Backyard Birds (28 January 2019)

Our yard was absolutely filled with birds today!  At one point I counted five male/female pairs of Northern Cardinals, more than fifty birds in a mixed flock of finches and sparrows, and eight Black-capped Chickadees.  I also saw several Mourning Doves, Dark-eyed Juncos, a Hairy Woodpecker, several White-breasted Nuthatches, and a single Red-Breasted Nuthatch over the course of the day.  A pair of Fox Squirrels appeared for a short time this morning, but didn't stay long. 

The birds were busy feeding on suet cakes and black oil sunflower seeds both in hanging feeders and on the ground.  Even though the birds don't really need us to provide food to get through the winter, when heavy now or ice makes it difficult to find natural foods they sure do appreciate the food that we provide.  These birds were so intent on feeding that some of them let me photograph them from about ten feet away as they went to and from the feeder.

White-breasted Nuthatch (female) - note grey cap

White-breasted Nuthatch (male) - note black cap

White-breasted Nuthatch (male)

House Finch (male)

House Finch (male)

Black-capped Chickadee eating a sunflower seed

Northern Cardinal (male)

Dark-eyed Junco

American Goldfinch

White-breasted Nuthatch (female)

Northern Cardinal (male)

Michigan Species to Know - Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Here is another Michigan species card - the Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus).  

One of the first posts that I ever wrote for this blog was about the winter survival strategies of Black-capped Chickadees. You can read it here.

Over the next few days I plan to share cards for the Downy Woodpecker, Tree Swallow, and Silky Dogwood.  Then I'll give an example of how I use these cards in the classroom.

Nest Boxes - It's not too late!

On Sunday we noticed  a pair of Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) intently checking out the nesting box located in a tree outside our kitchen window.  One bird would enter the box, stay for a minute or so, and then exit the box.  At this point the other bird of the pair would enter the box and repeat the process.  They went t this for quite some time.  We think they must have found the accommodations to their liking; Shara and I both saw Chickadees entering and exiting the box again on Monday.  

It's not to late to put out a nesting box.  The cold, wet weather seems to have delayed nesting for many species.  I use the plan below for all of my small nesting boxes - I am not sure of the original source of the plan as it is found all over the internet.  They are very easy to construct and can be built in less than an hour even by someone with no woodworking experience. 

One note on construction:  The box outside our window was built specifically for Chickadees so the entrance hole is only 1 1/8 inch diameter.  We live in town and there are lots of House Sparrows - they would quickly take over the box if it had a 1 1/2 hole as shown in the plan below.

 

 

Photos from Mill Pond Park (29 November 2017)

Today, after my school programs were done for the day, I was able to slip away for about an hour to Mill Pond Park.  Mill Pond park is located in the center of Mt. Pleasant. 

The park is bounded on the north by Broadway Street, on the South by High Street, to the west by Adams Street, and on the east by the Great Lakes Central railroad.  The park is bisected by the Chippewa River.  Most of the park falls within the river's floodplain and is covered by either wetlands or floodplain forest.  The park measures 90 acres in size.

Here are a few photos from my walk.

Virgin's Bower or Old Man's Beard (Clematis virginiana)

Sunlit Common Cattails (Typha latifolia)

A dozen Mallard ducks (Anas platyrhynchos) were swimming around the small pond near the eastern edge of the park.  No matter how hard I tried to get a good picture, the ducks managed to stay in the shadows along the edge of the pond or to keep directly in line with the sun - both made photography difficult.

I have photographed this small creek dozens of times in the past fifteen years.  Today I really liked the golden colors of the dried grass, the blue sky and its reflection in the creek, and reflections of the logs in the calm water.  I took this photo from a small footbridge that crosses the creek.

This is the vies from the opposite side of the bridge.  In this picture I squatted down to shoot between the boards on the side of the bridge.  Getting at a lower angle allowed me to (somewhat) frame this steel bridge and its reflection between the grass covering the banks.  With no wind, the river itself was very calm and allowed the smallest details to be reflected.

This was my favorite picture of the day.  A pair of Chickadees was flitting around searching for insects in cracks and crevices of tree bark.

A Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) hangs upside down from a branch

More Animal Sign

This morning I took a short wander around the field beside the Conservation District office with hope of finding some more animal sign to photograph.  Here is what I found...

When I arrived at the office this morning I noticed a domestic cat at the edge of the parking lot.  With several nearby homes this was not much of a surprise.  

The cats are drawn to the area by the presence of small mammals (voles and rabbits) and birds in the nearby field.  I decided to follow one set of cat tracks to see where they led.  The tracks meandered all over through the field.  At one point I did see where a cat had paused to examine a tunnel going down through the snow.  Freezing rain earlier this month transformed the surface of the snow into a thick layer of ice.  This ice protects the mice and voles that us the space below (called the subnivean zone) quite secure from predators above the snow - for more info on the subnivean zone check out "Next stop, the subnivean zone!" from February 2014

Nearby I noticed a single Black-capped Chickadee preening itself in an Autumn Olive bush.  Chickadees have several winter survival strategies including bulking up with fatty foods, puffing up, and even entering a state of torpor - see "Chickadees in Winter" (January 2013) for more information.

