Science

[ysabetwordsmith]

Generations of Bearded Vultures Stashed Humans’ Treasures, Including a 650-Year-Old Sandal, in These Bird Nests

Bearded vultures are unusual birds. Their diet consists primarily of bones, which they sometimes drop from great heights to break into smaller, bite-size pieces. They deliberately change the color of their plumage by rolling around in reddish-orange mud. And they return to the same nesting sites year after year, with generations of the species even reusing nests for centuries.

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November Monthly Post

[ysabetwordsmith]

This is the November community post for birdfeeding. Which birds did you see this month? What were your wildlife activities during November? What are your plans for December?


November anchor posts include:

Adopt a Turkey Month

Photos: Lake Charleston

Bird Apocalypse

Science

Birdfeeding

[ysabetwordsmith]

Today is cloudy and cold.  Yesterday it snowed copiously, which wiped out our plans for Small Business Saturday.  :(  It was pretty for a while though.  Then it rained.  Then it froze again.  O_O  Now the snow looks a week old and there is plate ice over the road and parts of the patio.

I fed the birds.  I hung up a peanut suet cake.  I've seen one female and three male cardinals plus a dark-eyed junco.  :D  This is the first I've seen of my little snowbirds this year; the juncos are cold-weather birds here and don't appear in summer.

I put out water for the birds.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did a bit of work around the patio.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

EDIT 11/30/25 -- I did more work around the patio.

I've seen two female cardinals and the three boys again.

As it is getting dark, I am done for the night.

snow

[low_delta]

It snowed here in southeastern Wisconsin. Much more than is usual for this early in the year. It snowed for nearly 24 hours, and there was no wind, so it came straight down and settled on everything. Here, I think we got around ten inches.

It knocked over our birdfeeders. The pole was slightly bent, but mostly it was just tearing out the ground. I shoveled off the grass and replanted the pole, since the ground wasn't yet frozen underneath the snow.

That's a platform feeder under a clear plastic dome, and on the other side, almost hidden behind the mourning doves, is a squirrel-proof column feeder. I had to bring that one inside to melt the snow off.





After getting everything reset, we had the usual crowd of mourning doves, house finches and dark-eyed juncos. Maybe cardinals, I don't remember, but they were definitely out there yesterday. The downy woodpecker was disappointed that the column feeder wasn't out when she visited.