Fearing Thunderstorms and Starlings

My two fears today were the thunderstorm and an invasion of starlings at my feeders.  But I checked my e-bird.org records and saw that my 9 starlings today were only 2 more than what I had earlier in the month.


They added nice whistles to the growing chorus, which seemed to include cardinal songs today, songs that will turn into seduction songs soon.  The  two cardinals at my feeders this morning, a male and female, are one of the many possible pairings that will occur soon.  The resident birds like the cardinals, starlings, house sparrows, jays, doves, and downy or hair woodpecker that visited my feeders as I ate breakfast today may already be paired up. 


But those returning from the south, like the house wrens, may be looking for mates.  I'm guessing the house wrens will return to nest in my wren house, the only successful birdhouse I had last year.


Eventually I hope to build birdhouses for all the birds that visited my feeders today, except for the house sparrows and starlings.

White Cardinals and Other Wildlife News of the Day

Today I had two interesting conversations with my neighbors and learned that an "albino" cardinal had made a second visit to her feeders, while a second neighbor told me he saw tracks of a coyote or fox crossing over Apple Valley Drive from the Clubhouse woods and signs of possibly catching a rabbit.


That seems to connect with the tracks I saw in my yard on the other side of the road recently, indicating the coyote might have taken a left on the road, traveling north to my driveway, then a left into my driveway (with or without a rabbit in its mouth or belly) and then a right after passing my neighbor's house to the north.


The cardinal is most likely leucistic, a genetic mutation that causes a light to whitish coloring, but without the pink eyes of true albinos.


Also, I saw a bird fly out of my bluebird house this morning!  Go figure!!

Raccoons Stirring Too

Last night, I saw a raccoon searching for bird seed on my front deck.  The night before it was a possum.  As far as I remember, those were my first sightings of each this winter.  I remember seeing them a lot last year, but can't remember if that was in the winter too.  Back then, I saw a whole family of raccoons and a couple of skunks.

I'm wondering if the winter was so cold that these animals went into a deeper hibernation or whether I just haven't been looking out the front doors enough until I got inspired by seeing that possum?

I know that many animals come in and out of hibernation.  I'll have to check the hibernation schedules of these animals, as well as groundhogs.

When I finally got outside today, I went out looking for tracks, especially the tracks of the possum I had seen at 1 a.m.   I got an unexpected treat when I saw big paw tracks spread out single file all the way to Apple Valley Drive. The creature had come down my driveway, which I had shoveled the night before, and then crossed over to nearby woods.




I finally remembered to include a ruler in the photos of tracks and I found these were 3 inches long, enough to put them in the running with foxes and coyotes, both of which my portable tracking guide says have tracks about 2 inches long.  I'm pretty sure I can rule out the possum, although it was the only animal I know for sure was out there overnight.  My portable guide only says possum prints are about 2 inches wide and doesn't mention length.  I'll have to get a more comprehensive tracking guidebook!

Peeking out the window at 1 a.m. to check on tonight's storm--gusty winds, sleet, and snow--I saw a layer of ice-crusted snow on the front deck.  And on it, I saw a fairly small opossum searching for food from my feeders.


I guess he came out of hibernation temporarily for a snack and maybe he's been doing that awhile, but I haven't seen him or the usual raccoons and skunks I saw last winter.  Maybe this winter is so cold it's limiting their forays?  But then what is this guy doing out in this weather--unless he's getting impatient for spring?

Photo by Debbie Hurlbert, taken in Wayne County.

The Sunday Columbus Dispatch (February 16, Insight Section, Science, pages E-4 and E-5) has a nice article on snowy owls with great photos.  Even better photos are on its website at:  http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2014/02/16/snowy-invasion.html.  The online versions of newspaper articles are usually held only 30 days.



Jim McCormac also has a link on his blog (http://www.jimmcCormac.blogspot.com).   Jim is the unofficial keeper of snowy owl data in Ohio--besides being all all-round biologist and avian expert for Ohio's DNR and a great photographer and author.  He gives constant updates on snowy owl sightings on his blog.  His latest tally:  159 owls in 54 counties.



I've read that as the weather warms up, there will be even greater chances for sightings--for one thing, the owls will have to migrate back to Quebec, if I remember correctly, and that means all those owls farther south will come through places like Ohio.



The experts know there are far more than 159 snowy owls in Ohio.  Just as an example, I've heard of a reliable sighting on Route 308 near New Gambier Road that most likely was not reported to Jim.

Great Backyard Bird Count Feb. 14-17, 2014

The latest report from the Great Backyard Bird Count, shows that 37 species were recorded for Knox County by 9 participants, including yours truly.  My feeders at Apple Valley had 17 species, including the first sighting during the count of a white-crowned sparrow.  My species count got a little boost when the Cooper's hawk appeared and got chased away by at least one American crow.

I've reported 56 species to "e-bird" since 2008 when I started counting birds while visiting my mother-in-law.  All but two I saw in Apple Valley--the other two were in Gambier and Mount Vernon.  This year I've reported 23 species, 20 of them in the first 17 days of February.

Building Birdhouses--Deadline Mid-March

Pileated Woodpecker (Photo by Debbie Hurlbert)

Red-headed woodpecker (Photo by Don Comis)

I spent the evening working on a pileated woodpecker birdhouse with my neighbor's son, Steven.  The pileated woodpecker box is his and next we'll work on a red-headed woodpecker box for my yard.  I read on the DNR website that mid-March is about the deadline for getting the birdhouses out there.  It's better to get them in the previous fall at least, to get them weathered so birds get used to them.

 I'll spend my next two mornings looking at birds for the continuing Feederwatch count, which involves two days of watching each week

Feed Crows!

When crows chased a Cooper's hawk today from a perch aimed at my feeder birds, I realized the corn and peanuts I was feeding them in a minor feeder in my backyard had payoffs in my main feeding area in my front yard.


I wasn't surprised the crows chase hawks.  When I took a brief Birds of Prey course, I learned that one good way to spot a hawk (or owl) is to look up when you hear crows call.  If you see the crows flying, look to see if one of the birds looks different than the crows--that bird will also be harassed, even pecked by the crows in flight and that's your hawk or owl.