DECEMBER POND BIRDS

Yesterday was the annual Christmas Bird Count and we had some fun sightings on the pond!  Before we get to that, some Christmas Bird Count history for those who don't know about it.  I'm going to quote directly from the National Audubon site, because it is the most accurate and succinct description: 

Prior to the turn of the century, people engaged in a holiday tradition known as the Christmas "Side Hunt": They would choose sides and go afield with their guns; whoever brought in the biggest pile of feathered (and furred) quarry won.

Conservation was in its beginning stages around the turn of the 20th century, and many observers and scientists were becoming concerned about declining bird populations. Beginning on Christmas Day 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman, an early officer in the then budding Audubon Society, proposed a new holiday tradition-a "Christmas Bird Census"-that would count birds in the holidays rather than hunt them.

So began the Christmas Bird Count. Thanks to the inspiration of Frank M. Chapman and the enthusiasm of twenty-seven dedicated birders, twenty-five Christmas Bird Counts were held that day. The locations ranged from Toronto, Ontario to Pacific Grove, California with most counts in or near the population centers of northeastern North America. Those original 27 Christmas Bird Counters tallied around 90 species on all the counts combined.    http://birds.audubon.org/history-christmas-bird-count

I recommend that you go to the page linked above - there are some other interesting links, like cumulative bird count for that first Christmas Bird Count - of course, the names of many of the birds will be unfamiliar as so many have been change over the years.  This year was the 115th CBC (Christmas Bird Count)!

 Back to our sightings!  It was a slow day at the feeder with none of our usual sparrows and very few blue jays, goldfinch and even mourning doves!  Woodpeckers were well represented, although we haven't see the pileated recently (the neighbors across the street took down the pileated restaurant tree and we haven't seen him since).  We also had quite a few juncos and a lovely cardinal pair.  Bluebirds were not around, although Carol says she has seen them recently.

On the pond we had a large flock of Canada Geese (for those of you who are not birders, note that it is Canada Geese, not Canadian Geese - the Canada was a person's name, not the country).  Then Carol alerted us to a large flock of Common Mergansers and we saw 4 females & 6 males.  There were more than that, as Carol had a different count, seeing 8 with more females than males.  Mergansers are hard to count; they keep diving!!  :-)
Today we had a nice flock of Hooded Mergansers, but they didn't show up yesterday.

Hooded Mergansers - three males and a female in front of the bird on the left - look for the fuzzy brown head

But the truly fun sighting was the Belted Kingfisher!  Linda & I had been hearing it on the pond as we sat on the porch watching the dawn birds.  We kept saying, "It sounds like a kingfisher, but what is it doing here NOW, at this time of year??"  Turns out that it is a year round bird (as long as the water is open), but we have just never seen it or heard it because our morning sits were short (and way before sunrise) in order to get to work on time.  Now that we are retired, the porch sit time is more like a half hour!  (but much shorter the day it was only 22º out!)  We heard the kingfisher yesterday AM, but then while I was watching and counting the mergansers, something flew through my binocular vision - it was about kingfisher size, so I zeroed in on it and YES!!!  It WAS a kingfisher! Woo Hoo!!

A BIRDING VIEW FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY

Added a link at the bottom of entry (Oct 16)

We've just returned from a trip to the midwest and then through northern Ontario and had a few great times with birds!  So, although this blog is supposed to be about Stearns Mill Pond and environs, I am going to take the liberty to digress and share a few cool bird moments.  We were not "birding" per se, but we did do some bird WATCHING as we traveled and sat in our campsites.

I think the first cool moment happened along one of the main roads in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  This may be a main drag, but it goes for miles and miles with no towns and nothing but trees along the road.  Gorgeous and not much traffic!  We were seeing a lot of crows on the road, not eating carrion, but perhaps picking up sand for their mineral content?  I don't know, but it was common.  So I wasn't surprised to see a large group of black birds on the road ahead and wasn't really looking too closely at them, but suddenly a bald eagle flew up out of the center, leaving the roadkill behind!  Instantly, the ravens moved in to get a bite of the prize while the eagle was gone.  Oddly, on the other side of the road, appearing to be watching this bird bash, was a doe.  I quickly glanced at the carrion, but it didn't seem to be a deer, so I don't know what she was looking at.  I was telling Linda about the sighting and she had just finished writing it in the journal when it happened again, not 6 minutes later down the road!!  No deer this time, though.  

We had many sightings and hearings of the ravens on this trip; I do enjoy them!  I think we saw them at almost all of our Canadian campsites, and some elsewhere.

Probably the most memorable bird watching event came at Finlayson Point Provincial Park in Temagami, Ontario.  This is an interesting park, in that it is the jumping off point for wilderness canoe trips into the Temagami region, but at the same time, it is very much "urban camping"!  One of the fun things to do is to canoe from the Park into the little village of Temagami and have breakfast or go grocery shopping.  (We canoe wilderness all the time!  This bit of shopping by canoe tickles us in a different way!)

