"Please....can't you see I'm in the middle of changing?"

In my previous post I noted that the male Goldfinches were in the process of transforming from their subdued winter plumage into their brilliant yellow of summer. It's fun to watch them get a little bit brighter every day. 

I managed to catch a few pix of a couple of guys on one of our feeders, looking quite mottled:

Surely not looking at their best in this awkward in-between stage but, hey, it's what they've gotta go through to regain their flash, right? 

I'm also happy to note that the Fox Sparrows are still around. We now have at least four. I couldn't resist snapping a few more pix of one today:

 

The second one is a tad blurry, as I caught him/her in the middle of doing the Fox Sparrow Two-Step; i.e., their characteristic two-footed scrape in search of some edible morsel. 

As always, click on the small images to bring up larger copies.

Another surprise snowfall

Although I didn't believe it when I got up this morning, the snow that had been predicted began falling in the early afternoon. And has been coming down pretty steadily ever since. It's sticking, but since the ground had thawed pretty thoroughly the snow has not accumulated as much as might be expected.

The snow certainly brought the birds to the feeders! They'd been pretty active in the morning even before the snow began, but things got really busy once the white stuff appeared. Juncos and Goldfinches were out in big numbers. Doing an accurate count was pretty much impossible, since there were flocks of varying sizes on all three sides of the house where we have feeders. And, of course, when perhaps six or eight were readily apparent, any movement that startled them, such as opening the front door, would result in a flock of many times that number taking off for the trees. I suspect there were easily 35-50 Juncos around, and perhaps as many Goldfinches. Males of the latter are getting more and more mottled every day, as they move through the process of changing their drab--but still lovely--winter plumage for the brilliant yellow of summer.

A small group of Common Redpolls is still around; I've seen a half-dozen or so. I'm delighted that not only are the Fox Sparrows still around, but now there are at least four individuals here. This is good. Song Sparrows seem to be becoming more numerous as well.

Although areas that had only just become clear have a layer of snow on them once again, the ground feeders seem to be able to scratch their way through to find food. And tomorrow we're supposed to get back to temperatures in the 40s, so the new snow cover will probably disappear as quickly as it came.

On related nature notes, the local mammals are also making their presence known. Raccoons have recently become active again. During the summer and fall we had to bring several of the feeders in every night lest the masked bandits help themselves to the seed and suet. Once winter came we no longer had to go through that ritual but, alas, it's become necessary to do so again. I know they have to eat, too, but I'm unwilling to provide them with a cake or two of suet every night! Chipmunks have also re-appeared, and the wood mice have resumed their efforts to nest in our gas grille. The battle is on!

Fox Sparrows

I noted back in November that we had our first Fox Sparrow in the yard, and that it was at that time a new life bird for me. Sally wasn't fortunate enough to see it, so we were thrilled when one appeared again this week. I noted again yesterday that we had two Foxes among our feeder visitors, though I realize now that I did not give their re-appearance sufficient fanfare! A single one had actually appeared a day or so earlier, but yesterday was the first time we'd seen two. Today they were joined by a third bird! I hope they stick around for a bit, though range maps show them as migratory in this area; they summer in far northern climes.

Today I managed to get a few halfway decent photos:

 

They certainly are handsome little guys! They're noticeably larger than most sparrows. Here's a shot of a Foxy with a Dark-eyed Junco, a female American Goldfinch, and an American Tree Sparrow for size comparison:

As always, click on the small images to see larger versions. 

By the way...that snow we had yesterday? It's all gone now, along with more of the winter's accumulation. But more is supposed to be on the way for tomorrow!

Quick p.s.

Add first-of-year Robins [at least four] and Northern Flicker [a singleton] to the day's species tally.

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.