“Is that a …?”
Phenology – “a branch of science concerned with the relationship between climate and periodic biological phenomena (as the migration of birds or the flowering and fruiting of plants).”
A Weekend for the Birds
The NH Audubon Society has long organized what they refer to as the BWBW (the Backyard Winter Bird Watch to the uninitiated.) Each year, more than a thousand bird-watchers (a.k.a. “twitchers” for those of you coming from the UK) keep track of all the birds that they see in their backyard or in another of their favorite spots for watching birds. Everyone reports their sightings to NH Audubon so as to be consolidated into a comprehensive list of the birds seen in New Hampshire. Data accumulated over the decades of doing seasonal bird surveys provides insights into which species are becoming more or less abundant up here over the various seasons of the year.
While I probably have known about such surveys for well over a half century, this year was the first time I have participated in one. I have many times decided not to spend a half day at Pondicherry for one of the summer or fall bird surveys, but the BWBW offers a different kind of opportunity. With the BWBW, there is no need for travel, no commitment to an extended period of time, and no fear of rain, snow, or freezing cold winds. How could I resist the BWBW? I could sit by the kitchen window, sip coffee, and enjoy my elevenses while looking out at the bird feeder, binoculars and camera at hand. And all the hours I would spend looking out the window rather than working on our taxes or paying the bills could be recorded as “scientific inquiry” rather than as “bone-idle wastefulness.”
So, this month’s photo essay will document what I observed in my “weekend for the birds.” I’ll begin with the regulars and work up to a couple of real surprises.
The Regulars
Our bird feeder hangs from a pole in the middle of an open space about 15-25 yards wide between a large spruce tree, a large willow, a couple of maples, and the side of our house. Birds regularly fly into one of the trees, take a moment or two to see who else is hanging around, and then go in for a snack. Some go straight to the feeder, some go to the seeds scattered under the feeder, and a few go for the suet. Blue jays and chickadees have been coming every day for the past month or more, just like they have every year for more than 25 years. Blue jays often come in small flocks, and they spend most of their time spread out under the feeder picking sunflower seeds from the snow. The flock may be here for ten or twenty minutes at a time, with one or two on the feeder, four or five under the feeder, and another three or four in the spruce tree. None of them stays still for long, so there is constantly motion as they poke about in the snow and fly back and forth between the trees and the feeder.
February 9, 2025. As many as ten blue jays were at the feeder today. This was one of the few that paused from foraging to pose for a photo.
The chickadees may come at the same time as the blue jays, because they aren’t interested at all in what’s on the ground. Instead, they’ll pick at the suet for a minute or so or they’ll just come in, grab a seed from the feeder, and quickly fly back to one of the trees. Many years, we’ve had flocks of a half dozen or so, but I never say more than three of them at one time during the BWBW.
Gold finches aren’t here every day, but they drop by a couple of times a week. They get along well with the chickadees, and they sometimes stand side-by-side picking seeds from the feeder.
February 8, 2025. A flock of 15 gold finches foraged under the feeder; but from time to time, a couple of them elected to pick seeds right off the tray, perhaps sharing the space with a chickadee.
Nuthatches and tufted titmice are other regular visitors that were here for the bird watch. The titmice are larger than the chickadees and goldfinches, which may be why they are willing to stay a little longer at the feeder. The red-breasted and the white-breasted nuthatches are both small birds that only dare to stay at the feeder for a few seconds. They usually just grab a seed and immediately head back to the willow.
Both nuthatches were here for the BWBW, but neither posed for the photo shoot. This photo taken on December 4th likely shows one of the white-breasted nuthatches that was here briefly during the bird watch.
February 8, 2025. A pair of tufted titmice were here on both the 8th and the 9th. Chickadees, nuthatches, and titmice share the same lovely shades of grey, black, white and yellow-orange.
The most unexpected regulars this year have been a friendly pair of cardinals. Although Sibley’s 2003 Field Guide tells me that cardinals have been year-round in northern New Hampshire for at least 22 years, they avoided our corner of the North Country until just the last few years, and this is the first year that a pair has been a daily visitor to the feeder. Both the male and the female love to forage under the feeder and under the spruce, periodically flying up to a perch in the tree to observe what’s going on.
