Category Archives: Birds

Out in the cold

Despite our sense to the contrary, birds are well guarded against the cold by their dense covering of down and feathers. Finding food enough can be relentlessly hard on them during the leanest months of winter when the remaining seeds and berries have been thoroughly picked over. Hawks and owls become more desperate as their prey remains tucked away in dens and tunnels and they’re forced to pick off the weak from our backyard feeders.

A short-term solution is to provide a feeding station to help birds find enough food during the day to keep them warm overnight. Thinking long-term requires that we consider the value of habitat in terms of three things: food, shelter, and water. Planting native shrubs and trees with fleshy fruits (mountain ash, holly, crabapples, cedars, etc) and seeds (maples, pines, hemlocks, etc) will provide food. Many of these trees and evergreen shrubs also benefit the birds in that they provide shelter to roost in at night or to escape from the winds in the daytime. Birdhouses and roosting boxes can also provide shelter from the cold. Water is difficult to keep unfrozen, but a garden pond or heated birdbath will provide much needed fresh water each day.

My own yard is sadly lacking in many respects, but I do see the benefits of what I’ve been able to provide thus far. The pond is always a draw, but especially so in winter. The robins, starlings, and mourning doves appreciate a drink or bath in even the coldest of weather. American hollies are the only evergreens we have planted, but the robins flock to them in winter. A horse farm that I pass on my way to work has probably a hundred of them planted along the property line; sadly the robins fly back and forth across the road to feed on the holly berries and many are hit by cars in the process. Each day on my way to and from work I count at least 3 dead on the shoulder of the road. The viburnums and dogwoods we have at home have been picked clean by late December and my husband insists on cleaning up the garden in the Fall, rather than the Spring, so the many seeds of my flowering plants aren’t available for the birds. We need to plant more evergreens and a more diverse variety of fruiting shrubs, and learn to leave the garden alone so that it can feed the birds in winter.

Of course now is the time to begin planning the garden for the season to come. I have a small pile of flower and seed catalogs that I’m lookiing over, but I’m trying to think in terms of trees and shrubs instead of the more alluring and short-lived flowers.

What have you found that sustains the birds in your garden during the coldest of days? Tonight I’m going to try a short-term solution to the present cold spell and whip up a batch of Julie Z’s suet dough, mostly for the oriole from last week who I spotted at the feeders again this morning.

Robin photo courtesy of Associated Press.

Cormorant

those perennial apparitions
of the backwaters – their shadows
the faded sails of anchored boats

– John Kinsella

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Nothing much of interest to say today, other than a reminder to stop by Wanderin Weeta tomorrow and have a look at this week’s Good Planets show. I sent along a few photos that I wasn’t able to post during the month of January while I was hosting, so don’t be surprised if you find a pic there that you sent to me. Recycling is a good thing!

I’m thinking about heading south in the morning to attend the Cumberland County Winter Eagle Festival; getting up early enough to make the trip will be a challenge, as will the predicted cold, but the chance to see nesting Bald Eagles and the beautiful scenery in that part of NJ is hard to pass by.

I took the Cormorant photo above a few weeks ago at the Shark River Marina in Neptune NJ. The marina is a good spot to see Ruddy ducks and there is usually always a Eurasian Wigeon there, but I wasn’t able to find it that day. It was a very foggy day; not very good for taking pics, but the Corms made me smile with their wings hung out to dry.

Surprise at the feeder and questions

Because it’s still mostly dark when I get up and dark again when I get in from work I have to do my feeder-watching in stolen moments when I should be paying attention to other things. This oriole very nearly made me late for work this morning! I’ve never drawn an oriole to the feeders, most certainly not in January! This bird should be down Mary’s way in North Carolina. It was still darkish when I took the photos and that top one is through the window screen as well, but I guess it must be a Northern Oriole, because Orchards should be real far south in Florida now. If I saw this bird in the spring I would call it an Orchard, though. But I’ve never been good at identifying birds in their in-between plumages. Maybe someone can help? Would one of you bander folks that check in here be able to help me out with some ID tips?
It came in with a small group of starlings and poked around in one of the sunflower feeders before finding the suet log. I took a few minutes to cut open an orange left over from Christmas and put that out in a basket feeder, although by that point the flock had moved on. I’ve seen photos of orioles feeding at orange halves and sugar-water feeders, but I’ve never been able to lure them down from the locust tree blossoms in spring or the mulberries in late summer. That I should get one now I guess is proof that the bird is having a hard time finding food, right? Something else for me to worry over. 😉

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In case you’re paying attention to that *What I’m Reading* thingy over in the sidebar – I’ve finally updated it. I can’t really call what I’ve been doing lately *reading* – it’s more like perusing 5 different books at the same time – but I’d left that book about the Pine Barrens up for months after I finished reading it actively because quite a few folks have clicked on it. I’ve replaced it with another of Joanna Burger’s books that I *read* years ago, but now I’m just *perusing* for ideas and some inspiration on where to spend my free time. It’s a good book and one that I think most anyone that lives near the shore would enjoy.

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The other night I read about the Brant that winter in Barnegat Bay here in NJ (approx. 50,000 according to Burger) and how they prefer to feed on eelgrass, but if that becomes unavailable due to ice, they’ll switch to sea lettuce that grows along the margins of the marsh. If the bay freezes and the ground is snow-covered, often they are caught by surprise and many will starve. But… why not just fly farther south? Why is the oriole I saw this morning hanging around here where the weather is suddenly cold and snowy? Why not just go? Anybody know?

Take my picture, please?

Last weekend while I was driving around looking at *fancy* ducks at some of the coastal ponds in the area I was approached by this pretty lady(?) and her companion. I was trying to take some pics of a pair of canvasbacks from my car. All of the ducks were in the middle of the pond – too far away even for the long lens – but these two saw me stopped at the roadside and swam over, got out of the water, and climbed up the bank and stood beside the car eyeballing me. I felt bad for not appreciating their more common beauty, so I switched lenses and took a few photos while they posed so nicely. Why can’t the canvasbacks and hoodies be this cooperative?

I’m kidding, of course. This duck wasn’t interested in having her picture taken – she was looking for a handout. I didn’t have a single thing to offer her, not that I would have anyway. There’s a reason the ponds are posted with “no feeding the waterfowl” signs.

All of the ponds the ducks frequent (both migratory and domestic) are in residential areas, surrounded by homes. Most are passive-use municipal parks and often attract large numbers of Canada Geese and Mute Swans. People using the parks like to feed them and that attracts more of the beggars and probably drives away the migrant waterfowl. It also dirties the water, and in the case of Wreck Pond, which is tidal, creates a significant environmental problem.

Better just to tell her how pretty she is and go on my way.

Duck… duck… duck… Coot!

Hooded merganser
Northern shoveler
American wigeon
Coot!

I had signed up for a bird walk this morning at Sandy Hook, but it was cancelled yesterday due to poor weather. Bummer. In all the years I’ve been birding I’ve never had a trip be cancelled because of the weather. Are birders going soft or something? It was barely even raining today, so I visited a few of the coastal ponds in the area looking for ducks. I found quite a few of my favorites, and even got to take a few of my signature fuzzy photos. The Wigeon are the prettiest, I think, and there were nice numbers of them. Wigeon have a sweet call; the Cornell site compares it to a squeaky toy. Very different than the Long-tailed ducks I saw last weekend at Sandy Hook. Clicking on the links will bring you to Cornell’s page where you can listen to both songs.

Most everywhere on these little coastal ponds are gulls, Canada Geese, and Coot. They’re funny birds, actually in the rail family, and I photographed this one among a group of twenty or so feeding in the grass beside a pond like a flock of chickens. I saw the Wigeon doing the same thing, which was a first, although I’ve read that they’ll do that.

I stopped along the ocean on the way home, hoping to spot a loon, but the heavy fog and a lonely fisherman were all I found. Nice day, despite the rain.

“Just Brant”

“If you can awaken inside the familiar and discover it new, you need never leave home.” – Ted Kooser


I don’t know where my mind is at lately, but it’s certainly not on the familiar. I suppose many people enjoy this season of rest from the outdoors and are happy to curl up on the sofa day after day, but I don’t. I have cabin-fever and it’s only early January. The routine of everday, the normality and sameness of it is making me cranky. I think it must partly be because there’s been no real change in the weather since late October; I’d like for it to either be cold and snowy or to get on with Spring already! I’m in no hurry for the Spring, really I love winter, but this is not winter as I love it.

The boredom and crankiness I feel is the fault of my own lack of imagination, I know. Sometimes it’s hard to find anything to be inspired about. Getting out on the weekends is the best thing I can do for myself, but the effect doesn’t last long enough to see me through the week. Maybe I just need to eat more ice-cream or something. Who knows.

So. The birds in this pic are Brant. Familiar geese that winter on the coast. They breed in the high Arctic, and while they look an awful lot like Canada Geese, they don’t have the white cheek patch or pale breast. Plus they’re much smaller and don’t spend their days on corporate office lawns. Are they familiar to any of you? Would you drive past them on the bay and say, “Just Brant”? I’m guilty… I do.

Dropping in

I did my volunteer gig today at the bird observatory and spent an hour or two afterwards stalking the less-than-abundant waterfowl with my camera. Sandy Hook should be really good now, but the huge rafts of ducks I expect to see in the winter aren’t here.

My favorites, the long-tailed ducks, were too far out in the bay for even my 200-400mm lens to reach nicely. They are such beautiful ducks; black and white with short, pointed dark wings. They were very vocal today – the males almost yodeling – have you ever heard them sing? Listen for them; you won’t soon forget the sound of their courting.

Despite this lens that’s near as long as my arm and which seems to weigh about as much as I do, the few small groups of waterfowl were little more than specks in a sea of blue. But the Canada Geese and Brant at Plum Island were close enough and cooperative and the light was good, so I found a dry spot in the marsh to sit and spent an hour or so in the company of these common birds. This pic was my favorite, a Canada dropping into the marsh and caught in the middle of putting on the brakes to land.

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The Good Planets show will be here again next Saturday, in case you’ve been newly inspired to submit a photo. Send one or two pics to me at lc-hardy AT comcast DOT net sometime before Friday. Wasn’t this week’s show grand? Thanks to all who submitted photos and stopped by to comment.

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Every so often I get brave enough to tackle HTML code and add the links of some blog friends to the sidebar. In the last week or two I’ve added quite a few from my bookmarks that I hope you’ll visit sometime. One of those friends, Vicki of Outside In, calls the community of people she links to her neighborhood. That’s a nice way of looking at it, don’t you think? What I find really neat is that often once I add a link here, I see that some of you are visiting that blog and making friendships of your own; maybe initially because of that link. I know that I’ve made some friends because of the links you include on your blogs. Anyway, that’s just my long-winded way of saying thank you for being such kind and supportive people. It’s nice to see people being nice to one another, you know? Oh, and go drop in at Vicki’s; she’s got a great blog and is very funny. Here’s a link to her most recent post which had me in stitches.

Christmas tree bird count

Birdchick wondered if anyone had any fun bird ornaments, so I thought I’d post a few pics of some of the ones that grace our tree. We used just the glass ornaments to decorate this year, so the really *fun* ones stayed tucked away in the attic. If you’re a bird lover, I’m sure you have lots of *fun* bird ornaments that people have given you over the years. I’m not talking about nice ornaments; I mean the cheesy ones that people grab because they have a bird somewhere on them. I’ve got quite a few of those (that don’t resemble any natural bird I’ve ever seen) – mostly given by my SIL. And Kevin, not your wife, you know which SIL I’m talking about here! The type of ornaments that make you hesitant to admit to a hobby, for fear of what you might find wrapped beneath the tree with your name written on the tag.
Junior wanna-be?
Sometime before Christmas I need to learn how to take in-focus photos of the tree and ornaments.
Had I wanted to be cruel, I’d have posted fuzzy pictures of the not-quite-accurate, but still pretty ornaments and asked you to identify them.
These may be hard enough to ID without a good imagination. In addition to birds on our tree, we have lots of butterflies, dragonflies, and many other insects and animals thanks to the NWF catalog. They make nice sets and have new designs each year. My husband is a good customer.
The last few years they’ve offered lots of owls and herons, but only this eagle and no other hawks. I’d like a red-tail or maybe a handsome kestral.
We have a few ducks, mostly some variety of mallard, but this wood duck is a favorite. What’s on your tree?

More blue

Today is the last day of my mini-vacation from work; tomorrow it’s back to the desk and the last few classes of the semester before finals. I haven’t accomplished a single thing in six days off and I’m sort of proud of that! Three and half more weeks of work and school and I’ll have the *real* vacation that I wait all year for. I like being off at this time of year, but find myself disappointed that there’s not more happening outside when I’m home to enjoy it.

One treat the last few days has been seeing the birds that are visiting the feeders. I’ve been refilling this wreath feeder with whole peanuts from the grocery store twice a week. The squirrels take a fair number of the peanuts, but I discovered that there’s also a small gang of blue jays that stop by throughout the day.

I love blue jays above all the other feeder birds, despite their bad reputation, I think because they are so clownish. The range of blues and violet in their feathers is wonderful to see when the sun hits them just so. Oh and do they love peanuts! Some of them will work a peanut loose and fly away with it, shell and all, to eat or hide elsewhere. The one in the larger photo was breaking the peanuts from their shells and filling up his mouth with three or four before flying away with them.

I looked through all of my bird books this evening for a poem to share with these pics and couldn’t find anything that was complimentary. Poets don’t seem to like blue jays. I finally found a poem by e.e. cummings online that I’ll close with. At least I think it’s complimentary; sort of hard to tell with cummings.

crazy jay blue)
demon laughshriek
ing at me
your scorn of easily

hatred of timid & loathing for(dull all
regular righteous
comfortable)unworlds

thief crook cynic (swimfloatdrifting
fragment of heaven)
trickstervillain

raucous rogue &
vivid voltaire
you beautiful anarchist
(i salute thee