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Author Topic: Redwinged Blackbird  (Read 1096 times)

taxid

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Redwinged Blackbird
« on: Mar 08, 2021, 05:41 PM »
I may have a beneficial visitor again that year!  I just saw a Redwinged Blackbird hanging in the area of emergent grass on my biggest pond where a pair nested last year. Why beneficial? Last year's male of the nesting pair of blackbirds confronted an osprey every time it showed up to dive my fish production ponds. It looked liked a fighter plane harassing a large bomber. After three attempts the osprey gave up. I do think the osprey is a cool bird to watch in action, but in this case he is taking from my bottom line.

The smaller trout pond I can run lines across to keep the ospreys out, but the pond with the blackbird is large enough that it would be a real PITA, and very time
consuming.

Now if he could just go after the Great Blue Herons. Doesn't seem to mind them.

“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

rgfixit

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Re: Redwinged Blackbird
« Reply #1 on: Mar 09, 2021, 12:39 PM »
We haven’t seen any yet but it won’t be long. They usually hang around our feeders till the cattails start to turn green. We get red wings, tri-colors, cowbirds, grackles and the never ending gluttons of the bird world.....aka ....starlings.

Rg
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

taxid

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Re: Redwinged Blackbird
« Reply #2 on: Mar 11, 2021, 06:12 AM »
We haven’t seen any yet but it won’t be long. They usually hang around our feeders till the cattails start to turn green. We get red wings, tri-colors, cowbirds, grackles and the never ending gluttons of the bird world.....aka ....starlings.

Rg

Those starlings are such a scourge. They have taken over my dad's Purple Martin house and they try to get into a space between the upper reaches of my fireplace and the overhang. Leave *hit on the logs in that area. I keep blocking it but they keep finding a way in.
“The trouble with quotes on the Internet is you never know if they are genuine.” —Abraham Lincoln

Doubles Shooter

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Re: Redwinged Blackbird
« Reply #3 on: Mar 11, 2021, 06:46 AM »
Spring is definatly here. I have a Hairy woodpecker that loves to hammer his love calls on the rain cap on the chimney. He's been doing it for 4 years now. He started this morning at 7:00. Echos through the whole house.

Starlings are a pain. They are so thick on my feeders, I got 3 with one shot and several doubles this year. I've got a snipers hide in the kitchen window for the RWS pellet gun.  With the open early winter, a lot of them didn't go south this year.

Raquettedacker

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Re: Redwinged Blackbird
« Reply #4 on: Mar 11, 2021, 07:08 AM »
Just heard/saw my first flock fly over..
Sometimes we live no particular way but our own.....<br />Strangers stopping strangers just to shake there hand...<br />\"Dying is the easy part. Learning how to live is the hard part....\"

rgfixit

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Re: Redwinged Blackbird
« Reply #5 on: Mar 11, 2021, 08:29 AM »
I’m getting pretty successful at deterring the starlings. Put the suet block in a box with dowels spaced about 1 1/4” apart for the front. The woodpeckers have no problem getting at it but so far the starlings haven’t touched it.

Also, put the mealworms for the bluebirds in their feeder with 1 3/8” openings. They haven’t bothered that either.

I only feed black oil sunflower seeds which they can’t break with their pointy beaks. No millet, cracked corn or sunflower chips this time of year. They don’t come around in he winter. Mostly in the spring.

I’ll say one good thing about them, they have some really nice feathers for soft hackle flies.

Rg
If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

 



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