Brace For The Cold - November Bird Watching

It's getting dark, and the snow is still falling. Our trees in the back are holding lots of American Robin who are more than willing to pose for photographs and not fly away - their tolerance of me approaching must be inversely related to the temperature outside. I caught a couple of posed subjects, a robin and a Cedar Waxwing. I didn't know what the smaller clump of feathers were until I downloaded my shots and saw the bright yellow band on the tail - a waxwing. The birds are all perched with the feathers ruffled in an obvious attempt to increase the R-value of their natural insulation. A nice narrative about birds weathering the winter cold can be found here, and another more lay version here. By the way, I just restocked the bird feeders, and added a new peanut dispenser as well.

American Robin in the cold

Cedar Waxwing

The map above his found here, and is found with the link above with the explanation of R-values. As you can see, Colorado falls in the 4th, 5th, and 6th of seven coldest regions in the continental United States - poor little birds.

Foraging In The Snow

We returned to Fort Collins Friday evening - Jan from California and me the Middle East. The weather had changed greatly since we left - a cold front came in with temperatures dropping, and it snowed the day before. This morning the prediction was for snow starting at 7:00 AM - the weather man was pretty much on target. By late morning, a few birds were poking around the general environs of the feeder - we need more seed. Our first birds of the season in the snow.

Northern Flicker

This young Northern Flicker is getting its first taste of winter. An adult male was working over the finch feeder, and another young flicker was in the juniper next door. They seem to be hanging out in the common lane area behind our house.

Dark-eyed Junco

A Dark-eyed Junco was picking through the two inch snow blanket looking for seeds that have fallen from the feeder above. I had first landed on the finch feeder, and then moved to the suet feeder hanging below. A little bit of snow freckles its face - the temperature outside is 16° outside. In the far west, this junco is known as the Oregon Junco - thoughts of home.

American Robin

This American Robin defied what I knew of the species - it kept picking at the juniper berries and ate them. I thought these were only an insect eater on the ground. Perhaps desperate times have already begun in early winter.

American Goldfinch

American Goldfinch with their winter coloration. It seems that everybody else wants a piece of the action at their feeder - big and large seem to have adapted to the small mesh and limited perch space.

House Sparrow

Now it is the House Sparrow turn. I have noticed how birds seem to come in waves of appearances. Even the larger Scrub Jay, American Robin, Northern Flicker travel in trios or better.

Autumn Birds at 40.5073N, 105.0406W, and 4,965.68ft

My Altitude iPhone app

The Northern Flicker that taps on the roof above our bedroom was at it this morning - actually, more of a knock than a tap. I went outside to chase him away, and took my camera along in case I was able to sneak up on him from below when I came out of the sliding patio door. He was off in an instant, flying north to parts unknown. But as it turned out, there was a diversity of other birds on the ground, in the tree, and working away at the bird feeder. There must have been a half dozen Cedar Waxwing working over the juniper berries on the tree beside our neighbor's house, a few Red Breasted Nuthatch whose normal behavior is to grab a seed and then fly to a tree branch to break the seed open, several American Robin flying in and out of the trees and not working the lawn for a meal, a Dark-eyed Junco on the ground, a House Sparrow at the finch feeder, and an American Gold Finch in its winter brown coloration, looking more like some kind of sparrow than the bright yellow of summer.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Cedar Waxwing

American Robin

American Goldfinch (foreground)

House Sparrow

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The My Altitude iPhone application has turned out to be a useful tool when traveling around mountainous Colorado when wanting to check out my elevation.

Day Of The Grackle - Nevermore

The Grackle

 

Quoth the birder to the Grackle "Nevermore."

Once upon a morning sunshine, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious ways to feed my song birds —
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came bird droppings,
As of some one gently dripping from above, digested worms and bugs.
"'Tis some visiter," I muttered, "chasing off my song birds —
            Only this and nothing more." 

Quoth the birder to the Grackle "Nevermore." (1)

Common Grackles

We left much of our yard wares behind when we moved to Fort Collins, including our prized squirrel-proof bird feeder pole fitted with a raccoon baffle to keep the Eastern Gray Squirrels at bay. A week ago we installed a new pole in our Colorado backyard, fitted with a smaller squirrel baffle (the one that didn't work in Maryland), assured by the local Wild Birds Unlimited shop that the Red Squirrels here are not as nimble as their eastern cousins and should not be a problem.

Squirrel/Grackle-proof bird feeder

What we found out fairly quickly was that Common Grackle are the Great Plains pest when it comes to unprotected bird feeders - not only do they still overcome the squirrel-proof mechanism of our Squirrel Buster birder feeder. So today, we headed off to the bird store and invested in a new feeder with a fitted squirrel-proof cage, not to thwart local squirrels who haven't paid any attention to our feeder, but to save the seed and feeding positions for the song birds who have been spooked by their larger black-feathered companions.

American Robin droppings

The only other notable observation as we begin our birding efforts in Colorado, is when you have a tree over your patio, it is necessary to cover furniture, tables, and yourself when enjoying the outdoors between thunder storms. American Robins do a wonderful job of singing high in the tree, and must be reading the newspaper while waiting for nature to run its course. Table or patio umbrellas are fine for protection, but it is important not to delay setting them up when taking in the morning sunshine.

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(1) Adopted from Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven.