Spying on babies and on Bobolinks

Written by Jack Sanders
Thursday, 31 May 2012 11:39

Jane R. McCaffrey sent this great photo, explaining “neighbor’s entryway sports a steer skull purchased years ago in the western United States. Mrs. Robin has decided it’s the perfect place to settle a nest — protected from the elements by the roof overhang. You would think that skull would scare off any predators, but apparently something got them. Jane said that, even though there were at least two hatchlings last week, the nest was empty Sunday.Some of you may remember a report here last year from Sharon Coates of Redding, who has a birdhouse with a mini-camera that enabled her and her husband to watch the nest building, egg laying, hatching and growth of a family of titmice.

“Well, they returned and Parker and I are once again enjoying the same process,” Sharon writes. “The eggs appeared on May 6 and as of this writing (May 14), the little, naked, alien babies are making good progress. I call them ‘aliens’ because of their bulging eyes, wide beaks and featherless, skinny bodies.

“Tilly and Tim have been busy going back and forth feeding their hungry family. Tilly had laid the eggs directly under the camera so we had to make some adjustments by pushing the camera wire forward from outside the house and duct-taping the wire to the roof so that we could have a better view. 

“Tilly was sitting on the nest at the time and was aware of sound and movement outside the house as she kept tilting her head and looking up. The camera location still isn’t perfect but we have counted six little heads — there could possibly be a seventh! As the babies grow and take up more space we will be able to make a more definite count.

“One of the many joys of early spring is watching the maneuvering of various bird species vying for use of the several bird houses located throughout our garden. The titmice ‘won’ the battle for the camera house outside our kitchen window and we are pleased that chickadees, bluebirds and wrens occupy three others. 

“We missed the fledging last year but are hopeful of being lucky enough to observe some of them this year!” 

Anyone who’d like to learn more about “spying” on nesting birds — or just getting close-ups at the feeder — may find birdhousespycam.com informative — and entertaining. Scroll down to watch the video.

Bobolinks and more

Correspondent Kevin Doyle, many of whose Osprey and eagle photos have appeared here, has been eyeing tamer species at Tarrywile Park in Danbury and other area locales. 

“I have seen Bobolinks,” he writes of Tarrywile. “Last year I saw just one and that was from a distance but Saturday & Sunday, I won’t say I saw more than I could count but they are there this year, nesting in the big hay field — very hard to see once they land since the grass is nearly a foot tall and as soon as I start walking out, they flush. So I hung out behind a bush where one kept coming to call for a mate ... It took nearly an hour of waiting but it came back three times.

“There are a few orioles and Yellow Warblers but nothing like last year. By this time last year I had eight different warblers at Tarrywile alone and plenty of American Redstarts down on the Norwalk River just off Simpaug Turnpike ... so far only one. I wonder if the early spring and blooming messed up their timetable? It’s still early so who knows. Also a few Eastern Kingbirds. The only time I saw these birds was at Weir Farm in 2009 ... a very elegant black/blue/gray and white bird.

“But on the bright side, the Piping Plovers seem to be doing better this year — four nests on Pleasure Beach though I hear one with four eggs was abandoned, and possibly two to three at Milford Point.”

For those unfamiliar with Bobolinks, they are a species of Blue Jay-sized birds that winter in southern South America and fly 6,000 miles in order to nest in open, ridge-top fields here. They are black, white and yellow, and have a beautiful song.

So few sizable fields are left, let alone ones on ridges that aren’t regularly mown, that Boblinks, once fairly common, are becoming quite uncommon.

That and their 12,000 miles of annual travel aren’t the only problems the Boblink has faced.  Early in the 20th Century rice-growing states in the South considered them a serious pest because they would damage the crops. Called “Rice-birds,” they were destroyed in huge numbers. In 1912, South Carolina alone reported that 720,000 Bobolinks were killed and shipped to a processing plant to be sold as food.

 Coming up

, talk by Dr. Robert Askins, professor of biology at Connecticut College, Wednesday, June 13, at 7:45 p.m., free, Bedford Audubon Society at Katonah Memorial House, 71 Bedford Rd., Katonah 914-232-1999, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , bedfordaudubon.org.

Waccabuc with Bedford Audubon Naturalist, Tait Johansson, seeking Blue-winged Warbler, Field Sparrow, Indigo Bunting, etc., Saturday, June 16, 7:30 to 9:30 a.m., depart Bylane Farm, 35 Todd Rd., Katonah at 7; register at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 914-519-7801, bedfordaudubon.org

Copyright 2012 by Jack Sanders. Send sightings or comments to: jackfsanders [at sign] gmail.com, or to Bird Notes, Box 1019, Ridgefield, CT 06877. If you need help identifying a bird, try your local nature center. If you find an injured bird, call wildlife rehabilitator Darlene Wimbrow of Redding, 203-438-0618, Wildlife in Crisis of Weston, 203-544-9913, or Wild Wings of Greenwich, 203-637-9822. The columnist’s website is www. sandersbooks. com.