Being fall, we had our choice of many great campsites (like almost all of them!).  We settled into one that was right on the water so that we could canoe easily.  First bird we spotted was a yellow-bellied sapsucker!  Next, we saw and heard some ravens.  Then a ruffed grouse walked through our campsite.  But the following morning was the most fun bird event...

Red-Breasted Nuthatch having breakfast of a peanut

 (OK, the picture is your teaser!)

We had planned on canoeing into town to have breakfast, but the fog was so thick you couldn't see the other end of the canoe, so we built a campfire and watched the sunrise. We were sitting by the fire, enjoying a cup of camp coffee (coffee always tastes better at a campfire!).  There was motion in the tree and we looked up to find a beautiful little Red-breasted Nuthatch!  He wasn't sitting there quietly, he was looking right at us and yelling!!!  Suddenly he left the branch and flew right at my face, veering off when he was about 8 inches from me!  YIKES!  I hadn't seen him leave the branch, but I did have a vivid view of the red breast and black eye-stripe.  Then he did it again!

Well, obviously this bird was not afraid of people and he obviously was trying to tell us something.  It occurred to me that our white-breasted nuthatches, who are year-round callers at our feeder at home, are particularly attracted to peanuts.  We only occasionally see the red-breasted nuthatches in the winter, so just seeing one here was a treat, but this little guy was getting quite demanding!  Then, I remembered that when we took the 6th graders to Camp Chiwonki, up in Maine, they had an area where there was a stuffed shirt type figure, made to look like a person, where the birds landed on its hand to feed from the seed there.  Then when students were there, the child would wear the hat, sit really still in the same place and hold out his/her hand with seed, and the bird would land and take the seed.  Hmmm...  I put a peanut in my hand and stuck it out.  Instantly, the nuthatch landed on my finger and took the peanut!  

He took many peanuts from both Linda & I and then his mate showed up.  Now we had two nuthatches joining us for breakfast!  Pretty soon there were also six Black-capped Chickadees!  The chickadees were more shy and cautious, but they too were happy to eat our peanuts.  After a while three crows showed up.  Now I love crows and the crow is my totem, but this was too much!  We closed the restaurant.  

Next morning, the nuthatches showed up early, demanding breakfast.  We obliged until it was time to fix our own breakfast.  They walked all over the picnic table, but after shooing them a way a few times, they left.  We had our breakfast, cleaned up, took a canoe ride and packed up the van to leave.

Nuthatch landing and taking a peanut from my hand (3 times - one slow-motion)

Linda was standing by the open van when our friend came back.  We said goodbye to him and he promptly flew into the van!!  Now earlier, I had invited him to come to Massachusetts this winter and promised that there would be a feeder full of peanuts, but I also told him he had to fly there...  He came out of the van, took the peanut we held out for him and flew away with it.  We left one more peanut on the picnic table and drove away.

Great fun!
======

I am studying French in my retirement, and while we were on vacation, I wrote this story in French (it was written in French before I wrote it out in English!).  I've decided to include the French version here.  Thanks to Debbie for correcting my errors...  French bird names are from a David Sibley website of North American bird names in French.  
http://www.sibleyguides.com/bird-info/french-bird-names/

LES OISEAUX
Nous faisions de camping au Parc Provincial Finlayson Point. C'est un parc qui est camp de base pour les canoteurs dans la region sauvage de Temagami.  Il est aussi près de le village de Temagami et on peut faire de canoë au village pour le petit dejeuner or pour aller à l'epicerie.  C'est un bon parc, mais c'est un parc urbain!  Nous y sommes restées deux nuits.  

Pendant notre premier matin, nous nous asseyions près du feu de camp quand un oiseau s'est posé sur la branche et nous a parlé.  Puis, l'oiseau s'est envolé et a volé vers mon visage!  Il s'est détourné de moi et est retourné à la branche.  Il l'a fait deux fois.  Nous avons pensé qu'il était très confortable avec les gens et n'avait pas peur.  L'oiseau était une settelle à poitrine rousse (Red-breasted nuthatch).  À notre maison, nous avons les sittelles à poitrine blanche (White-breasted nuthatch) toute l'année, mais nous ne voyons que une sittelles à poitrine rousse qu'occasionnellement en hiver.  

Cet oiseau était très demandant!  Nous avons pensé que peut-être il aimerait les arachides, parce que nos sittelles les aiment.  Je me suis souvenue que quand nous étions au Chewonki avec les étudiants, il y avait un endroit des oiseaux oú les étudiants s'asseyaient et les oiseux mangaient de leurs mains.

J'ai tenu un archide dans ma main et immédiatement l'oiseau a volé et s'est posé sur mon doigt et a pris l'arachide!  Plusieurs fois l'oiseau prenait les arachides de nos mains.  

Bientôt, il y avait deux sittelles.  Puis, il y avait aussi six mésanges à tête noire!  (Black-capped chickadee)  Tous les oiseaux mangaient de nos mains, mais les mésanges étaient plus timides.  J'aime beaucoup les corneilles d'Amérique (American crow), mais quand trois corneilles sont arrivées, nous avons fermé le restaurant!

