Fall is quickly slipping toward those wintry months when many of our colorful birds, like the falling leaves, have flown away. Many songbirds, shorebirds and raptors have migrated south to warmer climes. It’s now the birds that stick with us through the grayer fall and winter months that attract our attention.
To get a closer look at the birds, we’ve revamped our backyard bird feeder stand and festooned it with five bird feeders. We’ve filled some feeders with black oil sunflower seeds as most birds like these, and some with a mix of millet, cracked corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds to appease more varied palates. A hanging suet cake is especially attractive to the woodpeckers.
The first day the feeders went up, they were visited by chickadees, a red-breasted nuthatch, blue jays and house sparrows. Mourning doves came to eat the seeds fallen from the feeders; they are more at home dining at ground level.
Water is essential, so we have a heated water bath for the birds. When temperatures dip below freezing they can still find a refreshing drink here. The chickadees seem not to mind sharing a drink with the sparrows.
Cleaning your bird feeders at least once a year (and preferable more often) is important to bird health as concentrating birds at feeders could spread diseases as could moldy seeds stuck to the bottom of those feeders. A good brushing followed by a 10-minute soak in a 10% bleach/water solution along with a rinse and air dry will freshen the feeders.
Your feeder location is important. They should be placed near trees and shrubs which serve as perching and resting areas. They also provide a safe place for birds to escape to when predator hawks or cats swoop in looking to swipe an avian meal from on or around your feeders.
Unfortunately the windows we watch birds from can kill them. Window collisions are one of the leading causes of bird deaths. A 2014 study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Smithsonian Institution estimated that 365 million to 1 billion birds are killed annually by collisions with buildings. Way too many.
The birds need our help to protect them from window strikes. Dr. Daniel Klem, an ornithologist and conservation biologist from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, known for his research on bird/window collisions, recommends keeping bird feeders within 3 feet of windows to reduce bird mortalities. Windows reflect the outdoor scene, making the glass invisible to the birds. If the feeder is 3 feet or less from a window it is less likely a bird will injure itself if it flies into the window than if it flies into the window from a feeder placed a greater distance away.
You can also reduce bird strikes by putting your feeders at a location where the major flight path of the birds will not be towards your windows. Other ways to reduce bird strikes is to create patterns on glass surfaces to break up the space, installing external screens, moving plants away from the windows and hanging cords in front of the windows. For information on these options and others, go to https://www.audubon.org/news/reducing-collisions-glass.
Now down to bird watching. It’s fun to watch birds anytime, whether only occasionally or more often. If you like watching the birds more often, consider becoming part of Project Feeder Watch, a North American bird survey effort fueled by its participants. It is administered in the U.S. by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and in Canada by Birds Canada.
Thousands of participants collect and send in their observation data. Scientists use the data to determine the abundance and distribution of winter bird species and changes in the winter ranges and abundances of bird species over time. This is important and timely information given that climate change is affecting bird movements.
Once a member, Project Feeder Watch participants record the species and numbers of each species seen at their survey station, whether it be backyard feeders or an area frequently visited to watch birds. The observations are made from November through April. The survey schedule is flexible; counts can be done every week or once all winter, for as much or as little time as you like. For information on Project Feeder Watch, go to: https://feederwatch.org/about/project-overview/#what-is-feederwatch.
One of the joys of winter is the company of birds. Since our feeders went up about a week ago, we’ve added dark-eyed juncos, goldfinches, downy woodpeckers, northern cardinals, starlings and house finches to our visitors list. Fill up your feeders and enjoy the lively behaviors, calls, and beauty our winter birds bring to us.
The snowy owls are back. We have seen them at Oconto Harbor. Check out your neighborhood for this majestic bird from the far north. They like wide open spaces (fields and airports) and are often seen along the shores and harbor areas along Green Bay and Lake Michigan.
Cathy Carnes is a retired biologist in Oconto who worked with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Green Bay Field Office and prior to that with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Regulatory Branch in Buffalo, New York. As endangered species coordinator for the USFWS, she helped conserve and recover federally listed threatened and endangered species in Wisconsin.
