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Welcome to "Boulder Backyards"
Wild Bird Center of Boulder adheres to a strict privacy policy that means your information will not be shared, sold, or otherwise distributed. If you do not wish to receive any further eNewsletters with Offers and Resource information, click the "SafeUnsubscribe" link at the bottom of this page. We value your relationship!
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bird watchers (that's us)
Wild Bird Center Saturday Walks:
From 7:30 am (promptly)
to 9:45 am (approximately)
Every Saturday year-round.
Every last Saturday of the month we travel further afield than normal
and return a little later.
Call for more info: 303-442-1322
Birdwalks
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Wild Bird Center
of Boulder
Quick Links
Xcel Energy BirdCams
One fun way to participate in the lives of local birds is by viewing Xcel Energy's
Web Cams
owl cam
eagle cam
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Birding Community Bulletins
 National Wildlife Refuge Association
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Nature Photography
by
Wendy Marie Stuart
"Serious About Fishing" Green Heron
Visit our store to see a gallery of Wendy's matted and framed prints
and greeting cards for all occasions or
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Photo Credits
"Birding Community Bulletins" by National Wildlife Refuge Association
"Serious About Fishing" Green Heron
by Wendy Marie Stuart
"Song Sparrow and Snow" by
Wendy Marie Stuart
"Mountain Lions at Golden Ponds, Longmont, CO" by Kieth Brunell
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Thank you!
on our
20th Anniversary
from all of us at YOUR
Wild Bird Center! We couldn't have done this without you! Twenty years is a long time in anyone's book and we owe our success to you -- our customers, compatriots, fellow birders, and friends. A hearty thank you to you all!
Steve, Wendy, Marlene, & Bill
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Contact Information
Steve Frye, Owner
Wild Bird Center Boulder
1641-28th Street
Boulder, CO 80301
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New Wild Bird Centers Website Launched
The Wild Bird Centers launched a new Website last month which has some neat new features. One slick new feature is the Common Bird Field Guides which shows photos and videos, lets you listen to songs, and has a lot of great info including how to attract the most common species. Many of you noted our troubles when the site first went live, but we have ironed out most of these problems
We are always working on increasing the value of our site. The address for the new site is www.wildbird.com/franchisee/bld and you can always reach the new site by going to our Product Catalog at www.wbcboulder.com and clicking on the Wild Bird Center Home link on top of the left navigation column. Be sure to bookmark both of them! Or you can just use the links below to navigate our local Boulder pages of the new site.
common western birds common eastern birds
 
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Introduction to Boulder County Birding:
Fall '09 Session
This new Boulder County Audubon Society Certificate Course covers the ins and outs of birding, from using binoculars and field guides to identifying birds by field marks and song. Observe hawks, ducks, woodpeckers, songbirds and other birds in their natural habitats while learning about their ecological roles and conservation needs. Students who complete the course will receive a Boulder County Audubon "Introduction to Boulder County Birding" certificate.
Teachers: Sue Cass, Steve Jones, and Scott Severs
Tuition: $90 ($80 for Audubon members) Limited to 12 participants. All classes are mobility accessible.
Class Dates:
9/12/09 8:00 to Noon. Birding Basics at Walden Ponds
9/26/09 8:00 to Noon. Songbirds at Walker Ranch
10/10/09 8:00 to Noon. Waterfowl at Walden Ponds
11/07/09 8:00 to Noon. Raptors on the eastern plains
To register contact Mary Balzer at marybalzer@qwest.net or go to www.boulderaudubon.org to print the registration form.
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Stop the Squirrels for Good!
Save $5.00 on any steel ERVA Squirrel Baffle
Baffles pay for themselves quickly from seed savings!
ERVA Pole-mounted Disc Baffle #99525
Click here to go to our Product Catalog
Mention CODE WBC0910. Call (303) 442-1322 or bring in to redeem. Some restrictions may apply. Not valid in combination with other promotions. Expiration date: 9/30/09.
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Coming Events
End-of-Month Birdwalk, September 26, 2009 hawk
One of the great spectacles of
September is raptor migration. Join us on September 26th to seek out
birds of prey. On this walk we will climb to a prominent vantage point and wait
for the raptors to fly over. Sometimes they are close and many times they are
dots. You never know what you'll get. We will carpool from the Wild Bird
Center leaving promptly
at 7:30 and return about 11:00. No reservations required-just show up.
Wonderland Lake Bird Surveys
A group of people concerned about the bird population around Wonderland Lake are starting up some bird surveys. If you would like to participate please contact Juli Bratun at bratunj@yahoo.com. Juli is also interested in getting input from people knowledgeable in bird survey techniques and project design. |
 Ask Steve
Q: I never have very many winter birds at my feeders. When do I need to start feeding in order to attract them?
