Monday, February 17, 2025

A lot of shoveling after nearly a foot of new snow yesterday. The snow is deep and roadside snowbanks are high. Around midday, 11 wild turkeys sauntered down Johnson Drive, then down our driveway, and over to the feeders. Most looked like females with brown-tipped breast feathers and grayish heads. One had a long beard, perhaps a jake. They didn’t stay long. Not many seeds have been scattered on the ground. Also, Henna wanted to have look outside, which caused the turkeys to lift off and head back toward Grant Road.

High winds in the afternoon kept most songbirds away. The wild turkey makes 29 yard birds for the year.

29. Wild turkey

Eleven wild turkeys in the yard.

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Another winter storm bringing more deep snow and freezing rain to an already wintry February. The storm has brought the first pine warbler of the year to our feeder this morning (the 28th bird species for the yard this year)–the only warbler that regularly eats seeds, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This male is in his brilliant yellow and olive-yellow Spring plumage. Perhaps he didn’t get the message from Punxsutawney Phil.

Other birds are fueling up at the feeders as snow falls: 7 blue jays, 3 starlings, a hairy woodpecker, 4 downies, a pair of cardinals, 4 bluebirds, handfuls each of goldfinches and house finches, and 2 dozen juncos. A few chickadees and titmice arrive around midday. Two mourning doves and a tree sparrow.

At 9:30 AM it is still snowing, but the forecast calls for a miserable combo of freezing rain, rain, freezing drizzle, light rain, light freezing rain, and northeasterly winds. Freezing rain by afternoon. Birds still coming; the bluebirds look bedraggled.

28. Pine warbler

Saturday, February 8 and Sunday, February 9, 2025

This past weekend was the annual NH Audubon Backyard Bird Survey.  Each year I sit at our dining room window and watch and record birding sightings, in our case, in the Front Yard. Saturday was mostly cloudy, no wind, and temperatures starting at 15F then rising to about 34F by late afternoon. Snow fell overnight and continued til about noon, by then we had about 10 inches of new powder.

New snowfall

By the end of Sunday, I tallied 19 species of birds. Most of the birds visited the two suet feeders hanging in the crabapple tree and/or the four sunflower seed feeders. Some of the highlights: 11 mourning doves, a pair of red-bellied woodpeckers, 7 eastern bluebirds, 4 blue jays, 1 Carolina wren, 12 robins, and 1 tree sparrow.

The robins were focused on the shriveled crabapples that remain on the tree. Bluebirds, starlings, blue jays, and all the woodpeckers (red-bellied, downy, and hairy) took turns at the suet. Nuthatches, chickadees, and titmice darted between suet, sunflowers, and the safety of the nearby trees. Juncos and finches focused on the sunflower seeds — taking from the feeders as well as the ground. The flock of mourning doves waddled around on the ground, staying only a few minutes.

The blue jays and starlings took charge of the feeders when they wanted. Cardinals sat quietly in the trees for long periods. The downy woodpeckers moved about the crabapple tree carefully and stealthily before clinging to the feeder.

Six gray squirrels visited the yard on Saturday, but only one on Sunday. The snow kept them tucked into their winter nests. One squirrel spent some time in the crabapple munching on a particularly small, dark and shrunken crabapple, bypassing all the others that were larger and lighter in color. One or more cottontail rabbits had left a scattering of pellets among the perennials below the front window. After sundown on Sunday I noticed fresh pellets and tracks beneath the feeders. I wonder if they occasionally eat sunflower seeds or just found it to be a safe spot to sit for a bit.