Crow Roosts

  236 crows, that’s the number of crows that were perched in the trees on the hillside behind our house last week. This time of year their numbers start to dwindle down. We’ve had as many as 700 crows out there this winter. Usually the birds have stopped coming by this time so when I can add 236 crows to the paltry six or ten other birds I manage to find for the Great Backyard Bird Count I’m happy. Their large numbers help to make my bird count look more impressive.

   Every year the crows show up for a few months during winter. Winter crow roosts they are called. Andy posted a website at crowroosts.org where I could report my crow roost to some scientists studying them. The crows start to trickle into town around 3:00 or 4:00. Usually by sundown they are scattered all along the ridge of the hill, with as many as 50 in one tree, then once they are all gathered together they will all move on to another location.

   At one point while I was observing them there was a loud bang and a swarm of about 200 birds rose up into the air. Was the bang intentional? In some areas people use fireworks to scare the birds away. By comparison we have only a small roost at this location. There are roosts that number into the thousands. I have been reading a book called “birdology” where the author describes observing 50,000 crows in Auburn N.Y..That’s a lot of birds. That’s a lot of bird crap. The city had to train the birds not to roost in the downtown Auburn business area. People were carrying umbrellas to leave the buildings to get to their cars. Seems the only people happy with the crows were the car wash owners. They managed to get the crow roost to move elsewhere using loud recordings of crow alarm calls, fireworks and laser lights. (No crows were hurt in the process.)

   I personally have a love/hate relationship with the crows around here. I love the fact they chase off the raptors that threaten the smaller birds at my feeder, but in the spring they raid the nests of those same birds they were helping to protect. (I wonder if crows raid other crow’s nests as well.) If only all birds were as well adapted to survive as crows are. I recently read an article that said birds that live in families or groups have better survival rates because they’ll actually teach each other things to help them survive. The birds learn from the others and they will look out for each other as well.

   I haven’t seen any crows gathering on the hillside lately. Maybe they paired up while they were together in the winter and now they’ve gone off to build nests and raise families. From now on I’ll only find a few crows around here until the big influx happens again next year.

  

The Great Backyard Bird Count is here again.

My birding year starts with the GBBC. A few days ago I went to their website and printed out a listing of the birds common to my area (rare birds included), a brand new list, unchecked and just waiting for me to make that first sighting of the year. I tend to take the Great Backyard Bird Count literally and will only report those birds that I see in my backyard (and sometimes my frontyard) during the four days of the Count. My backyard is a large swampy wooded area behind the house with a small population of birds. After the Great Backyard Bird Count is over I will continue to use this listing throughout the year to record all the bird species I find in New York state. (The DOAS website has a good listing too.) My goal is to find all the birds on the list (or in my case as many as I can). Last year I found fewer bird species than the previous year so this year I’m heading out with renewed vigor to make this my best year yet.

Although I didn't spot as many birds on my list last year as I would have liked I did have some nice sightings. One of my favorites was the barred owl I saw at the DOAS sanctuary. In addition to last year’s list the red-headed woodpecker, black tern and moorhen I saw at Montezuma were great additions to my life list and one very good reason for going there every year. I also chose a target bird last year, a golden-winged warbler, which I found down near Tuxedo New York. I have yet to decide what this year’s target bird will be. Last year I also started recording in a notebook where and when I or others saw a particular species of bird so that I can return there this year and hopefully find it again for my list.

At 8:30 yesterday morning I found my first bird. My first bird for this year was a beautiful red male northern cardinal. It’s one of a pair of cardinals that hang around here all year. That bird and 263 crows were the only sightings I had at my house yesterday because I had to take my brother to the Albany airport, but the trip to Albany presented me with a great opportunity to hopefully find some birds that are not so easily found around here.

As we drove down New Karner Road in Albany on the way to the airport we passed the Pine Bush Discovery Center and trails. http://www.albanypinebush.org/ That was the first I’d seen of that building and I decided I’d make it a stop on my way home. The pine bush is a unique area of sandy dunes with hiking trails throughout.  As I started hiking on the trail about fifty crows perched in the low trees around me or flew overhead. I had decided to walk the short blue trail and was growing disappointed because I wasn’t seeing any birds except for crows, lots and lots of crows. It wasn’t until I got back to the center that I finally found a group of chickadees. I was surprised to see a number of red-breasted nuthatches with them. A white-breasted nuthatch was also present. Two vultures soared overhead. It was hard to see them through the trees. I was hoping they might be black vultures which can sometimes be found in the Albany area, but they weren’t. They were turkey vultures…being chased by the crows.