Le matin suivant, les oiseaux sont revenus chercher leur petit dejeuner.  Encore, ils prenaient les archides de nos mains.  Quand nous avons preparé notre petit dejeuner, nous les avons chassé.  Nous avons mangé notre petit dejeuner, avons fait du canoë, et avons preparé à sortir.  Avant de partir, Linda était debout près de le camping-car et les portes était ouvertes.  Une sittelle a volé vers nous et s'est posée près de nous.  Nous avons dit au revoir, mais elle a volé dans ll camping-car!  Je l'ai invitée de venir au Massachusetts pendant l'hiver, mais je lui ai dit qu'elle doit y voler!  Elle est sortie du camping-car, a pris un arachide de ma main, et s'est envolée.  Nous avons mis encore une arachide de plus sur la table de pique-nique et nous sommes parties.

 

Temagami Sunrise

ADDED (10/16) a link to a cool video from Alaska with hummingbirds eating from hands!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUEZkwJulBY#t=222

IT'S BEEN A WHILE! SO MUCH IS HAPPENING!!

It has been a while since I've had a chance to write and so much is going on around here!  We have juvenile birds everywhere: downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, about five blue jay, hairy woodpecker, chickadee, grackle, four nuthatch, two rose-breasted grosbeak and Suzanne just texted and said that their bluebirds just fledged!!!

Now that is an interesting story!  Suzanne & Michael have a plexiglass sided bird house and they had been seeing both bluebirds and chickadees going into the bird house.  The two sets of birds were clearly arguing about who was going to get this prime real estate.  They fought over it for quite a while, including throwing out eggs and rebuilding the nest!  Finally the bluebirds won and they pulled out some of the moss the chickadees had used and built their nest on top.  The bluebirds started hatching a couple weeks ago and today, they fledged!  

Our neighborhood is just NOT bluebird territory!  They like more open fields, but I guess they like that Suzanne/Michael, Carol/Joe and we have been feeding them mealworms and they definitely like our bird bath.  Below is a picture Suzanne took on July 15.

Bluebird Hatchlings  --Photo by S. Groet

Meanwhile, the pond is in bad shape - I tried to paddle a couple weeks ago and could hardly move.  The DPW has put up the dam extension in preparation for harvesting (which will happen sometime early August) so there is more water in the pond now; it might be better paddling, but I haven't tried.  Many great volunteers helped do some hand harvesting again this spring and the harvester machine is currently on Carding Mill Pond and is due here soon.

Linda & I were out paddling on Willis Lake last week and found a patch of water chestnuts.  We contacted Debbie Dineen (Sudbury Conservation Coordinator), who contacted Mark Sevier.  Mark and his wife went out and hand harvested most of them on Sunday.  Linda & I did more today and will go back with the rakes tomorrow to try to get the rest that we can reach in the bushes.  Our goal is to keep Willis Lake from looking like the ponds in the Hop Brook system!!

What's happening in your area of Sudbury?  Let us hear from you.

FLEDGE!!!!!!

I was in the shower and both the house phone and my cell were ringing and ringing; I knew it was Linda because my phone was barking at me.  She had just gotten home and found fledgling birds all over the carport!  Mind you, I had looked at them in the nest no more than 20 minutes earlier!!!  They must have just fledged.

Linda: I came home today and walked toward the carport with all my bags, planning to stop and peek in the Carolina wren nest.  As I got closer I could hear lots of cheeping, so I kept looking at the nest to see what was going on.  All if a sudden I noticed movement on the ground.  I peered into the carport and gradually made out four tiny balls of fluff hopping around the floor of the carport right under the nest!  I quickly backed out of the carport and called Diane, afraid that she, or she and the dog, would come out of the house, into the carport, and step on one of the babies...

Just fledged!!!  Still hopping with no flight.
It hasn't grown into its feet yet! (Photo L.Murdock)

I ran out the front door (which we never use!) and stood with Linda watching the miracle of 5 little freshly fledged Carolina Wrens hopping around the carport!  Their wings were so stubby, there is no way they could fly yet, but the way we've seen them grow and change in just a few hours, that might be very temporary.  When Linda got home, they were still all clustered just under the nest, but by the time I got out there, they had scattered all over the carport, hopping around.  I had just shown the nest to the UPS deliveryman about 20 minutes earlier, so I know they were in the nest then.  We estimate fledge time to be ~4:30 PM, May 16, 2014. The 15 second movie below shows the tentative hopping -- it is dark but you can see the movement.  The 2nd movie is easier to see and the little guy is moving around much faster and more adeptly!  They were about 2 hours apart.

The little fledglings were scattered all over the carport, hopping and cheeping, and the mama bird was getting quite agitated, so we departed.  We came out a bit later and she had corralled all of them into a QUIET little lump of feathers, up against the dark side of the garbage barrel.  Three were in a row, wing to wing, with two others behind and on top of the bottom three -- quite regimented.  
 
