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Alive & KickingBirds For The Watching |
Snow continues to fall and the world is still outside. The only real action I see is the flock of twenty-some birds at our bird feeders. It is the best time of the entire year to get acquainted with our local birds because they will come close to get food and the deciduous trees don’t block visibility.
Bird feeders need not be complex. Suet usually bought in one-pound bricks can be forced over a nail on a post; other feed placed on a sheltered board will work fine. The Hugo Feed Mill has a good supply of bird food and feeders.
I have found that becoming aware of a wild species is the first step in finding value in our local animals. Although this may surprise some, hunters and those who fish are our most avid wildlife fans. I have noticed that as they take game, they become interested in the living animal and their activities. I know many bird “hunters” who not only enjoy getting out, but enjoy the wildlife whether they hunt—or simply watch.
If you recognize a few birds on sight, you are well started. A good bird book becomes essential unless you have a bird-treasuring friend who is willing to help you with identifi cation.
There are several books that come to mind. My favorite is the National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America.
Drawings in color are much preferred over photographs because the illustration can be generalized to better show the consistent markings that characterize a specific species. Photographs usually show only one animal; birds, like human beings, vary in size, color and markings.
The distribution maps are also helpful because if the bird you see is only found on the West Coast, it is unlikely you will see it near your home in Minnesota.
However, I did see a Mandarin duck on our pond, but the presence of a leg tag, which I could see with binoculars, made me believe the Asian duck was not blown off course, but rather an escapee from someone’s aviary.
As you have guessed, I get considerable joy from the birds.
You will find they add another dimension to your everyday life.
Each bird species has typical behaviors. Some are aggressive, some passive; some perky, and some are simply beautiful. Some work hard flying, as ducks do; others flap their wings and then coast, flap and then coast.
Some birds are highly territorial, while others enjoy the big flock. Many of The Citizens’ readers have been bird watchers for years, I would guess.
I don’t keep a life bird list like many bird watchers, although I have many memories of special bird-related sightings:
• On a recent sunny Minnesota winter morning at 12 degrees below zero, watching a heated bird bath in which a very brave bird took a leisurely bath, happily scattering droplets that likely froze before they hit the snow-covered ground…
• Watching a bald eagle carrying a one-foot-long trout from a small stream…
• A male hummingbird displaying for his intended mate by diving toward the ground at high speed—then pulling up at the last possible moment, a few feet from the ground, to blast upward again…
• Watching crows attacking my dog one at a time by pecking poor Rusty behind his head until Rusty snapped his head around and actually caught one. Then you should have heard the loud, agitated protests of several hundred crows before they flew away (that is, except for one)…
• Seeing a Virginia Rail, a rather elusive bird, in the cattail rushes…
• Watching swifts mating on the wing…
• Following an unfamiliar drumming sound, just to spot a male grouse displaying for a female…
• Watching nighthawks diving for insects at high speed, mouths open, then pulling out of a dive with a buzz-saw sound…
• The first Northern Cardinal I saw perched in a snow-encrusted Mountain Ash tree among its bright red berries. Against the snow, he looked so much larger than he actually was, and beautiful—so sharp, so crisp…
• Who hasn’t been led away from a killdeer’s nest by a wise adult bird with a “broken wing”?…
• While fishing as a young child on a small stream, I looked up to see a small adult owl with two fledged smaller owls, side-by-side on a limb, watching me.
It costs so little to be aware of the wildlife around us. We only come this way once, and the small pleasures of life mean so much.