6 Reasons I Like Winter Birding

With the exception of days when we have severe weather conditions winter is one of my favorite times of the year for bird-watching .
Here are 6 reasons that I like winter birding:

1: Trees with bare branches and fields of gold: That makes birds much easier to find.
2: The silence of freshly fallen snow: There is something very peaceful about taking an early morning when the ground is coated with freshly fallen snow.The snow provides natural soundproofing which makes everything seem quiet and peaceful. 

 3: Appreciation of more common birds: Once spring arrives everyone is chasing tropical migrant birds. You tend to forget that we have some beautiful birds year round.

 4) The air seems cleaner in winter: This makes everything seem stand out vividly, including birds.

 5) Interesting birds sometimes show up in winter: For example, crossbills or Pine Grosbeaks as seen in the photo above. 

6) There's always the shoreline: Inland birding can be hit or miss during the winter in Connecticut but there are always plenty of birds near the shoreline. Every January birders doing a "Big January" are able to find over 100 species (sometimes nearing 150) in Connecticut. A good portion of those birds are found along Connecticut's shoreline.

So there may be days when it's too snowy or too cold but I'm looking forward to plenty of great mornings of birding in Connecticut this winter!

Goodbye Winter Birds And Hello Spring!

I took a ride to Hammonasset to have a last look at some of the birds that will soon be on there way. So I said goodbye to the Horned Lark which is the only true lark which is native to North America.

A few White-winged Crossbills were still around on Sunday.They'll  be on their way back north any day now. There's no guarantee I'll see them again next winter so I was glad to have one last view. Did you know that an individual bird can eat 3,000 seeds in a day? 

I'm sure I'll be seeing Red-breasted Nuthatches again but sometimes they disappear for a while.

I know I'll be seeing and hearing cardinals again but there's something special about seeing cardinals in the snow.

The snow should soon be gone for good this year.  My tires and my shoes both got wet trying to make may way around the flooded park.

The numbers of male Red-winged Blackbirds showing off their red badge of courage. When I start to see lots of Red-winged Blackbirds showing off then I know Spring is very close. In fact, I've decided Spring has officially started today. If the time can be moved forward by an hour on clocks then why not move Spring up by a week?

Siskins At The Feeder! Are Redpolls Next?

A couple of weeks ago I caught a glimpse of 2 birds at my thistle feeder that I thought might have been Pine Siskins but they flew off before I could get a better look at them. On Sunday, 2 siskins returned to my feeder but this time they brought some of their buddies with them.Before I knew it, the thistle feeder was loaded with them. Pine Siskins are small finches that are brownish in color and heavily streaked. They have a bit of yellow on their wings and pointy little bills that are perfect for extracting Nyjer seed from a feeder like this. They emptied my feeder quicker than the goldfinches do .

This House Sparrow seemed to have that "What the heck did I do?" look before being chased off by is smaller competitor.

During certain winters I've also enjoyed seeing both White-winged and Red Crossbills in Connecticut but my favorite winter finch sightings was seeing a large flock of Pine Grosbeaks (above photo) in the town of Norfolk a couple of years ago. Dozens of them settled into a crabapple tree and systematically proceeded to extract the seeds from the crabapples. The birds were so colorful and robust looking. I stayed and watched them for almost an hour before they finally flew off to another area.

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According to Ron Pittaway's Winter Finch Forecast for 2010-2011 Common Redpolls should irrupt into the northern United States this winter. I've only seen redpolls once before at Selden Park in Lyme. I'd love to look out my window on a cold winter day and see my feeder covered with them!