Later in the evening, we peeked down over the edge of the upstairs porch (over the carport) to find that the birds were in a little clump near the front of the carport,
in a pile of leaves, and the parents were feeding them.  The picture below was taken from above, looking down. 

Parent Carolina Wren (left) feeding fledglings

Notice that there are only four fledglings there now.  We never again saw five.  The fifth could have been the oldest/largest and have taken off more on its own, or it could have become someone's supper.

When I went out before bed so that Blake could do his business, all four were huddled together so tightly that it just looked like a brown lump in the leaves.  Had I not seen them earlier, I never would have even noticed the clump, let alone known that it was a feathered ball!

They were in the same place this morning (Saturday, May 17) when Blake and I went out, but beginning to move around.  Parents were feeding them. Later when we peeked over the side of the porch, one was in the stones below and the others were nowhere to be seen.  Later still, Linda spotted them in the woods!  All had been relocated to a safer place.  I'm glad they spent the night in the carport, though, as it was raining HARD all night. 

In the picture below, notice one adult (papa?) is on the left end of the branch.  He had just fed one of the fledglings, but it is impossible to find the little one, unless you know where he is!  You can try...  looking at the long, horizontal branch, find the right-most piece of lichen on the branch, come forward just a little bit and there is a lighter colored plant. Now go forward & left from the lighter plant just a tiny bit and there is a darker lump.  That is the fledgling.  What do you mean you can't tell that it is a bird?!?  Well, we couldn't either, but we saw papa feed it! (If you double click on the picture, a slightly larger version will come up.)

They took to the woods... (Carolina Wren fledgling hidden in leaves - papa on left)

It has been quite a couple of days.  Below are some pictures taken in the last 24 hours before fledge. 

Penultimate day in the nest (Carolina Wren nestlings)

Carolina Wren nestlings 3 hours before fledging - look at the size of those feet!

Good luck little birds; may you be safe, live long and thrive!  And come back here to nest in our wreath; there will always be one on the wall for you!

CAROLINA WREN UPDATE, PLUS

Five days is a lot in the life of Carolina Wren nestlings and ours are REALLY growing!  It amazes me that they are so tolerant of noise and activity near the nest.  Yesterday I had the house AC being serviced, a consultant in on HVAC for the Studio that we are building and the carpenter running saws, hammer guns, etc.  (Of course, they are used to the carpenter, as he has been here their entire lives, with the generator running right next to the nest before we knew that the nest was occupied!

Anyway, there is a lot of bird activity around the nest this morning, and I would not be surprised to find that they fledge today!  Both mama and papa are near by and mama was sitting on the construction wood pile with a bug in her mouth, calling. "Hungry?  Of course you are!  Come and get it!"  When we looked in the nest this morning, the nestling that is clearly the oldest and strongest was sitting in the mouth of the hole and it has an eyebrow stripe!!! 

May 15 - This is NOT the parent bird - you can still see the yellow of the baby gape, but today there is an eyebrow stripe!

The picture below is from yesterday - there is a HUGE difference overnight!

May 14 - beakier and beginnings of eyebrow stripe

In the picture above, the beaks look more like beaks and less like gapes, but the yellow is still there.  The bottom right nestling is starting to get a bit of an eyebrow stripe, but it is not as defined as the top picture.  These two pictures above were taken just ONE DAY APART!

Going back one more day, the picture below was taken May 13 and feathers are starting to show under the chin.

May 13 - Starting to show some feathers among the down

Papa has been singing all around the area, from the dogwood, to the Studio roof top, to the piles of construction wood, to the porch railing near where I am sitting.

Papa watching over his territory

 
Elsewhere in the yard, a squirrel decided to sample the fruit I put out hoping to entice the Scarlet Tanager to return. 

I had a half a bag of peanuts get wet in the bird food can and many were moldy and  not edible.  Some were still OK, so I put them out for the squirrels.  Our fox decided to sample them.  Blake was on the porch - some foxer he is!  Didn't even notice 'cuz he was looking the other way.  I didn't tell him...

And the flicker has been around a lot -- EAT THOSE ANTS!!!!!  Notice how hard it is to see him in the stones!  I never realized the camouflage effect that their feathers have!

Flicker eating ants, camouflaged in the stones.

 OK... back to work!

THREE LIFERS!!!

Within just over 24 hours, I saw three life-birds, without even leaving the house, right here in our yard!  Very cool!  

Sunday afternoon I was doing the dishes and Linda was reading Harry Potter aloud when I looked out at the dogwood tree, which is just outside the window, to find a bird I had never seen!  Linda grabbed her binocs, and we started "reading" off characteristics: plain greenish-brown back, yellow on sides of tail, yellow spot on wings, yellow spot just under the shoulder, white breast, dark eye, small bird-warblerish size, warbler-like beak... (we forgot leg color).  The bird was very accommodating and hung around a long time so we could get a good look at her (and why didn't I grab my camera or phone??).  Once she left, we each got our favorite books and started looking.  Female Americab Restart!  Wow!  A lifer for both of us.

