​Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

You have probably heard the Carolina chickadee’s song – “chickadee-dee-dee” – if you have a birdfeeder or trees in your yard or you have woods near your home. We have two pairs that consistently enjoy the food I put out for the birds on fence posts separating our farm from the neighboring farm to the west. ​
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The Carolina Chickadee  (Poecile carolinensis), which is in the same family as the Tufted Titmouse (Paridae), is widespread in Virginia and the most common chickadee in the state. Their preferred habitats include mixed and deciduous woods, river groves, shade trees and well-wooded suburbs. Chickadees are one of the first birds to use a newly placed bird feeder. They visit for sunflower seeds, peanut chips and suet. The chickadee will fly to the feeder, grab a single seed, carry it to a branch and hold the seed down with its feet. It hammers the shell open to get the meat inside. It then quickly returns to the feeder to get another seed.  Their diet is mostly insects and spiders but they also eat seeds and berries, especially in the winter. Their acrobatic feeding habits are a delight to watch: they hang upside down and tilt their head and body up to reach insects on leaves and under tree bark.  They sometimes take food while hovering and may fly out to catch insects in mid-air.

Chickadees can be attracted to your property by offering a nest box or nest tube with a 1-1/4 inch entrance opening. Despite their small size, they are relatively fearless and are one of the species of birds that will commonly try to drive away predators such as hawks, owls and snakes. Like the titmouse, however, they are very vulnerable to predation by outdoor cats. 

The Carolina chickadee was among the birds named by John James Audubon when he was in South Carolina.  The black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)) is very similar in appearance but less seen in our state. Where the two species’ range come into contact, the Carolina chickadee and the black-capped chickadee will occasionally hybridize. Hybrids can sing the songs of either species and might sing something that is a blend of the two songs. 

A chickadee pair bond between a male and female can last for several years. During the winter chickadees band together in large flocks. The life span of a Carolina chickadee is 2-3 years. The longest-lived known was 10 years 11 months old and found in West Virginia in 1974. 

Bluebird update: We have a pair of bluebirds that have built a nest in our second nest box – and this morning I counted 4 beautiful blue eggs. It is such a joy to offer a “home” for a bluebird family on our farm each year!

Happy birding!
    
Charlene












    

​Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

The “peter, peter, peter” call of the tufted titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) is often the first bird song I hear when I go out each morning to journal the birds that I see and hear.  We have titmice in the woods across the street, in the woods that line our farm and we also get them on a regular basis at our birdfeeder. Titmice are non-migratory so I may take them for granted during the excitement of the return of the birds that fly south for the winter. But their perky crested head and their comfort in being around people reminds me of how much I value these special birds on our farm.

While you will often see titmice at your bird feeder, they have a broad diet, 2/3rd of which is insects. They have special muscles in their legs that allow them to hang upside down to feed – so they often see insect eggs under leaves where other birds cannot. They are known for storing food in bark crevices and are very good at remembering the location of their different caches.  You will often see them foraging with other small birds, including chickadees, kinglets, brown creepers and nuthatches.  After breeding season titmice will join flocks that include other small birds – a frequent technique used by many birds as a protection from hawks. In addition to birds of prey, titmice are hunted by snakes, raccoons, and opossums. One of their worst enemies are house cats, as titmice are very comfortable around people and are frequent birdfeeder visitors.

Titmice line their nests with fur they have plucked from other animals, including raccoons, opossums, mice, woodchucks, squirrels, rabbits and livestock. While they mate for life, their life span is short, averaging 2.1 years. The oldest titmouse recorded by scientists was 13 years old.

So please keep your cats inside – you may be saving the life of a titmouse and other birds as well!


Update on bluebirds that successfully nested on our farm:
One of our nest boxes had 4 eggs, of which three hatched. These three successfully fledged.  I recently had the opportunity to see the male bluebird teaching one of the fledglings to “hawk” for insects. The male sat close to the fledgling on the top of a fencepost. The male swooped down, snatched a small insect, flew back to the post, and fed the insect to the fledgling. The adult then flew down again, returned and he ate the insect (apparently trying to show the fledgling how it was done). Then the adult flew away, followed by the fledgling. So, I don’t know when the fledgling got the point of the lesson.    

Happy birding!

Charlene

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

It took me a while until I saw my first Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) on our farm. I was hearing them and picking them up on Merlin. But it wasn’t until recently that I actually saw one. They are often hidden in and under thick shrubs, where they sing discrete musical phrases, often repeating them twice. The male Brown Thrasher has the largest documented song repertoire of all North American birds, with over 1,100 song types. Some sources state that each individual has up to 3,000 song phrases, while others stated beyond 3,000.

While not having as diverse a “song book” as the Northern mockingbird, thrashers are also noted for their mimicry. During the breeding season, the male's mimicking ability is at its best display. It can impersonate the calls of Tufted Titmice, Northern Cardinals, Wood Thrushes, and Northern Flickers. So you have to be careful:  if you don’t actually see some of these other birds and their song comes up on Merlin - maybe it’s actually a very talented thrasher!

Thrashers don’t have a long life span: only about 34% live through their first and second year, and about 50% make it through to their third year. The longest known lifespan in the wild is 12 years.

The thrasher’s distinctive curved bill has been noted for its flexibility in catching quick insects. Scientists have determined that this flexibility is due to the amount of vertebrae in its neck, which exceeds giraffes and camels. Thrashers defend themselves by using their bill, which can inflict significant damage to species smaller than them, along with wing-flapping and vocal expressions.

The name “thrasher” is believed to have come from the thrashing sound the bird makes when digging through ground debris. I have frequently seen their feeding behavior where they turn over leaves, small rocks and branches, looking for insects and nuts. Scientists have also found bones of lizards, salamanders, and frogs in the stomach of thrashers. So they have a very eclectic diet.

The thrasher name is also thought to come from the thrashing sound that it makes when it is smashing large insects to kill and eventually eat them. When feeding, the Brown Thrasher can hammer nuts like acorns in order to remove the shell. Scientists have observed thrashers digging a hole about 1.5 cm (0.59 in) deep, place an acorn in it, and hit the acorn until it cracked – almost like a form of tool usage.

So enjoy these talented song birds and the role they play in nature.

Happy birding!
Charlene

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

I clearly recall the first view of a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) on our farm. We had just moved into the house that we built and were sitting on the back porch when a female turkey rounded the corner and started to walk down toward the woods line at the bottom of the field. She seemed to stagger from side to side, almost like she was drunk. So of course I researched it. Apparently fruit-eating birds including turkeys can over-indulge in berries. While berries are a good source of food, when the fruit starts to rot a bird can get inebriated. According to the Audubon Society, “drunk” birds tend to stagger from side to side, don’t fly as well, and aren’t easily able to avoid obstacles in flight. So maybe that turkey we saw had eaten a few too many very ripe berries. She finally reached the wooded area and that was the last sight of a turkey we had until just recently. We now have 3-5 turkeys that walk out of the woods to the south of our farm, cross the road, and then feed along the margins of our farm. 

The turkey is the largest game bird in Virginia. We have friends who are hunters and they have told us our property is ideal for turkeys (we don’t hunt turkeys but like knowing we have the right habitat for them). Their favorite habitat is a mixed-conifer and hardwood forest. The land across the street from us fits the description of their habitat, as does the farm that abuts the back of our acreage. In addition to berries, we also have several large oak trees – and acorns are a favorite food of turkeys. Wild turkeys sleep in trees at night – so they have a choice of the woods across the street and the woods on our farm.

The wild turkey was hunted nearly to extinction by the early 1900s, when the population reached a low of around 30,000 birds. But restoration programs across North America have brought the numbers up to seven million today. Turkeys can run at speeds of up to 25 miles per hour and fly as fast as 55 miles per hour. The life span of a wild turkey is 3-5 years. 
  
Birding tip: An organization called Birdwatching Bliss! offers lots of free advice, including how to use binoculars, what are the best bird field guides, available bird apps, and more. You can subscribe to receive information in your inbox each day.
    
Happy birding!
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Charlene Uhl
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Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County 

Nuthatches, affectionately known as the “upside down bird," are common in deciduous forests and wooded urban areas. Our farm offers them an ideal habitat: three sides of our farm are wooded, we have an abundance of nut-producing trees (its favorite food), and the hayfields offer plenty of insect meals (spiders being their favorites), as well. I have seen nuthatches at our birdfeeder, hanging upside down and poking their long beaks into the feeder. They also like to hang on the suet holder and fend off aggressive blue jays while snacking on the rich fat in the suet.

