Barred Owls

These cold spring nights bring the nocturnal world to our window but fall muted on doubled paned glass and shades pulled tight. The night snow squeaks, the branches crack, and the owls begin to bark, hoot, cwaw, and scree in the night. The Barred owl is a nocturnal hunter the size of a fat house cat who sits close to the tree trunk by day and is passed a hundred times by forward looking humans. Beginning as early as January Barred owls begin to court and build a nest. Typically in “low bottom” woods adjacent to beaver dammed ponds and flooded fields they nest in trees, cavities, or snags and build sticks nests in both hard wood and conifer trees.

Come May and June noisy young owls will cut the night air with a series of witchy screeches and hisses. For now the adults can be heard calling back and forth with the characteristic phrase “who cooks for you… who cooks for you allllll…”.  Unlike the Great horned owl the hoot of the Barred owl is more dog than haunted house hoot owl. Also, listen for a “hooo – wahhh” call.   

Barred owls hunt by sound and with asymmetric ears they can place a noise in both direction and depth. When the snow is still on the ground and before the night air has been taken over by frogs and crickets take a late night or predawn walk along a wooded road and listen for this addition to the winter soundscape.

Bird watching books and a reason to stay in this weekend

The Life of the Skies: Birding at the End of Nature by Jonathan Rosen

Written by a new bird watcher stricken with the infectious bite of birds, Rosen’s book is well written in friendly, yet deeply considered prose. Rosen finds in bird watching a pastime that is both personal and societal. He weaves issues of history, conservation, and religion into stories from the birding world. This book does not sugar coat back yard birds or glorify long distance road trips in the name of seeing every bird on earth. This is a philosophical book, musing on the why of bird watching. What drives people into the field, why count, classify, paint, and study the life of the sky. Hear an interview with the author

Finding Peregrine falcons in the city or the art of smelling fear

Robert Bateman

Peregrine falcons have seen a remarkable turnaround since the dark days of pesticide use in the 1940s to early 1970s. The story is well known; toxins from pesticides like DDT accumulated in the soil and water climbing the food chain through "big fish eat little fish" only to accumulate in the largest predators. One side effect for these “top dog” birds like Peregrine Falcons, Bald eagles and Osprey was under formed eggshells incapable of protecting the embryo during incubation. The eggs simply crushed under the weight of the parent bird. With plummeting reproduction rates the peregrine’s population collapsed and in 1970 it was placed on the Endangered Species List. Local data confirms this trend. The Peregrine falcon was not recorded breeding in Massachusetts during the Breeding Bird Atlas of 1974. A 2007 Breeding Bird Atlas confirmed or probable confirmed breeding Peregrines in 15 of the 1055 “blocks” in Massachusetts. Compare these 15 reports to the over 500 reports of breeding Red-tailed hawks in the same atlas project. 

The Peregrine falcon was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1999 but their numbers in Massachusetts are still low. This is due in part to the Peregrine’s preference to nest high on rocky cliffs. Mimicking these sky-scraping nesting grounds, peregrines have found skyscrapers themselves to be an adequate substitute. One innovative solution to city nesting. And with downtowns replete with robust populations of pigeons and starlings the falcons have grown comfy in such urban settings as Worcester, Massachusetts.

Worcester has played home to one such pair of breeding falcons for the past few years and hopes are alive that the pair will take to a new nest site on the Printer’s Building. Having falcons nest in the city is simply put… amazing. Finding these 14”-19” birds high above city streets can be a challenge. Look for dark “gargoyles” perched on the roof line of tall buildings, or the ledges beneath windows. Accumulation of “white wash” is a good sign of a favorite hunting perch. Since falcons hunt entirely on the wing watch for close knit flocks of starlings or pigeons flying in tight, evasive patterns, this is often a sign that a falcon or other raptor is close by, "shepherding" the flock until an individual bird strays from the pack.

Join me on Sunday, February 20^th at 10am for the Peregrines and Pediments walk sponsored by Broad Meadow Brook and Preservation Worcester.

Cedar waxwings are there... if you can hear them



photo by Anne Greene

Thirty-four New England winters have hardened any hope I have that March will glimmer with spring. But the birds more tuned to subtle shifts in sunlight are awakened by the cracking of the ice. Cedar waxwings winter in New England, feeding on crab apples and choke cherries. Flocks of waxwings descend on fruit trees to gobble the dried and shrunken head fruits with jaw bending elasticity.

