Howdy folks. When I went to bed (late) last night we only had 1 inch, but
this morning there was 8". It was beautiful, everything was white. I was
trying to look at the feeders while trying to make coffee and listening to
all the excitement from the kids, and the birds were all going berserk as
expected. The bird frenzy distracted me about 5 minutes before I realized
there was substantial damage to our pine (only to the whites) and magnolia
trees. My heart sank as I wondered about other ornamentals; everything
was sagging under a tremendous strain from the heavy snow.
Then we had a surprise visitor at the feeders; probably the first ever,
from an American Crow. It dwarfed all the other birds, and looked oddly
huge standing among them. Surprisingly many of the small birds did not
flee; they kept on feeding. The crow was only there about 15 seconds and
then moved on.
Todays observations from the house and yard included one nice surprise (a
perched American Kestrel eating a small bird out in the marsh), and one
odd observation - essentially all the geese and puddle ducks (wintering
waterfowl) are gone. I was not at home during the day for most of the
week, so I didn't notice their disappearance, until today. I wonder if
they moved north?
Here's is today's list (41 species; * denotes observed at feeders):
Canada Goose 22
Mallard 25
American Black Duck 2
Northern Pintail 4
Common Merganser 17
Turkey Vulture 1
Black Vulture 3
Northern Harrier 2
Bald Eagle 1
Red–shouldered Hawk 1
American Kestrel 1
Ring-billed Gull 350+
Herring Gull 170
Mourning Dove* 13
Belted Kingfisher 2
Red-bellied Woodpecker* 2
Downy Woodpecker* 2
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Blue Jay 4
American Crow*(1) 4
Tufted Titmouse* 2
Carolina Chickadee* 3
White-breasted Nuthatch* 2
Carolina Wren* 3
American Robin 3
Northern Mockingbird 2
European Starling* 11
Eastern Towhee 1
Song Sparrow* 2
Swamp Sparrow 2
White-throated Sparrow* 17
Dark eyed Junco* 12
Northern Cardinal* 9
Red-winged Blackbird* 42
Common Grackle*(200+) 1200
Rusty Blackbird 1
Brown-headed Cowbird* 13
Purple Finch* 3
House Finch* 7
American Goldfinch* 11
House Sparrow 1
Cheers-
Jeff Shenot
Croom MD |