Watching Birds on Winter's Coldest Morning

It was about -15 F. when I spent some time watching birds at our feeders and in nearby trees this morning. Our coldest days tend to be cloud-free, so the light was good. Since I take many of my feeder photos through my living room window, I do some color correcting afterward to take away the dullness that the window and its glare can impart.

I love female cardinals. This one's red eyebrow is illuminated, matching her beautiful red bill. She's accompanied at the feeder by a goldfinch and, barely visible, a house finch.

This female white-breasted nuthatch caught my eye because, unusually, she was head-up on the trunk of our big maple tree, rather than upside down as one usually sees nuthatches. She's well-fluffed for maximum insulation from the cold.

This male house finch is also doing a puffball imitation to keep warm.

And this bright-eyed chickadee sat in the same position for quite a while. Was he or she miserable in the cold, or doing just fine? Our northern birds seem to handle the cold remarkably well, Here is a good overview from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology of some of the ways birds cope with severe cold, which include not only fluffing up those down feathers but eating as much as possible and sheltering from the wind.

Ever Seen the Top of a Red-bellied Woodpecker's Head?

The red-bellied woodpecker is always one of my favorite visitors -- so large and beautifully patterned. The dark eye in the pale, unstreaked cheek gives the bird a fresh-faced, approachable look.

This female comes to our feeders quite often these days.

The picture below shows how these birds use their tails for support, bracing themselves against a tree trunk or a bird feeder.

And here, below, is an unusual view -- at least for me. I've included this shot although it's otherwise not a good photograph, because it's interesting to see so clearly the straight line where the red cap meets gray in the female. The male's red cap extends all the way to the beak.

Dawn Juncos Sitting on the Ground

This morning I looked out of the window next to the front door before going out to get our newspaper, and saw three dark-eyed juncos on our front walk where I had scattered some seed the day before. The sun was just coming up, and I was a little surprised to see the juncos there before full light. I was even more surprised when I realized they were not eating, but just sitting still. 

I don't think I've ever seen them just sitting on the ground like that before. The temperature was about 0 F, which is warmer than it has been for the past several mornings, but still exceedingly cold. The first two photos here were taken through the window and reflect the pinkish light of the rising sun.

Because I didn't want to disturb them if they were conserving energy by hunkering down, I waited a few minutes until seeing that two of them had left and the one remaining was eating. I then stepped out to get the paper and turned toward the pink eastern sky. It was a beautiful sunrise.

Happy New Year 2015

This is a downy woodpecker, taken last winter. I like the light and the seemingly heart-shaped red spot.

First birds of 2015 have included a red-bellied woodpecker and a chickadee singing its sweet spring song: Fee-bee, fee-bee. The heart lifts! The darkest days of the winter are behind us.

Happy new year to one and all.

Leaf-fall and Autumn Birdwatching

We have a large, beautiful maple tree in front of our house, which makes a nice staging point for birds coming to our feeders. In the summer, we may hear the birds in the tree, but we don't see them until they leave the thick leafy cover. In the fall, for a week or two the tree is gloriously golden-pink, and then, of course, the leaves fall. My sadness at losing the color is never long-lived, because as the leaves drop, the birds become visible in the tree once more and I know we have entered one of our most satisfying birdwatching seasons. Our summer birds have departed, the goldfinches have put on their winter plumage, the dark-eyed juncos have arrived for the season, and we are ready to hunker down by the living room window, camera and binoculars at hand, to see what we will see.

Our maple on October 17

Downy Woodpecker with backdrop of golden leaves, October 17

What we lose in leafy loveliness, we'll gain in bird visibility.
October 24

Winter-plumage American Goldfinch

This female Red-bellied Woodpecker has become a regular visitor
to the peanut feeder as the light starts to fade each recent evening. When she
leaves the feeder, I can see her moving higher and higher in the maple tree.

The coiled whole-peanut feeder caught some falling leaves.

Must Be Time for Orioles and Grosbeaks!

May 7, 2011 - First-ever visit of  rosebreasted-grosbeaks to our feeders. I wrote a blog post titled "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven."
May 8, 2011 - First-ever visit of Baltimore orioles to our feeders (but they'd been seen in the trees the few days before) (Described in a blog post on May 15)
May 8, 2013 - Rosebreasted grosbeaks and Baltimore orioles show up at our feeders within 15 minutes of one another
May 7, 2014 - Orioles and rose-breasted grosbeaks show up within a few hours of each other (and hummingbirds later that day as well). First-ever visit of orchard orioles to our feeders, and we see half a dozen each (or more) of orioles and grosbeaks at our feeders and in our big tree. Wowee! Photos below.

Male Baltimore Oriole, May 7, 2014

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak, May 7, 2014

Female Rose-breasted Grosbeak, May 7, 2014

Orchard Oriole, May 7, 2014

The grosbeaks really seem to like the gazebo-style feeder, which was new last fall. It is easy to approach and fits several at a time. I think that's why so many have stayed around these last few days.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

I didn't notice until looking at these photos just now that the photo below clearly shows an immature male grosbeak sitting toward the front of the gazebo roof -- he's developing his dramatic coloring but still has some of the streaks that juveniles and females share. I noted one last year, too, and wrote a little more about that then.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks - note immature male in front

The photo below does not show a romantic interlude: Rather, two male orioles had a competitive moment over the jelly.

Male orioles get feisty with jelly on their beaks

It's been a wonderful few days. Happy spring!

Late Winter Catch-up

It's been a brutal winter, and here it is the fourth week of March and we're still getting snow and well-below-normal temperatures. Here are a few of the photos I've taken from inside my house recently. The squirrels have been showing great gymnastic ability. The deep snow makes the squirrel baffles less effective, but I don't begrudge them the sustenance. They still work pretty hard for it.