I decided that I might try going to the Landis Arboretum in Esperance next, but first I had to find Esperance. Zipping down some back roads that went by a number of farm fields I thought I caught sight of a harrier that flew low over a field then perched in a tree. I turned down a road near the tree and parked. A red-tailed hawk, not a harrier, was sitting in the tree. Ah well. I then glanced over into the yard on the other side of the car in time to see a handsome adult bald eagle fly up from the ground into a tree. What a nice close look. As I drove slowly away I happened to look at the spot where the eagle had been sitting on the ground. There was a snow goose laying there, its head was up and it looked quite scared. I wondered what the story was behind that. Had the eagle grabbed the bird and dropped down there to eat it when I interrupted it? I drove off down the road and I hadn't gone too far when I spotted a large, mostly white colored bird in another yard so I pulled over. For a few minutes I was in hopes that I’d found a snowy owl, but it was definitely a hawk devouring a small animal it caught. I couldn’t figure out what hawk I was looking at. The front and the face was white. The back and the back of the head was a pale gray. Maybe it was a gray ghost, a male harrier? I think I was able to discern some facial disks. Darn, I’d thought about bringing my camera, but decided against it. That happens every time. I turned around and drove by the farm fields once more where a female harrier was coursing over the field.

I finally found Esperance and pulled into the town hall parking lot. The town hall was located by a river. I could see birds in the water and I was able to check common mergansers, Canada geese and mallards off my new year’s list. From there I followed the signs to the Arboretum. In a tree by the parking lot was the iconic symbol of spring, a robin, another spring teaser in a winter full of spring teasers. When I climbed out of the car I could hear bird sounds. Following the sounds uphill I saw more robins flying around. A brown thrasher was walking about under the bushes. At the top of the hill I heard an unusual sound and followed it. As I got closer there was a sudden burst of robins flying away from something moving in the bushes along with a loud snorting/ grunting sound. Oh my gosh was I about to be attacked? Phew. I could see a large animal retreating up the hill through the trees but I couldn’t quite tell what it was. I thought it was a deer, or at least I’d hoped it was a deer and not a carnivore. Whatever it was it was gone. Red breasted birds flew back and forth overhead. There were robins everywhere, I estimated there were about seventy five.  Spring is definitely on the way.

Well I didn’t find any birds in Albany I couldn’t find around here, but it was a fun day and a good start for the year. I found 17 species, only 219 more to go.

DOAS Sanctuary and Hawk Watch on Franklin Mountain

  Thursday was a very “birdy” day at the Audubon Sanctuary. The hawkwatch alert had said that it would probably be the best day of the week for spotting raptors migrating through, but it wasn’t just raptors that were moving through. The rain storm that we’d had the previous couple of days apparently had caused a fallout of birds. Birds were everywhere, especially warblers. I couldn’t decide whether to go up to the hawkwatch as planned or just stay down in the field and practice my skills at identifying confusing fall warblers. Who knows when I’d find this many fall warblers together again. 

  I made my way up the hill stopping every few steps to check out birds hiding in the goldenrod or among the leaves of a tree. At the hawkwatch birds were flying everywhere. Turkey vultures sailed through the sky and chatty ravens floated on the air. I don’t think there was ever a moment when there were not ravens in the air. At one point I counted a grouping of sixteen. 

  There were plenty of small birds in the trees so when the number of raptors going through slowed down I was able to scan around and look at these small birds. A ruby crowned kinglet flew up onto the stem of a plant directly in front of me. It flew away then a black-throated green warbler   flew onto the stem. Phoebes were flycatching. A towee was calling. Flocks of yellow-rumped warblers were all around us. Bluejays flew from treetop to treetop. A brown thrasher flew into a bush and common yellow-throated warblers flitted about nearby. 

  The steady northwest wind was perfect for pushing the birds southward. We spotted a good variety of raptors, bald eagles, sharp-shinned and cooper’s hawks, kestrels, merlins and red-tailed hawks. It was a banner day for osprey. We counted around a dozen. Canada geese were also on the move and many flocks passed by us. 

  Walking back down to the car to leave I stopped to look at the birds in the bushes and goldenrod again. There was a huge flock of white throated sparrows. I’ve been studying the fall warblers. My hopes were high of finding something I haven’t already been able to easily identify, but the birds are still confusing. I’ve got to figure out how to tell the difference between birds like a fall cape may and a yellow-rumped warbler.

  One of the other hawkwatchers showed me a baby snapping turtle he had found. I wondered if a turtle that small could still give a finger a good bite, but I wasn’t about to find out. Down by the pond a tiny wren was flying around among the reeds. I tried to make it out as something other than a house wren, but I couldn’t see enough of it to tell. All in all I had twenty seven species of birds for the day.

  I wondered if the birds would still be there tomorrow. The predicted east wind didn’t bode well for raptor spotting, but if the warblers were still there it seemed like a good idea for me to go up for an hour or so just to check out the warblers.