A:If you want to have birds establish a pattern of feeding and visiting your yard this winter you need to start before the weather turns cold. During periods of harsh weather the birds must only visit food sources that are reliable in order to get the energy they need. It is too risky to hunt for new food sources and chance not finding anything.
September is a great month to start feeding or add feeders like suet feeders to get ready for winter and cooler weather. (Remember, we average 2 inches of snow in September!) Suet feeding can be hard to establish, but once they start eating it they remember where it was, even from year to year. Place your suet feeder in a mature tree and use a highly attractive suet like peanut suet to get things rolling. We can help you fine tune your system as you go along. My suet feeders are my favorite to watch. song sparrow
To me, fall and winter birds mean juncos and native sparrows like white-crowns. Make sure that your yard has enough bushy cover to make these birds feel safe. If you lack this kind of cover you can build it with a brush pile. Juncos, towhees, and native sparrows all like to feed on platform feeders on under evergreens and bushes. One of their favorite foods is millet. I always go through a lot more millet in the winter compared to summer. You can also use hulled millet to reduce the sprouting and shell mess of regular millet. |
Donation to Wild Animal Sanctuary
In August, Wild Bird Center Staffer and Photographer Wendy Stuart donated a beautiful framed print of a mountain lion to raffle. All of the proceeds went to the Wild Animal Sanctuary in Keensburg, CO which is a refuge for large carnivores. Thanks to the generosity of Wild Bird Center Customers, Wendy sent the Sanctuary a check for $1350.00. Way to go all of our wonderful customers!
Wendy's beautiful print brings to mind the experience we had on our Birdwalk back in May when Kieth Brunell dramtically captured the moment at Golden Ponds in Longmont.
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| The Bird That Cried Kill Deer!
By Scott Severs (reprinted from Mar/Apr 1997 Wild Bird News)
When I was in grade school, my family lived for a year on the shores of Connecticut. I had always had an interest in birds. But when my family moved from the mountains of Colorado to the coast of Connecticut, my interest turned from casual to enthusiastic. What struck me was the amazing change in climate and avifauna. Coastlines foster remarkable assemblages of birds, and on my street, one bird especially could not go unnoticed. Incessant calls of kill-deeah kill-deeah kill-deeah greeted anyone who walked near the nest of this bird. Named for their boisterous call, killdeer are probably the most widespread and familiar plovers of North America (the killdeer is sometimes referred to as the "robin" of shorebirds). killdeer
Killdeer have distinctive plumage, which makes them easy to identify-the contrast between the two black bands and white chest is a dead giveaway. The back and wings are coppery brown, and the rump and lower back are a bright rusty orange. The killdeer's coal black eyes are bordered by a ring of crimson red, giving it a big-eyed appearance.
Plovers are related to sandpipers, and some plovers live along the shorelines of lakes, rivers, and oceans. Others prefer to live in grasslands or pastures. Here in Colorado, the endangered piping plover is found only on the sandy shores of some of our largest eastern reservoirs, whereas the mountain plover is found in the native short grass prairies of the state. Killdeer will nest in theses habitats and many others including golf courses, gravel driveways, and even flat rooftops.
In Colorado, nesting season for killdeer begins in April. The eggs of killdeer-like those of many ground-nesting birds-are cryptically colored. This helps to hide them from predators. Killdeer have a trick to draw predators that discover their eggs away from the nest. Feigning a broken wing, the killdeer will flop around on the ground to draw attention to itself and away from the nest. Once the threat is gone, the adult returns to the nest. Both adults incubate the eggs (typically four); after three weeks, the young emerge. Killdeer young are called "precocial" because they leave the nest right after hatching. The young are able to fend for themselves and depend on the adults only for protection from predators. The young chicks peck instinctively at beetles, caterpillars, and ants for food. Three and a half weeks after hatching, the killdeer chicks take their maiden flight. By August and September many of the birds are heading South; if the weather is warm enough, a few of them will remain in Colorado.
Their nature and habits make killdeer excellent subjects for behavior studies. "A Guide to Bird Behavior Vol. II" by the Stokes is a valuable source of information on the different displays of this species. To see killdeer locally in Boulder County, consider visiting Walden & Sawhill Ponds or Boulder Reservoir. Additionally, many can be found in wet pastures and grasslands in the county.
Additional information can be found from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds - Killdeer
Note: Killdeer assemble in sometimes large groups during September. On last week's bird walk we saw 30 at Teller Pond. A review of the last 10 years of Saturday Bird Walks shows that killdeer are one of the only species we've seen whose abundance is at it's highest in September.
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Wild Bird Center of Boulder
Catalog Web Site
We continue to add products to our Catalog Website for our Boulder Store. While we are under construction, we invite you to check it out at www.WBCBoulder.com. For all you locals who get seed delivered, you can use the site to figure out an order and delivery charges. Feel free to email us or call (303) 442 1322 with your product questions.
Click Here To View Our New Product Catalog
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