Here is my Day 4 contribution to #challengeonnaturephotography
See previous post for explanation of #challengeonnaturephotography
Thanks for checking out http://www.birdsofnewengland.com
Day 4 of my #challengeonnaturephotography
Reply
Day 3 of my #challengeonnaturephotography
Here is my Day 3 contribution to #challengeonnaturephotography
See previous post for explanation of #challengeonnaturephotography
Thanks for checking out http://www.birdsofnewengland.com
Day 2 of my #challengeonnaturephotography
Here’s day 2. See previous post for explanation of #challengeonnaturephotography.
I have accepted the #challengeonnaturephotography
Day 1 of the #challengeonnaturephotography
One of the many latest things on Facebook these days is the Challenge on Nature Photography. Oh, I’m sorry. This is 2015. I mean the #challengeonnaturephotography
I was challenged by my friend David Winston, the landscaper/photographer of Cove Island Wildlife Sanctuary fame. The challenge is put up a different nature photograph for seven days and nominate a different person to do the same. Coming up with seven nature photographs will be a breeze. Can I come up with seven Facebook friends who would accept the challenge. Do you want to be challenged? Let me know and nominate you. Above is my first contribution to the Challen … sorry, to the #challengeonnaturephotography
You can look on Twitter using the hashtag search #challengeonnaturephotography for other challenge-takers throughout the world. I’m happy to be part of it and thank David for his nomination.
New bird feeder already working
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Black-capped Chickadee grabs a seed from a bird feeder as a White-breasted Nuthatch bides its time before grabbing a seed.
I received a neat bird feeder as a house-warming gift recently from a friend. I debated whether to actually use it as a bird feeder or to keep it inside as a decoration. I ultimately figured that it would serve both purposes outdoors on the deck. It would be a nice decoration outside and feed the birds.
But would it really attract birds? It is unlike any bird feeder I’ve ever had before. There’s only one way to find out and that is to put some seeds in it. Within minutes the chickadees came. Then the titmice came. Finally the nuthatches checked it out and took some seeds.
After the seeds were gone, I put some whole peanuts in there and waited. Sure enough, within a day or two, the Blue Jays found it.
It’s been a very popular feeder with the birds — and a nice decoration for the deck. Thanks for the thoughtful gift, Lorna!
For the Birds column: Project FeedWatch underway
Here’s my latest For the Birds column, which ran last Thursday in The Hour (Norwalk, CT) and Monday in The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel.
Photo by Chris Bosak
White-breasted Nuthatches are a common feeder bird in New England.
Project FeederWatch gets under way
What will $18 get you these days?
About four cups of coffee from Starbucks. (Served in plain red cups void of evil, offensive snowflake images.)
About eight gallons of gasoline. Way better than the five gallons it used to get you.
Three bundles of the firewood stacked at the entrance of every grocery store, convenience store and hardware store these days. The bundles are each good for about 10 minutes in a firepit.
Two and a half craft beers at just about any bar or restaurant. Oops, forgot about the tip. Make that two beers.
Or, $18 covers your entrance fee to participate in Project FeederWatch, a citizen science project of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada. It entails keeping track of the birds you see at your backyard feeding stations and submitting your results online. The data collected helps scientists track bird populations in the winter — similar to the Christmas Bird Count and Great Backyard Bird Count.
The fee also gets you a bird ID poster, birdwatching calendar, instruction sheet and newsletter. No guarantee here that the materials will not have images of snowflakes. Try not to be offended if they do.
Project FeederWatch officially started this past Saturday and runs through early April. Don’t worry if you missed the opening day, you can join in whenever. Participants can count the birds as much or as little as they’d like — 24/7 monitoring is not necessary. Being an expert birdwatcher is not required either.
All skill levels welcome. Why not get the entire family involved? Old and young.
I’ve never participated in the Project before, mostly because I’ve never lived in a place where my feeders have been terribly active. Now that I live at a place with very active feeders I’m looking forward to participating this year. (Active feeders, however, are not a prerequisite for participation. Anybody can do it as long as they have a feeder up.)
The feeders at my new place are always bustling with the common visitors White-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, Tufted Titmice and Downy Woodpeckers. I also see Carolina Wrens, Blue Jays, Hairy Woodpeckers, Red-bellied Woodpeckers and American Goldfinches. Lately I’ve noticed a few Dark-eyed Juncos under the feeders. The White-throated Sparrows are not far behind, I’m sure. Will my Pine Warblers I had earlier this fall return to the suet cake? Probably not, but I’ll be watching. Who knows what else will show up?
To join the Project or to get more information, visit http://www.feederwatch.org. The website is full of information and tips on identifying birds (including tricky IDs), feeding birds tips, trend maps, and historical data.
So why participate other than it “helps scientists?” Many bird species are in decline, some seriously so. Tracking the winter abundance and distribution of birds with long-term data offers valuable insight into their lives. It helps scientists track gradual population shifts of bird species. WE know the Carolina Wren and Red-bellied Woodpecker are trending northward. This data quantifies the movement.
That’s more of a positive population shift. What about the negative one? What about the species that are declining year after year?
The data helps scientists recognize the decline and figure out solutions more quickly.
Let me know if join and what birds you see at your feeders.
For the Birds runs Thursdays in The Hour. Chris Bosak may be reached at bozclark@earthlink.net. Visit his website at birdsofnewengland.com
A few flowers hanging tough
Most of the flowers in my gardens have long wilted and disappeared, even though this has been a mild autumn by New England standards.
The coneflower and Black-eyed Susan heads are still available for goldfinches and kinglets but the colorful pedals are gone. Well, mostly gone. Here are a few die-hards still hanging in there. Feel free to share your New England mid-November garden photos.
Pincushion
Dianthus
Black-eyed Susan
Finally, coneflower.
For the Birds column: Another big Snowy Owl irruption year?
Here’s my For the Birds column from last week. Another big Snowy Owl irruption year? We’ll see …
Photo by Chris Bosak
A Snowy Owl flies across the beach at The Coastal Center at Milford Point in early March 2014.
The historic Snowy Owl irruption of the 2013-14 winter is still fresh in many people’s minds. I know it’s still on the top of my mind. Could we be in store for another one this winter?
We’ll have to wait and see, of course, but if what is happening in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan already is any indication, the chances are pretty good. We’ve barely turned the calendar over to November and sightings in those states are booming. Typically it is mid to late November when the Snowy Owls start showing up.
The Snowy Owl that delighted hundreds of visitors at Calf Pasture Beach in 2008, however, showed up in early November. This year the sightings in the Midwest came even earlier, starting as early as Oct. 20, according to the folks at eBird. eBird is an online database of bird sightings with much of the data submitted by citizen scientists.
Project FeederWatch starts Saturday
Here’s an email I received recently from The Cornell Lab or Ornithology. With my new home buzzing with bird activity, I’m going to join this important citizen science project this year. Here are the details should you be thinking about it, too, or learning of the project for the first time here:
|
|||
|
Merganser Lake: The view from my desk today
Here’s the view from my office desk today. I didn’t get much writing done. Tomorrow I’ll write ….
Birds of New England.com 