We primarily have white nuthatches (Sitta carolinensis) but occasionally see a red-breasted nuthatch (Sitta canadensis). While watching these birds near the forest edge, I have seen them come for seed, then fly to the nearest tree and hide the seed in crevices – assumedly for later consumption. Sometimes they will gobble one or two seeds – then take one to hide – basically “two for now and one for later.”

Like many small birds, their average life span is somewhat short: from less than one year to 3 ½ years. However nuthatches up to 10 years old have been recorded. The local population of nuthatches fluctuates widely from year to year. Scientists attribute this to the availability of seed during the winter.

Nuthatches are able to walk head first down tree trunks. That is due to the structure of its feet. A nuthatch’s foot has one big toe that faces backwards, while its other three toes face forward. This helps them to see insects and insect eggs that other birds climbing up the trunk might miss. While they are one of the nosiest woodland birds in the early spring, they are relatively silent when breeding. I noticed this specifically this year. The nuthatches were “chortling” throughout the winter months. While I continue to see them every day, I have noticed they are not making any noise. It was like a switch was flipped off!  

According to Birds of Virginia Field Guide, nuthatches are frequently seen in mixed flocks with chickadees and Downy woodpeckers. They are all cavity nesters so maybe they take turns finding the right size cavity for their size.
  
Birding tip: An excellent source of information on birds is Audubon’s Guide to North American Birds. This resource provides information on migration, conservation status, feeding behavior, diet, nesting and eggs, and recorded songs and calls. Check out the nasal "yank-yank” of a nuthatch so you’ll know when you hear it.
    
Happy birding!
Charlene Uhl
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Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County​

We have a lot of cardinals on our farm. They are regulars at our bird feeders and also out in the field. I will often see 10 or up to 20 cardinals on my morning walk. The male’s bright color is truly eye-catching. Surprisingly comfortable around people, cardinals feed and sing within a few feet of you if you remain still and quiet. That makes them easy to observe up-close and admire the male’s brilliant red plumage and the interaction between the male and female birds.

Besides being the State Bird of Virginia, the Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) is also the state bird of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, North Carolina, and West Virginia. Not to be outdone by that alone, the cardinal is the mascot of two professional teams: the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team and the Arizona Cardinals NFL team. 

Cardinals are known by a lot of common names, including redbird, common cardinal, and red cardinal. An interesting thing about cardinals is that both the male and female sing. While 64% of female birds around the world sing, it’s more common in tropical areas. Cardinals are monogamous and stay together year round. Female cardinals sing as part of their strong instinct to defend their breeding territory. And females have more elaborate songs than males and may sing up to two dozen different tunes.  During egg incubation (11 to 13 days), the male brings food to the female.  Once the eggs hatch, the female varies her song to the male – either signaling the baby birds need food (“come to the nest”) or warning him not to come (she may have spotted a predator). Scientists have been able to isolate specific female songs and identify what she is trying to communicate to her mate.
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Here are some other interesting facts about cardinals:

• Cardinals are usually the first bird to visit feeders in the morning and the last to visit in the evening. Some scientists believe it may be related to lower competition with other birds.
• Cardinals are classified as “grainivorous” animals because they live on a diet of mostly seeds. Their short, stout, cone-shaped beaks are perfectly designed for cracking open hulls and shells.
• The life span of a Northern Cardinal is around three years – but the oldest recorded Northern Cardinal lived to be 15 years and 9 months! This banded female was tracked throughout her life in Pennsylvania. 
• Cardinals molt at least once a year to replenish damaged feathers. Some lose most or all of their feathers for a couple of weeks – which makes them look like they have gone bald.

  
Birding tip: For a list of bird identification books and apps, check out BIRDA (https://birda.org). BIRDA is a birdwatching app and community aimed at people who want to deepen their connection with nature and join a community that can support their interest in birding.     

Happy birding!
Charlene Uhl

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

We have a healthy population of red-bellied woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus) on our farm. They regularly come to our bird feeder and can be seen flying over the farm throughout the day. One of their favorite places to land is on the electric poles that cross our property. I don’t think they are finding any insects in those poles but they have a good view of the open areas and surrounding trees.

