Rain Gryphon

Late season snows are often the heaviest, and prettiest, at least around here. It's snowing again, rather heavily. The wind at ground is calm, but the flakes are coming down as big, compound flakes that look rather like eiderdown. I think that means there's vertical winds further up, to allow the big flakes to form. A trip out back to restock the feeders sunk me over my knees in places.

The little birds are busy outside at the seed and suet cakes, filling up before it's night. I took a new cake out and refilled the cake holder, thinking it had gone empty awfully fast. Sure enough, a little digging beneath it revealed 3/4 or so of a cake on the ground. I suspect that either the Pileated Woodpecker, or possibly the Crows, were the ones who pulled it out. I can't see anyone else being that strong. At any rate, I left that one for the guys who eat off the ground to have.

Right now I've got Sparrows, a smattering of Starlings, and at least three Cardinals, two cocks and a hen. The Sparrows esppecially are much calmer, and less inclined to constantly fly in mobs to and from the bushes, when it's snowing like this. I suspect that they feel hidden, with the reduced visibility.

One Cardinal cock is getting aggressive, chasing the other birds around the seed tray and so forth. His feathers are coming in much redder than the other cock already. It's just about that time. It's hard to believe, but in two months or less, everyone will be making nests.

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I now have full-time Bluejays. Rather a quantity of them, in fact, at least three, and perhaps as many as five. Their colours are already looking muted, more of a dusty greyish-blue than anything. They seem to have replaced the Grackles at the peanut tray. All of the feeders are less busy than at the peak season, given that there's not that overwhelming pressure to find food for the nestlings. Still, I'm offering free food, and it's easy to get, which has some appeal regardless. I've seen a couple of the Jays now pop down to get a peanut, peck it apart, then go around the lawn hunting bugs for a while before coming back for another peanut. The Sparrows, of course, are happy with the seed tube - having all the babies grown up frees them from bug-hunting, and they can stuff themselves with millet and then just enjoy the sunshine.

I really need to build a winter shelter. I also should probably make a Starling box or two, for the Spring, especially if we're going to have Jays around. And the Sparrow boxes need cleaning out and sterilizing.

Remarkably colourful scene, with a Cardinal, the Jays, and a Red-bellied Woodpecker all there. It looks like the picture on a bag of birdseed.

So, I know the exact locations of two Robins' nests, and I'm pretty sure where the Cardinals have nested, although I prolly won't ever find it exactly. One Robin is in the big shrubbery/tree at the NW corner of the house. I found her accidentally the other day while clearing out grape vines. The other one is set up right outside the bathroom window, of all places, in plain sight from the window, although well-hidden otherwise. She started sitting her eggs Monday, so ought to hatch around the 27th or so. The other one is probably a few days in advance, although I'm unsure how much. The Cardinals are somewhere inside the shrubbery, probably right outside the picture window.

I found a predated Robin's egg Monday alongside the feeder. I'm pretty sure it's the work of the Cowbirds. I haven't checked either nest to be sure. Definitely carried there by a bird, as there was a hole in the very middle of the shell, and the yolk eaten out. For whatever reason, I've had absolute hordes of Cowbirds at the feeders this year - that's a very new thing. Lots of Sparrows, Grackles, and Blackbirds, along with many Doves (also new) and Cowbirds. We've also got a pair of Housefinches who are probably nesting nearby, possibly across the road among the Blackbirds, as well as the usual Woodpeckers.

I found a Song Sparrow's used nest while trimming back the shrub under the kitchen window. I was pretty sure they were in there, but I never knew for a fact. I've also started to attract Crows, although I'm not the least bit sure why. I've put out unshelled peanuts for them, although the Grackles seem to eat most of them. Crows are very, very wary about coming to eat with the rest, and the smaller birds are very cautious of the Crows. I may put something down at the end of the yard for them. There's at least one pair of Juncos as well. The other day, when I went to refill the seed tube, everybody flew away except this little cock Junco, who stared me down until I got about three feet away, when he lost his nerve.

Lots of bird sex, and mild mating fights, Cowbirds and Blackbirds especially. I also saw earlier today three cock Sparrows with one hen. Her actual mate (I think) was trying to keep the other two away, while she kind of circled, using him for a shield. She suddenly flopped onto her back with her wings spread, and he mounted her that way (which I've not seen before), and it was all over in a few seconds. Also one poor Dove, trying to impress a hen who wasn't really ready yet. He ended up finally just kind of posing before her, and puffed up his feathers to look big and impressive, but she wasn't having any.

This is really seriously the most activity I've ever seen at my feeders, lots of new birds, and constant action. I wonder how many grew up here, and are come back now?

The back yard is absolutely alive with birds! I'm here at my desk, and Alexandra is lying on the windowsill, both of us watching and listening through the screen. Sparrows and Starlings and Robins in the main, with the occasional Woodpecker. They all seem so exuberant and happy this morning, for some reason - no fights that I've seen. There's a juvenile Starling that hasn't really mastered flying yet - he kind of runs and flaps frantically, and goes zooming along the top of the grass. I'll have to be careful if I mow later.

The Downy Woodpecker who's been eating at the cake feeder all winter seems to have attracted a smokin' hot Woodpecker Babe! So far the interest is more on her side than his (he chases her away if she gets too close while he's eating) but I'm sure that will change quickly.

So back on the 12th of March, I took a walk around mom's property to deal with fallen sticks and limbs (to the brushpile with them!), and to generally check for damage, as there'd been serious winds the previous few days. Sticks everywhere, of course, and debris (I recovered one of her basement window covers from way out in the neighbor's corn field), but I also found the wreckage of the woodpeckers' home from the big maple:



Sad, but much better to have it happen in the early spring than later on when it's full of babies.


I also found, of all things, a starling's egg:



There's dried mucous on the surface, and it rained the night before, so I'm guessing it was laid that morning. It was only about 25 feet from the cake feeder too, so couldn't have laid out too long without one of the woodpeckers finding and eating it. Starlings, in particular, are known to sometimes lay an egg on the ground if the nest isn't ready, and I'm guessing that's what happened here. I'm wondering if the high winds interfered with completing the nest, so it wasn't ready when expected.

I wonder too what the hen's emotions were at having to abandon her egg that way? I know that domestic chickens suffer real stress if they have to lay an egg in the "wrong" place. Sad event all around, although a fascinating thing to find. It massed only 6.0g. The baby would have weighed less than that, even, since that includes the shell. And in only about two weeks after hatching, it would have grown into a young bird, able to fly. That continues to amaze me.

Given that she was starting to lay on the 12th, I think it's reasonable to expect babies by middle of next week, at the latest. I haven't a clue where her nest is, though.

Yesterday morning, just after the sun lit the brushpile out back, I saw a whole bunch of Juncos effervescing around the brushpile to the trees on either side of it and back again. I'm guessing that's where they spent the night, which pleases me, since that's why I made it.

The other morning early too, I saw some cute Sparrow faces peering at me from the nest boxes I left up, so those are being used for shelters too, as I'd hoped. Hopefully, they'll have a head start on nesting come spring.

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Red Bellied Woodpecker returns to the cake feeder. The light's not so harsh here (morning, so you get reflected light off the house while the bird's backlit by the sun), and you can see details better. The pinkish vent patch shows clearly.

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Another pair of Nuthatches. These guys are the White Breasted variety, so not quite so humourously ball-shaped as the other day's Red Breasted ones. For whatever reason, these guys just like to perch upside down, and especially when they eat.