by Jack Spaulding
Outdoors Writer
The past year has provided untold hours of entertainment watching the backyard bird feeder. It seems every week we have entertained a new variety of bird coming to the suet cake or dining on the proliferation of sunflower seeds. The unusually harsh winter with long periods of snow cover brought hundreds of birds to the feeder daily.
I was a little concerned, as one single bird stayed later into the spring than in past years. Among the daily visitors to the chipped pieces of sunflower seeds under the feeder was a lone darkeyed junco. Locally, the darkeyed junco is often called the “snowbird” as it shows up in Central Indiana during the winter and leaves before the arrival of spring. After the main migration of darkeyed juncos flew north, the lone bird returned for three or more weeks. The bird appeared to be in perfect health, and I was considering it lingering to be an omen for a cold late spring. If the bird had been wearing little rain boots, I could have produced an extremely accurate forecast.
The parade of interesting visitors the past week continued as the Eastern towhee returned. This time, however, the brightly colored male who first showed up last year returned with company as he brought along a mate.
The backyard count on woodpeckers was up to three varieties including downy, red bellied and pileated. Just a couple of weeks ago, we had our first brilliant redheaded woodpecker. Some novice birders will see a red bellied and mistakenly identify it as a redheaded. But, once you have seen a redheaded, there is no mistaking the two. The colors of the redheaded are crisp and clean with ultra bright white, striking black and vibrant red. In comparison, the red bellied looks like it is dressed in drab coveralls while the vibrant look of the redheaded makes it look as if it is dressed in a tuxedo.
Last week, we entertained another attractive and colorful couple looking for a local home to raise a brood. A pair of rose breasted grosbeaks dropped by to sift through the sunflower seeds and dazzle us with their beautiful mating plumage.
Two blue jays continue to visit the feeder on a regular basis. Jays are considered as one of the tough guys of the bird world. A few days ago, I watched in amusement as one of the jays landed on the ground under the feeder and was promptly attacked and put to flight by a mourning dove. So much for the docile attitude attributed to our “bird of peace.”
Bird numbers in the United States and Canada are rapidly changing. Each year, there is a North American bird count called The Great Backyard Bird Count. This year there were over 92,000 submissions with participants identifying 596 species and recording 11.4 million bird observations. Once the numbers were crunched and the data emerged, bird researchers learned there was a new bird filling the top spot as most numerous … the European starling.
The European starling was a species entirely absent from North America before the late 19th century. Brought to America as a highly regarded “game bird,” 100 birds were introduced in New York’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891. According to The Birds of North America Online, the descendants of these few birds now total more than 200 million and are distributed across the entire continent.
The American robin was the second most numerous species reported with more than 800,000 reported from Florida at the site of a massive roost near St. Petersburg as 1,044,346 observations of robins were recorded.
There is some good news for one variety … the American crow. American crow numbers took a hard hit when the West Nile virus first found its way into North America in 1999. In the early years of the GBBC, American crows were always the fourth or fifth most numerous species reported. But after the virus worked its way across the continent, crow numbers fell and were reflected in the GBBC. From 2003 onward, the American crow never placed higher than the ninth or 10th most numerous species. The 2011 count marked a change. For the first time in eight years crows have moved up the list and are now at number seven among the most numerous species.
Meanwhile, we recently cleaned and filled the hummingbird feeders, and the first of the little aerial acrobats have already marked their territory and are fighting over feeder rights.
More information on the GBBC is available online at http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/.
till next time,
Jack Spaulding is a state outdoors writer and a consumer of RushShelby Energy from Milroy. Readers with questions or comments can write to him in care of Electric Consumer, P.O. Box 24517, Indianapolis, IN 46224; or e-mail jackspaulding@hughes.net.