Who's Watching Who

  I’m not a morning person and I suspect that I miss seeing a lot of birds because I look for them too late in the day. Circumstances had me up by the Susquehanna Greenway bright and early Monday morning and so I thought I’d take advantage of the early hour to do a little bird watching along the trail. There are a lot fewer local birds around as many of them have already left for warmer climates, but if I was lucky maybe I’d find a few of the less frequently seen birds from up north which were currently migrating through on their way south.

  As I walked down the trail I was not able to catch anything more than a quick glimpse of a bird before it would fly off into the wild blue yonder making it impossible to identify what it was. It looked like it was going to be one of those days when the birds saw me and took off before I saw them. I’d heard a kingfisher and a blue jay calling, but I had yet to see anything more than these momentary glimpses of birds fleeing away from me.

  There was very little wind blowing. I prefer windless days when the trees are all leafed out because the birds are easier to spot when there is no wind. When the leaves on the bushes are perfectly still I’m more apt to notice a few of them rustling where a bird is hopping along a branch. If I focus there long enough with my binoculars hopefully the bird will pop up out of the leaves for a few seconds so that I can get a look at him.

  A common yellow throated warbler hopped up onto a branch near me alarmed by my presence. Common yellow throats seem to be everywhere right now. I can almost count on seeing one or two when I’m bird watching. During breeding season they are a little yellow bird, but now their feathers have turned much browner.

  There was another bird flitting about in the undergrowth. When I got my binoculars focused on him I saw he had two white wing bars, was gray on top and bright yellow underneath. I could think of only one bird that looked like that. “Now let me see those dark stripes on the flanks,” I thought as I angled for a good view and yes, there they were…a magnolia warbler. What a pretty little bird.

  I could hear the sound of something pecking on a tree nearby then “Peek!” Ah ha, there had to be a hairy woodpecker around here someplace… and there he was at the top of that tree.

  Further down the trail bulldozers and backhoes at the nearby landfill were making loud noises. I doubted I’d find any birds in that area with that racket going on and except for a killdeer on the island in the river there weren’t any. If the birds weren’t staying there because of the noise neither was I and I was happy to go back down the trail where it was quieter.

  Returning to where I was able to hear the birds once more, I thought I heard a shorebird calling. I moved to a clearing by the river to see if I could find it. I didn’t see any shorebirds, but I caught a glimpse of a large brown bird sailing through the treetops, a raptor of some kind, that disappeared into the trees. I thought it was gone, but then the bird rose up above the trees and circled around coming back overhead. It was a red-tailed hawk. The hawk sailed through the air along the ridge of the hill in front of me. Suddenly a dozen crows flew up from the trees below.  They made swooping passes at hawk probably hoping to drive the hawk out of the area, but the hawk just seemed to take all this activity in stride and continued circling lazily overhead until it disappeared behind the hill.

 As I proceeded along the trail I observed three cedar waxwings sitting in a tree top just above my head while further back in the bushes a vireo was flitting around. As I watched the vireo the waxwings above me never moved from their perch. It seemed odd that they would allow me to be so close to them. I noticed that one of the birds was covered with puffs of downy white feathers, a good indication that it was probably a fledgling and as such might not be able to fly very well. The other two were most likely its dutiful parents staying nearby. I focused my attention back on the vireo. If only it would come out from behind the leaves. I thought I saw a dark line through its eye. I always assume a vireo is a red eyed vireo if I see a line through the eye, but now I know that isn’t always the case. This bird lacked that sleek look that I associate with a red-eyed vireo. In one glimpse it looked like it had a trace of yellow near the rump and in another glimpse maybe some more yellow near the head. Darn bird, he wouldn’t hold still. He stayed deep in the bush and when he did get into a position where I was able to get my binoculars focused on him he’d move somewhere else so I had to refocus my binoculars all over again. I caught another glimpse of what appeared to be an olive green back. He stuck his head out of the bush for a few seconds and from what I could see he didn’t have red eyes. Now where did he go? I searched around looking for the bird in the bushes and up in the tree branches. Oh there he was. Good grief! He’d been sitting on a branch right in front of me watching me all this time while I was searching for him. I lifted my binoculars one more time to try and identify him and he flew off for good. Well as I said earlier it was one of those days when the birds seemed to be doing a much better job of people watching than I was doing of watching them.

Charlotte Creek

Today I returned to my favorite birding place, Charlotte Creek,  to see if I could find some new birds I haven’t already seen this year. Once in a while something will surprise me there, but there was nothing that I didn’t already have on this year’s list. I do love to walk around there this time of year when the dreaded multiflora roses are in bloom. Enjoying their lovely fragrance is nice. Trying to walk around in the areas where they have become overgrown is quite another thing- ouch!ooch! eeech!.

