Kathleen

Helping Birds in Your World Activity 2: Think about the Seven Simple Actions to Protect Birds. Which are you already doing? Could you practice any of them more extensively, or start trying more of them? What other actions can you think of that could help birds? Share in the discussion. Activity 3: Have you noticed bird populations changing over your lifetime? Share your observations in the discussion. I think I must add Activity 3, since I am 73, and have lived in so many places [Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Sweden and Washington state]. Activity 2 helped me to make some decisions, as well as decisions I made long ago.  While in MN a beautiful oriole hit our corner window, and was killed.  I made a decision then to put some full-sized adhesive birds on our windows, and not one more crashed.  I used them in all large windows in every house. We’ve always planted native [as well as some roses, marigolds and food plants], but the Minnesota plan to pay to plant bee-loving plants seems like an idea that’s good for birds as well. We have used no pesticides since we went to NM.  That meant listening for tomato worms and plucking them off. We are now [state mandated] using only paper bags and re-re-re-using plastics.  Paper bags are great kindling for camp fires and fireplace. We started with Christmas Bird Count 53 years ago in the Black Hills of SD.  It was -10° F and about 2 feet of snow! The other 2:  cats and bird-friendly coffee, well we don’t have cats, but we drink coffee.  Thanks for the idea! Activity 3 I’ve been thinking about this for a while.  As a girl, my favorite summer place was the lake in northern Minnesota.  There wasn’t a bald eagle or a loon to be seen.  But there were other birds galore!  Eastern Phoebe woke me every morning, Purple Martins [didn’t hurt my aunt had a house for them], American Goldfinch [black seeds attracted them], Great Blue Herons [Shy-poke as mom called them], gulls decorated the docks, mergansers [with lots of little ones] and a bird I loved but I never heard again after about 7 years, we called it the xylophone bird because its song sounded like that, and because we didn’t know the name. Thanks to hard work by the rangers, I saw the first Bald Eagle, about five years ago.  My cousin hears loons in spring and fall.  Martins, Goldfinches, Herons, gulls, and mergansers are still there, but the Eastern Phoebes seem to be gone, and the little xylophone bird seems to have gone for good.

I agree with you!  I'm not tossing my RT Peterson either.  We got it about 1966, and we have lots of notes in it...from LP Michigan, to Minnesota, to South Dakota, to New Mexico, to Colorado, to our 30 year home in Bellevue, Washington (and one year in Sweden)!

HABITATS Activity 1: Think of two different habitats near you where you might go birding. Maybe it’s a park and a more urban area, or a field and the edge of a pond. Visit each one and see if you notice different birds in each habitat. Tell us what you find in the discussion.   Mercer Slough Nature Park Trails-4:00 PM Birds Seen:   Stellers Jay, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Black-headed Grosbeak (immature) Habitat:  Forested, with small ponds and creeks-Slough Results:  Leafy trees got in the way.  Sun angle was bad.  We identified Stellers Jay and Chickadee by their calls.  We had to look up the Grosbeak in the book, which had no immature.  After coming home we looked in another book and made a sure identification.  All of these birds were in the leafy tops of the trees.   Sweyolocken Boat Launch-4:45 PM Birds Seen:  Bald Eagle, Common Crows Habitat:  Open water and Boat Marina—Lake Washington Results:  Easy to identify these two birds!  The eagle was clearly fishing as he was patrolling the waters off the boat docks.  The crows were checking out the garbage spots for any food.  We looked for cormorants, any ducks-didn’t see any!  Decided to try Newcastle Beach Park.   Newcastle Beach Park-10:30-11:30 AM Birds Seen:  Robins, Bald Eagle (adult and juvenile), Fox Sparrow, Chestnut-backed Chickadee Habitat:  Open water and Forested Shoreline-Lake Washington Results:  Had seen ducks and cormorants here before, and were optimistic.  We tried the shore first, and spotted the adult Bald Eagle, with the immature in hot pursuit (for food) over the water.  There was evidence of geese everywhere, but no geese in sight.  Not cormorants, ducks either-not one!  Then we went to the forested shoreline-we saw a sparrow, chickadee, and robins in the brush, but experienced lots more mosquitoes than birds! Conclusion:  Come any other season than summer-before leaves are out.  Birds also will not have migrated and will have more diversity.

Birdwatching Through the Seasons Activity 2: Using Merlin’s “Likely Birds” feature and/or range maps in field guides, explore birds that are found in your area. Choose three species that are year-round residents, and three that only live in your area for part of the year. Have you seen any of them before? Share what you find in the discussion. I checked my range maps in my field guides against Merlin.  I found many of our birds extended to a larger area for year around in Merlin than in my older field guides. I checked these year around birds, since we see them nearly every day:  Oregon Junco, Bewick’s Wren, and Anna’s Hummingbird. I checked these for migrants:  Bullocks Oriole, Fox Sparrow, and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. I have seen all six before, but the second three only periodically.  The Bullocks Oriole we just spotted last week [first sighting, and mistook him at first for a Varied Thrush].  We expect to see the pair off and on through the summer breeding season [Apr-Sep]. The last time we saw a Fox Sparrow was early spring, probably late Mar or early Apr.  This large sparrow will come back in the fall to mix with the other juncos and wrens and kinglets to have a cozy winter [non-breeding season]. A hard one to identify is the Ruby-crowned Kinglet, which shares the Fox Sparrow’s migration timing.  This tiny cutie arrives in about Sep to share its non-breeding season and takes off about Apr to breed and raise their tiny young ones in northern Canada and Alaska.

Activity 4: Pick your favorite bird, and see if you can describe it using at least three of the bird ID strategies (size and shape, color pattern and markings, behavior, habitat and range, and sounds). Share your description in the discussion. One of my favorite birds is one I see 3-4 times a year-The Pileated Woodpecker. He is not quite as big as a crow [which we have lots of] but I look to see if it's "Woody" every time a big shadow goes over.  He has a crest--crows don't. He [and she] come for one thing--a felled conifer that we left for a nurse log.  They settle in and begin to drill, and the pieces of wood start flying, and the bugs start disappearing.  They walk up the tree to peck, or stand on the ground, as you can see. They often come together as a pair, something I really like.  Stellars Jays do too. When they call you can hear them throughout the neighborhood.  They are shy but I got some pictures of them.

Are you close to Bosque del Apache?  That was our favorite place while living in ABQ!