It’s been a while since I’ve posted a bird quiz — years perhaps. I’ll ease back in with a relatively easy one. So here you go, what is this bird? I’ll post the answer in a day or two. Thanks for playing along.
Bird quiz: What do we have here?
5
For the Birds: A tree full of birds
A pair of ruby-crowned kinglets flitted among the brush, and a crow or two flew overhead. That was all the bird action on the early part of the walk.
Then I heard a commotion coming from a nearby tree. It was a huge, dead maple tree with no leaves on its branches, but various types of vines climbed up its trunk and spread out among the limbs. The vines still had their leaves, making the tree look like nature had splattered various shades of red, yellow, orange and green on the venerable old guard.
Something must have been lurking among the brush because the birds were on high alert. I’ve never seen a more varied collection of bird species in one tree before. I could hardly believe it as I counted out the species in my head.
Continue readingA few more yellow-rumped warbler photos
A few weeks ago, I wrote about finding a flock of yellow-rumped warblers eating poison ivy berries. Here are a few more shots. Click here for the original story.
For the Birds: Halloween in nature
A little late for Halloween, but whatever …
I’ve always liked Halloween. It’s kind of a silly holiday if you think about it, but maybe that’s why I like it so much.
As a kid, trick-or-treating was the highlight of Halloween, of course. It was fun to find a costume and dress up, but it was mostly about the candy back then. As I got in my late teens and 20s, Halloween parties become the highlight of the season. I’ll don’t think I’ll expand on that one. We’ve all been there.
Even as an adult I still like Halloween. I don’t trick-or-treat, and I don’t party as much, but I still like the imagery and aura associated with the holiday. “It feels like Halloween tonight,” I find myself saying on many walks in the fall. Something about those chilly nights with clouds and a bright moon remind me of being a kid trick-or-treating or taking my boys around the neighborhood when they were younger.
Continue readingRed squirrel in fall
I know some people don’t care for red squirrels — particularly homeowners who have the rodents in their houses — but I’ve always liked them and enjoyed their antics.
Squirrels: Don’t fight them, feed them
The following article and photos provided by Cole’s Wild Bird Products
Countless backyards are battlegrounds between die-hard homeowners and squirrels fighting over bird feed. Squirrels need not be an inevitable element of bird feeding; even though keeping squirrels out of bird feeders is an age-old problem, there are ways to thwart these thieves.
One common tactic is stocking feeders with seed squirrels dislike, such as safflower, nyjer, white proso millet and seed infused with capsaicin, a compound derived from hot peppers that makes mammals’ tongues smart. An option like Cole’s Hot Meats features nutritious sunflower meats infused with fiery habanero chili peppers. They’re a no waste, no mess feed, birds enjoy but squirrels’ dislike.
Continue readingTwo points
Two-point white-tailed deer photo, just because.
For the Birds: Patience pays off again
Any birdwatcher knows that patience and faith are perhaps the two most important components to a successful bird walk.
I started a recent walk with high hopes, as I always do, but as the morning went on and no birds were to be found, I started to lose hope of seeing anything. To compound matters, the field at the park had recently been mowed for the first time of the year, making bird encounters even less likely.
It still would have been a pleasant walk because the autumn morning chill had given way to a beautiful and warm sunny day. But with fall migration in full swing, I was disappointed in the birding results.
Continue readingFor the Birds: Efts and mushrooms make for a very orange walk
Orange was the color of the day during a recent morning walk in the woods.
It had rained overnight and the trails were damp in most places and puddled in others. I got a flash of excitement when I saw my first eft. Then I saw another. Then another. Efts were underfoot on every fifth or sixth step.
Efts are eastern newts in the terrestrial stage. Some are brownish but most are bright orange and, despite their small size, very visible on paths in the woods. They can be found any day from late spring into fall, but damp weather is when you are most likely to find them, even if you aren’t looking for them.
Newts have four distinct stages, or life cycles. Females lay eggs on aquatic vegetation in the spring. A month to five weeks later, the eggs hatch and the newts live in water for a few months. At this larval stage, they are less than 1 inch long and have feathery gills. In the fall, they shed their gills, crawl onto land and live as efts for about three or four years. They spend New England’s harsh winters hibernating under logs or rocks.
Continue readingFor the Birds: Big news week for the birds
Note: This column was originally published in newspapers on Oct. 4.
There was a lot of environmental and bird-related news to come out of Washington this past week.
In case you missed it, the big news was that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials declared the ivory-billed woodpecker extinct. The “Lord God Bird’s” removal from the endangered species list is surprising only because officials are reluctant to declare species extinct. It’s such a powerful word that carries with it such finality it’s a tough tag to put on something.
The dreaded label was also placed on 22 other species of wildlife, including eight freshwater mussels. Sadly, but not surprisingly, 11 species from Hawaii and the Pacific Islands have been declared extinct. That includes many birds.
Continue reading
Birds of New England.com 