APRIL IS MORE SPRING THAN MARCH

This year, April is the beginning of spring.  Outside my window, it looks like a March day, large patches of snow still in the yard, cold, breezy and dark with rain and sleet on its way.  But the calendar tells me it is April 8!  Hmm... disconnect.

But it IS spring. The spring migrants are arriving - two new ones just yesterday!  We saw a Pine Warbler, who has also graced our feeder several times today, and a Fox Sparrow (a lifer for us!).  

Pine Warbler stops by on his migration route.

Also yesterday while we were doing our usual "greet the morning" by sitting on the porch at dawn, we saw this roiling in the water of the pond.  OK... there must be something there.  We had seen a muskrat swimming the day before.  There are both common and hooded mergansers (migrants) and our local mallards, black ducks, and wood ducks, but this seemed different.  Suddenly Linda called, "Otter!"  She was wrong; not one otter, but two otters.  What are they doing?  Fighting?  Playing?  Oh... MATING!  We watched for about 15 minutes (no privacy).  

Today I was snapping pictures of the pine warbler above (all of the pix are taken through the window, thus somewhat fuzzy), and I noticed a large disturbance in the water.  (Have I said how much I love having my desk facing the pond!  Yes, it is distracting, but it is great fun!)  Back to the disturbance.  I looked and a bird came up from the splash and flew out of the water!  What is it??  I couldn't get the binocs (or the camera that was in my hand) on it, but it clearly wasn't a red-tail or a coopers, they don't dive.  Oh, it flies like an osprey!  I don't have a 100% definite ID on it, but osprey is my guess.  It got its breakfast, too! 

Let's go back to the feeder birds for a minute.  During this time of year, don't make any assumptions about what is at your feeder.  Linda saw the Pine Warbler because she took that second look -- it didn't look quite like the goldfinch it was sharing the feeder with (see pix below).  But it is close enough in appearance that with just a glance, one might pass it off as another one of the huge flock of goldfinch that empties our feeders each day.  

Pine Warbler (left), Goldfinch (right)

Likewise with the fox sparrow, which I had heard about as showing up at feeders in migration, but had never seen before!  It was just another brown bird under the feeder.  It looked a lot like the song sparrow that hangs out here, or the female juncos, or the female red-wing blackbird who eats at our feeder in the spring before the bugs she prefers are readily available.  Yeah, just another brown bird.  But... second look: it looked more reddish brown.  Hmm... Better check!

Fox Sparrow (left) Goldfinch (right)

Zooming in on that picture:

Fox Sparrow

Notice the really reddish tail and the grey.  The belly is white with the reddish-brown stripes - you can see a little bit of that striping of the underparts near the tail.  I was able see the face with the eye-stripe, yellow beak, and striped underparts, but by the time I ran downstairs and grabbed my camera, the bird had turned.  Then it flew and we haven't seen it again.  (Whoa!  I think the osprey just flew by again!  We don't usually see them in the spring, just later in the fall!)

Moral of the story: keep your eyes open during migration; the birds you are used to seeing aren't all that are there!


OH YEAH!  We think that we have a pair of swans on the pond again!!  We have been seeing one every day for the last week and we were talking yesterday about, "Sure wish it would come in with a mate."  Then I realized that it actually is time for the swans to be on the nest and this one was acting like he was patrolling the waters, not checking out the surroundings!  We think his mate has a nest in the upstream part of the pond!  YAY!  We have missed the swans for the last 3 or 4 years since one of the adults of our resident pair died.  Each year, we'd all hope for the return of swans to our pond.  Looks like maybe this year is the one!



And, one last thing - I just got a pretty good picture of a female red-winged blackbird.  If you are a beginner birder, I'm sure you've never noticed one!  Pretty good cameo, eh?  Look for the beige eye-brow and the brown eye-stripe.

Red-winged Blackbird - female

(It is snowing.)  One more confusing brown bird just landed.  The female Brown-headed Cowbird.  Easy to figure out when with its mate.  (Mourning Dove gives a sense of the size of the cowbirds.)  See the snow coming down in the picture?  Sleet, actually.

