Several boards to combine for today’s post: the usual white board, the Feedwatch tally sheet, and the Great Backyard Bird Count board!
Black-capped Chickadees (10 seen at the GBBC)
Hairy Woodpeckers (male and female; also 2 seen at the GBBC)
Downy Woodpeckers (male and female; also2 seen at the GBBC)
Common Redpoll (31 seen at the GBBC)
Dark-eyed Junco (1 seen at the GBBC)
Common Redpoll (31 seen at the GBBC)
Blue Jay(1 seen at the GBBC)
Mourning Dove(18 seen at the GBBC)
White-breasted Nuthatch (1 seen at the GBBC)
Tufted Titmouse (2 seen at the GBBC)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (1 seen at the GBBC)
Evening Grosbeak (female with the injured wing, seen at least twice, including 2/27/13 up on the platform feeder)
American Crow (1 seen at the GBBC)
Common Raven (1 seen at the GBBC)
Brown Creeper (on a yellow birch near the feeder area)
Of course we had some red and gray squirrels!
Project Feederwatch started November 10th. We usually do our observations at lunch, and thos species are included in the list above. This is a great project to do with kids. The Great Backyard Bird Count is another beginner-friendly (and expert-friendly!) citizen science project. This a short-term project (4 days), rather than a multi-month one. We’re looking forward to NestWatch coming up soon (exactly when depends on where you are; they have a spiffy new website too)
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, bear-resistant pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and other food choices. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
Guest post by Kari Jo Spear, Photographer, Novelist, and Daughter of Bob Spear
Addict
Main Entry:1 ad*dict
Pronunciation:*a*dikt
1 : to devote or surrender (oneself) to something habitually or excessively
I sat in my health class, knowing I was doomed. I had all the symptoms: obsession, distraction, longing… I began to feel huge tears welling up inside me. Life as I’d known it before was over.
My teacher led me into the hall. “What’s the matter, dear?” she asked, putting her arm around me.
“I couldn’t help it!” I sobbed. “It’s not my fault! He made me do it!”
She looked very concerned. “Who did, dear?”
“My – my father!”
“What – did he do?”
“He – he gave me – binoculars!”
———————————————————-
It happened on my birthday. We were sitting around the kitchen table, and there were two gifts from my father before me. Both were carefully wrapped in the comic pages from the newspaper—he and Gale were recycling before recycling was popular. Two innocent packages that were about to change my life forever.
Kid fashion, I opened the biggest one first. As the paper fell away–the last moments of my youthful innocence–I saw that I held a box containing a brand new pair of Nikon binoculars.
I looked up. I’d been hoping for books.
“They’re the best,” my father said excitedly. “Small and light, but with great optics. 8×24. That means they magnify eight times the naked eye. Twenty-four is the size of the objective lens. That means they have a superior light gathering ability.”
He must have registered my lack of enthusiasm. “They’re what everybody has now,” he added.
I was pretty sure none of the kids at school had Nikon 8x24s with superior light gathering ability. He must mean his birding buddies–folks who wore mud boots year round, baggy clothes with lots of pockets, dorky hats, and were always talking about their all-important life lists.
“You’ll need this, too,” my father went on, pushing the other present toward me.
It was a book, but it wasn’t fiction. It was Birds of North America.
“Wow,” I said.
He chose to interpret that as excitement. “Figured you were old enough,” he said. He dug my new binoculars out of their Styrofoam packaging as though he was dying to get his hands on them.
“This is where you focus,” he said, like I didn’t know what the knob in the middle was for. I’d played with his binoculars when I was younger. I liked looking through a lens backward—it made everything seem really far away. My father carried his binoculars with him wherever he went. I’d never seem him use them when he was actually driving, but I wouldn’t put it past him if something for his life list flew over.
He was waiting for me to do the obvious, so I picked them up. Well, I thought, this wasn’t the end of the world. I got dragged on bird walks all the time, and it would be good not to have to stand around getting cold or swatting bugs, pretending I could see what everybody was so excited about. At least the binoculars were light, so my neck wouldn’t break. I raised them and turned to the window where a bunch of chickadees swarmed like bees around a feeder.