Like the groundhog’s shadow the presence of waxwings may only be a psychological sign that winter is waning, but their high pitched calls, polished golden feathers and yellow tipped tails lighten even the greyest piles of snow.

photo by Anne Greene

Waxwings have an exotic look, and well they should as they represent one of only three species found worldwide in the family “Bombycillidae”. The size of a cardinal, with a shorter tail, at a distance they appear grey or black like a European starling and so are often overlooked. But, get a close look at these sleek birds and they give the impression of a shape-shifting magician, the way Sherlock Holmes would have thrown off cloak and false beard transforming in plain sight from street urchin to genteel sleuth.

Though one of the few song birds without a song, their steady high pitched calls can be heard from a distance and queuing into to this dog whistle of a call is the best way to know when waxwings are around.

Beginnings and the importance of a mentor

However it starts bird watching gets under the skin. For me, I fell in love with eagles when I was nine years old. It was a chance encounter at the Edinburgh Zoo with a Golden eagle. I’d like to say she looked into my eyes and I knew it was so, but in reality that massive hulk of a bird seemed unnatural behind bars. Her size and ferocity were linked to the Scottish highlands, a rolling lullaby of green and rock and water. Seeing her up close was more about the potential of the wild that lies outside than some close educational encounter.

I returned from Scotland and wrote elementary school “animal reports” on far flung birds like the Harpy eagle and Eurasian hoopoe. These long distant relatives of the chickadee were of eye-raising obscurity to the school librarian who had laid out a table full of books, “The Children’s Encyclopedia: Giraffes” and “Wild about Chimps”. I produced carefully written script chapters on “habitat” and “diet”. “He has sharp claws to grip his prey,” is still scrawled on yellowing paper, fastened with brass brads, to this day.

Birds joined dinosaurs, knights, trucks and robots as a picture book and museum fueled childhood passion. But unlike these extinct and diesel pumped predecessors birds were accessible out my window. Part hunter, part collector, part visual learner I delved into the world of birds and through them was transported to the wild, unnoticed and natural places all around me.

Then came age 12 and voice cracking adolescence and at that very precarious moment I was blessed to have been connected to a mentor by my fifth grade teacher, Jen Tobin. Nancy Claflin was 60 years my senior and a gentle yet wind hardened Yankee. She would pick me up at 7am and walk me quietly through the woods of Lincoln or around the rock shores of Cape Ann. She pointed out Northern flickers and Harlequin ducks, we counted Red-tailed hawks on Rt. 128 as we drove north to Plum Island and she showed me how to connect the tiny foot paths of Mt. Auburn Cemetery in the spring.

This is how it got under my skin and despite a childhood fear that one day I would give up the hunger for exploration I am still here. The draw is too strong, the days too beautiful. Harlequin ducks still bob around the rocks at Cape Ann and though Nancy is now buried in Mt. Auburn Cemetery I watch for signs of spring every year, as she taught me, those many birds ago.

[For more tips on becoming a bird watching mentor click here] 

Where to bird watch in New England this weekend – Cape Ann

Known as Massachusetts’
“other cape” Cape Ann is the jut of land that emanates out into the Atlantic between Plum Island  to the North and Salem to the South. Cape Ann is separated from the mainland by the Annisquam River and is home to the fishing towns of Gloucester and Rockport. Accessible from Rt. 95 to 128 North the Cape itself is looped by Rt. 127 and the usual day trip is to drive the entire loop stopping at various coves, overlooks, and headlands to scan the ocean for birds.

Cape Ann reaches out into the Atlantic and its rocky shores give bird watchers a chance to get close views of winter ducks, alcids, and wayward, storm-blown sea birds. Its reputation as a winter bird watching hot spot has long been known and during an onshore wind or sleet whipping Northeaster Cape Ann is an impressive, if not cozy bird watching experience. A scope is a must for viewing for seaducks as they dive for fish and bob between waves.

Seabird migration peaks in November though wintering Harlequin ducks, loons, razorbills, grebes, gannets and many more make Cape Ann a good bird watching stop all winter long. It should be noted that much of the Cape is private property and special consideration needs to be taken. Parking on roads and walking on piers is allowed though private property should be respected at all times. There are several locations on the Cape open to the public the most notable being Halibut Point jointly operated by the DCR and the Trustees of Reservation. A map to the walking trails is available.