Brown-headed Cowbird female & male, Mourning Dove on right

SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND SMELLS OF SPRING

"Wha-cheer, cheer, whoit, whoit, whoit."  "Peter, peter, peter."  "Fee-bee, fee-bee."  The spring bird calls greet us as we step outside at sunrise.  (The three above are, Northern Cardinal, Tufted Titmouse, and the Black Capped Chickadee - the chickadee sings a fee-bee call when seeking a mate and establishing territory in the spring; it is a slower fee-bee than the Eastern Phoebe's call and Phoebes aren't here yet - no bugs to eat.)

Have you seen the sunrises the last few mornings?  WOW!

In spite of the fact that there is still almost three feet of snow in the yard, our year-round birds know spring is coming and they are intent upon claiming their territory.  It is that in-between time when the winter foraging groups are still intact, but pairs are beginning to break off.  Soon the large groups will disappear to be replaced by pairs looking for nesting material.  Don't throw away that dog fur that is shedding all over your furniture; pick it up and stuff it in the crooks of the tree branches, or better, get a suet feeder and put the fur in the suet feeder!  Soon, the birds will be all over it, picking out fur to take to their new nests.  You can also add bits of thread and people hair.  DO NOT use drier lint - the bits are too small and can cause respiratory problems.

And speaking of sounds...  sitting on the porch the other morning, we could hear at least five different woodpeckers drumming, as well as a few doing the "tap,tap" that means they are searching for food.  Watch one on a tree sometime: "tap, tap", then it will turn its head listen for a moment to see where the bugs are, then "tap, tap -- tap, tap" and it got a mouthful!  The woodpecker's drumming (more rapid, louder, and longer than the tapping) is like the bird song of the chickadee, cardinal and titmouse--the bird is trying to establishing his territory.  We have seen a pair of Pileated woodpeckers around recently; their drumming sounds like jackhammers!


I strapped on the snowshoes and walked down to the pond to get a picture of the open water (novel concept, open water!!!) and startled four black ducks seeking food in that little bit of open water.  These aren't the "American Black Ducks" that we usually have around here, they were ducks that were black: darker black, slimmer, pointed wings and seemed to have a bit of white on the back or rump.  (WHY didn't I have binoculars with me????)

Unidentified ducks that are black

But there is open water!!  Should we wish to, we could even launch a canoe and paddle around the edge for a ways (note the stern of my green canoe sticking out of the snow in the picture below).

Open water & at bottom right, stern of canoe peaking out of the snow

And the air smelled of spring!  For those of you totally done with this snow, there is hope!  But... with the warmth and spring come the ticks.  Sigh...  I have to say, I've enjoyed having a winter that was just plain cold and snowy cuz there was no thought of ticks being around.  However, as soon as it gets above 40 degrees, the ticks start coming out of hibernation, so beware!  Even though there is a lot of snow on the ground, the ticks could be in that tree above your head.  Duck so that you don't brush against the branches and if you've been in the puckerbrush, do a tick check when you come in.  Definitely check your children every night before bed if you live near the woods or the grassy fields.  Ick.  Sorry to dampen the joys of the arrival of spring after this snowy winter.  

Other sights, sounds and smells?  

• The drip of the ice off the roof.
• People walking and running, with and without dogs, and mostly WITHOUT heavy clothes!
• The trees filled with twittering birds in the afternoon!
• Daylight that lasts longer.
• Snow that smushes instead of crunches.
• Muddy puddles and dirty snow.   :-/
• Bushes & mailboxes reappearing from under the snowbanks.
• Childrens' voices outdoors after school.
• Oh, and the skunk just out of hibernation.  That was the smell that greeted Linda the other day as she stepped out of the house before dawn.
• Carol says she knows it is really spring when she can smell the pine sap.  We aren't quite there, yet!

Got any sights, sounds or smells to add to my list?  Leave them in the comments section below.

Even though it seems like spring is really just around the corner, this can be the hardest month for the birds if we don't help them out with our feeders.  Don't stop feeding now!  There are no bugs yet and no seeds for them to find.  They need us to continue feeding until such time as you are swatting mosquitoes! 