Monday morning I was talking to my mother on the phone and looked out to see a scarlet tanager sitting in the old crab-apple tree (dead, but it is a great perch for birds near the feeder).  "Wait, mom!  I'll be right back!"  The camera was close by on the table: click, click, click!  This gorgeous bird was on our "want to see" list and I'm sad that Linda didn't get to see it!  Hopefully it will come back when she is here.

Scarlet Tanager singing

Later in the day, I was outside shaking rugs and looked up to see a red-tailed hawk being mobbed by some bluejays.  I got this picture just before it flew!

There was a lot of noise in the trees on the other side of the deck, so I picked up my binoculars to go take a look.  Strange call that I don't think I've heard before.  Wait - movement.  Wow!  New bird!  Lemon yellow belly with no markings running into a gray throat, large black bill, large bird (bluejay size), dark eye, rusty tail (!!!) with the lemon belly, that is going to be distinctive! There were two of them and one turned a bit so I could sort of see that the back was brown or olive or gray and the wings had some wing bars, but I couldn't distinguish details.  They flew.  My Sibley's opened up to the flycatcher section (which was good 'cuz I really wasn't sure where to start) and there it was!

We've had an amazing spring for birds!  Two of the bluebirds that were here this winter stayed on and they must have a nest nearby, as I see them every day (momma is on the feeder right now).  The orioles are enjoying the oranges and suet and the female was here looking for long strings of grass, so they must be building their nest.

I still count five nestlings in the Carolina Wren nest.  I could easily sit and look outside all day long!

CAROLINA WREN NESTLINGS - ABOUT A WEEK OLD

We think the nestlings are about a week old.  This picture was taken yesterday (Saturday, May 10).  Only 4 beaks show up here, but when I just peaked in, I think I saw a fifth.

BIRDFUL WEEK!

Lots of bird activity this week.  Our Carolina Wren nestlings are growing and there are now five mouths.

Carolina Wren nestlings - probably about a week old

 I thought the picture below was interesting!  I can't figure out what the scaly thing on the bottom right is, though.  The left lump is a beak and head with an eye that isn't yet open.

I looked out at the feeder yesterday and it was quite colorful!  Male Oriole on the suet, Cardinal in the peanuts, Bluebird on top of the feeder pole and two male Goldfinch on the nyger!  I looked back about a minute later and it was all grey, black and white: Tufted Titmouse, Downy Woodpecker, Mourning Dove, White-breasted Nuthatch and a female Red-winged blackbird on the ground!  Equally beautiful!!

The Baltimore Oriole pair are keeping me company these last two days.  They are so striking!  This is my first closeup encounter with this bird and I have to say, I like it!

This is peanut butter suet with calcium added for the mama birds.  He seems to like it a lot!

Baltimore Oriole.  Look at his beak as he gets ready to eat!

Now I have GOT to get to work!  Enough play for this morning!!

CAROLINA WREN CHICKS, WARBLER MINI-FALLOUT

Exciting bird times around here!  Saturday AM, as we sat on the porch at dawn, we saw some Yellow-rumped Warblers.  We don't usually see the warblers, probably because we spend too much time looking at the feeder instead of the tree-tops!  Saturday was a three bird event day:  the yellow-rumps, our first hummingbird (Blake HATES it when he is on my lap and a hummer comes in to feed right above us!  I think he can't see it, but he hears the hum and it drives him crazy!), then later, we discovered that the Carolina Wren HAD laid eggs in the Christmas wreath nest!  
 

Mama Carolina at the entrance of the nest

Sunday afternoon, we came home, pulled the Subaru into her parking place and realized that there were birds everywhere in the trees in front of us.  Thankfully, Linda carries a pair of binocs in her car because it seems we were in the middle of a mini-fallout of Warblers.  We saw lots of the Yellow-rumps, a Magnolia Warbler, a Hooded-Warbler, a Palm warbler and something unidentified.  Very cool!  They swarmed all over the pine trees and the ground.

Meanwhile, the Carolina wasn't sitting on eggs, the eggs had hatched!  Monday I looked into the nest and there were two gaping mouths waiting for mama or papa to come with some food.  Yesterday there were four mouths, today five!

Carolina Wren chicks in nest.  The yellow is the gape (mouth).

Parent Carolina wren waiting to for me to leave to feed the younguns.

I've opened my summer office on the porch and today had a visit from the male hummer and our first Baltimore Oriole!  I called Carol to tell her that the oriole had visited and she brought over a half an orange.  Right now (15 minutes later), the oriole is happily chowing down on that orange!

 

Baltimore Oriole found the orange!

 

REQUIEM FOR A WOOD DUCK FAMILY

Sad update on our wood ducks:  last time I had a picture of papa sitting near the nest box and guarding.  This morning when I looked out, the box was askew and it looked like the bottom was hanging down.  I feared the worst and unfortunately was correct; the nest had been predated.  Not sure of the predator as we have several around.  We're thinking coon or fisher rather than snake or rodent because the box had the bottom knocked out and was crooked on the tree, so it was probably something heavy. 

