Ice In

Skim ice covered the pond for the first time at dawn this morning, after a couple of below normal days. But as two significant Nor’easters have shown this year, Mother Nature wasn’t going to let us get complacent about weather patterns. By afternoon it was raining and at nightfall, the temperature was over 50. Last week we rolled from over 60 to 23 in a couple of days; feeling a bit like Denver.

The winter visitors have begin to show up. The first mergansers of the season appeared on December 10 – a pair of hoodies. They were followed by two pair on Dec 12. Others had been spotted in neighboring ponds, but these were our first for the 09-10 season. Other seasonal visitors in the area Northern Shovelers, Ruddy Ducks and a pair of European Widgeons, the latter spotted on Belmont Lake around Dec 6.

Not a lot of migrants cited in November, aside from a few low-flying flocks of cackling geese that babbled their way south on several occasions.

A Great Blue Heron and at least one Kingfisher are stalking the pond this week, and what looked like a Cooper’s Hawk swooped into the yard a few days ago, scaring the daylights out of the songbirds still here. They are all acting quite skittish of late. I suspect the hawk is a regular interloper. On the subject of songbirds still here, I heard a catbird in Belmont Park on Dec 6 – a lone stray, I expect, as it was the first heard or seen in many weeks. No robins in the past couple of weeks, but they have a tendency to come and go around here according to the vagaries of coastal mid-Atlantic weather.

Regulars at the feeding area now are a mix of White-Throated Sparrows and House Finches, up to 20 Mourning Doves, a couple of Cardinals and once in awhile, a Blue Jay. Flocks of Starlings have been at the suet cage, but they don’t stay long, leaving room for regular visits by a couple of Downy Woodpeckers and last week, a Red Bellied Woodpecker. Some of the sparrows are learning how to feed on the suet, but it is a struggle to hang on the cage and the intrepid ones who manage only cling for a minute or so.

Year ‘round avians in good numbers continue to be Common Crows, Double-Crested Cormorants, Canada Geese, various gulls and mallards, along with groups of Rock Doves and the aforementioned sparrows, cardinals and mourning doves.

On Dec 14, more than a dozen mallards feeding on seed I had put out exploded into the air and back to the safety of the pond. Alerted by the commotion I turned to see a hawk rising above them; clearly it had swooped toward them, but the rising flock prevented a connection. The predator flew just out of sight, but I watched the area for a couple of minutes and was rewarded as it appeared from the right and flew away to the south about 25 feet off the water. From the white spot on the rump, its profile and flying style I am pretty certain it was a Northern Harrier.

Also on the 14^th, a large group of robins showed up as if to underline my comments above, accompanied by at least two blue jays. They were still in the neighborhood Dec 15, feeding, bathing in pools of creek water and chattering away in the trees. Temperatures broke through 50 both days, which may have encouraged the visitation. They seem to be pushing their winter range a bit more to the north in recent years.

Chills, and A Close Encounter

October’s first two weeks were the coldest in 20 years for many parts of the country and we are not an exception. On Oct 18, we did not get above 50 degrees F, indeed it looks like 46 was the high. Wood fires were stoked as a Nor’easter pushed up the ocean, giving us an island-on-an-island effect. Our house was surrounded by water on the four successive high tides.

After being away for a week, seed which I put out it immediately brought attention from the bird community. Two pair of mallards and a lone male pounced, moving up from the pond where they recently started to spend time after a summer with almost no duck activity. They were joined at the feeding station by a couple of mourning doves, a cardinal, a blue jay and, as the sun set, 12 white-throated sparrows.

One of the many local squirrels has also passed through for a meal.
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We marked the end of summer before Labor Day when our covey of White Egrets departed as the third week in August closed. It was an early departure and maybe a sign of the cold days ahead. An occasional black-crowned night heron and brief appearances by a large and handsome Osprey became the new pond attention-getters, along with battling kingfishers.

Fall visitors of note have been a handful of warblers and a pair of Towhees, who were just passing through – gone after two days of foraging. On Oct 20, another visited briefly. More than a few blue gnat catchers have been around, also migrating. Missing this year are Monarch butterflies who normally shown up in large numbers from late August to now. They may have decided to move inland, but the overall butterfly population was muted this year.

Downy woodpeckers, yellow-shafted flickers, chickadees, robins, nuthatches have steadily worked through the area along with the usual Canada geese and various gulls constantly overhead. On Oct 21, the first cackling geese passed low overhead, headed south. The next day, the duck telegraph was working overtime. Ten mallards clustered at the feeding area and a couple more were in the pond where a double-crowned cormorant was working its way through some of the small fish.

