Photo by Chris Bosak A northern cardinal grabs a seed from a feeder in Danbury, CT.
I wanted to do something a little different for my annual Christmas column this year.
I typically do a gift guide column, but I will keep that part of the article brief, only to say that giving someone a membership to a conservation organization, particularly a local one, is always a great gift for your birder. Material gift ideas, such as binoculars or spotting scopes, are readily available online.
For this year, I want to do something that is perhaps a bit corny, but fun anyway. I am going to break down the classic carol The Twelve Days of Christmas and relate each of the days to birdwatching in New England.
Here we go …
12 drummers drumming. My first thought was to use the ruffed grouse as it makes a drumming sound by flapping and rotating its wings in the woods to claim territory. I am, however, going to save the grouse for later. So the 12th day will be the drumming of New England woodpeckers. Hopefully the image you have of drumming is a woodpecker drumming on a tree in the woods rather than drumming on the side of your house.
Photo by Chris Bosak – black vultures in a tree on the side of a road in New England.
Birders are trained to find things that look out of place. It is a self-training that happens naturally over the course of many years of looking for birds.
A slight movement in the bushes likely means a bird or small mammal. That bump on a fence railing or post is probably a small perching bird taking a rest. If you are canoeing and the expanse of calm water ahead of you is broken by barely distinguishable ripples, a diving duck may soon reappear on the surface.
This gift that birders have, I think, is most often on display while driving. Most people will drive by a hawk perched on a branch along the road and not even notice it. Birders, on the other hand, see the blob in the tree from a mile away. A positive identification of the blob is made as you zoom past at 65 miles an hour. Just the other day, I noticed a bald eagle perched along a river. From the road, however, it was largely hidden by branches, but something just didn’t look quite right.
This gift is most evident when driving or walking along a familiar route. If you’ve walked a trail through the woods a thousand times, you get to know where every rock, root and upturned tree is. Anything that looks out of the ordinary is immediately noted and inspected to see if it’s a bird or animal.
New England’s ospreys left the region weeks ago for warmer temperatures in the south. That doesn’t mean, however, that they are forgotten.
The return of the osprey from dangerously low numbers is another hugely successful conservation story. Last week, in honor of Thanksgiving, I talked about the turkey reintroduction and how wild turkey numbers went from zero to goodness knows how many in New Hampshire over just the last 50 years or so. Ospreys have a similar successful conservation story.
Ospreys were at critically low numbers in the 70s and slowly started making a comeback due to conservation efforts on many fronts. The osprey population is now to the point where it is safe to say it is wildly successful.
I recall working for a newspaper in southern Connecticut in the early 2000s, and a pair of ospreys building a nest on a light tower at a local beach was literally front-page news. Ospreys hadn’t nested in that city in several decades. Now that town, Norwalk, has several dozen osprey pairs nesting in it. A similar story can be told about osprey up and down the Connecticut coast along Long Island sound. Inland osprey numbers are thriving as well.
Photo by Chris Bosak
Hummingbirds are migrating now and will be throughout the rest of the month.
The hummingbird season got off to a slow start for me this year.
I didn’t see a single hummingbird at my feeder in April or May. I saw a few in the backyard in June, but they zipped by my feeding station like it wasn’t even there. That contrasts with last year when a few hummingbirds visited daily from spring through fall.
This year’s fortunes have changed, thankfully, as hummingbirds became a regular occurrence once August hit. I believe the visits are coming from a combination of a hummingbird family that nested nearby and some southward migrants.
Ruby-throated hummingbirds, the only hummingbird species that regularly occurs in the eastern U.S., start their southward migration out of New England in August (some as early as late July.) Just like adult males were the first to arrive in the spring, they are the first to leave on the southward journey.
Plenty of adult male hummingbirds remain in New England. My most frequent visitor over the last few weeks has been a male. They will mostly be gone by the end of the month. Females and first-year birds will mostly be gone by the middle or end of September. Hummingbird feeders can remain up into October as the stragglers heading out of New England will need to fuel up too.
Hummingbirds need plenty of fuel as these tiny birds make their way to Central America for the winter. The arduous nonstop flight across the Gulf of Mexico takes a lot out of the birds. Whether a bird’s route takes it directly across the gulf or a more coastal route, it’s still a long, perilous journey. Their typical weight is just over three grams. They bulk up to about six grams for the journey and are between two and three grams when they get to the other side of the gulf.
Which species come to mind when you think of urban birds?
For me, pigeons, sparrows, starlings and crows immediately come to mind. There have been times when I have seen some surprise birds in urban areas, such as the yellow-rumped warbler I saw while I was sitting in a downtown restaurant. There are also stories, of course, of birds such as hawks and falcons nesting in skyscrapers.
The aforementioned species, however, are perhaps the most common urban birds. A new study by scientists − based on data, research and observations from six continents and 379 cities − looks at how these species thrive in such an environment. Importantly, it also looks at how to maintain as much biodiversity as possible in urban areas. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
One takeaway seems rather obvious in that birds that thrive in urban ecosystems eat a variety of foods. I’ve seen house sparrows begging for French fries at fast-food restaurants. I’ve seen crows flying with pizza crust in their bills. Starlings will eat whatever is offered at the feeder – seeds, suet, fruit, mealworms, whatever.
Photo by Chris Bosak
American oystercatcher along the shore of Long Island Sound, summer 2023.
Last week I wrote about the joys of birding in the sweltering August heat. A few days after writing the column, I took my own advice and visited a beach on Long Island Sound in southern Connecticut.