We counted 6 identifiable egg shells (there were likely more than that) in the leaves or in the down that the female had pulled from her breast to keep the eggs warm.

Wood Duck egg, just to right and above of center

We wonder if that was what Blake was barking about this morning...
May they find a new hole and have better luck in a second nesting.

OF BIRDS AND NESTS AND MORNING CHORUSES

Spring is clearly here.  The birds are going crazy in the morning and nesting is happening everywhere!  I gave Blake a haircut the other day so that I could put out some nice soft dog hair for nests and it is flying off of the tree branches and the suet cage where I put it. I watch it disappear by the beakfuls!  

I had been wanting to take our Christmas wreath and put it someplace less busy, but still in the protected area of the carport so that the Carolina Wrens could have it as a nesting place if so desired.  I figured I'd put some plastic behind it to protect the wall, but I couldn't quite decide where to put it, so I hadn't yet moved it.  I went out a couple days ago and the little wren almost hit me as it came bombing out of the wreath.  Too late; it will stay where it is!  

Isn't it just beautiful??  The Carolinas tend to make a side entrance nest.  The male will also often build several nests and then the female decides which one to use.  I don't think this one is the chosen nest.

This morning it was 42º which is definitely warm enough for us to go back to our early morning sit-on-the-porch time.  We were a bit late this AM, slept in until 5, so we didn't catch first bird, but we sure got the full chorus!  I felt bad for Carol & Joe as the Pileated Woodpecker was drumming on a big, dead, hollow branch, right outside their bedroom window!  Linda quipped, "There should be an ordinance against construction companies working this early in the morning!"  It was REALLY loud! 

We heard our Carolina, of course - hard to miss his ""Tea kettle, Tea kettle, Tea"!  There were robins "Cheerily, chirup!" and the "Peter Peter" of the tufted titmouse and we have seven local Blue Jays - they were in full voice.  Very quietly, underneath all of this cacophony, was the call of the White-throated sparrow, "Oh, sweet Canada, Canada, Canada".  One pair of the blue-birds are still around, which surprises me (OH!  Outside my window there is a blue jay pair on the dead crabapple tree and he is feeding her!  Sweet).

And on the pond, Wood Ducks.  This one was sitting on the tree near the duck box.

So much activity!  And it is especially wonderful in the morning!!  Bundle up and sit outside with your coffee or tea right around dawn.  You'll be glad you did. 

RECENT SIGHTINGS

Well...  There are signs of spring, if you don't look at the snow!  (We still have about 7 inches in our back yard, and that faces south!)  The pond has a lot of free water in it and our migrants have been around.  Recently (last two weeks or so), I have seen on the pond:

• Hooded Mergansers
• Common Mergansers
• American Black Ducks
• Mallards
• A Ring-necked Duck 
• Two Northern Pintails (they are so dashing this time of year!)
• Canada Geese 
• Great Blue Heron (Carol reported seeing two sitting together on their landing - I've never seen two together, except in nest cams!

Common Mergansers didn't like me so close...

Out of the water, new arrivals:

• Song Sparrow
• Common Grackle
• Many House Finch
• Red-winged Blackbird (heard on Moore)
• Plus all the usual winter birds we have had in the yard
• Bluebirds are still here, as are the Juncos, Tree Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows
• Goldfinch are definitely turning yellow! 
• Beautiful Red-tail flew over, and I saw one in the tree right near where the Red-tail was killed on Moore a month or so ago.

Mammels:

• Chipmunks are out and about
• Fox visited 
• No sign of the deer recently, nor the coyote or fisher or otter

I think a lot of the migrating water birds were put off by the pond refreezing.  Also, the snow depth is less, so they can get around more easily and don't need to venture up close to a house.

The picture below was taken on March 13 in that snow storm - it was a BEAUTIFUL day for a walk and noone else was around, so Blake had his first off-leash walk!   The next day, I tried it again 'cuz he was so good about hanging around, but he took off after a (large) puppy and was way too aggressive - back on the leash...

Foot Bridge over Hop Brook, heading into the Hop Brook Conservation Land

WINTER SUMMARY

It has been quite a winter!  I know I am in the minority, but I have enjoyed it.  A great result of such a cold and snowy winter is that even  I  will be ready for spring!  Usually it starts getting warm and Linda & I are bemoaning not enough cold and snow.  This year, we will be OK with what has passed <grin>.

