Homes, More Homes and Feathered Visitors

Despite Covid-19 and the damage it’s done to families, with loved ones dying, unemployment and small businesses being crushed by shut downs and necessary pandemic rules, it’s a fact that home building where we live here in East Tennessee is off the charts!  Not only are there lumber and other building product shortages, just finding competent crews to get the job done is a huge problem. 

Buy a home lot…then wait months before a builder can commit to starting construction.  When builders promise a completion date…plan on 3 to 6 extra months beyond that promised date.  But the building boom carries on!

We knew that we were in for more noise, litter and construction when we saw this bulldozer parked alongside our street…just 3 lots to the right of our home.  Another clue was the ubiquitous ‘porta potty’, not pictured.  Our neighborhood is 'resplendent' with these little structures…

Just a week or two after we spotted that bulldozer, we heard the noise and checked it out.  The lot was being cleared with more trees coming down…

A couple of days later, we walked up to the site.  This dog was sitting in a big truck waiting for his human.  Nice that he could go to work with his best buddy!  The truck with its trailer was there to pick up that bulldozer.

This was that new corner lot after they had cleared and leveled it.  No trees left…not one!  Several trucks loaded with lumber and brush had already taken everything away…

Without the foliage that will come soon as spring blooms and the woods thicken, we can see that corner lot through the 2 lots to the right of our house.  Another new house is being completed right across the street from this one…  Our new neighbors who will move in to that home are from New Jersey.  They were supposed to be moving in before Christmas, but now its set for April.

Looking back from our front yard on the right side through the woods, we can see the other new home site that is under development…the one mentioned before that has great views of the Tellico Lake and the Smoky mountains…is readily visible as well.  Hopefully, we'll have at least one more year without construction right next door or right across the street.

Laurie has been busy with the camera and she’s captured a number of quality photos of our feathered friends.  In this case, our visitor is a house finch.

Originally, the house finch was only found in the southwestern USA and Mexico.  They were sold illegally in New York City as “Hollywood Finches”.  To avoid prosecution, vendors and owners released the birds and they’ve since adapted to their new home.  It is estimated that there are as many and 1.7 billion of these birds across North America and Hawaii.

In this case, a white-breasted nuthatch visited our feeder.  They seem to prefer feeding upside down, whether it’s on a feeder or when foraging along a tree trunk...or maybe we just spot them easier when they're upside down and moving down a feeder or tree.  

These little birds have large heads, short tails and powerful bills and feet.  Their English name is the result of their habit of wedging a large food item or nut in a tree crevice and then hacking at it with their strong bills.

In our area, it is also possible to see the red-breasted nuthatch as they do live as far south as the Smoky Mountains...but they prefer pine vs. deciduous trees.  Nuthatch diversity is quite amazing.  There are 28 different species of this bird, with the majority of these types being residents of southern Asia. 

In late winter…before spring…we see flocks of American Robins, and Laurie took dozens of photos.  These are a couple of the best… 

The American Robin is one of the most abundant birds in North America with an estimated population of between 320,000,000 and 370,000,000.  It is one of the earliest bird species to lay its eggs, actually beginning to breed shortly after returning to its summer range.  FYI, this species is also a known carrier of West Nile Virus.

We also have plenty of yellow finch visitors, aka the American goldfinch.  This is the only finch in its sub-family that undergoes a complete molt.  The males are a vibrant yellow in the summer and an olive color for the rest of the year.  The females only show a slight seasonal change in color. 

These birds are among the least threatened species of birds as they have actually benefited from deforestation and the proliferation of residential feeders.  This is the state bird in New Jersey and Iowa where it is called the Eastern goldfinch as well as in Washington State where it is called the willow goldfinch.

We don’t see flickers at our feeder too often although we always have a few sightings every year.  This time Laurie photographed this female yellow-shafted northern flicker.  Males of this sub-species have a little beard under their chin.  In the western USA, the red-shafted northern flickers are the dominant variety but in the central plains area they mix and interbreed.

The northern flicker is a medium-sized bird belonging to the woodpecker family.  Over a hundred common names for the northern flicker are known.  They include yellowhammer, clape, gaffer woodpecker, harry-wicket, heigh-ho, wake-up, walk-up, wick-up, yarrup and gawker bird.  Several of these nicknames are the result of people trying to imitate the northern flicker’s calls.

This medium sized member of the woodpecker family is a red-bellied woodpecker.  He is a regular visitor to our feeder.  When a red-bellied woodpecker hits the feeder, it’s with a lot of authority and smaller birds scatter!  This woodpecker’s name is a bit of a misnomer… The bright red cap draws your attention, but if you look closely, you can see a light rose colored patch on its belly.

The red-bellied woodpecker uses its bill to drill into bark or to probe cracks in the trunks of trees, pulling beetles and other insects from the tree with its long tongue.  This helpful behavior is evident in that this bird is a major predator of the invasive ash borer in the Midwestern USA, removing up to 85% of borer larvae in a single infested tree!

Well, what can I say?!  It was breeding season and the neighbor’s roof behind our house is especially active in the late winter/early spring.  Our local flock of black vultures show up on this roof every year… I hope that there is more than one female garnering all this attention!  Normally, pairs are formed following a courtship ritual that is performed on the ground.  I don’t think that our local flock has gotten the message…

Black vultures have a wide range that extends from the northeastern USA down to Peru, Central Chile and Uruguay in South America.  They are protected birds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.  Generally they feed on carrion but they have been known to attack and kill newborn calves.   

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave