New yard bird, new life bird!

As I dragged myself out of bed this morning after a fairly restless night [damned alarm cats went off at 5:00 a.m.!] and struggled to focus my vision, I went to the bedroom window that looks out over a couple of feeders and, as is my wont, did a check of the avian activity out there. "Hmm," I sez to myself, "nothing interesting, and things have been rather quiet lately." However, I was quickly--and happily!--proven wrong when I realized there was one very new visitor--a Fox Sparrow! I got a good, if short and somewhat bleary-eyed, look at him/her, and by the time I fetched a pair of binocs it was no more to be seen. I had a bit of doubt about it for awhile, given the shortness of my observation, so I was pleased when it came around again a bit later in the morning. Lovely bird, and quite distinctive, really, what with its large-for-a-sparrow size, reddish color, and grey on its neck and cheeks. Range maps show them as being only migratory in Maine. I'll be interested to note how long this one sticks around the 'hood--indeed, if it's even still here! This was my first-ever sighting, so we have one more for both the yard list and my personal life list.

In other news, some siskins are back again today. They've been quite sporadic in their visits and, of course, I have no way of knowing whether or not it's the same ones that keep returning every few days. I should perhaps get a little more systematic about my observations to see if there's any sort of pattern to their appearances.

Yard bird #68

There hasn't been a great deal of interest happening in the yard lately but I was surprised and pleased to see a Golden-crowned Kinglet in one of the feeder trees. We'd just noted our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet in October, and this was the first Golden-crowned that we'd noted. Kinglets are lovely little birds, "little" being the operative word. They sometimes hover a bit as they feed, often near the ends of branches. A too-hasty glance can lead one to at first think one is seeing a hummingbird. David Sibley notes that the two species of kinglet "differ in many respects." Not the least of the differences is that the crowns that give them their names are displayed quite differently. The gorgeous yellow feathers on the GCK are pretty much always visible, but a glimpse of the RCK's red top is a rare treat.

Both species of kinglet are peripatetic little guys, so they're very difficult to photograph. I managed a fair shot of a GCK in some grass along the Murfreesboro [TN] Greenway a few years ago:

The one this morning seems not to have hung around long, as I have not seen it again.

By way of updating yard status, the Pine Siskins have put in only occasional appearances since I first noted them a week ago. The number of Purple Finches has also gone way down. A Red-breasted Nuthatch that was around off and on for awhile has also not been in evidence lately. I do hope he/she comes back! Goldfinches, Juncos, Chickadees, and Titmice are still numerous, and a pair or so of Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers, plus White-breasted Nuthatches, spend a lot of time on the suet feeders.

Juncos and Finches and Siskins--oh my!

One of the delights of this time of year is observing the almost daily change in the natural world. We look out every day and see that the palette of colors in the trees is different than it was when we went to bed the night before. The two-month-long progression of changes from the greens of spring and summer; to the reds, yellows, and oranges of September; to the coppers of October; and finally to the greys of November, is always a pleasure to witness.

The bird life around the house changes as well, though I've been remiss about commenting on it. I noted exactly a month ago that Juncos had begun to appear, and that I expected their numbers to increase rapidly in the ensuing days. That certainly proved to be true, and we now delight in looking out at the trees on the edge of the woods and seeing a welcome assemblage of the small, handsome, grey-and-white birds eagerly feasting on the millet seeds that the Chickadees and finches scatter on the ground in their searches for the sunflower seeds in the mix. Flitting from tree, to ground, to bush, to ground, to brush pile, to ground, and back to tree, their constant activity is a joy to watch. Juncos were a familiar site growing up in Western Massachusetts--"junkets," my mother used to call them--but were rare visitors to my yard in Tennessee. It's great to be able to enjoy their company again!

They certainly are not the only new seasonal visitors. White-throated Sparrows are also in abundance, and they're at least as much fun to watch as the Juncos. The patch of lawn where many of the feeders are located is now covered with fallen oak leaves. When looking down onto this area from the bedroom window it's easy at first to think you're seeing only leaves...until some of them seem to start to move! The sparrows' coloring matches that of the leaves quite well and it becomes a bit of a game to see if I can pick out the birds before they begin to move.

Beginning in late August, if memory serves correctly, we began seeing numerous female Purple Finches in the yard. We had had only the occasional one before this so it was a pleasure to welcome a few more. I kept wondering where all the males were, but they eventually showed up as well, a couple of weeks after the females had arrived--again, if my memory is correct about the dates; I kept no notes about their appearance. They've been among the regulars at the feeders ever since. Prior to this I'd only ever seen a few Purple Finches in my life. I was inundated with House Finches in Tennessee, and there's no shortage of them here in Maine. But I'd seen few enough Purples that I was not even sure of my ability to distinguish them from their cousins who have moved in from the west. Now that I've had the chance to see many of them, and to observe both species together, I see that it's quite easy to tell them apart. Both male and female Purples have a very strong "eyebrow," and the patterning of color on the males is quite different. Also, Purples have fairly deeply-notched tails, while House Finches' tails are nearly straight across, with only a hint of notching.

The Juncos, WT Sparrows, and Purple Finches have now all been around for awhile...joining the usual crowd of Titmice, Chickadees, (many) Goldfinches, etc, and it had been some time since anyone new had shown up. That changed big-time this morning when we had a small invasion of Pine Siskins! While cleaning up from breakfast I looked out the kitchen window at the back deck where we have both sunflower and thistle (tube) feeders, and all the ports at both feeders were occupied by Siskins! There must have been at least a couple of dozen. As I write this they seem to be not much in evidence, so I don't know if they were just passing through, or if they ate their fill for the moment and will return when they again get hungry. I had hoped to get some photos of them to post here, but I'll have to wait for another time.