Tag Archives: Winter birding

Some Winter Photos

I want to share some shots of winter birds and other items we’ve seen on our daily outings. I’ll start with a quiet and beautiful spot we found the other day.

In the neighborhood, there’s a nice variety of birds – yesterday there was a Northern Cardinal, a Carolina Wren, and a Tufted Titmouse singing away on a section of one street.

This guy was pretty quiet.

Whenever there’s open water, there’s often a merganser or two.

American Crows are out and about every day.

Most of our recent storms have had snow perfect for many outdoor activities.

As we get ready to “Spring Forward” this weekend it’s fun to think about the array of birds getting ready to head northward.

Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Winter and the Golden-Crowned Kinglet

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 northern climate tend to be large in size. Yet, for every rule, there is always an exception and when considering birds, the golden-crowned kinglet is a perplexing anomaly.

The golden-crowned kinglet is the smallest perching bird to inhabit the Adirondacks, as this delicate, olive colored creature is not much larger than a hummingbird, (which is classified in a group that is related to the swifts rather than the perching birds.) However, unlike our other small birds, like the warblers, vireos and wrens, the kinglet often remains in the Adirondacks throughout the dead of winter, traveling in small, loosely knit flocks in dense evergreen forests.

The yellowish-green plumage of the golden-crowned kinglet makes this tiny bird a challenge to see against the backdrop of pine, spruce, fir and cedar boughs as it flits through the canopy in a constant search for food. Yet because the kinglet frequently emits an audible “teez, teez, teez” call as it forages, its presence can be easily noted by a perceptive individual, especially at this time of year, when the sound of the wind through the branches is the only noise that breaks the silence of the deep woods.

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Buffleheads Coming & Going

We are going through a patch of crappy weather with spitting rain and temperatures in the high 30’s or low 40’s.  It’s good wood fire weather and not much fun fiddling with tripods, scopes, and cameras.  But, hey, it’s Vermont in November so suck it up and get out there.

Yesterday I took a look at some local bodies of water for new arrivals but only ran into Black Scoters  and these nine Bufflehead way out on Wrightsville Reservoir.

The nice thing about Bufflehead, aside from their “spiffiness,” is that they tend to cruise along and not dive and disappear like Hooded Mergansers.

I went back early this morning to Wrightsville and found only a solo male floating away on the deserted reservoir.  Was he new?  Did his buddies leave without him?  We’ll never know but I suspect he’ll be on his way on the north winds we are getting today.  He’s come a long way from his breeding grounds and still has a way to go before winter.  Neat little birds — great to have them around for a while.

Winter Birding — Bring It On

As I noted last week, we are being bankrupted by the influx of Pine Siskins that mob our feeders, leaving their small poops all over everything, and making the Black-capped Chickadees wonder what hit them.  Yesterday, I saw about 25 Dark-eyed Juncoes feeding on the edges of the gravel driveway and thought, “It’s only mid-October but winter birds are here.”

Today, walking in cold foggy woods with rain dripping from the few remaining leaves, I thought more about it.  Still too dark to see much, it made me rely on my ears and I started to tick off the birds out and about.  First, a Hairy Woodpecker called and then I heard it drumming.  Then, one of the many Chickadees called Chicka-dee-dee-dee-dee and others gave their a high pitched “see” call.  A far off American Crow cawed and I heard a Red-breasted Nuthatch.  After a quarter-mile of silence, we flushed a Ruffed Grouse.

As I mentally ticked off the winter bird list, I came up with these that I expect to see in our backyard and woods:

  • Black-eyed Juncos
  • Pine Siskins
  • Blue Jays
  • Hairy, Downy and occasionally Pileated woodpeckers
  • Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches
  • Brown Creepers
  • American Crows
  • Black-capped Chickadees
  • Purple Finches
  • Evening, Pine, and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
  • Tufted Titmice
  • American Robins
  • Common Redpolls
  • Ruffed Grouse
  • Wild Turkeys
  • Winter Wrens

Northern Shrike

Northern Shrike is one of my target birds for this winter. There was one hanging out locally last year but I missed it.

I’d like to see Snow Buntings but will look elsewhere, same for Northern Shrikes and Rough-legged Hawks.

So I figure that I can see 10 or 15 species on most of my dog/birding walks or skiing outings this winter.  That’s a nice prospect, as is the possibility of some of the recent rare visitors to this area such as Northern Hawk Owl, Snowy Owl, and Varied Thrush.  Since we’ve traveled south for the last three years, I look forward to my first serious winter of birding in Vermont.  I hope I don’t have to eat those words in March.

Shrike photo by dfaulder