Citizen science, it might be called, is simply looking deeper, answering your own queries by watching closer, and coming away with more enjoyment.

To get started one might ask what bird is it?  Is it a male or female?  What is its favorite food?  Is it a cordial feeder?  Is it a fast food eater, sort of a grab and go avian?  Is it a winter bird or here all year?

In the process birders may find they are wasting money on food no one eats.

Using a feed mixture is a great way to find out there are foods not worth purchasing at least not for the birds in the area or the ones most enjoyed.

Bob Ross, at Wild Birds Unlimited in Middleton, Wisconsin, says there are two seeds not worth buying because most birds won’t eat them and therefore it’s a waste to purchase milo and sorghum.  Millet on the other hand is eaten by creepers and juncos.

Beware of those tiny, round seeds, which may be fillers and go uneaten.  Look for them is cheap mixes and purchase a plain, not mixture, food to start.

Whole and cracked corn is another maybe food some birds stay away from but cardinals, jays and woodpeckers will take some along with many other seed choices.

Black oil sunflower seeds are actually fruits that the birds must open to get the single seed out.  This can be a-one-fits-all feed.  A great starter and maybe the only feed necessary.  The dry fruits are discarded below the feeder.

Suet and dried fruits are taken by woodpeckers, nuthatches, robins, bluebirds, cardinals, and creepers.

A good plan is to start with a mixture and watch what eats what and then decide what to purchase by what birds you like to have.  Many seeds are sold as mixtures and also an entire bag of peanuts, sunflowers, safflowers or fruit.

Suet is eaten by more than just woodpeckers, too.

Peanuts in the shell and peanut seeds are favorites of woodpeckers, jays.  Baked goods attract some birds and meat and carcasses of chickens and ducks draw birds, so you might be throwing food away.  Give it to the birds instead.

Feeders are important, too, particularly for some birds.  Platform, enclosed, tube, and suet cages all have their use, but there is no need to have them all.  Other birds are ground feeders.  Watch what birds eat below feeders.

Because most birds are most vocal in spring and summer, phone apps using sounds to identify birds is better saved for springtime.  Identify feeder birds by sight and flight.

Bird gender is another fun game.  Most birds are most colorful in spring and during breeding season, but in general there is a plumage difference between males and females.  

There are some surprises, particularly in eagles, both bald and golden.  Females and males have about the same in plumage but females are a bit larger when fully grown.  White heads (reason they are called bald eagles) do not fully develop until the individual bird is three or four years old.

That’s a start.  Do not begin by jumping in all at once.  Begin with something easy, like red head feathers on woodpeckers.  Males have more, females less or none at all.  But male and female red-headed woodpeckers both have the same amount, an all red head.   Young red-headed woodpeckers are late in developing any red feathers and have a brown head well after leaving a nest cavity.

Photographing birds is another way to know them and keep track of what’s coming and what’s not.

Feeders are not the only locations for bird study.  Many a deer hunter helps stay alert by noticing birds, and other wildlife.  So do farmers in the field.

More information and results continue to come from long-term, hard core science on deer and diseases.  Most studies are summarized making them easier to understand.

The Southwest Wisconsin CWD, Deer and Predator Study researchers continue going through data from 1,200 captured animals (adult deer, fawns, coyotes and bobcats) according to Dan Storm, head scientist during this study.  This data is now being analyzed to meet the study’s research objectives set by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  

Several key revelations are: A) CWD substantially reduces deer survival rates and suppresses deer population growth.  B) Where CWD prevalence is high, deer populations are likely declining.  C) If CWD continues to spread, it will eventually impact deer populations elsewhere (beyond the areas in Dane, Iowa and Grant counties).

Further, Dan Storm, coordinator, wrote that “While our research shows the general relationship between CWD prevalence and deer population growth, varying in local conditions, it will ultimately play a role in deer population trend.  It is important that researchers do not expect CWD-affected deer herds to become extirpated (locally extinct).  Deer populations have a strong ability to increase reproduction when deer abundance is lower, due to less competition for food and space. 

Turkeys are active in rafts, particularly during warm, sunny days; gobbling and displaying is intense even now in winter.  

Notice eagles are laying eggs as determined when an adult is always sitting on a nest.  The other adult may or may not be close by.

Contact Jerry Davis, a freelance writer, at sivadjam@mhtc.net or 608.924.1112.