[Birdnet] Jensen news

[Clay Johnson]

Hi All,

 

Well, it has been above zero two nights in a row now, so I guess spring is
on the way!  It hasn't gotten really cold (30 below or colder), but it the
temperatures have varied maybe 15 degrees around the zero mark for three
months now.  Yesterday I finally got about 8" of ice broken off most of the
roof.  The snow is about 26" deep on the flat in the yard.  That is more
accumulated snow than I can remember here for at least twenty-five years.

 

It has been tough on the birds, too.  Every once in a while I find an inert
feather bundle on the snow in the morning.  A stray damcat has made
considerable inroads, and our dog has taken to trying to catch the cat by
sitting at the bird feeders.which also keeps the more nervous birds away.  A
couple of months ago raccoons, and more recently, deer are raiding the
feeders, trying to survive.  We still have at least one each surviving
Northern flicker, Black-billed magpie, Eurasian collared dove, Black-capped
chickadee; and see an occasional visiting or flyover American robin, Canada
goose, raven, Red tail hawk, Northern shrike, and for a couple of days, an
American tree sparrow.  We had five Eurasian collared doves last fall, then
went to none for a couple of weeks when it got really cold (they just moved
down closer to Jensen town, I think) then got back to two of the birds.
Currently we have one.  House finches are considerably reduced (from maybe
10 to maybe two or three), and no Cassin's finches have appeared yet.  We
also haven't yet seen an expected early spring influx of the dark-lored
White-crowned sparrows.  Haven't seen any waxwings at home since a marauding
band cleaned off our two crabapple trees on November 16th.guess we need more
crabapple trees!  Yesterday I watched a couple of Bald eagles dancing in the
air above our canyon home.  I haven't seen the Pine siskins or our Mountain
chickadee since the worst of the cold weather passed a couple of weeks
ago.maybe they moved back up the mountain!   The suet cages are a popular
feature in this weather.the chickadees, and flickers are big fans.it is
quite a hoot to watch a big ol' magpie dangling upside down from a suet
cage, cantilever tail, splayed wings, twisting and swinging.

 

Our main winter guests are White-crowned sparrows (pale-lored, adult and
immatures); juncos (Oregon, Slate-colored, Pink-sided); goldfinches
(American and Lesser, both starting to color up a bit); and Red-winged
blackbirds (also starting to get flashy now).

 

All for now.keep smiling Kris.

 

Clay

      

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