Project FeederWatch - Week 6 (12/26/2010)

During the beginning stages and the prelude to this holiday weekend's big snowstorm/blizzard (or as the media calls it: "The Blizzard of 2010"), I continued my participation with Project FeederWatch. And it surely was not disappointing. The birds knew something big was going down, for they were everywhere and in good numbers! And as soon as it started to snow steadily and the winds picked up some, they hunkered down and the activity dropped off dramatically late in the afternoon!


6 Northern Cardinals (4 males, 2 females) were around all day long; 9 Dark-eyed Juncos were meandering around the bushes on the ground, trying to dig up goodness with their feet; 13 Mourning Doves flew in together, again scaring all the other diners off; a gorgeous Red-bellied Woodpecker (mature male) scared off a pair of Blue Jays out front so he could get at the suet cakes; and most notably, 3 Purple Finches and a good grouping of 16 House Finches kept all other comers at bay for the privilege of eating at the main tube feeder full of sunflower seeds.


All in all, quite pleased with yesterday's observance of 16 bird species, totaling 77 birds altogether. As always, the full listing is below.....happy birding everyone and good luck digging out from this storm....we had 12 inches here in Littleton, and I know many other places got much more!

Mourning Dove	13
Red-bellied Woodpecker	1
Downy Woodpecker	1
Hairy Woodpecker	1
Blue Jay	5
Black-capped Chickadee	5
Tufted Titmouse	5
White-breasted Nuthatch	2
Carolina Wren	1
American Robin	1
White-throated Sparrow	3
Dark-eyed Junco	9
Northern Cardinal	6
Purple Finch	3
House Finch	16
American Goldfinch	5

I have returned from my hiatus and am back in action!

It seems like it has been ages since last I graced you all with my presence and my whereabouts! Never fear, for bird watching will always be on my mind, just a matter of having the time and mula to do so.


At any rate, I usually spend my Saturday mornings to early afternoons with the fine folks and even more intriguing animals and birds over with Wildlife Care at Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary. I have been giving my time, roughly 3 hours at a time, once a week for the past several months since late January of this year. It truly is an honor and a privilege to work with the animals over at WLC, most in particular the birds they tend to there. From the American Crows to the Raven, to the raptors (American Kestrels, Broad-winged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Turkey Vultures) and owls (Great Horned Owls, Barred Owls, Eastern-Screech Owls), to even the Mallards, Pekin Ducks, and our "ambassador" Canada Goose, I just can't get enough of them. It is my hope to continue working with these amazing creatures over at Drumlin for as long as possible, of course depending on what life throws at me in the future.


After my time was done today at Drumlin, I shot over to Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge to finally get some physical exercise, to find some sense of solitude, and to see what birds I could possibly find through all the fierce winds we had whirling about today! As expected, not much in the way of activity was observed, thanks in part to the winds and also the simple fact I was there from 12:15 to 3:30 pm when birds typically are not as active. Our avian friends are more apt to be active in the dawn to mid-morning hours and also during the late-afternoon to dusk hours. The best bird of the day was seeing a Brown Creeper while hiking along Petapawag Trail....just fantastic looks at one of my all-time favorite birds! What I found most amusing was its propensity to follow this one White-breasted Nuthatch around from tree to tree. While the nuthatch probed the tree by walking up and down all sides of the trunk and branches, the creeper would, as is characteristic, walk in a spiral from base to crown until the nuthatch moved on and then would keep following aforementioned nuthatch! Its like the White-breasted Nuthatch was the Brown Creeper's best buddy or older brother! Of further note was seeing good numbers of Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers and Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Juncos. Here is the full list of birds seen....not many, but here they are all the same:

Location:     Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge--IBA
Observation date:     10/16/10
Notes:     Please also note that weather conditions were as follows: Mostly Sunny, temps in the mid 50s, winds at times in excess of 25 mph.
Number of species:     9

Canada Goose - Branta canadensis     11
Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens     2
Hairy Woodpecker - Picoides villosus     1
Blue Jay - Cyanocitta cristata     5
Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapillus     26
White-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta carolinensis     3
Brown Creeper - Certhia americana     1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - Dendroica coronata coronata     18
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - Junco hyemalis hyemalis/carolinensis     18