For information about bird watching locations on Cape Ann visit: Rockport Mass Secret Spots, New England Seabirds, or read the wonderful write up in the October 2010 and December 2010 issues of the Bird Observer a quarterly journal that all New England bird watchers should subscribe too. Bring an extra jacket, wool mittens, and a thermos full of coffee for the trip is not warm, but hardy New Englanders should make the best of these cold birding months and make the trek to Cape Ann this winter.

The bird is called… a treasury of bird names

All North American birds have both a binomial "two term" Latin name and an English name. For instance the American goldfinch has the binomial name, Carduelis tristis placing it in the genus Carduelis with several other species and as the unique specie tristis. In comparison the English name is reversed with the descriptor American coming before the “family” goldfinch of which there are several other species. For the beginner bird watcher the English name is the most relevant though the Latin name is ultimately how the bird is known internationally.

While most of the American colloquial names  like chickenhawk, greenlit, butterball, and bogsucker (translation Cooper’s hawk, vireo, Bufflehead, and American woodcock) have faded away, the English names of North American birds retain a colorful and evocative lexicon.

There are bird names that are tricolored and painted with all the basic stops on the color wheel: blue, red, yellow, black and white, orange, purple, gray, and green. Then there are luxuriously colored bird names containing scarlet and vermilion, cerulean and indigo, ivory, chestnut, golden, and olive and conditional colors like ashy, glossy, buff, bronzed, slaty, snowy, sooty, dusky, ruddy, rusty, and rose. 

Habitats are represented in names like seaside, tundra, cliff, cave, field, swamp, and marsh. Summer, winter, evening, and mourning (sad if not an early riser) are also found. Proud names like king, great, greater, royal, elegant, and magnificent give way to the strange and reckless like wandering, wild, solitary, bohemian, ancient, and parasitic to the diminutive like little, lesser, least, plain, pygmy, and simply put common.




simply, Brant

 Bird names describe bodies that are sharp, rough, broad, and rhinoceros. In their names birds whistle, whoop, pipe, laugh, warble or are mute. They are mottled, marbled, masked, spotted, eared, capped, crested, smooth or grooved, footed, spectacled, bridled, whiskered, varied, or patriotically bald.

And then there are some birds like Cher or Prince who go without descriptors and are simply the bird known as willet, dunlin, veery or brant.

Golden-crowned kinglet

“A tiny, effervescent, and crisply patterned pixie of a bird. Despite its diminutive size… overall neckless and plump.” (Pete Dunne’s Field Guide Companion)

This “pixie” of the woods is a boreal forest breeder that flits away the winter here in New England. The Golden-crowned kinglet filters up evergreen boughs like champagne bubbles and is often seen with other winter song birds like chickadees and titmice. It is the tiniest of this tiny crowd. Though not always visible, its golden crown can range from daisy yellow to deep orange and is a streak of color on the top of its head bordered by white and black. In February and March kinglets begin to move north to their breeding grounds and are evident in the New England woods, especially in coniferous trees like pine, spruce, and hemlock. Watch for the greenish back, white wing bar, and listen for the soft two noted “si-si” call of this tiny bird that so often goes unnoticed, hiding in plain sight.

Participate in the Focus on Feeders Massachusetts this weekend February 5th and 6th

This weekend join the thousands of backyard bird watchers across Massachusetts in the Focus on Feeders bird count. To participate all you need to do is keep an eye on your feeders this weekend (Saturday February 5^th and Sunday, February 6^th) and note the highest number of each species at any given time. For example three American goldfinches on Saturday and five on Sunday would give you five American goldfinches as your total (the highest one time occurrence). You then enter your data into the official form and submit it to Mass Audubon for compilation.

Bird populations are always changing (for better or worse) and this type of “citizen science” helps track specie populations in Massachusetts. The program started in 1964 the year after the State’s first record of breeding Northern cardinals, a relative new comer. “Laura Johnson, reported the first nesting record of Northern Cardinal in Massachusetts in 1963. In 1964, the Allen Bird Club began asking people in western Massachusetts to report sightings of both Northern Cardinal and Tufted Titmouse. The following year, Mass Audubon assumed responsibility for the project, expanding it New England-wide in the late 1960's.” You can view historical results of the feeder count on Audubon’s website. And, for the new comer here is a helpful poster of the common feeder species in the Eastern U.S. and Western U.S.

Happy counting this weekend!

