Since it was a snowy overcast day, I thought I would take a break from cutting and splitting firewood, light a fire, and start my next “Wingin’ It” article. As there was a good FA Cup football game on (not American “football,” but the game recognized around the world as the genuine football), I decided to take a break and watch it. Five minutes after I sat down, I glanced out the window and saw what I initially thought was a mockingbird, but something was not quite right—on closer examination I realized it was a shrike.
These predatory birds prey on small birds and, low and behold, there was not another bird in sight—no one wanted to end up as lunch for the shrike, being impaled on a thorn or barbed wire (as is their habit) and slowly consumed.
We seem to be in the winter doldrums in terms of major bird activity. The redpolls are still around and the usual goldfinches, house finches, sparrows, chickadees, nuthatches, and tufted titmice, are around the feeder every day. I feed them sunflower pieces that are more expensive than the black oil sunflower seeds but do not leave any hulls to clean up and harbor diseases.
Speaking of disease, there is a disease going around that seems to afflict the house finches, evident by growths or lesions on their eyes. I have had one bird at the feeder this season that had one eye totally closed by this disease. To stop the spread of this disease and any other it is advisable to clean one’s feeders on a regular basis. I am still feeding the bluebirds with suet dough, although the house sparrows have taken a liking to it and devour it with gusto.
Pam and I spent last weekend in Maine with our friend Bonnie, which gave us a chance to check out the shore birds around Chamberlain and New Harbor. There were about 50 mallards hanging out in Long Cove and we got a good look at them. These birds are usually dismissed as “just mallards,” but if you take the time to really look at them you will see that their coloring is really quite lovely, with iridescent blue-green head feathers. Also in the cove we saw a common loon and a pair of red-breasted mergansers. Farther out in the ocean just off the rocks we saw several common eiders.
On a walk through Laverna conservation area the woods were very quiet, with not many birds active (it was around 15 degrees, which may explain this), but we did see a beautiful barred owl in a pine tree at the edge of a field, probably waiting to see a mouse or vole running over the crusty snow so that he could grab it for lunch.
Back home, I was visiting my friends Becky and Lindsay in Still River when Becky asked me to check out a bird that had been feeding on peanuts for the last few days. The quick look that I got registered as an oriole, but that did not seem right—he should be in Costa Rica or somewhere else in Central America at this time of year. He did not show himself again while I was there, so I suggested that Lindsay get a photo and send it to me. Meanwhile, Lindsay’s neighbor, Joanne, dropped by and identified it as a Baltimore oriole. Seeing an oriole here at this time of year is unusual, and I sent the photos off to Mass Audubon, as they are interested in unusual sightings.
As I continued working on this article, with a good view of our bird feeders, a Cooper’s hawk landed in the oak tree. This bird hangs around hoping to pick off a house sparrow or other small bird, but, as is often the case, all the other birds either saw it or heard the warning cries of other birds and lay low. He hung around for about five minutes, and seeing no bird activity, flew down across the pasture to try his luck in the hedgerow between the fields.
Molly dropped by this afternoon and told me she had some pine grosbeaks and cedar waxwings in a crab apple tree. As mentioned in my last article, I have not seen any grosbeaks around this year so it is good to know they are in the area—maybe they will find some of my fruit trees on their travels.
David Durrant lives with his wife, Pamela, on East Bare Hill Road at MichelDever Farm, where they run their business, Durrant Design, and watch birds—their own peacocks, chickens, and wild birds.
