Surprise Snow Causes Spike in Feeder Traffic, though New Arrivals Give Hope for Spring

After a week or more of extremely mild weather--it got to nearly 70 yesterday--in which much of the accumulated snow had melted away, we were surprised to wake up this morning to see the all the trees covered in new snow and a lot still coming down. The temperature was just on the high side of the freezing point, so the snow was coming down in big, wet flakes. Even though the ground had thawed out rather thoroughly, the new stuff was sticking to the ground. It's now about 10:30 a.m.and the snow has nearly stopped, and what had been on the trees is beginning to fall off. Maine Public Broadcasting is, unaccountably, still saying "sunny and warm" for most of the state, including the southern end. Go figure.

The birds also seem to have been caught off-guard. After a period of relatively little traffic at the feeders due, no doubt, to the increased ability to find food in areas newly-free of snow, we've enjoyed a spate of activity this morning. Dark-eyed Juncos have been around all winter, of course, but today there's a largish flock around; I estimate it at ~30 birds. It's always a treat to see these gorgeous little guys with their dark gray plumage, and it's a bit saddening to realize that they will probably soon be leaving us for the season.

Another highlight has been the appearance of the first Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles of the season. We've had 4-5 each in a mixed flock. Very odd to be standing outside in the snowfall and hearing the "Ok-a-lee" song of the Red-Wings! 

Goldfinches are also around in good numbers this morning. This is the time of year when the males begin to acquire their bright yellow summer plumage, so we're seeing birds in all sorts of in-between stages. Some have already achieved a fair degree of "yellow-ness" but most are quite mottled, with bits of yellow here and there on their bodies.

The Red-wings aren't the only birds singing in the snow. The Goldfinches are tittering away and the Chickadees are giving forth with their "fee-bee" call. As we went out to collect the morning papers our semi-resident male Northern Cardinal was announcing his presence with authority, with what my son dubbed many years ago as his "laser" call. 

We've been pleasantly surprised to see a couple of Common Redpolls still around, as most of them seem to have departed for more northerly climes. 

All in all we've tallied 17 species. In addition to those I've already noted we've seen both White- and Red-breasted Nuthatches; Fox, Tree and Song Sparrows; Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers; Crows; Tufted Titmice; Mourning Doves; Blue Jays; and a lone House Finch. Most of these have been around all winter, but the first Fox Sparrow appeared this week and today has been joined by a second one.

NOTE: For various reasons I've fallen way behind in things I want to post to this blog. I'll try to catch up this week. Among other things I'm exploring ways to post better-quality videos; I apologize for the crappy way the ones that I've put up so far appear by the time they get compressed and uploaded here.

Redpolls Revisited

In yesterday's post I neglected to mention that we were not the only ones in southern Maine to get their first visit from Redpolls this past Sunday [Feb. 20]. Soon after our flock arrived I went online to report the influx on the Maine birds e-mail list. When I logged into my e-mail I was amused to see several other reports from elsewhere in southern Maine: Cape Neddick, Sanford, Freeport, and Scarborough. A few other reports from the area came in after mine. I've seen no hypotheses about why all of a sudden the birds began to show up in more southerly locations than they had earlier in the winter but I suppose it has to do with weather and availability of food.

We still have them around the yard, and they're definitely providing some competition for the Usual Suspects at the feeders. I managed to get some better video footage of them today, though not yet of the flock in anything like its entirety. I used this opportunity to learn a bit more about video editing, and even got a bit silly about it all! Hey, a guy's gotta have fun, eh?

The Redpolls are Coming! The Redpolls are Coming!

Up until yesterday it seemed as though we were the only birders in the state of Maine whose yard had not been visited by large flocks of Redpolls. These members of the finch family are denizens of the far north; their idea of going south for the winter means migrating to Maine and elsewhere in the northern tier of the U.S. I only saw my first Redpolls in February of 2009 when large flocks came to our feeders. This was before we were living here full-time, so we were just lucky that their visit coincided with our own. From the reports of other birders it seems that Redpolls tend to appear in these parts every other year.

There are two species: Common and Hoary, though they are very difficult to tell apart, and some ornithologists regard them as a single species consisting of two subspecies. The two species--if such they are--travel in mixed flocks, and in 2009 there were quite definitely some Hoarys in with the Commons. The ones that have showed up this year seem to be all Commons, but I wouldn't put money on it.

When I first noticed them yesterday there was a large flock of ~50 birds on the northeast side of the yard, where we have several feeders. As soon as I opened an upstairs window to try to shoot some photos or video, they all took off; in spite trying to move carefully, the window made a "pop" when I first opened it and that was enough to spook the little guys. Some eventually came back, but never in the numbers that I had first seen, or at least not at any time when I was poised to shoot! I did manage to capture quite a bit of footage, but it's only so-so, both in terms of interest and technical quality. I've edited together about 40 seconds of it. This was shot with my still camera, and by the time I edited and saved it to Windows Media format, it's ended up fairly grainy. It's best viewed at the small size rather than full-screen:

Edward Howe Forbush writes of Redpolls: 

They come with the snowflakes out of the dun sky of November and leave as spring approaches...The feeding flocks may be startled by any sudden noise or violent movement. Then they rise and wheel in concert, but after going through their usual evolutions they may return to the very place from which they took flight...The food of the Redpolls while with us consists largely of the seeds of birches and alders and those of common grasses and weeds. At feeding stations they eat greedily the seeds of sunflowers, millet and hemp, also hayseed and rolled oats.

They certainly can be piggy little things, and compete quite assertively with the Chickadees, Goldfinches, and Titmice that are the regulars at our feeders. In any case, they are welcome visitors, and the video clip captures a bit of their peripatetic nature and the way in which even a small flock can seem to swarm over a yard.