 It was cold this year, colder than usual!  I looked back through the calendars on AccuWeather (follow link and click on "month") and it really WAS a lot colder!  We had the following temps of zero and below: 

Dec 17  -7
Jan 2     0
Jan 3    -7
Jan 4    -12 (!!)
Jan 23  -2
Feb 7   -1
Feb 11  -6
Feb 12  -8
Feb 17   0
Feb 18  -2
Mar 1   -2
Mar 4   -5
Mar 7   -1


On a warmer note, our bird list for September - February in the Hop-Brook area near our home has 43 species  (birds marked with * were our winter stay-arounds and were with us most of the winter):

Pileated Woodpecker on our tree

Canada Goose
Wood Duck
American Black Duck
Mallard
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Great Blue Heron
Osprey
*Cooper's Hawk
*Red-tailed Hawk
*Mourning Dove
*Eastern Screech Owl
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
*Red-bellied Woodpecker
*Downy Woodpecker
*Hairy Woodpecker
*Pileated Woodpecker
*Blue Jay
*American Crow
Common Raven

Hooded Merganser pair

*Black-capped Chickadee
*Tufted Titmouse
*White-breasted Nuthatch
*Brown Creeper
*Carolina Wren
*Eastern Bluebird
American Robin
European Starling
Cedar Waxwing
*American Tree Sparrow
*Song Sparrow
*White-throated Sparrow
*Dark-eyed Junco
Snow Bunting (actually at the playing fields on Fairbank, but close!)
*Northern Cardinal
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird 
Purple Finch
*House Finch
*American Goldfinch
 
 And for wild mammals, we saw fox, deer, coyote, fisher, muskrat, otter, chipmunk, rabbit and the ubiquitous squirrel.

Who says there's nothing going on in the winter???  
Try to get out right around dawn and listen to the birds sing!  They know spring is here!

OTTER ON ICE, YOUNG DEER & BROWN CREEPER

Busy around here!  Outside, I mean.  Just lots of things going on.  Carol spotted an otter on the ice last night and I managed to get some pictures before it got too dark.  She said it seemed to be eating something.  By the time I got on the porch with my camera, he was getting up and stretching and eventually slipped into the water.

All day I had visits from a young deer - definitely last summer's fawn.  It was enjoying the corn under the tree where I scatter some food for the ground feeders.  It was in the yard three times during the day (alone) and I saw it walking down the street once.  Not sure why it was so much out in the open during the day - they are usually scare except at dusk and dawn.  Carol said she saw five deer heading toward our Yew bushes this morning; I missed those, but saw the youngun, spooked it actually, as I went out to fill the bird feeders.

Also saw two brown creepers yesterday morning.  They are REALLY hard to find, let alone to photograph!  This one is through the window, but is the best I've been able to do!

MUSKRAT HOLE IN THE ICE? DEER AT THE BIRD BATH

Got slowed down this AM by watching four deer come up to the house to feed on our Yew bush.  Our yews are so ragged, we are appreciative for all the help trimming them!  

I knew we got the bird bath heater for a reason!

It was fun to see them, as the deer below were only about 5 feet from me! They stayed for about 15 minutes and then moved on.  -4º outside this AM, so they are welcome to whatever sustenance they can get from the yews.

 

 

On a different note, there has been a hole in the ice on the pond and I have wondered if it is a muskrat hole.  Haven't seen any brown furry critters there, but it seems logical.  Then Linda was reading H.D. Thoreau: A Writer's Journal, edited by Laurence Stapleton, and ran across the following:

"I saw a muskrat come out of a hole in the ice.  He is a man wilder than Ray or Melvin.  While I am looking at him, I am thinking what he is thinking of me. [I felt that way this morning as the deer was looking in the window at me!]  He is a different sort of a man, that is all.  He would dive when I went nearer, then reappear again, and had kept open a place five or six feet square so that it had not frozen, by swimming about in it.  Then he would sit on the edge of the ice and busy himself about something.  I could not see whether it was a clam or not.  What a cold-blooded fellow!  thoughts (sic) at a low temperature, sitting perfectly still so long on ice covered with water, mumbling a cold, wet clam in its shell.  What safe, low, moderate thoughts it must have!  It does not get on to stilts.  The generations of muskrats do not fail. They are not preserved by the legislature of Massachusetts."  ~Henry David Thoreau, Novemeber 25, 1846.

I wonder what Thoreau was thinking when he said, "What safe, low, moderate thoughts he must have".  What are low thoughts?  Moderate thoughts?  I wouldn't think he'd feel safe on the ice...  Perhaps HDT was even then comparing him to politicians? "It does not get on to stilts."  Interesting that so much of HDT's paragraph fits with today.  Somethings don't change, and unfortunately, it is not just nature!

A muskrat hole in the ice?

THE COYOTE AND THE DEER

"Look! The deer are back, but only five of them this morning", I said to Linda.  Yesterday we had a herd pass by the pond, about 8:30 in the morning.  Eight of them passed by (does & yearlings), two stopping at our landing to get a drink, and then a few minutes later four more came along the pond!  In this group there were two young fawn who were definitely too small for last year's batch but seemed too big to be this year's; I think they had spots, so some doe must have been early to drop this year!  (MassAudubon says that deer drop in May or June, another source, DeerFriendly.com, says end of March and April for Massachusetts. Either way, this is VERY early!)

