Blizzards of 2010: Peak of the Storms

Yesterday's post showed amazing sunlight and brilliant blue sky.  These photos show the near-peak of the storm - very tough photo conditions with little light and falling snow causing focus problems.

I say near-peak because at the peak of the storm, only the most near-field trees were visible.  

Storm or no storm, the birds need to come to the feeder.  The white-throated sparrows were numerous around the feeder, even at the peak of the storm.  The sunflower seeds or the suet provides the nutrition to shiver which allows them to stay warm.  

To stay warm, the birds also fluff up their feathers as shown in this photo of the white-throated sparrow and the northern cardinal.

The northern cardinals - males and females - always standout in the snow.  Their bright red feathers as a background ensures that foreground snowflakes are seen.

So here is the quiz for the day - how many birds can you count in this photo?  Can you identify them?  As always, click on the photo to get an expanded view.

A Walk Through the Habitat: White-Throated Sparrow

As I continued my walk in the Colvin Run Habitat (post 1 and post 2), I almost tripped on these white-throated sparrows. During this spring, these guys are out in significant numbers.
The white-throated sparrows are living in the holly bush in the Habitat that is adjacent to the bird feeders.
In the third photo I accidentally caught one sparrow munching down a white worm. As you can see in this third photo, the worm had already been munching on the Bradford pear tree leaf (the leaf has been eaten in half already).
As you can see from the fourth photo, the sparrows move along the ground by hopping. When observed from the second floor of the house, these sparrows look like field mice running across the mulch. Until this photo, I assumed that they ran across the ground. This photo shows that they clearly hop.
During April, we wake up to the constant song of the white-throated sparrow. I believe that the song is a communications between the sparrow on the nest and the sparrow not on the next.

Mid-Winter in the Colvin Run Habitat

Two months since the last post - what can I say? A variety of other priorities.

In the last two months, I added a new camera to the Habitat tools. A month after receiving it, I finally got the time to get it out of the box and take the inaugural photos. And here they are. A few of the signature cardinals, titmice, and a white-throated sparrow.
These chickadees clearly were upset when I got close to the bluebird house that the chickadees used last spring.

I took the photos of the chickadee and blue jays in flight by accident - the benefits of an extremely fast camera.

Of course, everyday you'll find a turkey vulture overhead.

Torturous Song of the White-Throated Sparrow

The White-Throated Sparrow sings a simple, melodic song. For those of you that are musicians, the song consists of three half-notes, the second (I believe) is down a half tone from the first, the last is down a third on the scale. You can hear here. I only this week associated this song with a common visitor of the Colvin Run Habitat. And only today caught this guy singing his melodic song (second photo). (My apologizes to the bird sound experts reading – my concentration is recording their images, not recording their audio).
Actually, the white-throated sparrow has been heard each of the last four (and possibly more) springs – every morning from sunrise until mid-morning right outside our bedroom window – three simple notes, every morning, for hours, over and over and over again. And, there are many of these guys in the Habitat. I think that you get my point – too much of even a great thing can become a torture.
If this sparrow is in the Habitat, he will answer any time of day if you mimic this song. But, be careful what you ask for – once these guys start singing, they sing for quite a while.

Showing Up to be Counted

It seems that all of the birds in the Colvin Run Habitat bird are showing up for the Audubon Society's 2007 Great Backyard Bird Count. Here are a few of the early morning visitors. The eastern towhee showed again this morning...
and the tufted titmouse is always present...
...as is the white-throated sparrow...
...and, of course, the Cooper's Hawk.
With the temperature in the 20's (F) this morning, all but the titmouse had their feathers fluffed.

Woodpeckers in the Snow

Yesterday’s snow and last night’s sleet put a beautiful white highlight across the entire Colvin Run Habitat. A pair of downy woodpeckers (first two photos), a sparrow (third photo), and an American goldfinch (last photo) arrived today to create more peaceful winter photos. Of course, the cardinals posed yesterday.

How Do Birds Stay Warm?

The temperatures in the Colvin Run Habitat have been brutally cold (for the US mid-Atlantic region), ranging from near zero to a few degrees above freezing with nighttime and early winds of ten to twenty knots. So how do the small birds that are wintering in the Habitat stay warm?

>They fluff their feathers, which traps air between their feathers and bodies. The result is a natural layer of insulation. In a related manner, when they sleep the birds tuck their bills under their wing feathers so as to breath in this warmer air.
>They eat which gives them the energy to shiver. As in humans, the shivering generates warmth. In the last week, the birds are consuming seed and suet at nearly three times the normal year round rate.
>They seek shelter out of the wind and cold. Some, such as the titmice, huddle together in natural shelters.
In the Habitat are three Hellera Holly bushes that the birds, as well as the squirrels and some times the fox, use for shelter. In the first photo (click on the photo to get an enlarged photo), you can see that this is really a very overgrown holly shrub that measures about ten feet square. The inside is a dense tangle of branches covered by small holly leaves that does not allow rain or snow to pass. Notice in the first photo, arrows shows two starlings and a white-throated sparrow on the outside covering of one of these holly bushes.
In second photo, a white-throated sparrow has just come from roosting inside. In the third photo, the white-throated sparrow is flying out, while a starling is flying into the bush. In the fourth photo, a bird is entering the bush in a well-worn opening created by the squirrels and the fox. With the exception of the woodpeckers, nearly all of the small songbirds in the Habitat are seen on, in, and through these holly bushes.
With the snow and sleet predicted this coming week, these holly bushes will provide a haven for the birds.