So why isn’t the Red-bellied woodpecker called a Red-headed woodpecker? After all, the last thing you notice on its belly is the slight rose blush. The story is that the red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythrocecephalslus) was named first (and indeed its head and neck are bright red) so the name was already taken.

The Red-bellied call is loud and frequently heard during the spring and summer. It could best be described as a loud trilling, descending in pitch. I love to research each bird I see on our farm: unique behaviors, their life span, what they eat, and aspects of their life. One of the things I found in researching the red-bellied is that it can stick out its tongue nearly 2 inches past the end of its beak. The tip is barbed and the bird’s spit is sticky (similar to a Pileated woodpecker), which allows them to snatch prey (primarily insects) from deep crevices in trees. I have seen them wedge nuts into crevices on top of one of our fence posts – then whack the nut into smaller pieces which they quickly consume. They are opportunistic feeders, eating berries, seeds, small invertebrates, as well as lizards, frogs, fish and bird nestlings. They even occasionally catch flying insects in the air. Like other woodpeckers, they may store nuts and seeds during the fall in crevices, to be eaten during the winter.

The male red-bellied may excavate several holes, with the female selecting which one is completed and used. They may also use natural cavities, abandoned holes of other woodpeckers, or a nest box. In our area red-bellieds usually raise 2-3 broods each year.  One of their major nest predators are European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Scientists have found that as many as half of all red-headed woodpecker nests in some areas get invaded by starlings. 

The life span of woodpeckers ranges from 4 - 11 years. The oldest known Red-bellied lived to over 12 years and was identified in the wild by his band. 

Birding tip: Birds are most active between dawn and 11 am. This is particularly the case in spring and early summer, when birds sing in the early morning. So get out there before your breakfast and you’re bound to see more birds than after lunch!    

Happy birding!
Charlene Uhl

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County
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The Pileated woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) is the largest woodpecker in North America. We have several on our farm and they are amazing to watch in flight. Their exaggerated swooping and their large body make them easy to identify. But they are not related to pterodactyls – they just give that impression with their size and “jack-hammer” approach to bug hunting. These woodpeckers live in Virginia year-round and, unlike most other birds, they will defend their territory all year as well – not just during breeding season.

According to Birds of North America (an amazing publication of The Cornell Lab of Ornithology), Pileateds prefer an oak-hickory forest with mature stands of dense vegetation near the ground. They have a long-extensible, pointed tongue with barbs and sticky saliva. They use their tongues to extract ants from tunnels in rotting wood. A pair of pileated woodpeckers needs a large amount of land – around 150 acres or more – to raise their young. 

The Pileated, like most woodpeckers, nest in hollow trees or vacated nest cavities. They excavate only the entrance hole to gain access to the hollow interior of a tree. They often have multiple entrances holes, so they have an escape route if a predator enters the roost. We have not seen the Pileated’s nest site on our farm yet but we know it is in a heavily wooded area in a steep ravine at the back of our property. They play a vital role in forests like the one adjacent to the north side of our farm. They excavate large nesting, roosting and foraging cavities that are then used by all sorts of other birds and mammals. That can include wood ducks, bats and flying squirrels.

Scientists have noticed that Pileated woodpecker numbers increase in areas with widespread emerald ash borer, an invasive beetle that kills ash trees. That could mean that these woodpeckers could be one of the strongest lines of defense to control non-native forest pests. So leave those dead and dying trees out there for these wonderful woodpeckers. They’ll improve the habitat and attract all sorts of wildlife to your property.

Birding tip: You can often tell the difference between a Pileated and other woodpeckers by their drumming, without even seeing it. Most woodpeckers drum at a steady pace. A Pileated drums slowly, accelerating and then trailing off. And as Audubon notes, “their loud, escalating shrieks bring to mind a maniacal laugh. " So true!    

Happy birding!

Charlene Uhl
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Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

You have probably seen a turkey vulture (or two or three) on the side of the road, eating “road kill," AKA carrion.  You might have also seen them soaring in the sky, looking for a meal. These birds and their cousins - the black vulture – play a very important role in the natural world. They truly are nature’s cleanup crew. 