Fish, too, have been less numerous this year overall. A few sunfish, schools of various baitfish and the odd bass have been spotted with a handful caught on limited fishing expeditions. A large crayfish occupied my fish trap in the creek one day.

Floating a fishing hook with bread on it, meant to catch carp (infrequently around nowadays), resulted in three hookups on the pond on different days with the resident snapping turtle. I am pretty certain this turtle has been caught in past years by me; it seemed to understand the process. At first I had to reel it in to get it close enough to cut the line. The second time, after realizing what I had hooked, I eased the pressure and it managed to dislodge the hook from afar.


On the third occasion, the hook was well in and the turtle obediently came to me after a gentle tug, even making progress straight toward me with no urging. It halted a couple of feet from the bulkhead and I could see its size well – easily 15 inches across the carapace; perhaps 30 or more nose to tail. It responded to a tug to come in and lifted its head up so I could cut the line a few inches from its beak. It then backed up a foot or so and stared at me from below the surface, poking up after a couple of minutes for a better look. At length, it turned and ambled into the murky depths.

Barely Spring, Comes A Sure Sign of Summer

Too much happening to not get an update together:

A young black-crowned night heron flew across the pond the morning of March 24 and lit in a pine tree just west of the mouth of the north-south creek edging our property. This the first heron in a couple of months, one of the increasing number of signs of renewal on the land.

The middle of March has brought below-freezing nights and below normal days, but the climbing sun is doing its work as both early flowers (crocuses and snowdrops, among others) join early birds in decorating the scene outside my office window.

On the night of March 27, the surest sign of summer-to-come arrived. Just before sunset, an egret settled into one of the trees in which groups of egrets have decided to roost overnight in recent summers. This is the first of the season -- quite early compared with past years when we were anywhere from 10 to 14 days further on the calendar before first arrival.

They are an exciting and solid warm weather marker – here from early April to about Labor Day. Last year they left a bit early, in August. The year before it was a few days beyond Labor Day.

Rain came along behind the creature, which was still in place, hunkered down in a soaking shower as dawn came this morning. Just below, on a snag 20 feet out from the eastern shore, was another new arrival. All scrunched against the weather, it could nevertheless be made out as an adult black-crowned night heron, another first for the season.

There was yet a third arrival, most likely resting en route to the more remote climes its ilk prefers. Appearing on Friday morning was a pied-billed grebe. It is a threatened species now, battling along with so many against habitat destruction. My books note them a shy and wary creature that are not often sighted.

This one stayed fairly close to shore but floated toward the center on occasion, making it easy to study. It was quiet on Friday; still there as night fell and on hand this morning. But today it was in feeding mode, repeatedly diving for small fish in competition with three cormorants who showed up for a quick raid on the pond’s fish market. The grebe was nonplussed even when they made some underwater runs toward it, retreating to shallow waters they couldn’t navigate.

I had hoped for, but didn’t see, its showy move of sinking straight down, the grebe’s strategy when they feel an obvious threat at hand, unlike the big one they can’t see. I expect it will be on its way after a good meal. I wish it luck.

All this, despite the usual mix of fresh water which has been pretty well stopped for nearly a year by blockage in the underground culverts that feed our creek. Tidal flows have kept it wet, but on low tides, it is a shade of its normal babbling brook nature. That will return soon, however, as a work crew last week began building all new culverts.

Heading north are numbers of ruddy ducks. A group of more than 60 was on the pond east of a town park a few miles north of here in North Babylon. Part of the Carll’s River system, the water is a regular rest stop for large flocks of ruddys each spring. There was a smaller group chasing baitfish on nearby Belmont Lake.

Friday I spotted a great flock of what appeared to be brant but could have been snow geese – at least a couple of hundred birds in big V-formations, flying low as they stroked along a following SSW wind.

Earlier in the week, a small group of perhaps 30 or 40 Greater Scaup were prowling the lower Carll’s River, south of Montauk Highway in Babylon, as were a few in the Brightwaters Canal. These are undoubtedly the last of the winter visitors which can create rafts of thousands in the bays and coastal waters during the coldest months. Groups of mergansers and a couple of Buffleheads are still dotted around, soon to be memories for summer.

Spring Break

A wave of early season summer birds swept in with the break in frigid temperatures that surrounded a record snowfall on Monday, March 2. First through was a crowd of robins, but the big day was March 7 when three grackles caught my attention, the first to be seen since November. Working in the yard a short time later, a chorus of Red-wing Blackbirds mixed in the trees with more grackles, all likely to be traveling together.

