Category Archives: cape cod birds

Blizzards make for hungry birds!

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Today the sun is shining and the temperature is climbing to at least freezing. The howling winds and stinging snow are now just memories. What we do have is lots of snow to move around and lots of very hungry birds.

Although I had seed and suet out all through the storm the wind was so tough not many birds braved it. I threw seed out the back door and into areas where the wind wasn’t quite so fierce and we got some takers.

We got a lot of snow and had a lot of drifting…the day after the storm is when the feeding frenzy began and lasted pretty much through the day.

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My feeders are by my garden which has a chicken wire fence so the bird is not in a cage, just behind the wire…
006 I don’t remember seeing such hungry birds. I had dozens of birds everywhere I looked, eating, eating, eating!009I seem to have at least a dozen juncos that are calling my yard home this winter and I always think of them as the true snow birds…
 030 Mr. Cardinal and all his cardinal friends were very hungry and at one point I had over 20 in and around the feeders.039

 

 

I was most excited to see that the little orange crowned warbler survived the storm! It showed up about midday yesterday….013

The resident Carolina wren also survived and was very territorial around the suet feeder.018

 

Blue jays arrived in a feisty little group to take over the ground feeding at one point.002This morning the sun shone clear and bright and Mrs. Cardinal posed as if to say, “All is right in the world today!”
027Things are slowly returning to normal around here and the birds feeding today are hungry as usual but not frantic. How did you make out in the blizzard? Any unusual birds to report?

 

Battening down for the blizzard

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If you’re in New England you can’t help but know there’s a big storm on the way and it seems to have started already.

This morning its was totally serene and peaceful at the beach.

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I put out a lot of extra food for the birds, including extra suet for the little orange crowned warbler that continues here…that’s the little warbler on the left, on the suet.

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The regular visitors are also here such as the house finches

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and the white breasted nuthatches025and the cardinals, among many others…

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Stay safe and warm, everyone! And may the power stay with you!

 

 

Orange Crowned Warbler in Hyannis

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Last winter I had a little olive and brown colored bird arrive in my yard that I knew immediately wasn’t one of my usual suspects. It had no wing bars, no eye ring and just a touch of golden color here and there. It was quite dainty and lovely and when I looked it up I determined that it must be an orange crowned warbler. They are migrants in our area but unusual so I needed to be very sure. I needed to take a photo.

This bird was little but it knew how to move! I got many blurry shots before getting one that really gave us a chance for a confirmed identity, which I did get.

Just a few weeks ago, I saw the bird, or one like it, again! It was also elusive in terms of being photographed.

I got a lot of shots like this one.

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and this one

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and this one

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before I finally got this one

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and this one

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It’s a feisty little thing but also very shy. Any time the bigger birds arrive it leaves the suet feeder and the gardens though on the very coldest days it seems to be a little braver.

How long will this bird hang around? No one knows though it seems they hang around where there’s food so we’ll have to wait and see.

In the meantime, it’s a very cool yard bird!

You can learn more about Orange crowned warblers at this link.

An influx of purple finches on Cape Cod

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If you feed the birds or have been out and about looking at birds on Cape Cod this weekend you may have seen a purple finch or two or three. Some people have even been seeing flights of hundreds! I myself have about 20 in my yard in Hyannis even as I write this.

My photos are a bit blurry because they are taken through a window with a screen but they will give you an idea.

This is the first female I saw. Purple finches used to be common here but have been more or less pushed out by house finches. These days, spotting a purple finch on your feeder can be very exciting. Except for when it’s not, like right now when everyone and their neighbor has a purple finch at the feeder…

008Purple finches and house finches look rather similar so check your bird book or Cornell’s All About Bird Page for Purple Finches to see the differences. The females are more heavily marked, especially on the head where you can see the dark cheeks and eye line.

The male is pretty rosy, with the pink going right down his chest and on his rump as well. also note the marked notch in the tail.

007Have you been seeing these at your feeders? Keep count and notes as there are people collecting information. Most of these birds seem to be migrating through. Will some stay for the winter like the red breasted nuthatches did a few years ago? Who knows? For now, anyway, they sure are fun to see!

