My Winter Visitors
I am an avid backyard bird watcher (like you didn’t already know that) and my favorite time of year is winter. It’s not the snow, ice and frigid temperatures I like (I’m not nuts, though some may argue that point) but I am crazy about the diversity of bird species that are attracted to my feeding stations during this time of year.
During the winter, I enjoy watching the show in my Milford backyard while sitting back in the warmth of my family room. On most days I’ll observe several juncos and white-throated sparrows cleaning up the spilled seed under the big tray feeder I keep filled with Songbird Mix. The suet and peanut feeders that are on my deck attract visiting red-breasted nuthatches as well as the year round residents of my yard – red-bellied woodpeckers, downy and hairy woodpeckers, white-breasted nuthatches, blue jays, chickadees and titmice. Occasionally, the huge pileated woodpecker that lives in our woods will make a winter appearance at the suet feeder and flickers visit the deck more regularly during the colder months. Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, here only in the winter, might also find the suet feeder appealing. I keep a mealworm feeder on my deck rail all year and the Carolina wrens are in and out of it every day! The tray feeder mounted off the deck, filled with safflower to keep the squirrels at bay, is the favorite of cardinals, doves and house finches. If it’s a “finch invasion” year, we’ll see pine siskin and purple finches alongside the goldfinches on the Nyjer (thistle) feeder. Although they don’t come to my feeders, it’s always fun to watch the little brown creepers making their way up the trunks of the trees close to the house searching for morsels of food in the bark crevices. As the season winds down and natural sources of food (seeds, nuts, berries) are dwindling, towhees, yellow-rumped warblers and song sparrows will often visit my feeding stations.
Yes, I do look forward to this time of year as I anxiously wait at my window to see who might visit today. Go ahead, call me crazy, but I love winter!
By the way, as a participant in Project Feeder Watch, my winter observations are submitted to Cornell Lab of Ornithology on a bi-weekly basis. See the September BirdChat for information about joining Project Feeder Watch