Birds of the Field and Forest
Straggler Hummingbird Welcomed
Just after my last blog on how the absence of Hummingbirds signals the start of autumn, I spied a ruby-throated hummingbird by our firecracker bush. A light rain was falling, but it did not stop the hummingbird from engorging itself on the sweet nectar. This world’s smallest bird needs to eat half its weight in […]
Goodbye Hummingbirds, Hello Autumn!
On September 23rd, at 4:21 a.m., the autumnal equinox marks the onset of fall, a transition time of summer to winter. As a child growing up in New York, it was easy to recognize the arrival of autumn. By mid-September, green leaves slowly faded to shades of yellow, orange, red and crimson. By mid-October the […]
The True Snowbirds
z The Urban Dictionary defines a snowbird as “an elderly Yankee that migrates down to the South to winter when their natural habitat of New York, Ohio, or Michigan is too cold for them.”1 But the real snowbirds are from Canada. They are truly birds called dark eyed juncos. A junco is a medium-sized sparrow. […]
The Flamboyant Bird
During a recent trip to my daughter’s Maryland home, I watched northern cardinals fly to her backyard bird feeder to feast on the potpourri of seeds she put there each morning. The flame red males were in stark contrast to the early winter woodlands while the females, with their muted reddish brown colors, blended […]
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