Category Archives: Winter Birds

County Big Year – Good First Day

We awoke to more new snow and a stiff Northwest wind, and a forecast for even colder temperatures.  It stays dark until about 7:00 AM but sure enough, at 7:05 the first Black-capped Chickadee visited with window feeder.  Right after … Continue reading

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I Love Buffleheads

I’ve been watching a small flotilla of hen Buffleheads in the Amesbury section of the Merrimack River this week. It’s Butterballs’ diving that forces me to stop and linger, to observe for understanding.  I watch the thrusts, leaps, propulsion and … Continue reading

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Redpolls — Where Have You Been?

Common Redpolls arrived at our feeders in late November and ate us out of house and home for about a week — and vanished until today.  I’ve not seen any Redpolls in the woods or anywhere around central Vermont but … Continue reading

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Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet by Tom Kalinowski  (from the Adirondack Almanack)   It’s simple physics. In a cold environment, small objects lose heat at a faster rate than large objects. This is why most warm-blooded animals that reside in a … Continue reading

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Does Your Bird seed Get Eaten or Stored?

All fall, we have watched birds flock to our sunflower seed feeder, our thistle feeder, and our suet containers.  As I wrote last month, our feed store folks love us — we are going through a lot of bird food. … Continue reading

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Common Redpolls

Here is a wonderful article by Sue McGrath of the Newburyport (MA) Birders: When I see Common Redpolls, I immediately think of the low-Arctic tundra, the land with short, dwarf-like shrubs that includes willow, alder, birch all of which support the Common … Continue reading

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Northern Shrike — The Butcher Bird

One of the winter birds that I have yet to see and add to my life list is the Northern Shrike.  We’ve been away much of the last three winters but there’s also been a fairly reliable visitor, which we … Continue reading

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