I took advantage of a beautiful late winter morning recently to walk the fields around our farm and check out all the nest boxes there. Every year when the birds are not actively nesting, I clear out all the nests from the previous year. This year I turfed out three English sparrow nests, four wren nests, six bluebird or tree swallow nests, and four field mouse nests. Several of the 20 boxes I have around the farm had no nests, but did have fairly fresh droppings, indicating that these are probable roost boxes for the birds on our cold winter nights.
The English sparrow nests are easily identified because they usually take up the whole box, and are a scruffy mixture of grasses and feathers. The wrens’ nests are a tangled web of small twigs and usually take up the whole box, also. Bluebirds and tree swallows have much smaller nests that cover the bottom of the nest box with a thin layer of grasses and feathers. Field mice construct a tight ball of feathers, mosses, and grasses, and also usually fill the whole box cavity.
The birds are really beginning to become vocal during the mornings now, the most noticeable being the tufted titmouse, with its incessant calls, and the cardinals singing in their territory to attract mates.
Migrants return
On several days during last month we had flocks of grackles and red-winged blackbirds descend on our platform feeder and fields. These are some of the earliest returning birds in the spring. They are either really early, or are birds that decided that maybe this winter has not been too bad, and have hung around. Maybe the snowier weather south of us, in Washington and New York, has pushed them up to New England.
The feeders have had their usual variety of diners—goldfinches, house finches, English sparrows, juncos, and blue jays. The bluebirds are getting to be a brighter blue as they gain their breeding plumage. We have had occasional visits from a tree sparrow and a wonderfully patterned white-throated sparrow. On one of our morning walks, we saw two hen turkeys cross Brown Road. I am surprised we do not get the turkeys around the farm, but maybe the presence of Tetley, our dog, discourages them. We also heard the barred owl and Carolina wren. Tetley has recently been occupied with standing watch from the stone wall overlooking the pastures and chasing off the red fox that occasionally makes an appearance, trying to snag one of our chickens.
The ice started melting off the pond a little earlier than usual and on the third day that we had open water, wood ducks arrived. The male looked fabulous in his breeding plumage, while the female was her usual dull brown self.
After the heavy rains, the ice went totally off the pond; shortly after that we had three pairs of hooded mergansers show up. The male—with his white-and-black crest and bright white chest with a touch of rust on the wings—is even more spectacular to me than the wood duck. The mergansers keep moving north, but the wood ducks usually hang around for the summer, sometimes nesting in the grand old sycamore in the front of our house.
Now that spring has finally arrived, we will keep looking for more returning migrants.
David Durrant lives with his wife, Pamela, on East Bare Hill Road at Micheldever Farm, where they watch birds—wild birds and their own peacocks and chickens.
