Birdwatching

Through a Country Window Blog Post

Birdwatching

Winter 2015-2016

In winter I move inward, as most people do. I have brought in my plants from the screened porch and arrayed them on, over and below the bay window in the kitchen. I also have brought in my rocking chair from the porch and plunked it in front of the bay window. From this spot I sit, often with a cup of tea green tea and a journal, watching the birds at the feeders. That is where the “window show” really is during winter.

There are pine trees between the window and the farm field fence – some dead and bare, some full of green.

If I bend over and look to the left, I see the Hawthorn, then the Persimmon tree. For some reason, and for the first time ever, the Hawthorn produced no fruit. Normally, the birds go for the Hawthorn fruit, which is not sweet, late in the winter.

It is among the live and dead pines that I hang the bird feeders. I have some tube feeders, a couple of hopper feeders with suet cages on the ends, a tray feeder held up by a hooked pole stuck in the ground, and a little peanut butter feeder we made in a workshop, plus one thistle seed “sock.”

I am not a “birder”, as it is not my vocation or avocation to go out seeking birds specifically, and I don't keep a “life list”, though I do have a good pair of binoculars (selected according to the advice of some real birder friends, from whom I have learned much.)

I am a “generalist” naturalist who knows more about plants than anything else (probably because they stay in one place so details can be examined), who is really into bugs, who has an utter fascination for fungi, and who has a good background in the Earth Sciences. But, I'm really fascinated by, and study, everything in Nature. The most important aspect to me is not any particular subject or group of beings but how absolutely everything is connected, all the movements together that make up the dance, all the workings and how they work together – whether or not they are considered “sentient.”

So, I could not rightly be called a “birder” because too many other things are grabbing my attention and it's all so consuming.

But, I do watch birds.

The winter feeders provide a prime opportunity to do so. I am better able to identify and learn about individual species, since they come closer and hang out in one spot a bit longer, and I can more easily observe their interactions with each other and everything else.

It's a very nice thing to do while sipping tea in a rocking chair with a blanket on one's lap on a cold winter day.

And, I do tend to make bird lists from watching the feeders.

Here is my list from the Winter of 2015-2016 (not including Sparrows, which I list further down):

Mourning Dove                                        Zenaida macroura

Red-winged Blackbird                             Agelaius phoeniceus

European Starling                                    Sturnus vulgaris

Blue Jay                                                   Cyanocitta cristata

Common Grackle                                    Quiscalus quiscula

Brown-Headed Cowbird                         Molothrus ater

American Robin                                      Turdus migratorius

Northern Cardinal                                    Cardinalis cardinalis

Male Cardinal and House Finch

House Finch                                            Carpodacus mexicanus

Goldfinch                                                Carduelis tristis

Eastern Towhee                                       Pipilo erythrophthalmus

Dark-eyed Junco                                     Junco hyemalis

Carolina Chickadee                                 Poecile carolinensis

Carolina Chickadee

Tufted Titmouse                                      Baeolophus bicolor

Tufted Titmouse

White-Breasted Nuthatch                        Sitta carolinensis

Carolina Wren                                         Thryothorus ludovicianus

Downy Woodpecker                                Picoides pubescens

Red-Bellied Woodpecker                        Melanerpes carolinus

Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker                       Sphyrapicus varius

I had seen the Sapsucker flitting around the pines and Persimmon during early winter, before I had put out the feeders.

The Sparrows are the most vexing to sort out. There are a variety with streaked or plain breasts, striped  or plain heads, and markings around eyes, mouth, neck, or no markings. This is complicated by the variations with females and juveniles, as well as the possible confusion with some other species (for example, a female House Finch can be mistaken for a Sparrow.)

So, during the Winter of 2014-2015 I painstakingly made a little guide to “Winter Sparrows”, for myself:

It was very helpful that winter. It was not helpful this winter because I had forgotten where I put it and didn't find it until mid-March. I think I will get it copied and laminated, then keep it with my bird field guides.

Here are a few Sparrows from this winter:

White-Crowned                                      Zonotrichia leucophrys

White-Throated                                      Zonotrichia albicollis

English/House                                        Passer domesticus

English, or House, Sparrow on far left

The latter is an alien species that tends to convene in large groups, descend en masse on the feeders, clear them out quickly, and make a lot of noise.

There were also:

Song Sparrows                                       Melospiza melodia

Some other Sparrows that may have been there, since I did see them the previous winter, are:

American Tree                                       Spizella arborea

Field                                                       Spizella pusilla

Fox                                                         Passerella iliaca

This is not to say I haven't seen some other kinds of birds during other winters – and who knows what I've missed when I wasn't at the window.

Male Cardinals, as we all know, look splendid against white snow and green pine.

The females are not as brightly colored, but still lovely.

The ground below the feeders, especially when there was a cover of snow, was very busy with the activity of an array of ground feeders:  Towhees, Robins, Mourning Doves, and many Juncos, as well as Cardinals and various Sparrows.

Dark-eyed Junco

Mourning Dove

Goldfinches and House Finches love the tube feeders …       

      Goldfinches at the tube feeder

… while Woodpeckers mostly go for the suet.

Female Downy Woodpecker

 Male Downy Woodpecker

Red-Bellied Woodpeckers eat at the suet feeders, at the trees, and also take seeds from the tray

 The hopper feeders are sometimes shared.

House Finches and Goldfinches

Female Downy Woodpecker and male Northern Cardinal 

But, when the European Starling comes over, everyone else leaves.

This male Starling was going after the suet cakes, sometimes in an acrobatic manner:

Starlings would sometimes come in a raucous group to hog the hanging tray feeder. But, when they weren't there, other birds shared nicely.

Tufted Titmouse (left) and Goldfinch

The tray feeder was also visited by Carolina Chickadees (who seemed to be in constant motion between the feeders, the branches, the fence, etc.), Red-Winged Blackbirds, Blue Jays (it can withstand the weight of the larger birds) and, once in a while, a Carolina Wren.

White-breasted Nuthatches visit the feeders (especially for suet), but are more often seen scooting down the side of a tree trunk, searching the bark

 Two Sparrows

 Blue Jay

I have a special affinity for the Corvids. I love how they move, how they fly in, how they suddenly drop down from one spot to another, how they tilt their heads. I love their uncanny intelligence and their often harsh-sounding voices.

Blue Jay

  Common Grackle

As the winter wears down and spring starts to seep in, my life becomes busier with gardens, woodlands and other things. As a result, I tend to forget to refill the feeders. But, Spring came early this year, and along with it the emerging bugs and buds. The birds are starting to find new food in the wild after almost using up the seeds and berries that hung on and sustained them all winter. And, the birds are busier with staking out claims, trying to impress the females, and even gathering nesting materials.

Also, mammalian wildlife, such as Raccoons, Opossums and Squirrels, become more active as spring arrives, some needing to feed more to their early young or to their nursing selves. This means that I more often find bird feeders emptied out, or knocked to the ground, or even set up sideways on a tree limb. Sometimes I find them several yards from the feeding area. I still have not found the cap to one of my tube feeders.

But, I'll probably fill feeders a few more times, even if it is, as I write, late March.

Before long, we will declutter and scrub out the porch. We will be having porch-sitting weather. Then my attentions, and this blog, will be looking out the porch and other windows.

So long, for now, to winter and the bay window.