Exciting Rarity at My Feeders-Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker!!

I was so excited to see a yellow-bellied sapsucker (YBSA) at my feeders today!!!! I was washing dishes at the kitchen sink watching the birds out the window and spouted an expletive upon seeing the YBSA. Holy &*%^!!! And here's a first, my camera was locked and loaded on the kitchen table from some shooting I'd done yesterday. Hurray!! My hubby, who thinks (knows) I'm crazy anyway just shook his head as I ever so gingerly opened the sliding glass door onto the deck and snapped a few photos. I e-mailed my birding instructor, Jerry McWilliams, with the news and photos and he told me that yellow-bellied sapsuckers are very rare here in winter and in 45 years of birding he's only seen a couple during winter!! I also had both Carolina Wrens, which he said was good because they often don't survive harsh winters like this one. Oh, yeah, and the Oregon Junco is still hanging around! My feeders were very busy today with 15 different species counted. I took many photos but am reserving this post for the yellow-bellied sapsucker:)

Isn't he a handsome gent!?!?

What's Missing Here?

Recently I was telling Toni (A Spattering) about a Mourning Dove (MODO) I had at me feeder that was missing something. I knew right away there was something different about her (the bird, not Toni:)) but it took a few minutes for me to realize what the problem was.

Can you tell what's missing?

Does this help?

Compare their back ends...Yes! I knew you'd get it. Her tail feathers are missing!

It didn't seem to bother her at all. In fact, I think I was more distraught than her. I'm not sure what the other MODOs were thinking but one got a little violent with her.

She just took it all in stride and kept on eating.



A few posts on PABirds stated that missing tail feathers in MODOs can be caused by their tail feathers freezing to the surface on which the bird is perched. The bird takes off and leaves her feathers behind. OUCH!! It can also be caused by predators such as a hungry, but just a little too slow, cat. I'm not sure how poor little "No-Tail" lost her feathers, but I hope they've grown back by now and she is again strutting her stuff.

Raptor Rapture

We took a ride up to the Pymatuning/Linesville area last week just for a quick getaway. The lake was almost completely frozen over so we didn't see many waterfowl or gulls but we did get to see a few raptors along the roadside. One new one I can add to my list (I do have to start keeping one!) is this red-shouldered hawk. The in-flight shot is an adult, while the one perched on the wire is an immature. If you look closely (photo 3) you can see the anomaly in the lower mandible (beak) of the immature. It is twisted and juts out and past the upper mandible. I've been told that this may be due to an old injury and that it may keep growing, like a fingernail, since there is nothing there to impede its growth. As for now s/he looks pretty healthy and well-fed.


This past summer we pontooned on Pymatuning Lake and I had seen and photographed a barred owl that had a nesting box in the woods near the picnic area where we had docked for lunch. As luck would have it we drove around and were able to find the picnic area and not one but a pair of barred owls:) As before, they were fairly cooperative and allowed me to get a few shots.

Barred Owl August 2008

Barred Owl February 2009

I'm sure we'll go back up to Pymatuning to pontoon and kayak again this summer. Maybe there will be some baby barred owls then:)

Another Day at Presque Isle

I headed down to Presque Isle SP on Sunday in hopes of seeing some white-winged crossbills that had been sighted along Pine Tree Trail. I told myself that I would start there and then make a few more stops on the east end of the park. That meant skipping my favorite complex of trails, Old Gas Well, Duck Pond and Canoe Portage Trails. Guess what...I couldn't do it! I stopped and hiked out onto those familiar trails. I was surprised to see many foot prints from the day prior. I thought I was the only one to frequent those trails but I could tell they had been heavily traveled recently. I felt like one of the three bears..."Who's been eating my porridge?" Whoever they were, I hope they enjoyed it. Really! Not too far into the trail I heard a very familiar song. It sounded like springtime! I came upon a large flock of robins feeding on a bush covered in red berries. I'm not sure what kind of plant it was.

While I was photographing the robins I kept hearing a loud drumming that I assumed was the pileated woodpecker I've seen along these trails. It sounded like she was down low on a tree behind some brush between her and I. I got up from my spot behind the tree and saw the pileated fly over into a tree down the trail. I followed her for awhile but then told her I'd try and catch her on the way out as I was on my way to see some more cooperative birds. Maybe even an owl, so there! Well, as luck would have it, there were no more cooperative birds down the trail:( I did spot some golden-crowned kinglets and as I was trying to capture (digitally, of course) those little rascals I once again heard the busy work of the pileated WP. I found a good vantage point and waited, and waited, and...finally she popped her head up for a short time and I was able to get a few shots of her. This is an adult female, note the black malar stripe (vs. red in males).
Then she flew off and I headed for Pine Tree Trail for those crossbills...but wait...I had to stop and take a look at the channel where lots of cool ducks had been seen recently. I did see a canvas back duck,a ruddy duck, lots of mallards and gulls.

One ring-billed gull was looking for some ham and cheese to go with the piece of rye he had found. Then there was the herring gull looking for some bread to go with his fish.

I had only planned on being at the park for 3 hours so I headed toward my car...but wait...look at that cute little chickadee...but you can see 100s of those a week in your back yard...oh, but this one is soooo cute!! They are all cute! I'll give you that.

