There is a barred owl near the feeding area right now! Soaking up November sunlight, keeping eyes + ears focused on chipmunks + juncos… http://ow.ly/i/kPGk
Through the Window: October 2011 Feeder and Garden Birds
What people have recorded on our white board by the viewing window.
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- American Goldfinch
- Black-capped chickadee
- Song sparrow
- Mourning Dove
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Blue Jay
- American Crow
- Eastern Phoebe
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Canada Goose
- White-throated sparrow
- American Robin
- Tufted Titmouse
- Raven (2 on 10/18/11, in the morning, above the museum)
- Northern Cardinal
- Ruffed Grouse (eating crabapples at 4:15 p.m. in late October)
For even more birds—perceived from more or less the other side of the window and garden—check out our Big Sit! results too!
Through the Window: April birds… snow… mammals… no snow!
Birds
Not seen (or recorded) last month are bold
- Wild Turkey
- Mourning Dove
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Black-Capped Chickadee
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Dark-eyed Junco (12 on 3/16)
- Common Grackle
- Blue Jay
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Tufted Titmouse
- Continue reading “Through the Window: April birds… snow… mammals… no snow!”
Through the Window: March birds and others
Birds
We’ve bolded the one we didn’t observe last month.
- Hairy Woodpecker (male)
- Downy Woodpecker
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Blue Jay
- Tufted Titmouse (also singing like crazy 3/27)
- American Crow (heard 3/1, 2 eating corn 3/24, 1 on 3/27 until it saw me through the window)
- Common Redpolls (5 on 3/4/11)
- Mourning Dove
- Northern Cardinal (male)
- Red-breasted Nuthatch (3/13/11)
- Dark-eyed Junco
- White-breasted Nuthatch (3/13/11)
- Grackle (3/24/11)
- Red-winged Blackbird (heard 3/15/11, seen 3 on 3/24/11)
- Evening Grosbeak (male and female pair 3/30/11)
Mammals
- Red Squirrel
- Gray Squirrels (3 on 3/31/11)
- Eastern Cottontail (3/8)
- Eastern Chipmunk (3/15/11)
And if you’re curious, here’s a quick picture and post about what we feed the birds.
Through the Window: February Birds at the Feeders (more or less)
Birds
We’ve bolded the one we didn’t observe last month.
- Tree Sparrow
- Wild Turkeys (2 on 2/4; 13 on 2/24)
- American Robin (7 on 2/4)
- Northern Cardinal
- Blue Jay
- Ruffed Grouse (across the road on 2/8, near the brook)
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Tufted Titmouse
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Mourning Dove
- European Starling
- Raven (flying over)
- Evening Grosbeak
- Black-capped Chickadee
- American Crow
- White-winged Crossbill (Male and Female on 2/16)
- Common Redpolls (3 on 2/23 on the thistle seed)
Mammals
- Red Squirrel
- Gray Squirrels
- Fisher (tracks seen 2/16, fisher itself on 2/28)
And if you’re curious, here’s a quick picture and post about what we feed the birds.
Through the Window: January feeder birds
Birds
- Wild Turkeys (1/2/11; two talkative turkeys)
- Hairy Woodpecker (both male and female)
- Blue Jays
- Black-capped Chickadees
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Tufted Titmouse
- Mourning Dove
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Common Redpolls
- Northern Cardinal
- Downy Woodpecker
- American Robin (2 at 2:30 pm 1/21 on nearby branches)
- Pileated Woodpecker (1/25 at the front of the Museum—happened to notice while coming into work)
Mammals
- Red Squirrel
- 3 fat Gray Squirrels
A bit of a spare month. Perhaps we’re not sitting at the window enough?
Through the Window: December feeder birds
We had a new visitor this month, and I’ll tell you who right after the monthly list of birds. A light-weight month, perhaps for weather, but more likely for the season.
Birds
- Black-capped chickadee
- Tufted Titmouse
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Wild Turkey
- Blue Jay
- Dark-eyed Junco (12/7; about 18 inches of snow fell in the night of 12/6 and the morning of 12/7)
- Downy Woodpecker
- Northern Cardinal
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Mourning Dove
- American Tree Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow (12/10, a warmish, wet and windy day)
- American Goldfinch (12/17)
- Common Redpolls (4 of them on 12/17)
Mammals
- Red Squirrel (of course)
- and an Eastern Cottontail
Coincidentally, today (posting day) is the Hinesburg/Huntington Christmas Bird Count. It’s rather foggy, actually, so not too much observed yet, I’m told. But the day is still young! (In fact, I just saw a wild turkey, because it was chuckling to itself and I looked up from typing this.)
What’s in Our Feeders?
Visitors often ask us what we feed the birds. We currently have several feeding locations: the ground (including up on some rocks), crabapple trees, and elevated seed and suet feeders. We also hang oriole and hummingbird feeders in summer.
On the ground, we sprinkle kernel corn and mixed seeds, to attract turkeys, sparrows, juncos, blackbirds, and others. Not only do we sprinkle this by the viewing area, but in the summer Bob scatters corn by the pond for resident and visiting waterfowl (although the turkeys appreciate it too).
The crabapple tree produces small, cheery-sized apples, which attracts grouse and many of the smaller birds who also visit our feeders. This tree is visible in the photo below, in the background behind the feeders. There are other crabapples and feral apples on the property (that’s another post, someday).
The hummingbird feeders are hung just outside the viewing window and another outside the front door, but those are removed for the winter. We usually see hummingbirds during the first week of May, and they typically leave the first week in September. We do keep the feeders up through most of September, to support those migrating from points north.
Our upper feeders hold (generally) black oil sunflower seed, sunflower chips, mixed seeds, thistle, and suet. These attract a wide variety of birds, from doves to jays, grosbeaks to finches, woodpeckers, nuthatches, and many more. We hang a jelly feeder for orioles in the summer also. Check out our birds at the feeder posts for records of what we’ve seen when (a click on those post titles will take you to the posts and any pictures as well).
Our webcam shows a few of our upper feeders; this image is from a sunny morning in November 2010.
Our elevated feeders–the ones in the photo–are mounted on a 4″-diameter steel pole, 8 feet above the ground. The pole is set in concrete, and has a baffle beneath. We grease the pole every now and then. Most feeders are hung above the cross-bar part of the pole, although occasionally we will hang a feeder below.
Why all the elevated infrastructure? In a word, bears.
It is recommended that people in bear country not feed birds when bears are awake, especially early in the year when they are just awakening and are hungry after hibernation. For us in Vermont, this is roughly April 1 through November 1. However, as a Bird Museum, we also want to attract birds so visitors can enjoy them as we do, not to mention learning about and from them. Thus: tall, greased poles than black bears can’t knock over. (They have tried…)
Through the Window: November Feeder Birds – and Others
What a lovely month! We started this winter’s Feeder Watch, and had a few notable visitors. Here’s the month’s list, more or less in the order spotted.
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Blue Jay
- Fox Sparrow
- White-throated Sparrow
- Tufted Titmouse
- Hairy Woodpecker
- Dark-eyed Junco
- White-breasted Nuthatch
- Ruffed Grouse
- Downy Woodpecker
- Mourning Dove
- Evening Grosbeak
- American Goldfinch
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Wild Turkey
- Northern Cardinal
- Rusty Blackbird
- American Tree Sparrow
And of course, both the Gray and Red squirrels “assisted” with the corn and seed on the ground…
Through the Window: October Birds at the Feeders
If you’ve been to see us, you know that we record these birds on a whiteboard by the viewing window. The handwriting on the board is varied, as staff, volunteers, and even visitors will jot down the common name of birds they see. This month, against the final changes in foliage, we noted:
- Red-breasted Nuthatch
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Blue Jay
- Evening Grosbeak
- Black-capped chickadee
- American Goldfinch
- White-crowned sparrow
- Cooper’s Hawk
- Purple Finch (male)
- American Crow
- Mourning Dove
- Downy Woodpecker
- White-throated Sparrow
- Tufted Titmouse
- Brown Creeper
- Fox Sparrow
- Ruffed Grouse
- Song Sparrow
- Rusty Blackbirds (unless they were Common Grackles?)