The Birds of Winter

They brighten our world with their songs and antics. Notes from the bird world and possibly, lessons for human granddaughters

Another Blast from the Past

In an earlier missive I posted an essay written during the time that the DC sniper reigned. Today I find an essay written about the same time concerning my fondness for my winter bird visitors. In reviewing the text I find I still feel the same way about the birds of winter.

Only at the current time I am visited by these birds fellows in Delaware instead of Merryland.

Forthwith:

01/02/2002


The Winter Birds

The first white-throat sparrow didn't appear for my viewing pleasure until nigh on the end of December. Then the weather has been unusually warm for this Merryland autumn. The handsome dark-eyed juncos made an appearance early and for this I must smile.

They comfort me, these fine bird fellows who visit and partake of my feeders only during the winter months. During the springs and summers I am entertained by the feathered fellows who claim their territories, build their nests and raise their young. Since this sort of activity is a mild-weathered one, it is the bird visitors of winter that keep me amused during the harsh chill.

The white-throat sparrows come when the weather is at its harshest. They heartily enjoy my mullet and sunflower seed scraps. These birds do not leave the area until well into May. By then I'm ready for them to leave as my own yardbirds are usually busy with nests and feeding young. Oddly, the white-throats tend to be a bit territorial even this eco-system in which they do not even deign to raise their young. The juncos leave in late February like the good guests they are.

It's during the winter months that many of my own year-round residents come to the feeders they eschew during the warmer days that would provide them more preferable food. Woodpeckers tend to visit the feeders more in the winter than the summer, especially if there are suet offerings.

The friendly white-breasted nuthatch also visits for feeder offerings during the colder months though he is also a year-round resident. This fellow will fly right in when I fill the feeders, not a shy one at all.

Of course the chickadees and titmouses partake of the seed during the entire year. Blue Jays scream their way in as well.

Wrens tend to "switch" at the end of autumn. The Carolina wren builds its nest and raises its young during the summers while the house wren takes over the territory during the colder seasons. The wren, and thank God for this, is the only bird that sings during the winter. Very often I step outside and see a wren sitting ostentatiously upon a fence post, singing a song while doing that happening wren dance of bobbing its head up and down while jumping around in one spot.

Huge flocks of black birds also visit the feeders during the winters and these are mostly not welcome. Still, if one observes carefully, there is often a few unusual gems within the flocks that cause a smile. I've seen errant grosbeaks and purple finches that somehow joined in with the flock after evidently being left behind during the migrations.

They bring me an avian smile, my winter birds, during those short and chill days before spring returns. I welcome them enthusiastically by my seed but my generosity is a selfish one.

For without them the winters would be bleaker and darker.

The winter birds bring me promise of the warm spring to soon come.