I love it when the light hits the red spot on the back of a male downy or hairy woodpecker's head. This is a downy on our suet log -- note the tiny, pencil-point beak. So cute.

I like this final shot of a female cardinal, which shows how they turn seeds into an up-and-down orientation to crack the shells. And I rarely get this nice a few of a bird's eye. As always, click on the photo for a larger view.

Spring is getting here, even though it doesn't feel very springy. Recent phenology notes:

• We started seeing a robin on our (snow-covered) lawn about two weeks ago. A few nights ago, friends on social media were reporting large flocks of them in treetops and on the ground. Some robins do stay year-round, but they suddenly seem to be more prominent.
• Red-winged blackbirds were trilling in the trees by the Cannon River yesterday.
• My friend Mary of the My Northern Garden blog reported seeing a great blue heron in flight near the wetlands off the east end of Jefferson Parkway.
• A few days ago I saw a crow on Woodley Street with nesting material in its beak
• Birder Dave Bartkey of Faribault reported an osprey flying overhead, north of Faribault, which he said was by far his earliest date for this species.

There is hope! Hang in there. 

Red-bellied Woodpecker Again

The feeders were very busy the last couple of days, primarily with many house finches (I counted as many as 22), but also with occasional nuthatches, goldfinches, chickadees, juncos and woodpeckers. This handsome fellow, a red-bellied woodpecker, has been coming by fairly often. I posted some photos of what is probably the same bird in December, but I can't get enough of his beautiful red-orange cap and dashing black tail feathers, that bold round eye and that formidable beak. He is quick to fly away if he senses movement from inside the house, so I always move slowly when I see him, trying not to spook him.

Victim of the Cold?

What effects of the recent extreme cold have you seen where you are? Since we emerged from the bitter cold snap of the week before last (though we're now in another, not quite as severe, wave of the same), I am sad to note that we haven't seen any red-breasted nuthatches, which are among my favorite small birds and which we previously saw frequently at our peanut feeder. I'm not sure if it was a single individual or a pair that visited us so regularly, but whichever it was, I fear it, or they, did not survive the arctic cold. I salute and remember them. And I'll let you know if, happily, we see them again.

Into the Polar Vortex - and Out the Other Side

Wowee, what a ride it's been -- barely edging above zero the last two days after a low in Northfield of -23 F. Monday morning. It was warm last Friday, and then we went down, down, down, dropping 54 degrees in 48 hours according to this line graph, courtesy of the Carleton College weather database. That horizontal blue line is the zero point, and the top of the graph is 32 degrees -- the freezing point. The National Weather Service announced on Sunday that "historic and life-threatening cold air" had arrived, and I heard a TV host quoted as pointing out that at the coldest point it could be 50 degrees warmer and water would still freeze!

We topped off all our feeders on Saturday to help the birds get easy fuel to keep their inner furnaces burning through these frigid days and nights. It's hard to fathom how such tiny creatures survive such conditions, but it appears that many or most of our usual visitors are still with us.

To follow up my New Year's photo of a house finch in snow, here is another, enjoying the sun before it got so very cold. Welcome back, warmth!

Red-bellied Woodpecker at Suet Feeder

A red-bellied woodpecker, always one of my favorite sights, visited our suet log feeder last weekend. You can tell this one is a male because the red cap extends all the way down to its bill in front. You can see a glimpse of his long tongue in the second photo. This feeder is popular with woodpeckers and chickadees.

Frosty Birdbath with Goldfinches

During some of our recent bitterly cold days, the edge of our heated birdbath developed a thick rim of frost. The birds have been flocking to the feeders and appreciate the chance to sip some liquid water from the birdbath. In this series, a bright-eyed American goldfinch in winter plumage took a drink and was joined by others. (As always, click on the images to see a much larger version.)

Nuthatches in November

Last weekend I spent quite a while watching both white-breasted nuthatches and the smaller red-breasted nuthatches at our feeders. We've commonly been seeing a pair of each -- the males with their black caps and the females with their blue-gray caps. The light was coming from the southeast, passing through the coiled wire wreath-shaped whole-peanut feeder to cast interesting shadows on the birds on the shelled-peanut feeder. Here are some shots from that morning. (To save space in the captions, I use the four-letter "alpha codes" for these birds: WBNU - white-breasted nuthatch and RBNU = red-breasted nuthatch.)

As always, click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Male WBNU - note the crossed primaries (longest wing feathers)

Female WBNU checking her surroundings

Female WBNU in the less-common head-up position. Look at the span of that foot!

Her tongue is visible here -- it's as pointed as her bill

See the spiral shadow -- and a nice view of the strong bill

Female red-breasted nuthatch 

RBNU with spiral shadow

Other posts about nuthatches:

• Lady nuthatch in repose
• White-breasted nuthatch
• Red-breasted nuthatch
• Chickadee and nuthatch
• First red-breasted nuthatch at the feeders
• Recent observations (early August phenology)
• Yin and Yang on the peanut feeder

Transitional Goldfinch

It's the time of year when the male American goldfinch loses his lemon-yellow breeding plumage and takes on his drab winter colors. Here are a couple of photos of a transitional goldfinch at one of our feeders this past week. Kind of a mess, isn't he?

For comparison, here is what a male goldfinch looks like during the breeding season (spring and summer):

And here is a winter goldfinch (this may be a female, as a winter male may have more yellow on his head, but they are not terribly different from each other):

I've written about goldfinches several times: see other posts here.