I looked, focused, and then—holy cow! I could see their eyeballs! And all the little feathers on their heads stood out. Their sharp beaks dug into the seeds they anchored to the branches of a lilac with their feet.
My father chuckled. I lowered my binoculars quickly. Ten minutes had gone by. Huh.
Then my father pushed the bird book toward me. “This is where you mark your life list,” he said, pointing out pages and pages of bird names in the back. Each name had a little box in front of it to be filled it.
Like I was going to start a life list. The kids at school would never let me live it down. Not that anyone knew what a life list was, anyway.
“You’ve already got a bigger one than a lot of people,” my father said, tapping his finger part way down a page. “Start here. You’ve seen Common Loons when we’ve been canoeing.”
“You mean, I can count species I’ve already seen?”
“Sure.” He pushed a pen at me.
Dutifully, I filled in the box next to Common Loon. “Hey, can I count the Red-throated Loon we saw on Chincoteague?” I could remember him dragging my attention away from the wild ponies for that.
“Of course.”
I filled in that one, too, and then flipped back a few pages. “I’ve seen lots of gulls.”
“Ah, but were they Ring-billed, or Herring?”
I didn’t know gulls came in different flavors. According to the book, there were at least half a dozen in Vermont regularly!
“Burger King parking lot,” my father said. “We’ll eat there tonight and you can get two, maybe three species of gulls.”
Well, I wasn’t going to say no to French fries.
“And look! There are sparrows under the lilac. You can get two–no three–species right now!”
I had my binoculars up before I’d even realized it. When I looked down a few minutes later, my father had my book open to the sparrow section. He had a grin on his face.
Kari Jo Spear‘s young adult, urban fantasy novels, Under the Willow, and Silent One, are available at Phoenix Books (in Essex and Burlington, Vermont), and on-line at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Who hasn’t looked out the kitchen window this month and felt surprise at the sight of plump black-capped chickadees and tufted titmice on low, nearby branches? We may wonder why these birds look so fat in winter’s wind and cold. While many of their feathered neighbors head south for the months of fall and winter in response to the lack of available food such as worms, flying insects, and nectar-rich flowers, birds that live in Vermont year-round are well adapted to dealing with the cold and snow.
Birds are equipped to take advantage of certain elements in their habitat that may provide shelter. In addition, birds have the capacity to lower their activity levels and rate of metabolism to regulate body temperature and save energy. We all know that feathers are important, unique, avian structures. Not only are feathers critical to the achievement of flight, but their colorful patterning functions as a form of communication for birds of the same and other species. Just as important, feathers perform a lifesaving function in frigid temperatures. Special muscles attached to a bird’s feathers allow the bird to raise a network of feathers in creating protective air pockets that keep heat close to the body and cold blocked out. Remember that plumped up bird sitting on the clothesline in February? She is keeping warm by keeping insulated.
We often spy a bird standing on one leg with the other pulled up under its body or the bird’s head tucked under one shoulder wing. These postures are behavioral adaptations for keeping vulnerable parts of the body warm. Some birds reduce heat loss from their legs and feet by reducing blood flow to the lower legs and feet (regional hypothermia). Tendons comprise much of a bird’s foot with minimal nerve and vascular tissue so blood flow is directed to a bird’s core when it is trying to conserve heat. Arterial blood vessels pumping warm core blood mesh with veins carrying cool blood from cold extremities (countercurrent exchange), thus circulating warmer blood around vital organs.
Shivering is a phenomenon we all know from personal experience. Humans are not the only animals capable of shivering. Birds employ rapid muscle contractions to generate heat, especially during nighttime sleep.
During cold nights, many birds such as the black-capped chickadee and golden-crowned kinglet are able to enter into a state of torpor wherein they can lower their body temperature (normally about 104 degrees Fahrenheit down to about 86 degrees) to a point where they will conserve energy and stretch their fat reserves from the daily food intake (10% above normal body weight) to support them through the night.
