• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

Any birders? Share your photos!

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Honestly, I just let the bees and wasps do their thing (I don't get that many, and they seem to prefer my flowers), BUT, I have heard moving your hummingbird feeders around helps with that. Apparently bees take longer to find new locations and hummingbirds will spot it quickly.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I’ve been enjoying my hummingbirds so much, I’m so sad that they’ll be migrating soon. The complicated thing at the moment is that we are having a big problem with EEE locally, and the state is going to spray for mosquitoes. I really dislike the use of widespread chemicals like this, but there are also 4 people and a few horses dead already and no cure for the disease so it needs to be done. The local Facebook groups are going nuts with discussion. As a chemist, everything I read shows that the supposed exposure levels should not cause an issue for birds.. The masses are freaking out about taking in bird feeders etc. So I took mine in last night out of an abundance of caution, but they didn’t end up spraying due to temperatures being too cool last night so I put my hummingbird feeder back out today. I didn’t put the seeds back out yet because it was still dark out when I was leaving and the seed feeders are on the tree-line where I wasn’t willing to go at that time due to more mosquito potential. I’m not sure if I’m doing more harm by removing the food source and confusing them, or if it’s the best for them not to potentially eat contaminated food. For the hummingbirds the timing worries me most because they need their fuel to migrate really soon.
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Hmmm... yeah, it does seem like if you know when they are spraying, it can't hurt to take down the feeders during that time. I wouldn't be overly worried about temporarily removing feeders - wild birds have multiple sources of food, and can adapt. I mean, in normal situations, they're going to have patches of thistles and sunflowers and whatnot that get picked clean or are suddenly occupied by predators or whatever and they have to shift around and find something else. And people regularly have feeders that sit empty for a while - I think they're able to deal with it.
 

Little Lightning

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Two Great Horned Owls flew over my house this morning. They perched in a large tree so I got a nice long look at them.

I might have solved my hummingbird feeder issue by covering the ports with mesh. The hummingbird seems to be using it. Silly bees are persistent though. They can't get through the mesh but keep trying. I moved it to a shadier spot but that hasn't deterred the bees.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
I was not so good at keeping food out all winter (as in I didn't..), so was concerned whether I'd have trouble attracting birds back again like I did last year. However, I apparently didn't have to worry because as soon as I put food out last week it was demolished, from both of my regular feeders. I'm thrilled we are off to a strong start and I'm now keeping them full. I'm also super excited for the hummingbirds to return.. I know it's a little early for MA, but I've been checking the migration map and they have been seen as north as New Jersey so far, so it shouln't be too too long now. I'll probably start putting out their food in the next week or two as long as overnight temps. aren't too low.
 

Christy

Angel Diva
This week, on the same block 2 blocks from my house, I saw (first day) a pair of eagles, then (second day) a Great Blue Heron. There are lots of herons on the water here, and some eagles in the city, but not usually right by my house. I wonder if someone set up a REALLY good feeder.
 

newboots

Angel Diva
Up here we are ordered to take down all our feeders at the end of March or thereabouts.

Bears.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
Since I am pretty much done with end of ski season deal shopping, I've of course moved onto the next obsession.. finding a camera. I'm a total beginner and mostly want a camera for learning photography, hiking to do mountain landscape photos (originally also skiing, but I'm not sure I can get what I want at a small enough size for skiing without a backpack, so that's more in the background now), as well as beaches and sunrise/sunsets etc. Also got to thinking that yes I love birds, especially hummingbirds, so I'll absolutely want to photograph them as well. What cameras do you guys have for this type of thing? I'm still leaning towards a mirrorless camera for size/weight benefits so something in the Sony A6000 series is on my short list. Definitely open to any and all suggestions though. Looking forward to when stores can open back up so I can go pick someone's brain at a local camera shop and touch everything. Also, besides just the camera itself, what lens are you using for birding?
 

Christy

Angel Diva
@MissySki I wonder if any of your local camera stores have a chat feature or just email where you can talk about cameras with them. It might not be the same as shopping in person, but it could be useful info.
 

MissySki

Angel Diva
@MissySki I wonder if any of your local camera stores have a chat feature or just email where you can talk about cameras with them. It might not be the same as shopping in person, but it could be useful info.

Hmmm I’m not sure, I’d just been under the assumption that they are all closed. You bring up a good point though, I’m going to look into this! Thanks for the suggestion.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
26,233
Messages
497,561
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top