STORIES IN THE SNOW

The snow tells stories.  I love a freshly fallen snow (preferably not TOO deep!).  I consider myself to be lucky to have a dog and that dog needs to be walked fairly early in the morning after my morning ablutions.  Anyway, every morning, usually before sunrise in the winter, I am out walking the dog.  If there is new snow, we are often making the first tracks on our driveway and road.  Sometimes, though, other critters have been there before us and I love trying to figure out their tracks and who was doing what.  I am NOT a good tracker, I know only a very little, but I enjoy trying.  Here are some basic hints so that if you've never tried it, you can learn to read the snow.  (If we're going to have this much snow, you might as well get out there and enjoy it!)

Deer Footprint

deer hoof

A deer print is a relatively easy one to figure out around here as we don't have a lot of different wild critters with the cloven hoof.  What is a cloven hoof?  A hoof that is split in two parts, the toes (see picture on the right). 

Notice in the picture above that there is a space between the marks of the two toes. The part that looks connected is the back of the hoof and the weight of the animal as she places her foot in the snow, makes it look like it connects.

Deer Tracks, Going From Right to Left

One morning we went out to MANY deer tracks in the driveway!  It looked like they had a party!  Upon closer examination, my supposition was that they were walking down the drive (3 or 4 of them?), hoping to find a place to cut through the yard (not a chance!  Our banks are too high!).  Upon not finding any cut-through, turned around and went back out.  I wondered if they were being chased, but the exiting footprints looked as relaxed as the goes-into prints.



Deer really struggle in deep snow; their feet are small and their legs skinny and they sink.  They can get stuck in the deep snow, so just after a big snowfall, you aren't likely to see their tracks.  We had four dining on our yew bush (which needs pruning anyway) and below is the entrance track of one of them.

Deer Walked in Deep Snow

In deep snow, sometimes you'll see a series of large holes where the deer jumped from one place to the next.  Sometimes, it is possible to identify deer tracks by the small holes that go way down (see below).

Deep Deer Track

And of course, a pile of scat is always a good indication the deer were there!  This pile was under our feeder -- probably the deer was feasting on the cracked corn that we put out for the jays and mourning doves.

Deer Scat

The dog, fox, coyote, and wolf tracks are all similar in that canine tracks show four toes and a pad behind the toes.  The toes include claw marks.  Size, the shape of the pads, the distance between the marks, and how the back feet land near or on the spot where the front feet landed, indicate the type of canine.  

If you see four toes and a pad, but no claw marks, it could be a feline animal because they retract their claws when they walk.

Below are Blake's trotting tracks.  The top one is clear.  When he walks or trots, his tracks are in a straight line and his back feet land almost exactly on top of where the front one was.  When he runs, his back feet are close and move together, as if they were connected by a short rod, but his front feet are a bit wider, so his running track looks different than the one below.

Blake's Trotting Tracks

Squirrels are interesting!  They show large feet in the back and smaller feet in the front.  If the track is clear, you can see the toes with claws and the imprint of the back part of the foot.  The squirrel below was standing still here, or had jumped and landed in this spot.

Squirrel

Squirrels can also be assumed if the track starts or ends at a tree with a little space between the tree and the first track - the squirrel jumped to or from the tree. In the picture below, the black spot near the top is the trunk of a tree and this squirrel was headed toward our bird feeders.

Squirrel from the Tree, top left

Birds tracks are cute!  The ones below were under my truck.  The birds seem to congregate under the vehicles; I'm not sure why (anyone know??).  We have many overgrown bushes for better roosting places and we don't put food under the vehicles, although I suppose it makes a decent resting place out of the wind and snow.  Each bird type has a different foot pattern.  Most are three toes in the front and a fourth behind. (Woodpeckers have a two and two arrangement to better cling to the tree, but you aren't likely to find them on the ground.)

Bird Tracks

So here is a quiz.  (But be aware, the following story in the snow is happier for one participant than the other.)  Look at the picture below and see if you can piece together what happened and who was involved.  The story begins in the top left corner of the picture.

