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. 

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.

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

Consider joining if you aren't yet a member and you love nature!

BLUEBIRDS ARE BACK!

[update done on Feb 2]
Again this winter, we have a small flock of bluebirds!  They arrived yesterday (Jan 30).  We had 5 last winter, first seen January 5th.  Not sure how many in our flock this year, but I saw quite a few this morning, perhaps 5-8ish?  

Two bluebirds - females

Bluebird - Male

The first one was on the tree with the suet, unsuccessfully trying to get to it.  I still had mealworms from last year, so I took some out and put them in the feeders.  They found them!  Today, I thumbtacked small plastic dishes on top of a couple of nest boxes and put the mealworms in there.  I added worms 3 times today!  These guys were hungry!!!  Nice timing with the Feeder Watch this weekend.

Bluebird - male. Incredibly bright blues this year!

We also have a large flock of goldfinch, eating up every black-oil sunflower seed in the feeder! Some nyger, too, but they really like the sunflower.  It will be a challenge to count them all tomorrow!  And we have the usual tufted-titmouse population, cardinals, many juncos, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatch (no red-breasted so far), downy, hairy and red-bellied woodpeckers (haven't seen the pileated lately, but have seen his work on the trees!), house and purple finch, mourning doves, white-throated sparrows, tree sparrows, and I think some chipping sparrows, but I couldn't see them well enough to be sure, and the coopers hawk who also feeds at our feeders!  Oh, and did I mention squirrels?  Lots to watch!

Feb2 - Forgot to mention that the same day the bluebirds arrived, I saw a Bald Eagle on the ice on Farrah Pond (on 117, just east of the Concord Road -or is it Sudbury Road there?/117 intersection.  There was a carcass of some sort, black - couldn't tell if it had feathers or fur - and the eagle was approaching it.  Not sure if it had been feeding or was checking out the possibility.  I pulled off (was driving) and walked in to get a better look.  Clearly an adult bald eagle, but I didn't get to watch for long as my presence spooked it. Good birding day!
 

OF RAVENS AND PILEATED WOODPECKERS

I had quite the bird sighting day yesterday, and I wasn't even out looking!  The first was a raven.  Yes, a raven around here; not a common thing. I was out on my bike running Blake and heard what sounded like a raven.  Naw...  but it does! I thought, "Maybe it is a Great Blue Heron; they have a "ronck" kind of sound," so I was looking for either bird overhead.  There it is! Black bird, BIG, POINTY TAIL (!!!) and then it called right over head.  No question, it was a raven.  Fun!  We see them a lot traveling in Canada, but they are not seen often here!

Crow tails are flat across while raven tails are more extended.

Go to the All About Birds site (Cornell University) to learn more about the Common Ravens (but not so common here!) and to hear their call.  
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Raven/id

So then later came the 2nd cool sighting.  I was outdoors having just taken the snow blower out of the truck and was filling the feeders, breaking up sticks for kindling, etc., when I heard the Pileated Woodpecker over toward Suzanne and Micheal's.  I ran to where I could look into their trees but didn't see anything.  Grabbed the dog (or he would bark until I got back...) and ran to the street.  My eye ran across the hole where the screech owl lived this spring and it looked funny.  I watched for a while and saw a movement so ran back to the house to get binoculars (I did a lot of running in this period of time!).  I opted for running upstairs to get the good optics and then ran back to the street.  Yup!  The pileated was in the hole!  The ironic thing is that it was originally a pileated woodpecker's hole and that is why I was looking for the screech owl there; the screech lived there this spring, now the hole has a pileated again!  Active place.

Again, I recommend you go to All About the Birds to learn more about this other wonderful big bird!
http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pileated_Woodpecker/id

BREAKING ICE, PILEATED, COOPERS & SCREECH

COOL!  I've always wanted to play icebreaker with my canoe!  Today was the perfect day; temps in the low 60s, but still ice on the pond from last night and Wednesday when the temperature never got out of the low 30s!  The ice was just crunchy enough to make a lot of icy noise, but I could paddle into it.  Blake thought it was somewhat unsettling! Poor pup.