Many of the Autumn Olive shrubs in the field have been severely damaged by rabbits (and to a lesser extent, voles) over the past few winters.  This year is no different.  Because rabbits are almost exclusively vegetarian, their food options are limited during the winter months.  One reliable food source that is available is the tender buds, bark, and small branches of trees and shrubs.  Rabbits snip off the buds and branches and strip the bark with their sharp chisel-like incisors.  If enough bark is removed the tree or shrub can potentially die.  This can be a problem for people that own orchards or have recently planted small trees.  It's not a problem when the rabbits are munching on invasive species like the Autumn Olive.

Did I find anything more exciting?  No, not really.  I did see a vole scurry under the snow near a shrub, but was unable to get a picture.  I keep checking the snow in this field hoping to find a coyote track or even a deer track, but so far I have been disappointed.  That's really okay.  I got to get outside and away from my desk for a few minutes and was able to interact with nature.  It gave me a slight recharge that I needed.

Snow and Survival - Animal Adaptations in Winter

After a mild December, Winter has arrived in Mid-Michigan with a vengeance.  Projected temperatures for the next twenty-four hours are set to dip down to -1 degree Fahrenheit (-18 Celsius).

In addition to the cold temperatures, over the past week Mid-Michigan has also received several inches of snow and a day of freezing rain.  The snow and cold pose survival challenges for animals that remain in Michigan during the Winter.

Life during the Winter seems to occur at a much slower pace than it does during the other eight or nine months of the year.  Most of the birds that called the region home during the warmer months have migrated to warmer climates.  Insects seem to have disappeared - some lie dormant as adults, others spend the cold months as eggs, larvae, or pupae.  Reptiles, amphibians, and a few mammals lie still in hibernation until the weather improves.  Even most of the trees and other plants sit dormant and await the return of Spring.

For each animal that remains active here during the Winter survival comes down to two factors; can it find enough food (and avoid becoming food for another animal) and can they stay warm.  While part of staying warm is staying sheltered from wind and moisture, a big part of staying warm is being able to metabolize at a high enough rate to stay warm.  So in reality the ability to survive Winter in the northern United States comes down to finding enough food (and avoiding avoiding becoming food).

Of Nesting Chickadees and Serendipity

I believe that when I am exploring nature, if I get a whim or if something catches my eye then I should follow that whim or object and see where it leads.  I may not always see what I want to see, but I believe that I see what I was meant to see.  Sometimes I end up wandering into the right place, other times those moments where I follow whims delays me until the right time.  Some of my most fortunate discoveries and favorite photographs have come about this way.  Serendipity has a way of putting us in the right place at the time we meant to be there.

For the Birds

One of the easiest things that you can do to help birds is to put up places for them to nest.  Many bird nest only in abandoned woodpecker holes, knotholes, and other cavities in trees.  Unfortunately for many cavity-nesting birds, appropriate nesting sites are few and far between, and there is great competition for those sites that do exist. 

Most appropriate nest sites are found in dead or dying trees where it easier for woodpeckers to excavate a hole.  If these are in the middle of a woods, they may stand for many years and be used by many different species.  But if they are along a fencerow, on the edge of a woods, or in someone's yard they are not likely to last for more than one or two nesting seasons.  Many people view dead trees, especially one with holes, as ugly or even dangerous.  They don't think about the value of such trees to wildlife.

A trend that has been happening for many years, but that seems to be accelerating here in Mid-Michigan, is the removal of fencerows between fields.  Farmers do this to maximize agricultural production, but unfortunately it removes valuable habitat for many species, including cavity-nesting birds. 

So things might look bleak for cavity nesting birds, but there is one easy step that can be done to help them: build and install artificial nest boxes.  Do it right now before nesting season begins.  The birds will find the boxes and use them. 

There are many available plans that can be built from a single board with simple hand tools.  This plan is one that we have available in our office for people to take. I have found this same plan available on numerous websites, and do not know the original source of the plan.

Simple one board nest box plan.

Chickadees in Winter

Black Capped Chickadee

Find four pennies and hold them in the palm of your hand.  They weigh about 10 grams (equal to 0.35 ounces or 0.022 pounds).  That is how much an average Black-capped Chickadee weighs. From the tip of its tail to its beak measures between 4.5 and 6 inches.  It has a wingspan from 6 to 8.5 inches. 

Unlike many other familiar birds, the Black-Capped Chickadee is a year round resident of Mid-Michigan.  How does a small bird like this survive winter in Michigan?