For the Birds: Plentiful ponds highlight trips up north

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Photo by Chris Bosak A common loon swims at May Pond in Pillsbury State Park in New Hampshire in June 2019.

The joke in many cities goes like this: If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute; it’ll change.

That certainly applies to northern New Hampshire — and all of New England for that matter — but I have come up with a similar saying about the upper reaches of the Granite State: If you don’t like the remote pond you’ve found, keep driving; you’ll find another one.

I’ve found countless gems of water far from civilization during my many travels to the Great North Woods just by picking a dirt road and driving. Sometimes it takes a little persistence — and a few hairy sections of “road” — but ponds are always there to find. And they’re always spectacular.

One pond typically doesn’t look very different from the next, but they all harbor their own secrets and wildlife surprises. To borrow another saying: They’re all the same, but different.

I found a great pond — maybe it was a bog or a fen, but I’ll call it a pond — a few weeks ago during a short trip to northern, N.H. I knew it was going to be great even before I parked the car and unleashed the canoe. I saw the loons right away.

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Black swallowtail on clover

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I found this gem during a walk through a field today (Monday, Sept. 4, 2023) in southwestern New England. This black swallowtail clearly favored red clover as it bypassed all the other flowers in the field and landed on every clover it could find.

For the Birds: Hummingbird news from around the country

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Photo by Chris Bosak A female ruby-throated hummingbird visits a flower in New England, July 2020. Merganser Lake.

There’s nothing like hummingbirds to unite and excite North America.

Last week’s column on the timing of hummingbird migration apparently got ranked high on a popular internet search engine and blew up. I was wondering why I was suddenly getting emails from across the country and Canada. An editor from a New England newspaper emailed me to say the story had become the paper’s most popular story of 2023 overnight. The power of hummingbirds, I guess.

Emails came from British Columbia, California, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and each of the New England states. Even my aunt from Virgina texted me out of the blue to say she was directed to the article as well. Some of the regular For the Birds readers responded as well. I appreciated all the emails. Here is what some of the hummingbird fans had to say:

Carolanne from Atkinson, New Hampshire, said she recently became interested in hummingbirds as her “life has slowly quieted down” with her children now grown. She has more time to sit on her deck and watch the wildlife, and hummingbirds became a favorite of hers. She was amazed that hummingbirds fly across the Gulf of Mexico during migration and wondered why they don’t just remain in Florida. It’s an interesting thought, and researchers are discovering that some hummingbirds do indeed remain in Florida or Louisiana instead of making the trip across the Gulf.

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For the Birds: Keep those hummingbird feeders out

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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.

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Hummingbird story blows up

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Somehow this story got caught up in the Google machine. I’ve received emails from California, Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, Indiana, Ohio, each of the New England states, and Canada. Funny how things like that happen sometimes.

One of the editors at The Sentinel told me it’s the most popular story on their website for 2023.

I’ll post the column here in the next day or two.

For the Birds: Urban-dwelling birds have specialties

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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.

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Quick iPhone photo

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Photo by Chris Bosak – swallowtail on ironweed.

Here’s a nice scene I came across today while taking a walk in southern Connecticut. Swallowtail butterfly on ironweed. Ironweed and goldenrod are in bloom together making this Viking fan very happy.

For the Birds: A day at the beach

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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.

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For the Birds: August holds its own birding rewards

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Photo by Chris Bosak An Osprey perches on the top of a pole at Veterans Park in Norwalk, Conn., spring 2016.
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.  

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