NORTHERN GOSHAWK? (probably not) (well, maybe)

Lots of activity at our feeder, including what we think may have been a juvenile Northern Goshawk!  I saw this bird earlier, but assumed it to be a very large Coopers Hawk.  Sunday, we watched it as it sat on the ground for about 20 minutes (judging by the pile of feathers, it was digesting lunch).  This bird is just too big to be a Coopers, even a female.  Given the size, the prominent light colored eyebrow, the uneven banding on its tail and the speckled back (you can't see the back in this picture), we (Linda, Carol & I) started thinking it might be a Goshawk.  After sitting for a long time, it flew to a branch near the window.  (SEE BELOW FOR UPDATES)

Juvenile Northern Goshawk ?

I queried the Mass Audubon "Ask the Wildlife Expert", and got back an answer from Marj Rines.  She doubts that it is a Goshawk because the Goshawk has heavier barring on the breast and not so much white down below.  She also says that the tail bars are more uneven on the Goshawk.  She knows her stuff, so she is probably right. (Feb 6)

OK, now we are back to thinking that maybe it IS a goshawk!  Today (Feb 8), Linda & I had a really good, long, closeup view of the resident Cooper's Hawk (pretty much in the same place as the juvenile) and it was much smaller and much more slender.  Hope we will see the juvenile again sometime soon!

Whatever it is, it was fun to watch!!

We have also seen house finch and purple finch, white-throated sparrows and American tree sparrows and a red-breasted nuthatch, as well as our regulars.  The bluebirds are on the feeder as I type -- 2 males and 2 females at the moment.  A great blue heron flew down the pond early this morning; it was probably going fishing down by the fall where the water is open.  Wonder where it is roosting?

IT'S COLD OUT THERE!

Ah, it has warmed up to 0 degrees from the -1 on the porch earlier this AM.  The birds are hungry.  I just went out to put some meal worms in the feeder (the bluebirds tend to be a little bit later than the others, so I've started putting the meal worms out later rather than early to be snarfed up by the other birds) and the flocks were chirping in the trees all around me - the nuthatches were most obvious to my ears.  "Hurry up!  Hurry up!"

After I finished putting out the mealworms and some stale cashew butter, I stood back near the corner of the house, but only about 20 feet from the feeder, and the birds zoomed in, totally ignoring me!  The bluebirds came in right over my shoulder!  It is cold and they are hungry!

We have a whole flock of goldfinch - maybe even 50!  I can't count them because there are usually a bunch in the trees while the others are on the ground or the feeders. 19 mourning doves yesterday; they were easy to count.  Lots of juncos, but not as many as there are goldfinch!  And, I regularly see 3 male and 2 female bluebirds.  Nobody on the feeders or the ground right now!  I wonder where the hawk is...

MANY BIRDS

It has been a bonanza time for birds in our yard, pond and at the feeders!  In the last few days we've had a golden-crowned kinglet flitting in the white-pines, a red-breasted nuthatch, a couple female common mergansers, some black ducks and mallards and a great-blue heron on the pond, and our bluebirds are still here, enjoying the mealworms we put out for them.  Loads of other birds, but those are the unusual ones for right now!  Everytime we look out the window, there is something to see!  :-)

COYOTE CHORUS AT 3:30 AM

3:30 this morning, we were awakened by an extremely loud caterwauling; it sounded like it was right under our window, but most likely was down near the pond.  We think it was coyotes (I'm finally learning to spell that word!).  They yowled and howled and there was a scream.  Fox scream, so I wondered if it was a group of foxes, but none of the sound files that I listened to this morning sounded like the appropriate yowls.  On the other hand, I didn't find any screams in the coyote files.  Perhaps the coyotes had found breakfast?  

Coyote sounds: http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Wild_Coyote_sounds

FOX BARK

Blake has been barking like mad all afternoon.  I just took him out and every dog in the neighborhood is barking!  AND, so is the fox!  Click on the link below and listen to the fox mating call - I've heard this a lot lately.
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Fox_Sounds_audio
Here is a second group of sounds and some interesting fox info (and fewer "BUY THIS" banners...) http://www.foxforest.com/upclose/voicescarry.shtml

We live in such an interesting place!

