Birdfeeding: Friends of a Feather Flock Together

Username: Julian. (Juliansinger on LJ.)

Your other online venues: Um. Here, Tumblr, Twitter, eBird. (But not iNaturalist.) I've got a Flikr, too, but it's mostly for linking from DW. Also some Discords. (Twitter is, of course, dying and getting eviscerated, but I'm currently still going down with the ship.)

Your approximate location: South of Boston. (Massachusetts.) Closer to Providence than Boston, nowadays.

What are your interests in birds: I take a walk, I enjoy birds, basically. I didn't much care about them til the pandemic started, and then my burgeoning photography habit migrated. The walks (all over the place) were a rebellion against lockdown which worked out very well. I figured, if I exercised alone but not in my house, solo and not near people, how would that hurt? Certainly, it would help my mental health... Anyway, so I kept noticing recurring birds, and things mushroomed.

Compared to more experienced bird folks, I'm not very good at spotting shyer birds in the wild. Mostly because I'm not very into the stillness part of birdwatching. (Would like to get better. Mindfulness. Slowly happening.) Also, I have bad eyesight and I don't hear higher pitches very well, so I miss, f'rex, warblers at times. But it's a process.

The birds I really enjoy hanging out with are the brash folks like red-winged blackbirds, grackles, blue jays, crows, and so on. (Grackles don't much like *me*, but that's OK, it's what they're like. Crows and blue jays are skeptical but can be influenced. (By peanuts.) I also feed geese and ducks seeds, but only when they have goslings/ducklings. They then get disappointed in me later but learn to cope.)

I've got a Canon SX 740 I can just stick in my pocket and wander around with, and a Nikon DSLR that I've gotten a bunch of different lenses for and can get more precise with. (I've misplaced the Canon and need to go on a full court press to find it, but anyway.)

How big is your yard / balcony / etc. if any: Well. My yard is miniscule. Has about 3 trees. But I rent, and my landlord is trying to renovate his third floor; mostly what's happening there is that he gets squirrels inside. So I don't feel right feeding birds myself and attracting more birds/squirrels to the house. But luckily, my cattycorner neighbors are perfectly fine with it, and have a really good set-up of various feeders. (They have less yard than us. The neighbors in back have an actual yard, though. Also, dogs.) There's a house sparrow colony that mostly congregates at the end of my driveway in the bushes there, there's also a minority who hang out closer to my house. Lots of House Sparrows, some other folks too. Chickadees in my house's trees.

Also, I'm about 4 blocks from my local pond.

What is your general habitat / climate zone: Humid subtropical/Zone 6b. The humidity gets annoying.

What do you do to attract birds, if anything: Smile at my neighbors. Occasionally feed some blue jays peanuts.

What are some birds you often see in your area? Sparrows, of course. But also blue jays (some of whom I've made friends with), nuthatches and some woodpeckers, cardinals, mockingbirds, Carolina wrens, chickadees, some crows who don't care about me (I've managed to make friends with a bunch of crows about half an hour south of me, mind you), a couple hawks, a bunch of local mute swans, Canada geese, ducks, etc. (The local ducks who stay 365 days a year are wood ducks and mallards. We also get ring-necked, and common, red-breasted, and hooded Mergansers during the winter. (I think the hooded folks are also yearly residents but I never see them in the summer.)) Not too many gulls locally. Oh, great blue herons. I love me some sword birds. I go down to various beaches/salt marshes every so often and visit shore birds and ospreys.

What is your blog like: Somewhat quiescent.

What are your most common topics: Me! Er. Stuff about my life. Occasional photographs.

What kinds of friends would you like to attract: People. Definitely people.

Random pictures:

( Cut because I generally cut pictures, also I didn't re-size them. )