Does that bird have xanthochroism?

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 09 June 2011 12:46

Always expect the unexpected, especially when watching birds. Roland Walters can attest to that, thanks to a woodpecker he has had around his Ridgefield home.

“I have a bird variation to report, a Downy with yellow stripes over her eyes where you normally find white,” he writes. “I’m assuming she’s a female because she has no red crown/crest. Did you ever hear of this or do you know what’s going on? This is most likely a juvenile although oddly, I haven’t seen the fledglings, except for a lone little one way back in the bitter cold of February or March, if I didn’t write you about her at that time. I find one Web site that mentions ‘Downy’ and ‘yellow,’ but it hints at staining and what I have is surely not staining.”

How to see 148 kinds of birds in one day

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 02 June 2011 11:14

Ben Oko, Ridgefield’s Conservation Commission chairman and avid birder, recently participated in a bird-a-thon that saw and heard a lot of birds.

Tilly and Tim Titmouse: A spy camera for the birds

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 26 May 2011 12:34

Sharon Coates of Redding is enjoying one of the marvels of modern technology: A tiny digital camera, small enough to fit in a birdhouse.

“One of our favorite gifts this past Christmas was a new birdhouse that came installed with a camera,” Sharon writes. “In early March we drilled a hole through our kitchen wall and connected the camera to the TV overlooking our kitchen table.

The under-appreciated songster who enjoys a free lunch

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 19 May 2011 10:41

An under-appreciated bird is the Gray Catbird.

Just its name seems unpleasant.

Gray, after all, is probably the most boring “color” in the spectrum. And “catbird” evokes images of a predator that kills millions of songbirds a year.

However, the catbird is one of the real treats of spring mornings. Like its close cousin, the Northern Mockingbird, the catbird has a vast repertoire of songs, many of which it may pick up by copying the sounds of other birds. It will sit in a shrub and sing its heart out, each burst different from the last (unlike the mockingbird, which usually repeats each songlet two or three times before moving on to the next).

And every so often, amid the litany of songs, the catbird throws in a “mew” that many have likened to the cry of a cat. Hence, the name.

The alien in the Phoebe nest

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 12 May 2011 11:12

Brown-headed Cowbirds are “brood parasites,” laying their eggs in active nests of other bird species in the hope that the nest-builders will raise the cowbird young. In the process, the eggs or chicks of the nesting species are usually destroyed or starved as the bigger cowbird baby dominates the brood.

The cowbird was once only a Plains dweller, following the herds of buffalo and eating the insects they stirred up. Because herds were always moving, cowbirds moved, too, with no time to build a nest and sit on it. So they learned to use the services of other birds, laying their eggs — as many as 65 a season! — in the nests of other species.

Flo Vannoni of Redding witnessed the result.

They’re back! Get out your nectar!

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 05 May 2011 10:54

There’re back.

Reports of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have been flowing in, in the past week.

Joan Cullman of Redding, who sent along the picture, had her first on Thursday, April 28. Jon Elkow of Ridgefield also had an April 28 sighting.

“Were they late arriving this year?” Joan asks. “In past years, I’ve had them as early as March 28th. So far, I’ve had two females and one male.”

I would be very surprised to see a hummer in March. Typically, first sightings reported to this column have been the end of April. Last year, for instance, the first report was exactly the same as Joan’s and Jon’s — April 28, from Bebe McCarthy of Ridgefield.

The strange case of the upside down heron

Written by Jack Sanders
Monday, 02 May 2011 13:56

You never know what you’ll see hanging around the back yard — and sometimes, that can be literally.

“Yesterday evening I was out walking in my back yard with my wife Lisa when we heard a squawk and some flapping in a tree above us,” writes Ed Wickersham of South Salem, N.Y.

“Looking up we saw it was a Great Blue Heron — hanging upside down about 30 feet in the air!

“Evidently the air traffic control was asleep and the bird made an unsuccessful emergency landing on a rain-slick branch. Its leg was pinned between two branches in a position where there was no way out.

The babes of spring, above and on the ground

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 21 April 2011 10:16

Dr. Morris Finkelstein of Greenwich loves photographing birds.

Last year, among his contributions was a wonderful picture of a pair of Great Horned Owls on a branch at Tod’s Point — also called Greenwich Point — the town park that juts out into Long Island Sound.

“This winter, my wife Debbie and I spotted probably the same pair in the Holly Grove area on Jan. 4,” Dr. Finkelstein writes. “We looked for them while walking at the park, and were able to find them most of the time. A fellow photographer at the park pointed out to us the female in a nest on Feb. 27. The female was always on the nest whenever we visited, during daylight hours, for many weeks.

“On April 10th, the female owl finally left the nest, and a newborn owl was visible. I heard from this other photographer that the female was seen feeding the newborn a week earlier, approximately April 2; the time between spotting the owl in the nest and the first observation of the female feeding the newborn was 35 days.

Backyard Bird Count's top bird? Hint: red

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 14 April 2011 10:50

The annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) this year was described as a “gold mine” of information for ornithologists.

An estimated 60,000 bird watchers of all ages — many of them in Fairfield and Westchester Counties — took part in the free, four-day event Feb. 18 to 21, counting birds in their yards and neighborhoods. Participants identified 596 species in North America north of Mexico, and filed 11.4-million individual bird observations, reports the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, which sponsored the event with National Audubon.

“Their reports provide useful information to scientists tracking changes in the numbers and movements of birds from year to year, just as winter is about to melt into spring,” said Pat Leonard of Cornell Lab.

More spring things, including wild woodcocks

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 07 April 2011 11:04

Early spring is the time when so many of us head outdoors for a fresh taste of a new season of life. Donna Roscoe and her dog, Xena, took an evening walk recently on the Ridgefield Golf Course, in the Ridgebury section of Ridgefield bordering North Salem, N.Y