Where to bird watch in New England this weekend – Plum Island

The Parker River National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) encompasses dune beach, salt marsh, pitch pine forest and river estuary. Parker River NWR is located on Plum Island east of Newburyport, Massachusetts. Parker River NWR itself is affectionately known as Plum Island though it occupies roughly ¾ of the entire island leaving the most northerly portion open to development, beach parking, and a few summer clam shacks. Plum Island is connected to the mainland by the small chain bridge on “Plum Island Turnpike” (though there are no tolls and few cars). It is separated from the contiguous United States by three bodies of water: the mouth of the Merrimack River to the North, the smaller Parker River to the west and south, and most obviously, the Atlantic Ocean to the East. From the northern tip of Plum Island one can see Salisbury Beach State Reservation and New Hampshire in the distance and from the south tip of the Island Ipswich Bay and Cape Ann. This long barrier island throngs with coconut perfumed bodies in the summer, breeding Piping plovers, and teaming parking lots. In the non-beach months however, Plum Island is known for its tremendous bird life. A stop off for migrating ducks, shore birds, raptors, swallows, and songbirds in the spring and fall it then turns into a frozen tundra appealing to northerly birds like Rough-legged hawks, Snowy owls, longspurs and Snow buntings. From the ocean overlooks the winter also turns up numerous sea ducks, loons, alcids and grebes.

Tom Wetmore’s website, Recent Bird Sightings from Plum Island is the most updated, accurate list of bird sightings and will give you a good sense of what to look for. Find the official map of Parker River NWR here or for other locations near by view this map I created. Though the Snowy owls have not, as of yet, shown up at Plum there are still plenty of ducks, hawks, and winter variants to keep the snow bound birder happy.

Bird book reviews – and no place to go…

Every bird watcher from beginner to expert is familiar with the quintessential bird book—the field guide. For most people this is either the famous green bound Roger Tory Peterson or the  Golden Guide to Birds. A field guide is basically a visual checklist, an aid to identifying the birds that whiz by. Often broken into east and west editions a field guide to the entire North America arranges the roughly 800 species of birds by taxonomic order. The market is flooded with wonderful field guides by such institutions and authors as National Geographic, Smithsonian, National Audubon Society and authors like Donald and Lillian Stokes, Ken Kaufman, David Sibley, and to this day, Roger Tory Peterson. But beyond this pile of invaluable field guides is another category of bird book that is often overlooked. It is a heavy, textual tome to the birds of North America and it contains little to no pictures. Known as a "field guide companion" these books give the life history, breeding behavior, migration and other information about an individual specie beyond visual identification clues.

These volumes are arranged in the same order as most field guides but intersperse information about flight, nesting, egg laying, migration, history, and biology. These books are not meant to be carried into the field but they make for wonderful browsing. As the biggest winter storm in recent U.S. history rolls across over 2000 miles of land these are the books you want to wile away to the hours with. I recommend three:

The Sibley Guide to Bird Life and Behavior

By David Allen Sibley

“Even though these things do not have direct application to identification, and are not included in the identification guide, these behaviors are truly fascinating, and birders enjoy knowing about them. The plan for this book was to provide a layperson’s introduction to the most intriguing and interesting facets of the birds’ lives – emphasizing things that birders are likely to see and ask about, and things that add to a larger picture of the natural world.” 

Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. By Paul Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin and Darryl Wheye

“The essays are presented on the right-hand pages facing these species treatments. They vary in length and cover important and interesting biological topics -- how flamingos feed, how different species of warblers divide hunting areas in conifer trees, how species are formed, how raptors can be conserved, why shorebirds sometimes stand on one foot, why birds rub themselves with ants, how migrating birds find their way, why the Passenger Pigeon became extinct, what determines how often hummingbirds feed, and what duck display mean, just to name a few of the numerous topics addressed. Also included is a series of biographical sketches of bird biologists who have made important contributions to understanding our birds, and some notes on the origins and meanings of North American bird names. To the degree possible, these essays are placed opposite species to which they are most relevant."

Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds

By Pete Dunne

"In this book, bursting with more information than any field guide could hold, the well-known author and birder Pete Dunne introduces readers to the "Cape May School of Birding." It's an approach to identification that gives equal or more weight to a bird's structure and shape and the observer's overall impression (often called GISS, for General Impression of Size and Shape) than to specific field marks.

This supplement to field guides shares the knowledge and skills that expert birders bring to identification challenges. Birding should be an enjoyable pursuit for beginners and experts alike, and Pete Dunne combines a unique playfulness with the work of identification. Readers will delight in his nicknames for birds, from the Grinning Loon and Clearly the Bathtub Duck to Bronx Petrel and Chicken Garnished with a Slice of Mango and a Dollop of Raspberry Sherbet."