On my daily bird walk, I don’t always see vultures. I wondered about this and then realized that they conserve energy by soaring. They rarely flap their wings. Since I walk fairly early in the morning, the air is often still. But on those mornings when the wind is up, I can count on seeing turkey vultures, who are taking advantage of the air thermals coming down from the mountains. They have extremely well-developed eyesight. As I researched them a little more, I was fascinated to learn that they first detect freshly rotting meat with their nose: they have been known to smell carrion from over a mile away. I also found out that our farm is the ideal habitat for vultures: they are found in relatively open areas (our hay field) near to woodlands, which are important for both nesting and roosting. But they’re certainly not limited to our farm in their daily search for food. Turkey vultures can travel up to 200 miles in a single day. 

While a vulture’s feet can’t be used to kill prey, like those of a hawk or eagle, their beaks are strong enough to rip through cowhide. But they like their meat fairly fresh. Apparently by the fourth day they will not feed on carrion because the meat is too rotten. So that’s why we’ll sometimes see a partially eaten carcass of a deer or other large animal alongside of the road. Guess that extraordinary sense of smell has another purpose!

The Chattahoochee Nature Center has a fascinating web page on turkey vultures with even more information about their abilities.

So when we see the cleanup crew at work, we can be thankful for the great job they are doing!

  
Birding tip: Did you know that the five keys to bird ID are size, shape, color pattern, behavior and habitat. When you’re out birding, try to make it a practice to mentally recognize those five aspects of each bird you see. It very quickly becomes a habit and you’ll be able to identify a lot more birds – and know what birds to expect in the habitat you’re in.    

Happy birding!
Charlene Uhl

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

Following up on last week’s Bird Blog on blue jays, I wanted to share Atticus Finch’s quote on mockingbirds: “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” Finch tells his daughter Scout. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.” While this doesn’t totally exonerate Finch for his statement about blue jays, it does capture the special essense of the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).

Every year since we moved into our house here in Madison County, we have had a pair of mockingbirds that own the immediate land around the house. The male mockingbird begins singing early each morning in the spring. He has several favorite perches, including the weather vane on our barn, the peak over our garage and the two large holly trees on the east side of our house. He will frequently fly straight up from his perch, then back down – all the while singing loudly. He moves from one perch to another to another, singing a lovely medley of songs – and sometimes I think I actually recognize which bird he is mimicking (or not). Mockingbirds also mimic other sounds, including crickets, cats and even sirens! 

Once our pair of mockingbirds builds a nest, they actively chase other birds away. And they are very territorial overall – scientists and other birders have observed them attacking predatory birds, even bald eagles, when their territory is invaded. 

Stan Tekiela describes their mating behavior perfectly in Birds of Virginia:  “Very animated, male and female perform elaborate mating dances by facing each other, heads and tails erect. They run toward each other, flashing white wing patches, and then retreat to nearby cover.”
  
Birding tip: Mockingbirds eat seeds, insect, bugs and worms – and they will definitely visit your bird feeding area if you put out suet. But unlike woodpeckers, the mockingbird can’t hang upside down on the suet cage so they will perch on top of the feeder to have a snack.    


Happy birding!


Charlene Uhl

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

​To Kill a Mockingbird was one of my favorite books, as well as the movie rendition. All except for that horrifying quote that Atticus Finch said to his son Jem who was just learning to shoot: “I’d rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the blue jays you want - just don’t kill a mockingbird.” 

Blue jays have been reviled and persecuted by many different groups over the years. In Native American lore, blue jays are portrayed as thieves and tricksters. Their behavior has definitely contributed to their reputation: blue jays are known for marauding other birds’ nests, being bullies at your backyard bird feeder, and generally having an aggressive attitude. I have seen this behavior on our farm. They are frequently grouped with European starlings as “nuisance” birds. But they play an important role in the bird world. Stan Tekiela, author of Birds of Virginia Field Guide, says jays are “known as the alarm of the forest, screaming at any intruders in the woods.” I have seen this behavior, too. Red-shouldered and Cooper’s hawks frequently come to my bird feeding station, attracted to the numerous “meals” they observe. Jays are vociferous and loud when they spot one of these predators. There is a sudden mass exodus from the ground where birds were eating seed into the trees for shelter. So I am glad that the birds I bring seed to each morning have a protector in jays.