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Field sketching for birders

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This past weekend I was at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to teach an intensive two day Field School focusing on Field Sketching for Birders. I never know who will sign up for such a class or what their expectations will be so it is always a bit of a challenge setting up the schedule.

Drawing birds seems like a simple thing but it is actually quite challenging to get them right.

photo 2The weather forecast was for rain and cold wind for both days which made it difficult to work outside. The first day we worked indoors but we did manage to get out several times on Sunday.

In the classroom we began by drawing bird shapes from memory and then worked on drawing bird silhouettes, as correct shape and form is important for bird identification. The students had different goals and different levels of ability but this exercise went well for all.

photo 3We worked on drawings of bills and feet, bird anatomy and then from bird pictures in field guides before venturing out to the feeder area. Drawing live birds is quite a challenge but these folks were up to it! They worked very hard and although the birds were in constant motion the sketchers were able to pin down characteristic moves and postures.

photo 1At 7 a.m. on Sunday we headed out in a cold drizzle to see what we could see for birds with naturalist and birder, David Clapp. A great egret was a highlight as were several green winged teal in Goose Pond. The rain got heavier and we returned to the classroom where Melissa had prepared a wonderful hearty continental breakfast for us. Warm beverages were especially appreciated.

photo 4We drew from feathers and from the bird mounts in the WBWS collection. We returned to the feeders but also worked on bills and feet from the mounted hawks and songbirds on display in the exhibit area.

All this drawing was pretty intense and some people began to fade. Unless you’ve actually sat or stood and drawn something for almost 8 hours it is hard to describe the concentration and attention required and how tiring it can be. Also, drawing small moving targets can be frustrating. And yet, the students put on their brave faces and kept on drawing. I was impressed with their attitudes and their willingness to really work hard. Their drawings were impressive, even if some of them were frustrated by the results of their own labors. This is not easy stuff! They did great.

At one point one of the students mentioned she and her mother had seen a nest on the ground with a broken egg. She thought the nest was woven into the grass. I was curious and she took me out to see it. I photographed it as well as drew it and showed it to the bird experts when we returned to the building. After some discussion it was decided it was….

photo 5a woodcock nest! It had not survived a predator attack but it was still cool to see such a thing. I brought all the students out to see it and it made a nice little finish to the workshop.

My next field school session will be in July and will be Nature Sketching for Scaredy Cats.

 

 

 

 

Nest building

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Even though it has been chilly out there this week the birds are already busy declaring territories, courting and some are already building their nests.

Last week we were out walking when we noticed a pair of chickadees keeping an eye on us. They also had their eye on the end of a branch that seemed to be hollow. Knowing that chickadees often choose such sites for nest building we pretended we weren’t watching and just hung around quietly.

This is what we saw.

022The chickadees were using old cattail fluff to line the nest. The cattails were growing in the nearby swamp which would also be a great place to catch insects to feed a growing family.

023You can’t see it in these photos but the chickadee is patting down the fuzzy warm fluff to line the nest in there.

024The chickadee also used its breast to shape the nest inside the hole in the branch. Both chickadees took turns doing this.

021These stills don’t really show the movement made by these busy birds but hopefully you sort of get the idea. Here is some more information about our state bird, the black capped chickadee. Most of us can recognize them but knowing more about them will let you observe what they are up to more easily.

 

Foggy morning on the beach

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I love a good foggy morning. Good thing, because we get lots of them in the spring as the air on land heats up faster than the water….

We get awesome views like this one

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030We get to see gulls strutting their stuff in puddles in parking lots

007and geese hanging out to rest and preen

035with their new best friend, a laughing gull–one of the first of the year for me!

034All photos taken in Hyannis, between Kalmus and Veteran’s Beaches on Ocean Street.

 

 

 

 

 

Snowy owl bonanza

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If you’ve been anywhere on the Cape this winter chances are someone’s been talking about seeing a snowy owl. Some years many snowy owls head south from the arctic and this is called an irruptive year. We are having an amazing irruptive year with hundreds of snowy owls being seen not just here but almost everywhere in the northern US.