BLUEBIRDS AND MUSKRATS

The bluebirds returned this morning and were enjoying the mealworms.  YAY!  I hope they stay the rest of the winter!  Today there were two males and two females.  

Yesterday afternoon, there were five muskrats on a log in a small water opening near shore.  They were eating something, but I couldn't see them well enough to see if it was plant or shellfish type food.  Fun to watch them, though!  There was one (look near the branch in the rear of the first picture) who was in the far pool and kept making a thunking splash, a lot like a beaver's tail thwack, and scared all the others into diving.  

AH!  I can see them sitting on the log again today.  It is hard that my workspace looks out onto the pond and birds...  Difficult to maintain focus on the work sometimes!  :-)  Tough life.

Look carefully, there are 4 in this picture; one is at the top in the far pool.

You can see the rattish tail in the closest one.

What a face!  Cute.

 

BLUEBIRDS!!!

We have bluebirds in our yard!!  

male bluebird

 They arrived yesterday, January 4, 2013.  We have never had them here, let alone in the winter.  Our neighborhood is not conducive to bluebirds - no meadow and lots of woods.  But there they were, big as life, sitting on the feeder.  They sampled some of the peanuts. This morning, there were two females and a male.  We went out and got them some mealworms but we haven't seen them back yet. 
Very cool!  It is a new yard bird for us.  

female bluebird

Pictures were taken through the window with my Canon RebelXT, 70-300 lens - I should was the windows if I'm going to continue taking pictures through them! 

POND ICES OVER

The temps were in the lower single digits when I took Blake out for his morning walk (about 5:30 AM) on Thursday, January 3.  It was the first day that the pond was totally frozen over with no soft ice and no water around the edges.  Later in the afternoon, I went out to follow the tracks, which I think are fox, and see if the fox is using the den by the pond.  Didn't see any tracks to or from that area, but had fun following to and fro.  One part looked like the fox must have been chasing something as it kept weaving in and out, but I didn't see any other tracks of the prey.

There is a very odd set of tracks in our yard, longish with no foot prints showing and spaced about 5 feet apart - looks like someone was running and leaping.  Unfortunately, this was 4 days after the snow, so much of the clarity is gone.

The ice looked odd -- there were circles (crop circles?) textured into the ice.  You can kind of see it in the picture.

Swirls in the ice

(The stream bed that looks like running water is actually iced over)

Nice to be out around the pond today.  :-)

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT (FEEDER), DEC.30, 2012

Sparrows were our birds of interest during this year's count; we had white-throated sparrow, American tree sparrows and song sparrows, and several of them!  I never know if that is truly unusual for our feeders, or if I just missed them in the past - there is a tendency to look out and assume the flock of birds munching out on the seed under the bush is just the usual juncos...

Last year we had almost nothing on the day of the CBC (Christmast Bird Count), not even a blue jay or chickadee, but this year's feeder count was the morning of the 8-9 inch snow, so there were lots of hungry birds.  We had:

9 mourning dove
1 male red-bellied woodpecker
2 male, 1 female downy woodpecker
2 male, 1 female hairy woodpecker
1 bluejay
1 crow
2 black-capped chickadee
3 tufted tit-mouse
2 white-breasted nuthatch
1 Carolina wren 
1 American tree sparrow 
1 song sparrow
4 white-throated sparrow
7 male, 3 female dark-eyed junco
1 male, 1 female northern cardinal
10 goldfinch

Haven't seen any purple or house finch yet this year (they are regulars in the winter), nor a pine siskin, brown creeper or golden crowned kinglet, which we often see, but not always.

The hawks didn't show up the day of the CBC, or they were sitting above the house when all the other birds went quiet!  We have a coopers, who frequents our feeder, and we have large red-tail (see the picture on the November 20 entry)

Do you know the history of the Christmas Bird Count?  It used to be that people would go out on Christmas day and see how many birds (and animals) they could shoot and bring home.  In 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman of the Audubon Society suggested a Christmas Bird census where people would count rather than kill the birds.  For more information, go to http://birds.audubon.org/history-christmas-bird-count 

Happy New Year, all!