Deer passing along pond - 12 all together

Back to THIS morning.  About 6:40 AM (20 minutes after sunrise), there was a group of 5 deer down by the pond.  My movements in the house caused them to all look up the hill at us.  We turned off the light and watched.  Shortly, the tails went up and they RAN west along the pond.  We were wondering what spooked them, when I saw a coyote come loping along from the east!  Ah-HA!  The deer were too fast for the coyote and shortly, it doubled back the check out the landing to see if perhaps a doe had stashed her fawn there to hide.  No breakfast yet... so he loped off up the hill past the house next door.

The deep snow is hard on the deer, both for foraging and also because they sink so deeply into it, while the coyotes can mostly run on top.  I went down to the pond to look at tracks and found that mostly the deer tracks were fairly shallow, but every once in a while there would be one that had sunk in five or six inches.  You know how difficult it is for us humans to be walking along on the crust and suddenly it gives way -- imagine if your life was on the line!  Not surprisingly, I didn't find any distinguishable canine footprints.

Deer prints: medium size, there were some larger and some smaller

OTHER SIGHTINGS IN OUR YARD...

We have been seeing the Pileated Woodpecker frequently.  We have many dead trees or branches in our little stand of woods, so the Pileated is happy to remove some of the carpenter ants from the neighborhood for us!  I have only seen a male.

Our Bluebirds are still here chomping down the mealworms we put out for them.

I saw a Red-tailed Hawk overhead yesterday.

We have had several FAT coons under the feeder.

Our local Eastern Screech Owl is frequently spotted sunning in its hole in the tree.
 
No sighting of the Fisher this week.

WOLVES (NOT IN SUDBURY!) AND RIVERS, FISHER IN THE YARD

Am posting a link to a video about how wolves can change the physical course of rivers!  Fascinating!  Makes me wonder what kinds of things change the course of our brook.  Some are obvious, like a tree falls, things start piling up against the tree snag and it becomes easier for the brook to take a different path, but what else makes a difference??

Video URL: http://msnvideo.msn.com/?videoid=6a4694ae-d81f-40de-8a50-ba37705b077a&from=sharepermalink-email

We saw a fisher in the yard a couple days ago, just around dawn.  Took off down the hill to the pond and around the point.  Several coons in the yard on recent mornings, too, and the birds sure sound like it is spring!

Be sure to step outside and LISTEN!  :-)
Enjoy

CHILLY WINTER, BUT SIGNS OF SPRING

Sure has been a chilly winter!  The birds are snarfing the food; I'm glad I got a birdbath heater for them this year, so at least they can have some water without having use up their internal warmth melting snow. 

-7º at 7:45 this morning!

The deer have been around a lot, too.  Particularly around the bird feeder with the corn and also munching on our Yew bushes (they need trimming anyway...).  After the little dusting of snow a couple days ago, there were many tracks in our yard and on the road -- looked like a party had been happening in our yard!  Canine tracks (fox, I think) came out from the hollow across the street and crossed with the deer tracks - two of each, is my guess; I'd like to know more about tracking.  The other critters are sure acting like spring is coming; it was downright cacophonous in our yard Monday night!  Driving the local dogs crazy. Is this the time the fox kits are being born?

Meanwhile, I'm toasty with a fire in the fireplace, getting stuff done and communing with the Carolina Wren who pays a visit outside my window almost every day.  Hope everyone else is finding warmth and something to smile about on these chilly mornings!  Leave a comment... what makes you smile when you step outside?

MASS AUDUBON FOCUS ON FEEDERS BIRD COUNT

The Mass. Audubon Focus on Feeders Bird Count was this weekend and Linda & I kept track of what we saw during the weekend.  For those of you who haven't done a feeder count, you check the feeders/yard periodically and write down what you see, then you report the largest number of birds seen during the day.  For example, many of our Goldfinch were elsewhere today, but at various times we saw: 3, 5, 2, 11, 7, 10.  So we reported "11"

Our tallies were:
4 Mourning Doves 
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 Downy Woodpeckers: 1 Female, 2 Males
2 Hairy Woodpeckers: 1F, 2M
7 Bluejays (in the top of the tree, bouncing and talking quietly to each other!)
1 American Crow
1 Black-capped Chickadee (where were they??)
2 Tufted Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Carolina Wren
5 Eastern Bluebirds: 2F, 3M
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
7 Dark-eyed Juncos: 3F, 4M (that is a low number!)
1 Northern Cardinal: 1M (don't know where the female was today)
2 House Finch (sad that there were no Purple Finch today)
11 American Goldfinch (they are turning yellow!  I was counting 25 and more a couple days ago!)
1 Red-tailed Hawk flying and also yesterday, I saw one dead beside the road on Moore.

Pileated: this morning I heard what I assume was our Pileated tapping inside one of his dining holes. I have frequently heard him there and then seen him fly out. Today he did not fly out, so my observation is not 100%.  

Screech owl: I went back out just before sunset when I often hear/see the Pileated and discovered our local screech owl in its hole in the tree where it was last spring!

It is fun to spend the day focusing on the birds!

http://www.massaudubon.org

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