Another seasonal first at the weekend was a solitary cowbird, picking through seeds at the feeding station on March 9. A Purple Finch also joined the resident goldfinches at the niger feeder. They have been known to over winter in the area, but this was the first I have seen since Christmastime this season.

Suet drew a range of woodpeckers including a single male Hairy, three Downies and a Red-bellied. A Yellow-shafted Flicker also lit briefly in the popular woodpecker grazing tree, an aging but resolute choke cherry whose peel-back bark clearly hosts a plethora of tasty critters. A noisy jay flitted around along with the other visitors – whether they were traveling together or just happened to show up in the warm weather is hard to know, but the grouping was significant.

A female Cardinal, who may well have been around all winter but has been scarce, showed up on March 8 among the regular ground feeders: sparrows, juncos, mourning doves and the ubiquitous starlings. Crows have shown up in the area in large numbers, probably on migration, given multiple groups on different days.

On the pond, fishing has definitely improved as made clear by the daily work of a handsome Common Merganser and a juvenile Double-crested Cormorant whose unusually pale colors made him look more like a Yellow-billed Loon at first glance. These two skilled divers were harassed constantly by Herring Gulls who watched carefully for them to surface with hopes of stealing a meal. The gulls, however, were too slow to get moving after the rises with fish – each time I saw a successful run, the prey was dispatched before a gull was within 15 feet.

Mallards are continuing their dances around the pond, with flurries of lunge and parry mixing with bouts of splash and dive. A quick survey shows 20 on hand this morning.

Their antics stand in counterpoint to the somber presence of a Great Blue Heron, now sporting breeding plumage, who is here every morning and evening, sometimes hunched over a single long leg in sleep, but more often prowling the shallows for its next meal.

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Water Wars

The nesting season is fast upon us. Water birds are paired up and searching for sites. Canada Geese were first to scout our pond, which is uninviting, inasmuch as all but one resident has fencing up to both safeguard children and keep the geese at bay. 

Many people think the fence keeps the geese off the lawn by being a barrier to getting on it. They are wrong, as they can easily fly in and out for much of the year. It actually keeps them off the lawn because they know that when they are flightless in the molting season and when there may be young ones to shepherd who cannot fly, they will be unable to escape a predator on the lawn by running into the water. They often seem quite dumb, but they are smart enough to foresee a problem that is weeks away.

A greater deterrent can be swans. If they choose a spot like our small pond to nest, they will keep all geese and other interlopers away. A gorgeous pair showed up two days ago and today were treated by our neighbor to a luxurious direct handout of feed at the waterside. The pair later drifted off the sleep, a sign they may feel comfortable enough to consider nesting. A few hours later, the two Canada Geese which have been scouting recently arrived. In minutes were driven off by the male swan.

It will be interesting to see if nesting occurs since the swans have the same issues as the geese, but might be accommodated by building a platform nest on a downed tree over the water -- not something the geese are likely to do. We shall see.

Meanwhile, the dozen or so mallards that have appeared in recent weeks are scuffling. If past action holds, they will work their way down to a single pair in the next month or two. It will nest nearby. One year I exited the back door to find a nest with a female on it just a foot from the doorway, in plain sight but nestled against the foundation and unobtrusive in the surrounding colors. 

A lone Hooded Merganser joined the gulls fishing this morning. I watched a herring gull land and snatch 4-5 inch fish yesterday. Hard to tell if the fish are just lethargic in cold water or what -- gulls seem to have pretty good success on top water or just a few inches down. In any case, there is plenty of fish attraction happening; two Great Blue Herons eyed each other across the pond on Friday afternoon.

 

C-O-L-D

A glance at the resident Great Blue Heron here tells the early February story: c-o-l-d.
Long Island's coldest nights just passed, with temps in single digits; something we don't get down on the coast very often. Odds are that will be the worst of the season inasmuch as we just passed the middle of winter, on the calendar anyway.
The weatherman calls for above average daytime temps for the next several days, starting with an out of line 50-plus by Sunday, then dropping back to 40s.

Just before the cold snap I stepped onto the deck and heard a familiar cackling in the night sky. Looking up, a dozen or so snow geese circled a few hundred feet overhead, working north in a haphazard, rotating kettle. They could be migrating, or just working across their winter grounds. The guide books say they start north in February, but Feb 2 seemed just too strictly by the clock.

Out in the yard, the winter players are pretty much unchanged except for their appetites. Niger loads go down in inches each day and the jostling to get at seed on the ground can be fierce. Both the deep cold and advancing nesting season are driving them. I noticed today that the opening on a sparrow tree house we have is being made larger; keeping watch to see if it isn't the red-bellied woodpecker deciding on its 2009 abode.