 
Yes, that is blood in the center of the picture; the dark spots are grey fur.  Notice the tracks leading to the disruption in the snow from the upper left corner?  The squirrel jumped off the tree (it was heading toward the bird feeders for breakfast) and was intercepted by a red-tailed hawk looking for her breakfast.  If you look carefully around the center hole, you can see feather marks:  to the left of the bloody hole are flat & pointed marks made by her spread tail, perhaps as the hawk landed to capture the squirrel.  To the right are wing tip marks - looking a lot like fingers.  I am guessing that those were made as I disrupted breakfast by coming to fill the feeders; at that moment, the hawk lifted up out of the snow, carrying her meal to some place safer for dining, thus the wingtip prints in the snow. 

Below, the tracks on the pond tell more benign stories, most of which we can't see clearly from the bank.  One of my suppositions, though, is that the dark spot, right center, with a well worn path next to it and footsteps coming closer to it at this end, show the watering hole.  Whose tracks?  Hard to tell without being close, but it is obviously a busy thoroughfare.  The pond has been frozen for several weeks, so parts are very solid.  The hole could very well be made by the muskrats coming up and then used by the land animals.  Suzanne saw a large coyote on the pond several days ago (and we saw a coyote chasing deer last year), the fishers use the pond road, and we frequently see fox (although our local fox has been very sick with mange.  It was looking better this fall, but did not have the usual thick and shiny fur.  We have not seen it all winter; it may not have survived this cold weather.)  Deer likely drink from closer to shore (there are several open holes there), as their feet are so small and bodies so heavy, they know they would likely break through the ice.  Some tracks could also be squirrels or birds or other smaller critters.  

Much goes on near our houses that we never see, and can only be surmised by the stories in the snow.

Stearns Mill Pond

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE STRIPES

What is that little brown stripey bird??  

How many times have you asked that question?!  (We often call them an "LBJ" - "Little Brown Job".)  Frequently identifying these birds is all about the stripes.  Start with, are there any stripes?  For example, you may recognize the winter goldfinches at your feeder, small, greenish-brown, dull, but striking black wings - with white wing bars (stripes)!  (See picture below - the goldfinch is on the left, be aware that some of the goldfinch is behind the black bar.)

American Goldfinch and Pine Siskin

But if you are looking carefully at that flock of goldfinches at your feeder, you might notice a stripey bird that is the same size (see bird on the right in above picture).  In this picture, that is a Pine Siskin.  They are not always around here, but sometimes will show up in the winter.  Let's zero in on the siskin.  (Sorry about the fuzziness of the pictures - they were taken through a window from about 70' away)

Pine Siskin

First, we notice - STRIPES!  The bird is on the nyjer (thistle) feeder, but isn't a goldfinch!  OK, is it a pine siskin or a house finch or a sparrow or...  Well, it is hanging out with the goldfinch, it is winter, so let's check for siskin markings.  Lots of stripes and some yellow highlights near the tail and under the wings.  (Just to make the ID more difficult, though, there is a lot of variation in the siskins' coloration.)  Look for the yellow; if you see that, look at the tail shape - forked.  Now note the bold black or dark brown streaking on the wings, edged with buff or white and sometimes yellow (not in the bird above).  The stripes on the back/shoulder area are more muted and less distinct than the wings. If you see the belly, it too will be striped.  Now, check the beak - small and sharply pointed!

The beak can be a good distinguishing field mark.  Notice the beak of the bird below and compare it to the siskin.  Don't be confused by the white thing - that is a safflower seed, not his beak or tongue.  But notice that his beak is chunkier.

House Finch with seed in his mouth

This gent is easy to ID with his chunky beak and the red on his head and breast.  He is a house finch.  (Now it is often quite difficult to tell a house finch from a purple finch, but we aren't going into that here today!)  Be aware that the amount and placement of the red varies from bird to bird, but there is usually some on the head, breast and rump. (See picture below with the red showing between the wings as they lie on his rump.  This bird also has some reddish tinge on his back.)  The wings are boldly striped in black or dark brown with white trim.  The male house finch does have stripes on his body, but they are muted.  Notice in the picture above, you can kind of see the stripes on his breast and in the picture below, the muted stripes are visible on his back and in the shoulder region.

