Posted by Wayne G. Barber & Photos property of Wayne G.Barber
Today, all the “typical” birds showed up at our feeders. And that’s a good thing.
My typicals include a pair of red cardinals who really drive the intruder cardinals away. black-capped chickadees, tufted titmice, white-breasted nuthatches, downy woodpeckers, hairy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers and "Bullie"blue jays. You can throw juncos in there, too, during the winter — and late fall as they have already arrived.
Other birds, wild turkey, sparrows, turkey vultures, red wing hawk, coopers hawk,crows, morning doves, 2 to 4 and on a storm day up to 12. American goldfinch or maybe the lesser goldfinch visit from time to time, but those are the birds that are always here. Before the foot of snow we had daily flocks of scrungy looking robins . Our former residence in Pascoag , RI we would always have a annual day of a large group of grackle and this has not happened in Thompson, CT many people have e-mailed to me lately about a lack of chickadees at their feeders. It’s definitely a trend to keep an eye on, but thankfully, I still have plenty of chickadees visiting my feeders. I still haven’t solved the mystery as to why so many people are experiencing a scarcity of chickadees, but I can tell you that I see them often.
There are some obvious bird species that I hardly ever see in my backyard.
Although I get more than my share of juncos in the winter, I rarely see white-throated sparrows — a usual accompaniment of juncos. At my previous houses, white-throated sparrows were a common winter occurrence and easily outnumbered all other winter birds. Here, I barely see them. I’ve seen more fox sparrows here than white-throated sparrows and that’s just plain odd.
Our regular animals include field mice, gray squirell, red squirell, chipmonks and white tail deer, possum, raccoon, skunk, fisher, woodchuck, eastern coyote, red fox, No grey ones spotted yet. Last black bear was two years ago, 200 yards away.