Joan E. Strassmann tells one of the best stories about blue jays in her Slow Birding book mentioned in an earlier bird blog. She points out oak trees are beholden to jays for spreading their fruit (acorns) far and wide. These trees rely on birds to be the major distribution agent, often carrying the acorns miles away from their parent tree. Scientists studying jay behavior found that these birds collected acorns, stored them in their mouth and throat, flew to a common cache area and buried them tip-first in holes so that each hole held only one acorn. While some were eaten, many acorns grew into trees. “When I hear that the Blue Jays have found a roosting owl or have become alerted for some other reason and fly through the neighborhood with their screeching warning,” Strassman notes, “I like to remember that they have airlifted the oak trees north in tiny acorn packages as the glaciers retreated.”
    
Birding tip: Audubon offers a wonderful online resource: Bird Watching 101: A Guide for Beginners. Even experienced birders will glean some ideas on how to improve their birding techniques.    

Happy birding!

Charlene Uhl


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 If you’re like me, you are wondering where are all the robins coming from lately? I occasionally observe (or hear) one or two robins on my daily morning bird walk during the winter. But in the last week and a half they are arriving in droves. Two days ago I counted 150 robins within 300 feet of our house. On this morning’s bird walk I counted 75. They fly down into the grassy area and hop around, looking for something to eat. The back story is that most Virginia robins don’t migrate - they spend their entire winter in their breeding range here. The reason we don’t see them is they simply move into the nearest woodlands, finding worms, grubs and insects in spots where the ground remained open and unfrozen. Robins also eat a wide variety of berries remaining on bushes from the fall.

​The robins we are seeing in big flocks now are the robins that did migrate south. These are probably male robins which are returning to their breeding grounds up north to stake out territory. The migrating female robins arrive a little later – from a few days to around two weeks.

Our resident robins will become more visible as the weather warms up a bit, typically around April. Their mating season runs through July. American robins are one of the first birds to begin laying eggs each spring. They normally have two or three broods each season. The average life span of a robin is two years (remember a dark-eyed junco’s longevity averaged 11 years). They have a lot of predators, including other birds (crows, ravens, hawks, owls and eagles); mammals (squirrels, raccoons, foxes, and wild and domestic cats); and reptiles (rat snakes, gopher snakes and snapping turtles).

In her book Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard, Joan E. Strassmann shares the findings of two Canadian professors on “How Robins Find Worms.” The scientists determined that “the birds were initially locating worms by hearing, then tilting their heads back to focus their foveae [the sharpest, central part of the eye] on the spot where they first heard the worm.” Using this two-step process yielded them catching a worm 90% of the time!  While they may have short life spans, they sure are successful as birds who catch the worms!
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Birding tip: Make birding a habit. Go birding every day – even if it’s just 5 minutes. Check out How To Train Your Brain To Adapt To A Habit from KWIK Learning, whose motto is “Read faster. Work smarter. Think better.”    

Happy birding!

Charlene Uhl

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County

​There has been some research on whether birds remember people – specifically their faces and their voices. Two studies published in Science Daily attribute this skill as “key to the bird’s ability to survive.” Members of the crow family were the birds most often attributed with this ability. Another study published in Science Illustrated found this behavior was not limited to birds with high cognitive abilities. Even pigeons, which the study described as “not exactly the most ‘highly cognitive’ birds,” were able to differentiate between individual humans.

I have observed this ability among a number of species during my morning bird walks. It all began several months ago when I started bringing a small amount of birdseed to scatter at one of my “bird watching” stops. This area abuts a sycamore grove on one side, a barbed wire fence on a second side and an open hayfield on the third side. The flat surface of the fence posts offers a smooth surface for seed. I also scatter a small amount on the ground.  

I usually wear the same hat and coat – and I confess that I talk to the birds as I walk down the slope from our house to this watching area. There is a large damaged cedar tree that had its top broken off in a storm this winter which I pass to get to my stop. Every morning this tree is filled with cardinals, titmice, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, red-bellied woodpeckers and blue jays – and sparrows on the ground. Over the last month or so some of the birds from this tree have flown toward me, turned around and returned to the tree. It was almost like they were letting me know they had been waiting for their morning “snack” and were excited to finally see me coming. This morning was exceptional! Over 15 different birds flew toward me, circled behind me and returned to the tree. It included a beautiful male hairy, several cardinals, a nuthatch, and a red-bellied woodpecker. It was also humbling to see how my small efforts each morning have now become a regular and valued part of their day. 