The little ruby throated hummingbird sat, as he usually does, at the top of the dead tree surveying his domain as I got out of the car. I could hear a lot of birds, but they were staying hidden. The first time I went around the loop I saw very little. Usually I’ll walk around twice if the first time doesn’t produce anything. The second time around was the charm. A chestnut sided warbler flew onto a bare branch just above my head and sang “Pleased, pleased, pleased to meet you over and over. I saw only one catbird although I could hear other catbirds singing from inside the rose bushes. Off in the distance I heard the song of a veery spiraling downward and a male redstart sat on the top of a bush singing. 

There was a puddle in the path that the birds were using as a communal bath. I think if I had set up a chair there I might have eventually seen every bird in the area show up for a bath. The first time around the loop I spotted a small bird splashing about in the water. It was brown on top and had a yellow chest and a white eye ring. At first I thought Nashville warbler, but the size makes me think it was a common yellow throat. He flew off into a bush and I could see a yellow warbler there in the bush as well, perhaps waiting his turn for a bath. On my second time around a song sparrow was busy dousing himself in the puddle. He flew off and a blue winged warbler flew in and splashed about. 

Butterflies were everywhere, black and white ones, little blue ones, orange ones, and the only one I know the name for- the yellow tiger swallow tail. Those big light blue and black dragonflies followed me about and locust would suddenly fly off as I approached them along the path. The area is nicely overgrown and wild, almost as if no one had been there for a while. I was afraid many of the birds might disappear when several ATVs showed up last year and went tearing around the loop, but I don’t see any sign that they’d been there this year.

Near the car I spotted two cedar waxwings. I’m surprised I’ve only seen one waxwing up until now this year. Back at the car a flicker flew across the field and lighted on a branch in a dead tree. I was hoping to see some newly fledged birds when I was there, but nothing so far. Guess I’ll just have to come back.

Back to Montezuma

   I recently visited the Montezuma Wildlife Refuge. I was hoping to find some birds there that I probably wouldn't find around here. As it turned out I just missed seeing a major migration of shore birds. A few days earlier, least sandpipers and dunlins alone had numbered into the hundreds. There were still flocks of shorebirds at the refuge when I was there, but not as many as there were previously and they were too far away for me to identify with just my binoculars. Never the less I was hoping I could at least find one or two shorebirds wondering around closer to the road and within range of my visibility. Even though the bird population at Montezuma was much lower than when migrants come through we had a good time hunting for birds and found a few new birds for my birding list for this year.

    The pond by the visitors’ center…wasn’t. It had largely dried up. Except for puddles of water here and there the pond was a field of grass with Canadian geese walking around in it. The bird houses by the visitor's center were swarming with purple martins. That was good. I needed to find purple martins for my list for this year.

   As we drove down Wildlife Drive the first pool on the left had Canada geese and mallards in it, nothing all that exciting. Then I noticed a small dark bird near the edge of the water. When I focused my binoculars on him I could see bright red on the forehead, a moorhen! Now that’s more like what I was hoping to find here. It was a great way to start the day.

   The water was drained off of the main pool exposing lots of mud. The ducks and shorebirds were concentrated on the water that still remained in the central part of the pool, but at that distance it was not possible for me to tell exactly what the birds were. There were plenty of mallards about and we spotted some pied-billed grebes in the water that filled a ditch by the road. A duck was walking along the shore behind some reeds. It took me a while to get a good look at it. I finally figured out it was a female wood duck. Great blue herons seemed to be everywhere. An osprey was fishing in the canal near stop number four where huge numbers of carp could be seen crowded together in the water trying to get into the main pool from the canal. Red-winged blackbirds were spotted here and there among the cattails.

   As we rounded the corner I spied two little ducks in amongst the reeds. The one duck had a crescent on his face. They were a male and female blue-winged teal. I would spot the only shorebird that I was able to see at the refuge here along the shore. It was a solitary sandpiper. It was a disappointment not to be able to see any more of the many shorebirds being reported by other birders.

   From Wildlife Drive we went to Tschache Pool. I could see nothing out on the pool except Canada geese.  Then I noticed something white at the far distant side of the pool. I could make out that it was a swan when I looked at it through my binoculars, but it was impossible to tell anything more about it than that. As we stood around by the pool two large white birds flew over the pool. Terns! I think they were Caspian terns. They provided some great entertainment. The terns would hover over the water then pull their wings into their sides and dive bomb into the water with a huge splash that sent water spewing up into the air..

   We went from Tschache Pool to May’s Point. I had read that a red-headed woodpecker had been spotted in that area. Finding the bird was no problem at all since we passed three people lined up along the road with their scopes and cameras pointed at it. It was a lifer for me.

    I wish I could have spent more time exploring other parts of the refuge, but time did not permit it. Maybe I’ll be back to try to find more of those shorebirds another time