Bird Watching
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Winter Has Arrived With The Oregon Juncos
The fall season ended for us here in the Oregon Coast Range with 46 consecutive days of night time low temperatures below freezing. Our coldest nights were 8 to 9 degrees F. My bird feeders have been mobbed with chickadees, song sparrows, towhees and juncos with the occasional varied thrush (or Alaska robin as varied thrush are called here). All feeders have been emptied by 2 or 3 PM daily. It is so enjoyable to watch our feathered friends I could hang a dozen feeders around the house. However a few tips on winter bird feeding that can not be over emphasized: It is very important to keep feeders clean by washing them frequently with a mixture of 10% bleach and water. Also not to leave so much bird seed in feeders that the seed spoils and gets moldy. I see too many feeders with wet, moldy seed especially millet in my neighbors yards. Letting your feeders be empty for a day or so helps prevent overcrowding at the feeder and the spread of bird diseases. If you live in a cold climate birds really do need a supply of drinking water. I use a plug in warmer in the birds' drinking water to keep the water from freezing.
A favorite bird of mine the Oregon Juncos winter over with us on the edge of the Coast Range. I love the flash of their white tail feathers when they fly. They have arrived in great numbers this year in our yard. Scratching around the ground under our trees and shrubs, stirring up the dirt in last summers flower pots and running across the deck on our house these winter visitors are a delight. By summer they will mostly leave for the coniferous forests of the Cascades to breed. The annoying clouds of black flies and other summer insects in the higher mountains will give their young an abundant food supply. Ground nesters, I have spotted many junco nests under clumps of bear grass by watching the repetative trips of the adults carrying insects to the same nesting location. As always it is best not to approach a nesting site too closely and disturb the birds Juncos that nest farther north will leave the area completely.
A new book I am enjoying and highly recommend is Piotr Naskrecki's The Smaller Majority. Naskrecki is a conservation biologist and excellent close up nature photographer. His excellent writting is accompanied by over 400 color photographs of preying mantids, grass hoppers, spiders, geckos, chameleons and other members of the smaller majority that actually make up 99% of animal life on our planet. Buy this book. Have a good New Year birding!
Posted by bill@birdingguide.com at 05:15 PM | Comments (0)
December 13, 2005
Snowy Owls Are Back
The large powerful Snowy Owls, residents of the high Arctic, are back this winter to the NorthWest. Only occasionally do they appear in large numbers south of the Canadian border. They like open country similar to the open spaces of the Arctic. When they do winter here they are usually found on the coastal beaches or at the wide open spaces of airports. This year they are at the Oregon coast as far south as Coos Bay. One has been seen at the Portland International Airport. I have not seen that one. The last time I saw Snowy Owls was in the winter of 1996 at the south jetty on the mouth of the Columbia River near Astoria Oregon. That was almost a decade ago. Absolutey magnificent birds. In 1996 we saw three Snowy Owls at the south jetty beach. My wife and I spent the entire afternoon with the three owls and only reluctantly left because the sun was setting. I should say we tried to leave. Our cars fuel pump had died in the jetty parking lot. The tow truck driver gave us a "special" deal and only charged $300.00 to tow us back to Portland. "$300.00", I said to my wife. "Well worth it", she said. "That's only $100.00 an owl."
Posted by bill@birdingguide.com at 07:41 PM | Comments (0)
