Lots of cool stuff to post, but precious little time to do it. Hopefully a meatier post will come within a few days, but for now, here's one of the world's cutest birds:
%20copy.jpg)
As always, click the photo to enlarge
Red-breasted Nuthatches are cyclical in their southward winter peregrinations, and this has been a fairly lean year for them. Food shortages in northern forests spark these irruptions, and we get significant spikes in nuthatches every other year, or perhaps two years might pass before a noticeable spike.
Virginia Pine is quite valuable ecologically, as it favors poor soils where many other trees do not fare well, and in boom years it produces copious cone crops. This pine is probably one of the major food sources for overwintering Red-breasted Nuthatches is southeastern Ohio.
Today's count was productive, and we tallied 40 species, some in large numbers, including 400 Dark-eyed Juncos! Notable was an Eastern Phoebe. This flycatcher is quite hardy, but most seem to move southward if winter weather gets too intense. I suspect this phoebe may have been "fishing", as it had ice on its face and bill, and was hunting low along a section of stream that still had some open water. Phoebes will take small fish and other aquatic organisms if need be and see THIS POST for an amazing example of this, featuring photos by Chuck Slusarczyk.
While I expect to find a phoebe on this count, at least in milder winters, American Pipits are not on my radar in this mostly hilly and forested area. Yet we found two, working a tiny area of flooded lawn in someone's front yard. One just never knows where birds might appear.
No comments:
Post a Comment