It turns out that I actually know what I am talking about every so often as I had a great time looking at the birds along the shore. The action started before I walked out of the parking lot as three ospreys soared overhead. Their “ki-ki-ki” call drew my attention and subconsciously turned my eyes upward to the sky.
As I walked along the shrubby area to get to the beach, a catbird and a few song sparrows provided a warm-up for the birding action that lay just ahead.
Photo by Chris Bosak An Osprey perches on the top of a pole at Veterans Park in Norwalk, Conn.
When thinking of the most exciting months for birdwatching in New England, August typically does not come to mind. April and May maybe. Perhaps September and October. But August?
On the surface, August may be one of the least exciting months for birding. Spring migration is well behind us. Fall migration still lies ahead. Nesting season, for the most part, is over. On top of all that, it’s hot, humid and sticky out.
Scratching beneath the surface unearths a different story about August. It is indeed a migration month, there are a lot of birds to see on or around water, goldfinches are plentiful, hummingbirds pay frequent visits and it’s a great month to expand beyond birding to look for butterflies, dragonflies and other similar critters.
Photo by Chris Bosak
An American goldfinch looks for seeds atop a coneflower in New England, summer 2020.
The challenge lately, it seems, is to find a field or meadow without goldfinches in it.
Mid to late summer is the time for goldfinches to shine and take the spotlight in the birding world. While most birds have completed or are winding down their nesting seasons, American goldfinches are just getting started.
There are several theories on why goldfinches nest so late compared to other birds, but it is abundantly clear that their nesting season coincides with the availability of seeds and certain nesting materials in nature.
Seeds are more plentiful in July and August than they are in April or May, and goldfinches use the fluff from thistle and other plants to line their nests. Goldfinches are almost exclusively seed eaters and rarely supplement their diet with insects. That goes for the babies as well, as they are fed regurgitated seeds. Nearly all other songbirds feed their young a mix of insects and seeds, or just insects, which are higher in protein.
Photo by Chris Bosak A chipping sparrow perches on a garden stake in New England.
I have written about the Winter of Bluebirds, Winter of Barred Owls, Winter of Snowy Owls and the Winter of a few other species. They are just fun columns about a species that seems especially prevalent during a certain winter.
I have yet to write about a bird that dominates any other season. Until now. I present to you the Summer of the Chipping Sparrow. I have seen more chipping sparrows this summer than I can remember in any past summer. They are not only plentiful but ubiquitous. They are at my home and work. I visited my brother in Erie, Pennsylvania, and chipping sparrows were everywhere. I visited friends in Pittsburgh and, you guessed it, chipping sparrows aplenty.
It’s not that chipping sparrows are rare in other summers, but in my very unscientific observances, they are particularly plentiful this summer. That’s a good thing, of course. Chipping sparrows are a native species, and they can brighten up a day with their trilling song.
The best thing about seeing them at this point in the summer is that the sightings include several first-year birds and that bodes well for the future of the species. While many bird species are struggling to survive and seeing noted decreases in their population, chipping sparrows appear to be doing fine.
Photo by Chris Bosak
A ruby-throated hummingbird takes a bath in the leaf of a canna lily in New England.
Summer heatwaves are nothing new to New England. It seems as if every year we go through two or three stretches of enduring hot and humid weather. Summer heatwaves are as much a New England thing as bitter cold stretches in the winter.
It seems as if the winter weather is what most people associate with New England, however. Skiing, shoveling and sitting around the fireplace are the images often depicted when describing New England. I’m guilty of that myself as every winter it seems I write a column about how birds survive bitter cold stretches.
In this column, I’ll look at how birds survive the other temperature extreme. Birds can’t exactly turn on air conditioners or take a dip in the pool or lake (not in the way that humans do anyway). They do have several mechanisms for dealing with the heat and have survived these heatwaves for centuries.
Some of the coping mechanisms are similar to those employed by humans. Birds will seek shade and water when the sun is burning down. I was walking down a road the other morning and it was already unbearably hot and humid. As I walked under the canopy of an oak tree, I felt instant relief. There was even a slight comfortable breeze that I hadn’t noticed when I was in the sun. Trees provide relief from the direct heat of the sun and allow birds to regulate their body temperature.
Birds will also seek out water sources such as streams, lakes and birdbaths when the temperature soars. They may not plunge themselves into the water like a human would do, but they splash around or take sips of water to keep cool. It’s important to keep your birdbaths clean and filled with fresh water during the summer. During extremely hot and dry weather, birdbaths should be cleaned every few days. This is when the birds really need that water.
Shorebirds in particular utilize water during hot days as shade is rare or nonexistent on beaches. They will wade in with both feet or even dip down to soak their feathers. If they have nestlings, shorebirds will return to the nest and shake off their wet feathers to cool off the youngsters.
Water also helps keep birds clean, which is another important factor in keeping cool. Bathing and preening remove dirt and excess oil from their feathers. This enables better air circulation and insulation. Bathing also helps in reducing parasites and keeping feathers in good shape.
Birds are typically more active during the morning and evening, but this is particularly true during hot summer days. This is a commonsense example of simply avoiding the sun when it is at its hottest. For nature watchers who are willing to brave the extreme conditions, that means focusing your efforts on other critters such as butterflies, dragonflies, snakes, frogs or anything else active during the day.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, birds have an efficient thermoregulation system, which allows them to survive extremely hot or cold conditions by adjusting their metabolic rate and circulatory system to fit the current need. Panting increases airflow over their respiratory system and releases heat from their bodies. Panting, of course, is a cooling mechanism used by dogs and other mammals too.
Just like the cold New England winters, our hot summers can be challenging for birds too. Luckily, they know just what to do.
Birds of New England.com 