Male House Finch

Let's go to the female house finch (below).  Definitely an LBJ...  although, the house finch is a bit larger than the sparrows, goldfinch and pine siskin.

Female House Finch

This is the bird with which we started this post - but now you can almost see her head and beak.  If you could see her beak, it would be much easier to ID her as a house finch.  Both male and female have the blurry streaking - you can see it well in the picture above. Tail is slightly notched, but may appear squared (look at the picture of the male above this one to see the notched effect).  The female house finch is one of the most common unknown feeder birds.  Oddly enough, the most distinguishing feature (other than the beak) is the blurry, indistinct stripes.


Then there are the sparrows.  Arggg...  We have three around here in the winter that I can usually ID correctly, the White-throated Sparrow, the American Tree Sparrow, and the Song Sparrow.  The bird on top of the feeder in the picture below is an American Tree Sparrow.  A distinguishing feature of the tree sparrow is the grey head with chestnut colored cap and eye stripe.  It has a buff breast with a faint breast spot (not visible in the picture). Check the bill, too, as the American Tree Sparrow has a bi-colored bill (dark top mandible and yellow bottom mandible.  The tree sparrow is easily confused with both the field sparrow and the chipping sparrow, as all three have a chestnut cap, but only the tree sparrow has a breast spot.  

Beware, though, you can't go by breast spot alone.  A Song Sparrow has a breast spot (darker and more obvious), but it has an obviously stripey breast -- no stripes on the tree sparrow's breast.  The song sparrow also has chestnut or brown on its head, but frequently shows a buff stripe through the cap.  

Can you ID the bird on the bottom part of the feeder?

American Tree Sparrow on top and a Male House Finch with his head in the feeder

Last one for today is the White-throated Sparrow (see below)

White-throated Sparrow

The White-throated sparrow has a stripey back and some faint spots or stripes on the sides, but the belly is white or buff, sometimes with very indistinct spots or stripes.  Yes, it has a white throat, trimmed in black (not visible on the bird above), but one of the real distinguishing features is the yellow lore (the area between the bill and the eye).  If you see that on an LBJ around here, with a white throat and black head stripes, you can be pretty sure it is a White-throated Sparrow.  The WTSP also comes in a less obvious tan stripe version, where the white throat, stripes and belly you see on the bird above are less obvious because they are tan.  

(Uh, oh!  I forgot about the house sparrow - an invasive species, introduced in 1850, that actually is a finch, not a sparrow.  They are usually the only sparrow in urban areas.  We don't have any here in the woods at our house (thankfully!), so it didn't cross my mind.  Wing stripes & bars, but no belly stripes. Black under the beak and in breeding season, the black extends into the breast on the male.  Grey cap.) 

So, don't overlook all of those stripey LBJs on your feeder - look more closely, grab your field guide and start with the stripey birds in this post.

Left feeder, American Goldfinch & Pine Siskin.
Right feeder top, Black-capped Chickadee, bottom two are male House Finch

WAITING FOR THE STORM

(Written Jan 26 as Winter Storm Juno was approaching)

It is funny how upset and discombobulated one can be when waiting for a storm to arrive.  The critters are upset, too (both our indoor critters and the ones outside).  Around lunch time, Blake was a mess!!!  He just kept barking at any little thing, driving us crazy!  I checked later, and that was just about the time when the pressure started heading down.  Was it that, or did he sense our discombobulation, or did he just need to go out to do his business? 

We like to stay home and hunker down before a storm.  The "battening down the hatches" and readying the house feel like something useful to do while the wait goes on.  We always try to hit the grocery store a couple days ahead (if we have warning!), as grocery stores and gas stations before a storm seem to create crabby people.  

