Red-tailed Hawk Take-off

Red-tailed hawk

We chased another rare bird and dipped........but Gerry got some great shots of a red-tail. Enjoy the photos!

 

 

Raptors and Sparrows

Peregrine Falcon

It was another search for the Gyrfalcon in Hadley, Massachusetts............another dip! (birder talk for failing to see the target bird). But it was a great day for raptors and sparrows! 

We witnessed the pursuit of a Peregrine by the much smaller American Kestrel.

American Kestrel chasing a Peregrine

Kestrel trying to chase the peregrine out of his territory.

Northern Harrier scanning the fields

Northern Harrier

Rough-legged Hawk - light phase

rough-legged hawk

A Vesper Sparrow, who should have been much further south, posed nicely.

as did this Savannah Sparrow, who also should have been further south.

Savannah Sparrow

This is the winter area for the tree sparrow, they go further north in the summer.

American Tree Sparrow

Love how he's holding onto the upright branch!

American Tree Sparrow

European Starlings

European Starlings

Starlings are probably not anyone's favorite bird but their history is pretty interesting! Here's some cool facts taken from Cornell's All About Birds site. www.allaboutbirds.org

All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds set loose in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. The birds were intentionally released by a group who wanted America to have all the birds that Shakespeare ever mentioned. It took several tries, but eventually the population took off. Today, more than 200 million European Starlings range from Alaska to Mexico.

. Because of their recent arrival in North America, all of our starlings are closely related. Genetically, individuals from Virginia are nearly indistinguishable from starlings sampled in California, 3,000 miles away. Such little genetic variation often spells trouble for rare species, but seems to offer no ill effects to starlings so far.

 Starlings turn from spotted and white to glossy and dark each year without shedding their feathers. The new feathers they grow in fall have bold white tips – that’s what gives them their spots. By spring, these tips have worn away, and the rest of the feather is dark and iridescent brown. It’s an unusual changing act that scientists term “wear molt.”

 Starlings are great vocal mimics: individuals can learn the calls of up to 20 different species. Birds whose songs starlings often copy include the Eastern Wood-Pewee, Killdeer, meadowlarks, Northern Bobwhite, Wood Thrush, Red-tailed Hawk, American Robin, Northern Flicker, and many others.

 Males attract mates by singing near a nest site they’ve claimed and flapping their wings in circles at the same time. After they’ve paired, males follow their mates everywhere, chasing off other males. Starlings are extremely aggressive birds that drive other species from nest sites they want to use.

 Populations in North America are stable. This recent and extremely successful arrival to North America is a fierce competitor for nest cavities. Starlings often take over the nests of native birds, expelling the occupants. With so many starlings around, this causes some concern about their effect on native bird populations. Nevertheless, a study in 2003 found few actual effects on populations of 27 native species. Only sapsuckers showed declines due to starlings; other species appeared to be holding their own against the invaders.

Winter Birds

Horned Lark

Tired of the usual birds who visit your feeders? Find an agricultural area and you'll be rewarded with some birds we only see in the winter. We visited the Hadley "honey pot" area near the CT river in Massachusetts.

Horned Larks

Horned larks don't hop from spot to spot like other birds, they walk, although it really looks like a determined march.

Snow buntings also march!

Big, open spaces are the perfect areas for raptors and we saw red-tailed hawks, a kestrel and 2 bald eagles. 

American Kestrel

Bald Eagles

Red-tailed Hawk

Golden-crowned Kinglet

 Our tiniest winter bird (barely larger than a hummingbird) is the golden-crowned kinglet. We see them all winter in conifers, particularly hemlocks and pines, actively flitting around finding insects. Yes, insects! They don't eat seeds, these bird are insectivores.

They move around so fast, Gerry had a hard time getting one to stay still long enough to focus and shoot.

This is a great shot of the golden stripe on his crown. 

Bernd Heinrich's book "Winter World; the Ingenuity of Animal Survival" has a great section on this bird and is well worth a read if you haven't already done so.

Redpolls

Common Redpoll - male

   Redpolls are common in the Arctic tundra and boreal forests. In irruptive years, such as this one, they migrate south in search of food. We seem to see redpolls every other year here in Vermont. There are two varieties - common and hoary - and distinguishing the rarer hoary is tricky! Here are some pictures of what I'm calling common redpolls. For more information on how to distinguish the two, read Sibley's blog;

 http://www.sibleyguides.com/bird-info/common-redpoll-and-hoary-redpoll/

 

More Pine Grosbeaks

  If there's one word that describes Pine Grosbeaks, it's "tame". You can get amazingly close to these birds without flushing them. They're usually pretty docile, just eating crabapples from trees or picking away at what's fallen on the ground.

I'm not sure if these two are adult female and juvenile because this behavior could be interpreted as "the juvenile begging to be fed". Otherwise, it was a "hey! that's my berry!! let go!!!" kind of spat.