Reader Lee Mavis sent this photo of a homemade three-level bird feeder.
Lee Mavis
Q. Hi Chip: Attached is a photo of a bird feeder I made last winter with three levels. It works great! The branch and tree I used to hang it came from my woods. I’ve also included a photo of what looks to possibly be a wildcat by my driveway on May 20, 2024; what do you think?
A. Thanks for sending the photo of your trilevel bird feeder, Lee — very unique! And yes, it looks like it works well. Many items can be turned into a bird feeder; we just need to think a little creatively. As for the cat photo, it’s not a “wildcat,” meaning a bobcat. Rather, it’s a domestic house cat.
Susan Graver
Q. Hello, Mr. Gross: We’ve been trying to identify a bird by its song. We haven’t been able to see it. We made a recording, but we just haven’t been able yet to match it with other online recordings. I thought it might be a mockingbird with a new song, quite unlike mockingbird songs we’ve very, very often heard in the past. It’s probably something easy to know, but we haven’t pinned it down. Might you have an idea what bird we are hearing?
A. Hi, Susan. The Merlin Bird Sound-ID App on my smartphone suggested your recording was most likely a rose-breasted grosbeak, a species that migrates through Ohio in the spring, but the app wasn’t definitive. Does that sound plausible to you?
Q. The rose-breasted grosbeak has a similar pitch and clarity to the bird we heard for three or four days, but when we listen to the online recordings of them we notice they have a repetitive cadence and sound more like a robin. My husband and I aren’t convinced it is a rose-breasted grosbeak. I haven't been outside working today, and haven’t noticed its song while having the windows open, so I’m not sure it’s even around anymore, which would fit in with your migration idea. We have a Baltimore oriole here often and he never has a repetitive song like the one we recorded, but a similar pitch and loudness. So we eliminated that possibility. We live about an hour’s drive south of Lake Erie.
A. Sue, for another opinion, I forwarded your recording to one of the best birders I know, Jim McCormac, author of the bird ID book Birds of Ohio, and he believes the bird you’re curious about is a Baltimore oriole.
Q. Wow! We’ve had Baltimore orioles around for years and had never heard such a consistent song pattern. So very interesting. Thanks for your time, and thanks for all the great articles you write for the rural electric co-op magazine. We enjoy them!