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)


To finish the day, I joined up with my always dependable good buddy Kirk Marshall and attended a banding demonstration of Northern Saw-whet Owls over at Drumlin Farm from 7 to 9:45 pm. What a freaking treat that was! For one, neither Kirk or myself had ever seen a Saw-whet Owl, and for me, this was my first banding demonstration of any kind! These lovely little owls (they only average 7 to 8 inches in length, from crown to tip of tail) are just so damned cute, especially with those huge saucer eyes that are so very startling yellow in contrast with their black pupils, pale facial disk and rufous-colored, streaky chest! We got to see how the tags were put on and how they recorded the data they obtained from each owl they captured. By the time Kirk and I had left Drumlin, from my best recollection (I was too concerned with the individual owls themselves afterall), we had 7 Saw-whets captured, banded, data-recorded and released back into the wild. I do wish I could count these Saw-whets as a Life bird, but that would be cheating. Yes, they are wild birds, but they were not seen on normal, everyday terms, as in just being out birding and chancing upon one in the wild, unfettered and not tampered with. These wild owls were captured in nets, tagged, measurements taken and finally released. Oh well.....one day Kirk and I will chance upon a Saw-whet in the wild just doing its thing without human interference! I did take a few pictures, but they are on my camera phone and not readily accessible to download to my laptop and thusly, upload to Facebook and this blog. The memory however, shall always remain, etched in my mind!


Truly a superb day it was....now it is time to catch some shut-eye and sleep in! Happy birding to everyone!

Sharp-shinned Hawk at our home in Littleton, MA

Hello fellow birders!

My Dad was up and at 'em this morning, and while making coffee, he looked out our back window overlooking our main feeder that is surrounded by lilac bushes and a firebush, he noticed a small raptor chowing down on his most recent kill. So, he came upstairs to wake me up to tell me that a small raptor was enjoying breakfast near the feeder underneath the firebush. I immediately jumped out of bed (this was around 9 am) to witness this spectacle. After conferring with my field guides at hand, we had a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk gorging himself on, as I later found out, a Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco. I watched the Sharpie for about 10 minutes, admiring him before deciding to hit the sack again (didn't fall asleep til 3 am because I was engrossed in a very good book). Also, while the Sharpie was busy with his meal, a bold Blue Jay kept harassing him from atop the main feeder, though the little hawk paid the Jay no attention. Just wanted to share that with ya folks! A good way to start the day (even though I did fall back asleep afterwards)!

eBird Report - Memorial Forest, Sudbury, MA , 1/27/10

Location:     Memorial Forest, Sudbury, MA
Observation date:     1/27/10
Notes:     Saw and heard the 2 Ravens while walking back to the parking lot when walking over the boardwalk that crosses Hop Brook (near the confluence of Hop Brook and Trout Brook in Memorial Forest.
Number of species:     6

Downy Woodpecker - Picoides pubescens     2
Common Raven - Corvus corax     2
Black-capped Chickadee - Poecile atricapillus     3
Tufted Titmouse - Baeolophus bicolor     4
White-breasted Nuthatch - Sitta carolinensis     1
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored) - Junco hyemalis hyemalis/carolinensis     3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org/massaudubon/)

eBird Report - 83 Hartwell Avenue, Littleton, MA 01460 , 1/13/10

Location:     83 Hartwell Avenue, Littleton, MA 01460
Observation date:     1/13/10
Notes:     The Eastern Towhee has been a regular visitor for the past 3 weeks, especially in the early morning and in the late afternoon/early evening hours flitting back and forth from underneath our porch which is surrounded by snow, holly bushes and lilac bushes to the backyard feeder, picking off fallen black sunflower seeds that other birds have dropped.
Number of species:     13

Mourning Dove     2
Downy Woodpecker     3
Hairy Woodpecker     2
Blue Jay     5
Black-capped Chickadee     7
Tufted Titmouse     6
White-breasted Nuthatch     1
Eastern Towhee     1
White-throated Sparrow     10
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)     6
Northern Cardinal     3
House Finch     1
American Goldfinch     2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)