Our birds get crabby at their "grocery store", too!  I filled the domed platform feeder with sunflower seed, peanuts, a peanut butter and suet mix, and also some of the bird store’s bugberry suet pellets.  I wanted it to be easy for the birds to swoop in, get what they want and leave quickly so others could come in.  The feeders were filled with birds this morning (just like the human grocery stores!)  Every port of the tube feeder had a goldfinch on it and there were another 6 on the nyger feeder.  A dapper titmouse darted in, scattering the goldfinches, grabbed a peanut and went to the tree to hide it in a crack behind the bark.  In came a nuthatch and a chickadee to do the same (all were grocery shopping and putting away food for the storm).  Four bluebirds were sitting in the feeder, taking up all the space as they filled their gullets, when a goldfinch landed to pick up a seed - not a chance!  That was one aggressive bluebird!

I can provide for the feeder birds, but the ground eaters are harder because the snow covers the seed on the ground.  With a light snow, the feathery ones can scratch down to the seed, but not with the 24-36 inches that is forecast for tomorrow!  I put down millet for the juncos as well as some corn and safflower seed for whomever.  The jays, sparrows and mourning doves are now jostling for position to fill up their bellies.

(Morning, January 27)
The waiting is over; Juno has arrived and dumped over a foot and a half of snow so far!  We were up at 6AM with the snowblower and shovel, determined to get rid of the first foot of snow before the wind came up.  Our snowblower is small and we weren't sure if it could handle two or three feet of snow.  One foot, yes, but more is questionable!  Thankfully the snow is light and fluffy (and quite beautiful!).  Coffee and breakfast was well appreciated when we came back in almost two hours later!  I cleared the porch, too (although we opted to sit inside this morning...) and within about 45 minutes, there was a good two inches back on the railing!

While out, I sprinkled some millet under the overgrown yew bush just outside one of the windows downstairs, and all morning have been treated to closeups of juncos, bluejays and American Tree Sparrows eating in the shelter of the yew.  I thought the birds might stay in their roosting places longer this morning, but by sunrise they were chowing down!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Hmmm... Blake is asking to go out.  I guess it is time to re-shovel a place for him to do his business!  He is a small guy and can't even be seen on the path to the bird feeder!

May you all stay safe and warm and be able to see the beauty in the day rather than just thinking cold & dreary.

PATHS ON THE POND ICE

"Linda! Look at the pond! It is covered with paths!"  What an odd sight greeted us on the pond yesterday morning (Jan. 8, 2015).  It was -5º, a light coat of snow on the pond ice, but there were these paths all over, going from one side of the pond to the other and back, crisscrossing, dead-ending, and near the shore, starting out very thin, then growing to the typical four to six feet across.  The paths looked like someone had been out there with a broom, but that clearly wasn't the case.  They almost looked like the wind had made them, but the wind wouldn't have blown the snow in different directions, in straight lines!  The paths weren't following the track of the brook and there were LOTS of them!  So what's up??

We speculated that perhaps the muskrats were swimming close enough to the ice that the water movement melted it some and then it refroze, disrupting the thin dusting of snow.  Dunno exactly, but I sent a picture (the second one) and note to Massachusetts Wildlife.  In just a couple hours I received the response below:

Paths on the pond

Notice how narrow the path is as it comes into shore (or leaves from the shore!)

"You’re probably correct in thinking these trails are left by muskrats and water movement.  Muskrats are active all winter long and typically don’t store a large amount of food, so they’re always looking for food.  This time of year they’re eating crayfish, clams, fish, and turtles, as animal matter is more important in their diet during the winter when vegetation is not as available. I’m sure there are multiple muskrats living in this pond that all have their own bank den, so that’s why the are trails all over. "   ("Wildlife, Mass (FWE)" <mass.wildlife@state.ma.us>)

She is right about the multiple muskrat dens in our pond!  And these paths were all up and down the pond as far as I could see.

This morning there were even more paths and even some round circles with clearly disturbed ice in the center.  It is snowing now, so all are covered.  It must have been just the right conditions over the last two days, because we've never seen this happen before (either that or we didn't see it because before retirement, when we were both heading off to work, we'd leave before sunrise and get home after sunset!).  

I'm glad to have seen this sight!

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!!