Finally, I made it to Pine Tree Trail in search of the crossbills...of course, I saw none. That's OK though. There's always next week. Right, Mr. Chickadee?!

Merry Christmas Bird Count-Presque Isle

Belated Merry Christmas everyone! After a longer than intended hiatus filled with Christmas hustle and bustle I finally have a chance to sit down and post! I'm sure you can all relate. Last Saturday my friend, Julie, and I headed down to the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) on Presque Isle State Park. As I was driving to pick up Julie, the dash indicated it was a balmy 17 degrees outside. Don't worry though, I think it hit the toasty 20s by the time our bird counting adventure began:)

This was my first CBC and Julie's as well so we took our cues from our more seasoned counterparts. Participants for the CBC met at the Ranger Station on the park; Julie and I were fortunate to be teamed up with Chuck Snyder, a former Edinboro University professor who had taught ornithology, and our great birding buddy, Joao. Each team was assigned to "count" a designated area of the park so when we got our assignment we loaded in to Chuck's car and headed out into the frigid and icy "wilderness". The trails were carpeted with snow, crusted over with a layer of crunchy ice. This made walking quite cumbersome, not to mention noisy! Things were "slow" on the park. Obviously the birds had more sense then we did! Chuck has been participating in the CBC for many years and he said that this year is one of the lowest tallies he's had, likely do to the inclement weather. We recorded 23 different species of birds in our area with the highlight for me being a group of tagged trumpeter swans. I have e-mailed a swan banding station in Ontario to see if the swans might be from there. We were also fortunate to see a small flock of golden-crowned kinglets. We also observed a large group of 8-10 beautiful red cardinals that were feeding together. I had never seen so many cardinals together before. For a brief history of the Christmas Bird Count, including its grizzly forerunner, click here.

Don, Joao and Julie scope out some waterfowl including scaup, mergansers, mallards, goldeneyes and buffleheads.No fishing today!Birding: NOT for wimps!Joao starts the mid-count tally.The trumpeters take time for a stretch and preen.
Joao, Jerry and Chuck G. (moving at warp speed) check out a field guide.
Pat, Janet and Chuck thaw out and discuss their morning finds.When the clouds cleared the sun shone beautifully through the ice covered trees.It kind of reminded me of one of my favorite Frost poems.


Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
-- Robert Frost

So, the 2009 CBC is in the books. Not an auspicious start for me, but will I do it again next year? In the "immortal" words of another who got off to a less than auspicious start, "You betcha!"

Suspended Animation

I was astounded when I read Toni's (A Spattering) post about her experience with the hanging white-breasted nuthatch in her yard and the fact that she had scared off a Cooper's hawk, because I had an almost identical experience here on the same day!! I looked out my window in the back and saw a white-breasted nuthatch just hanging from the catch tray on my sunflower seed feeder (In my haste and excitement when commenting on Toni's blog I wrote "suet" feeder). I have seen nuthatches perform some weird maneuvers but when he stayed there for quite some time I wondered what was up. I called my husband into the kitchen to check it out and he noticed a downy woodpecker on the other side of the deck just "frozen" clinging to a post. I've seen this behavior before (I read it's part of the "Fight-or-flight response" to danger) and I told him that there must be a hawk around. I went to the door but didn't see the hawk. My grandson, never one to be left out of anything, came to the sliding glass door and started pounding on it. That didn't cause the nuthatch or downy to move but a few minutes later a Cooper's hawk swooped over the deck and into the pines. The nuthatch and WP just stayed in their places and I grabbed my camera. I went out onto the deck and took these shots of the nuttie and downy. I was only limited by the close focus distance on my long lens and if I had had my macro on I could have gotten very close but these birds were already traumatized enough. The last two shots are of a Cooper's hawk I found dead in my yard last winter. There is no gore, but it may not appeal to some. I just wanted to provide a pictoral reference.

Beautiful piercing eyes.

Sharper-than-nails talons wrapped around my thumb! It's no wonder the little ones freeze in terror.

The Christmas Card Pose Off

OK, for those of you recalling my "birds are like ice cream" post, this bird might be vanilla, but sometimes these "commoners" can amaze you with there beauty. I try not to to take any bird for granted because I think they all have something special to offer. In the case of the eastern tufted titmouse, cuteness seems to be their specialty. We have titmice all year round, but they are never more social than in winter, especially on blustery days, and it was a fairly blustery day when I took these shots a couple of weeks ago. There were definitely other contenders for the Christmas card but I decided to pick the titmouse this year. The chickadee was not happy, but he will surely get his chance! Last year I used a junco and house finch.

"Gorgeous, darling, but can you put your chin up a little?"

"That's it! Marvelous!" "Now, let's look to the right. Smashing!"

"Now back to the left. Hold it there. Perfect!"
"Oh my! Are you OK darling? Perhaps a little brandy to warm you?"

"All better now? OK, all the way right. Lovely dear!"

"Now let's try with the costume."

"Oh, yes! That's it! We have found our new Christmas card model. Brilliant!!"

Merry Christmas from the Franz Flock!