February 8 & 9, 2025. A pair of cardinals showed off their striking colors under the bird feeder. They have been in the neighborhood all winter, their colors appearing quite exotic against the snowy background.
Woodpeckers
Downy and hairy woodpeckers were both seen taking a quick bite out of the suet and then repairing to the willow tree. Since the downy looks pretty much like a small-sized hairy, it is very difficult to figure which one you’re looking at unless they are next to something that serves as a ruler, such as the little cage holding the suet. Even then, it is hard to see how long the bird is, since it is usually wrapped awkwardly around the wire cage as it looks for its next bite. I prefer a photo of a bird in a tree to the much more easily obtained photo of one at the feeder. This one, unfortunately, is the best I could manage during the BWBW.
February 9, 2025. This woodpecker was seeking insects in the thick bark of the big willow. Unfortunately, the photo seems to show a couple of clumps of snow rather than a bird. Until it went to the suet, I had no idea whether it was a downy or a hairy woodpecker.
Holy Mackerel!
A couple of days before the BWBW, while I was practicing my observation technique (no, I wasn’t just sipping coffee and frittering away my time!), I noticed a half dozen or more darkish birds sitting in the top of a maple next to Pearl Lake Road. I picked up the binoculars, figuring that they were probably blue jays whose colors were muted because it was so cloudy. Imagine my surprise to see that they were robins, the famous harbingers of spring who really had their phenological intuition messed up.
February 9, 2025. Nearly a dozen robins were in out backyard on the 3rd. One of them was still here on the 9th, so I was able to include robins in my official list. In the years I’ve been keeping records, I had never before seen a robin here between the middle of October and the second week of March
The robins were a surprise, but that wasn’t even close to the biggest surprise of the bird-watching weekend. On Sunday afternoon, I come into the kitchen to spend some more time looking for birds, and I noticed a stranger sitting atop the pole holding the bird feeder. I wasn’t sure what it was, because it was turned away from me, but it certainly wasn’t one of the regulars. I took the picture that’s now at the top of this essay, zoomed in, and realized I was looking at a juvenile blue bird!
A few of these beauties sometimes linger in the North Country until late October or even early November, but I never seen one here before the end of March. What was this youngster doing way up here in early February? Was it alone? No, because a minute or two later, four adult males landed on the feeder. They stayed only a few minutes and haven’t been seen since, but I was thrilled to add them to the BWBW.
February 9, 2025. A half dozen bluebirds came to the feeder for a few minutes, the first ones I have ever seen in mid-winter anywhere in New England!
Too Early or Too Late
The first mourning doves of the winter showed up five days too early for the official count, and two crows elected to visit the feeder a day too late. No great loss, as both of these birds will have been seen by many other participants in the bird watch.
More interesting is the barred owl I saw at the end of January. While we hear them calling after dusk during much of the year, we seldom see them, and I have never before photographed one in the wild.
January 24, 2025. I first noticed this barred owl in an apple tree at the edge of the Upper Meadow. I followed it into the woods, where it settled in on a branch of one of the tall pines.
Another loss to the bird count were the evening grosbeaks that were here ten days too early and then came back four days too late. Everybody loves to see grosbeaks, so I’m adding them to this essay, even though I had to keep them off my official list.
February 13, 2025. A flock of a half-dozen evening grosbeaks flitted about in the tops of the birch trees at the edge of the Lower Meadow.
A Magic Moment
I have already indicated how surprising it has been to see either cardinals or blue birds here in Sugar Hill in the middle of winter. So, you’ll understand why I close with a single photo that captured a magic moment right outside my kitchen window. While I was enjoying watching the falling snow adding to the foot-and-a-half that already covered the ground, a cardinal coming in for a landing caught the attention of the bluebirds sitting on the feeder.
February 9, 2025, 2:33 in the afternoon. A pair of cardinals and a half dozen bluebirds – the peak moment of my 2025 BWBW!