Ice covers most of the pond, but both the heron and attendant black-backed gulls know there is still food to be had. I watched a big gull; (almost a 5-foot wingspan) take a 6-inch fish from an open water area this week. The heron can be spotted standing on an ice edge glaring at one of two small areas of water in evidence this week.

Beach Buntings

During a sharp and short warm break that took temps to the high 40s amidst teens and 20s of late, a stroll on the beach last Friday brought good sightings. First was a group of 30-plus snow buntings on the roadside. A Northern Harrier working its way along the north channel shore at the west end of Jones Beach Island flew almost at eye-level just a few yards from the car for over a quarter mile.

Topping the list however, was my first ID of Lapland Longspurs. I came across a small flock in among the sand dunes. Bird books say they are regulars in NY state, but this is the first time I had encountered them as a birder. Another first was an encounter on my way out of the park with two snow geese which were feeding at the roadside. I was able to get within 40 feet and watch them from the car through the binos for about 10 minutes. I have heard and seen them overhead during migration, but this was my first close up look on the ground.

Off the rock jetty at the end of the island, there were a dozen or so brant working their way along the surf line. The trip to the shore was prompted in hopes of spotting a Snowy Owl. There were three people at the parking area at the West End when I arrived, all searching the dunes for the same thing. Snowies are regular visitors to this spot in winter; I saw one three years ago. None appeared during this visit.

At home, the suet cage attracts plenty of woodpecker attention. A red-bellied was there yesterday and three downies were on hand the day before. Regular interlopers are the starlings, but they soon tire and move on, allowing the woodpeckers back at it. Yesterday also brought a fleeting glimpse of a hairy woodpecker on a nearby telephone pole.

Another unexpected visitor was a really fat robin which landed on the deck railing three days ago, eyeballing the seed feeding area below. Re-stocking of the niger feeder is at its highest tempo as the goldfinches and even the occasional junco or sparrow attack it with vigor in these chilly days.

This morning about 20-minutes before sunrise the cold still morning erupted with the sound of a song sparrow, which loudly proclaimed the day for a good five minutes. We don't hear many bird songs this time of year and its trumpet brought thoughts of spring, which seems a long, cold trudge away right now.

Snow and Saw Grass

The bright red of a male cardinal against new snow is one of January’s delights in the northeast. Along with a mixed group of regulars at the feeding station today, a male cardinal showed his colors. Others included a dozen mourning doves, several white-throated sparrows, a few juncos, two house sparrows and a song sparrow.

Back from three weeks in Florida, it was only a couple of hours before a female downy woodpecker and several starlings found out about my replenishment of suet in the cage.

Always fun to watch, the northern visitors are a far cry from large summer crews. But during our Florida visit from Dec 27 – Jan 17 we managed to make up for the lower numbers up north by tallying a huge assortment of wildlife in the binoculars, if not close at hand.

Wood storks have returned to the Audubon Corkscrew wildlife preserve east of Fort Myers after two winters of not nesting – a disturbing absence for birdwatchers, but not unnatural as the birds require very precise feeding conditions before they will choose a nesting site. This year’s rain schedule did the trick, providing the right water levels that will sustain enough food for the adults and chicks over several critical weeks. Local reports said they need up to 400 pounds of fish to nurture a single youngster through its first few months. We saw a dozen nests when we visited just before New Year’s Day and the number was up to 60 two weeks later.

In several venues we managed to spot Bald Eagles, Osprey, red-shouldered hawks and lots of ugly turkey and black vultures; dozens of egrets – downy, reddish, great white and cattle – and the largest numbers ever of white ibises along with a few glossies. Others making the list: northern shrikes, blue jays, blue gnat-catchers, a variety of warblers, anhingas, cormorants, mergansers, blue-winged teal, muscovey ducks, pied bill grebes, moorhens, coots, little blue herons, great blue herons, brown pelicans, royal terns, various gulls and red-bellied woodpeckers. Among the mammals, raccoon, manatees and dolphins showed themselves during an Everglades trip and a river otters plied the lake by our condo.

Christmas 08

The staccato bawp, bawp, bawp of duck hunter guns punctuates the early morning. We sit just a mile or so from the Great South Bay and with low clouds overhead and snow covering the ground, sounds carry well. Yesterday was the first real winter storm for the NYC area. We got perhaps four inches locally of pretty wet snow which melted down a bit before evening freeze-up. This morning dawns with a fine snow falling, already having deposited close to half an inch on the frozen stuff below.

At the feeding area, a dozen or so white-throats are poking the snow-ice along with a pair of cardinals and three or four mourning doves.