Favorable overnight shelters must be sufficiently compact and secure to protect a bird from harsh wind and frigid temperatures. From tree cavities to low conifer canopies or tangled vines, many birds find space to survive the night, some even huddling with kin from the same species. Winter roosting boxes constructed by local bird fans show a distinct feature regarding the entrance hole. The roost box orients the opening at a lower front corner (as opposed to an entrance at the front top used in spring nesting boxes). With heat retention the primary goal for a roosting bird, simple physics and logic agree that warmer air given off by a sleeping bird will rise to the top of the box, the same area in which the bird is resting against the back wall’s wire grid. One would hope birds have been able to locate natural shelters with the same layout.
Ruffed grouse are locally-common, ground- nesting, game birds. With autumn transitioning to cooler days, the feet of ruffed grouse undergo modifications for winter. Horny, comb-like scales develop along the edges of the grouse’s toes enlarging the surface area of the bottom of the feet. This adaptation enables the bird to walk along the top of the snow and so, conserve energy. In extreme weather, ruffed grouse will dive into snow cover that is at least 10” in depth, to survive the night in their sheltering tunnel.
Observant and enterprising humans have taken a page from bird adaptations to the cold. Carving out snow caves for camp shelters, bundling up in down parkas, and strapping on snowshoes for efficient trekking all enable us to conserve energy and make the most of winter in these great outdoors.
Post by Allison Gergely, Museum Educator at the Birds of Vermont Museum. This article will also appear in Vermont Great Outdoors Magazine, a digital publication.
Didn’t get everything noted on our white board, so we checked our Feederwatch notes too (see below). What a nice mix of birds. I’m sure we’d see more if we just sat by the window all the time!
Common Redpoll (both mail and female; the larges flock was about 30 birds)
Common Raven (overhead, not at the feeders)
Blue Jays
Mourning Doves (the largest flock seen was about 2o birds)
Wild Turkey (7 on the 21st, 1 male) (this flock was seen several time, perhaps because of Audubon Vermont’s nearby logging demo? Or perhaps just for the corn!)
Black-capped Chickadees
Tufted Titmouse
Downy Woodpeckers
Hairy Woodpeckers
Evening Grosbeak (the female with the drooping wing was noted on January 9th and 22nd. She fluttered up to the platform on the 22nd!)
Northern Cardinals (male and female)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Of course we had some red and gray squirrels. Funny little things! Some of them you can tell apart somewhat easily, but subtle marking or differently-colored fur patches.
Project Feederwatch started November 10th. We usually do our observations at lunch. This is a great project to do with kids. The Great Backyard Bird Count (in February) is another beginner-friendly (and expert-friendly!) citizen science project. We do that do, and the Museum will be open on February 16 so you can count, learn, and enjoy it with us.
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, bear-resistant pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and other food choices. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
We were busy out and about, and had few visitors (a disadvantage of our “by appointment” season), so not so many observations. The female Grosbeak with the damaged wing continues to live nearby! You can find out more about her in October’s entry. Here’s the rest of our December list.
Black-capped Chickadee
Blue Jay
White-breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Mourning Dove
Tufted Titmouse
Dark-eyed Junco
Evening Grosbeak (the female with the drooping wing was noted on December 22)
Northern Cardinal
Project Feederwatch started November 10th. We usually do our observations at lunch. This is a great project to do with kids. The Great Backyard Bird Count (in February) is another beginner-friendly (and expert-friendly!) citizen science project. We do that do, and the Museum will be open on February 16 so you can count, learn, and enjoy it with us.
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, bear-resistant pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and other food choices. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
Our plucky female Grosbeak friend is still around! You can find out more about her in last month’s entry.
Evening Grosbeak (including the feamle with the injured wing. Still going!)