Haven’t seen one yet? Here’s what to look for.

010Snowy owls are diurnal, meaning they are out and about during the day. Their white coloration helps them blend in to a snowy background but when they are in an area like a salt marsh they sort of stand out. See that white dot in the background? That’s what you want to look for. You’ll come up with some white trash bags, old buoys and other such things but you may also come up with a snowy owl.

017I am showing these distant pictures because I think a lot of people see the close ups people are taking with big zoom lenses and they don’t realize that the owls are not going to be just hanging out a few feet away from you. Having said that, every now and then one does exactly that but most owls you will see will be in the distance so bring binoculars.

013You want to respect the privacy of these birds. They are not used to people and most are not afraid though if you get too close they will fly away. Remember that these are tough times for birds out there and even birds like snowy owls that are used to the cold are under duress. Please don’t make them waste energy flying away from you. They need all their energy to hunt and survive through the frozen nights.

What do snowy owls eat? Pretty much anything they can eat. I think most of us know they eat lemmings up north. We don’t have lemmings here though we do have mice and voles. Snowy owls also eat birds, especially ducks. Look for them in areas resembling the tundra such as salt marshes, dunes and even the outer beaches.

Who knows when we will ever have another year like this? Get out and see one while you can. They will soon be heading back north.

 

 

Great Horned Owl Nest

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First, I can’t take credit for finding this Great Horned Owl and its nest–a friend of mine found it purely by chance this week and sent me some photos. She offered to take me there but I cannot give up its location. I’ll just say it is on private property in the mid Cape area.

Two young owls are still in the nest.

011They cannot fly yet though they can scramble around the branches of the tree a bit. You can see some of what remains of the nest beneath them. Great horned owls do not make their own nest but take over other nests, especially those made by red tailed hawks. We found another older nest in a tree not too far away which may have been used last year.

005In the above shot you can see that the young owlet is growing its feathers and will soon be ready to fly.

We knew mom couldn’t be too far away and we were right. She had been watching us but when I tried to take her picture she turned away.

015Eventually she turned and gave me a good owly glare…

016She then took off….heading out over a nearby field, arousing the suspicion and ire of neighborhood jays and crows….Check out those round wing feathers that help this big bird fly silently through the night…

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We went back to watching the owlets who were also watching us…

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and before we left we had to check out the pellets beneath the tree, of course. These owls are still being brought food by their mother and I will not share them all here but the pellets showed a well rounded, high protein diet that included small mammals and birds. ‘Nuff said, as my grandmother would have said.

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Just Ducky Around Here

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Winter is a great time to dust off your bird books and learn a little more about the ducks that we see here each winter. In the summer we have very few kinds of ducks here, mostly mallards, black ducks and a few wood ducks. But in the winter we have lots of ducks, both the dabblers, which, well, dabble and mostly for vegetarian fare and the diving ducks that dive for fish or shellfish. These winter ducks nest much farther north than here but come south for open water, warmer air and a steady food supply.

One of the more common birds we see here each winter is the  common eider. They arrive in huge flocks and settle into various areas around Cape Cod Bay wherever they can find good eating, which for them means good mussels. Smaller groups hang around the south side and in some of the protected harbors but you can find thousands and thousands of them in the bay, often around the canal entrances.

Another common winter visitor that can be found in both fresh and salt water areas is the red breasted merganser. They are often sporting punk “hair-dos.” These are fish eaters and if you get a close look you can see they actually have serated bills, all the better to catch quick moving fish.

Buffleheads are some of my favorite ducks. They are small and perky and have the amazing ability to silently disappear and reappear without warning. Now you see ’em, now you don’t….They can easily be found in ponds but also in protected salt water beach areas and marshes.

One of our most lovely winter visitors is a dabbler called a gadwall. These ducks are shy, as you can see in the photo–they are trying to leave me behind as quickly as possible! They have an elegant plumage, almost like a tweed coat. Look for them in large flocks of ducks in ponds or marshes. Not uncommon but shy, so you have to be quick to see them.

I’ll add more ducks over the next few weeks but this will get you started if you haven’t already been enjoying the winter duck show.