March 3, 2014 Paris, Henry County Today was a great day for feeder birds! We were able to add a new species to our yard list (American Tree Sparrow, number 126), and our little girl added three life birds to bring her life list to 204. We also had several FOY birds and a few birds which had never before visited our feeders. In between excursions outside for sledding and caring for the animals, our time was spent watching the windows. I hurriedly mixed some suet this morning and put out some seed in an additional area to compensate for the high numbers. We've been watching on and off all day and have 31 species, although oddly missing some common birds (Mourning Dove, Eastern Bluebird, Hairy Woodpecker). It may be that the multitude of blackbirds scared away some of our "regular" feeder visitors, as we also only saw a Carolina Chickadee once and White-breasted Nuthatches twice today and they are usually incredibly consistent visitors. We were absolutely inundated with blackbirds... Red-winged, Rusty, Brown-headed Cowbird, European Starling, Common Grackle. All of these except the Red-winged were our first sightings in the yard this year, and aside from the cowbirds none of these species are common feeder birds for us. This mixed flock started small and grew as the day wore on until at times the area under the feeder tree was a virtual carpet of blackbirds. I resorted to putting out some of our goat's sweet feed on the ground to help save on sunflower seed. These were nice for a day but I can see that they would be incredibly draining if they made it a habit. The starlings in particular were hard on my suet and peanut butter dough! We spotted two different Common Grackles which had small amounts of albinism on the head. We noticed that some of the birds began the day very weak... particularly a Pine Warbler which had never visited our feeders before. It seemed absolutely desperate, but did improve considerably as the day went on. There was also one particularly pitiful looking FOS Indigo Bunting which was just getting his first glimmer of adult plumage. The odd birds of the day were the American Tree Sparrows (maybe 4-5 individuals), which was a life bird for our daughter, a new yard bird for us and a very nice surprise. They brought the sparrow count to seven species. It's interesting to hear of others getting these today! I've included a few photos. One is quite out of focus but helps capture some of the "action" at a single feeder, including a blurry shot of the Pine Warbler. It was this way at every feeder all day long. Also are included a couple of Rusties, an American Tree Sparrow, a Common Grackle with some white, and the poor looking young Indigo Bunting. What a fun day! -Shawna Ellis Paris, Henry County
Attachment:
rusty.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
IMG_6044 - Copy.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
IMG_6034.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
IMG_5998.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
IMG_5984.jpg
Description: JPEG image
Attachment:
IMG_6088.jpg
Description: JPEG image