I should make a brief mention of the crows who recognized my husband when we lived in Maryland. We often threw out bones for the crows in the morning. The crow family made fast work of them. Several times, however, my husband would then walk out to get the newspaper – and one or more of “our crows” flew over and tried to get his attention by calling and flying around. This was precipitated by the arrival of one or more vultures who were interested in the bones. Clearly these crows were requesting his assistance in getting rid of the competition. So my husband and I can add our experiences to the scientific observations that birds do indeed recognize people! 

Birding tip of the day: 
Starting tomorrow The Bird Cast will begin providing information on migratory behavior. This is an amazing tool to alert you when birds who left last fall will be migrating back into our area and beyond. You can personalize the reports generated all the way down to your county. Be sure to check it out.

Happy birding!
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Charlene

Sycamore Grove Farm, Madison County
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Bluebirds are one of my favorite “small birds” (and I have a lot of favorite small birds, including juncos, goldfinches, nuthatches, titmice and chickadees). Its cheerful “chur-lee chur-lee” is immediately recognized by those who know and love these little guys. The bluebirds at Sycamore Grove love to sit on our barn’s weathervane, giving them a good view of the different areas where they may find insects – their main food source. 

Eastern bluebirds in Virginia usually don’t migrate. A small percentage may move short distances south but most remain on their breeding territories all year round. What we may see soon (late February or early March) is the bluebirds that breed further north, some going all the way up into Canada. 

Our local bluebirds begin looking for nesting sites as early as late January to early February. Nest-building and breeding begins in March and can run through August. I have been seeing several pairs of bluebirds investigating one of our nest boxes for the last few weeks. 

We have two bluebird houses on poles in open areas. Last year we had three fledgings of baby bluebirds from one nest. The second nest was commandeered by tree swallows, which are among the other birds that frequently use bluebird nest boxes. 

One of the most valuable techniques that I learned from a fellow ORMN birder – Lynne Leaper – is to make regular stops during your bird walk. Stop on a regular basis and just watch and listen. Lynne recommended 5 to 15 minutes and I have found this technique to be an amazingly effective way to see more birds and other animals in nature.

On September 4th of last year, I was standing at one of the fence lines on our property. I regularly put a small amount of seed on the top of the fence posts and scatter some on the ground to attract birds. All the seed is usually eaten within 10-15 minutes and I move on. On this morning as I was standing very still and observing the birds, I saw something move to my right. It was a small, immature groundhog which had come out of nearby undergrowth. It may have been drawn to the bird activity. Since they also have a keen sense of smell, it may have smelt the seed. It cautiously walked to the scattered seed and began to eat. My slightest movement, however, sent it scurrying back into the thick brush.

After several weeks of this behavior the groundhog became acclimatized to my presence and associated it with a food source. For the next month and a half, it came almost every day. October 17th was the last day I saw it. Since groundhogs have a lot of predators (including hawks, foxes, and coyotes, all of which we have seen on our property), I assumed it had been killed and eaten. Then this morning the groundhog appeared – over three months since I last recorded its presence – and started to eat seed just as it had last fall. It was a little more skittish but not like its first few weeks last fall.  Apparently this groundhog had been hibernating and is just now coming out of its burrow. What I found after researching is that groundhogs, while primarily herbivores, are opportunistic eaters and will actually eat small birds. They can also climb trees! I have seen this more than once here on our farm.

I look forward to journaling many more interesting observations during my morning bird walk.

Birding tip of the day:
Keep a written journal so you can look back and find information on birds’ behavior (when and if they migrated into or out of your area) and the behavior of other animals that are a part of the habitat.  It will prompt you to use your observations to do research and learn more about your own property. I also record weather (cloud cover, air temperature, chill factor and humidity). I note if there is dew, frost, or snow on the ground and any other unique things (i.e. the date our field is cut, raked, and bailed). I started journaling during Basic Training Class and have found my observations to be an invaluable and specialized source for information on the natural world right here on our farm.

Happy birding!

Charlene Uhl