 The Pileated woodpecker is around!  Michael said they've seen it several times, Linda & I saw and heard it the other evening in the tree where the screech owl lived last spring, and I saw it again the next morning in a tree in our front yard.  

A Coopers hawk is frequenting our bird feeder - I think it was probably a Coopers that I saw last week when I didn't get a real good look at it and thought it might have been a Sharp-shinned.  

And we have a screech owl who serenades us in our pre-dawn time on our porch.  Great birds around the pond.

PILEATED, PALM WARBLER & TURTLES

Grey day, but warm and a pleasant wind.  Too much to paddle, though, given my shoulder.  Hard raking, too!  :-)
Several interesting sightings recently:

• A pileated woodpecker moving through the dead trees along the shore of the pond
• A pair of wood ducks
• Several phoebes, some snagging mosquitoes and other bugs from over the pond, some doing their territorial call around our house, some sitting in branches
• Two Palm Warblers - beautiful birds!  We have seen them only once before.  Very bright yellow breast and belly, with some rufous lines on the breast along the wings, a rufous cap and yellow stripes above and below the eyes.  The thing that called my attention to them, instead of, "Oh, its just a goldfinch", was the bird bobs its tail continuously!  They are not feeder birds, but may be seen on the ground or in the pine trees.  They are in migration, heading further north.
• Juncos are still here
• Haven't seen the bluebirds recently, but also haven't been at my desk where I see them in the morning
• MANY Painted Turtles today!  Linda thought the log looked funny; that was because there were 10 turtles on it.  I went to take some pictures and discovered that there were 40+ on the three logs up stream a bit on the pond.  I spooked the 10 on the initial log, but some came back.  

I count about 40 here!

7 of the original 10

PILEATED WOODPECKER AND MORE LODGES AND DENS

It's a misty morning on the pond with the temperatures in the 30s. The sunlight is gorgeous on the fall colored leaves.  Saw pileated woodpecker this morning on the walk with the dog; it was across the street in the neighbors yard. I heard this really funny noise (after the earthquake last night, I'm noticing funny noises!).  Finally decided it was a woodpecker, so I looked around and there he was in the tippy top of a dead tree, bright in the morning sun!

Somebody's digging under the tree at our landing. I've suspected something was going on, but haven't seen anything for sure until this morning. The sand right around under the the tree root has been disturbed. The hole is deeper than it was and the silt that usually covers the sand is gone. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

I paddled toward the upper end of the pond this morning.  I counted over 100 birds in the water until my canoe spooked them and they went flying. And that number doesn't even include the ones that were further up the pond. It was very misty and hard to see all the way to the mouth of the brook.  It looked like there was another kind of duck amid the masses that wasn't either a wood duck or mallard, but I couldn't see it well enough. Got to figure out a way to get close to the birds without paddling in and scaring them.

There was also a female duck with the usual brown markings, but it's smaller than the mallards and maybe even smaller than a wood deck. She was making a strange sound not the usual quack of the mallards.  I wonder what it is?  I'll probably never know given the brown female markings.

I found at least three more lodges up on the upper end of the pond, north side, just before it narrows. They look like muskrat lodges; of course I don't REALLY know, but that's what they look like to me.

Anyone know with this big tall plant is? It's probably six or seven feet tall has a top like wheat or some other kind of grain grass. It has long pointy leaves the leaves are about 18 inches long and look a lot like corn leaves.  There are a lot of them on the north side of the pond.

I also saw a great blue heron and the Kingfisher flew over very high in the sky. We have more water in the pond after all this rain. I think that helps the critters to get closer to our banking under that tree because in the summer it's fairly shallow right there.  I was able to paddle quite a ways up the pond, although I didn't go very far because I didn't want to spook all of the birds.  But, I was able to get close to the shore as well as paddling straight up the center without getting stuck in the mud and that is an improvement!