sunflower seed - we go through a huge amount, even without the squirrels, and it isn’t cheap, but we enjoy the entertainment of the birds out our breakfast room window. In addition to the Towhees, we have lots of Bluebirds, Cardinals, Brown Thrashers, Jays, purple and yellow Finches, Wrens, some wonderful Woodpeckers and a host of Doves that really go through the seed. Several times a year, we have a flock of Grackles that pass through, are very aggressive, and then leave. We rarely see Robins the last few years - no idea why.
Cheers.
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