Blue JayTufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Black-capped Chickadee
Pine Siskin
Dark-eyed Junco
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Ruffed Grouse
White-throated Sparrow
Fox Sparrow (11/6/2012)
Northern Cardinal
Mourning Dove
Wild Turkey (usually 6-10, but we did see a flock of 23!)
Project Feederwatch started November 10th! We enjoy having our lunch while “standing watch”. When do you take your data?
Of course some Red and Gray squirrels appeared quite pleased to hoover up some of our corn and black oil seed from the ground.
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board, and many identification guides. Outdoors, several feeders are attached on a single, bear-resistant pole. A small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees add cover and other food choices. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
The Big Sit! event always boosts the size of the October list. Something about actually sitting around and watching for birds, instead of trying to notice them while you’re talking to other visitors… Bold birds are the ones we didn’t record last month.
Blue Jay
White-throated Sparrow
Hairy Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Evening Grosbeak*
Black-capped Chickadee
American Crow
Mourning Dove
White-breasted Nuthatch
Purple Finch
Tufted Titmouse
Sharp-shinned Hawk(caught something on October 19!)
American Goldfinch
Pine Siskins(more than 20!)
Dark-eyed Junco
Wild Turkeys (a flock of 9)
Northern Cardinal
Song Sparrow? (10/12, observed by Jim O. Not bolded due to uncertainty, although Jim is an expert birder.)
Cedar Waxwing(during the Big Sit)
mystery Duck(a Big Sit observation–too silhouetted to identify properly)
Common Raven(also during the Big Sit!)
Rusty Blackbird(10/17)
Pileated Woodpecker(flew over 10/12)
Canada Geese(heard overhead 10/23)
American Robin(10/23)
Common Grackle (10/07)
Ruffed Grouse(in the crab apple tree 10/28)
*Observe? Or Act?
We observed several Evening Grosbeaks, male and female. One female seemed to have an injured right wing. Over the course of the month, she continued to make appearances, generally foraging on the ground and hopping back to shelter in the cedar hedge. However, one day she did fly—perhaps flutter is a more accurate verb—up into some shrubs as well. We saw her off and on through the end of October, and we wish her well. Her persistence does raise the question: what, if anything, should we do about her? Catch her? Send her to rehab? Observe her without interference?
The “Through the Window” series is an informal record of observations made by staff, volunteers, and visitors. Anyone at the Museum may add to this list. Observations are usually through our viewing window: a large window with a film to make it more difficult for birds to see the watchers. We have chairs and binoculars to try there, a white board and many identification guides, and several feeders outside on a single, bear-resistant pole, as well as a small pond, flowers and water plants, shrubs and trees. You can sometimes see what we see via our webcam.
Winter Birding: Presentation for the Milton Historical Society and friends Wednesday, November 7 • 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
Vermont in Winter: cold, muddy, slushy, icy, snowy. But there are still birds! Which ones? How come? What do they eat? How do they shelter from the weather? And how can you get involved with birds, birding, and conservation?
Join the Birds of Vermont Museum for an evening presentation, find out more about birding (whether you are a beginner or have decades of birdwatching experience), bird food, and citizen science, all in the company of friendly people.
Requested by the Milton Historical Society and open to the public. At the Milton Historical Museum, 13 School Street, Milton. Their number is (802) 734-0758 or call us at the Museum (802) 434-2167.
Potluck Birding: Open Mike for Birders Saturday, October 27 • 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.
An experimental evening of tasty food and delightful birds from you. Get inspired for your winter birding vacation.
5:30-6:15: Potluck dinner : bring a dish to share
6:30-9:00: Share your favorite birding images, calls, stories, etc.
Up to 15 images per presenter pre-arranged on a flash drive or CD. We have Picasa and an old version of Powerpoint.
Please sign up for a presenting time-slot with the Museum so we can coordinate hard- and software!
How many birds can we perceive from a 17-foot diameter circle? Can we beat last year’s record? Join Team Loonaticsat the Birds of Vermont Museum and find out.
Snacks and coffee provided for sitters. Please bring your own binoculars.
