This week in the woods, we’re sharing a mostly-bird themed post, along with a timely PSA that despite the snowy conditions, bears are waking up. Wildlife biologists recommend bringing in feeders – both day and night – by April 1, or earlier in areas where bears are already active. By removing feeders, securing garbage, and safeguarding chicken coops behind electric fences, you’ll help prevent our furry neighbors from associating houses with food, and getting into all kinds of trouble.
Although American robins have been back in the area for at least a few weeks, we’re now seeing large flocks. As Anna Morris notes in this Outside Story article, robins are partial migrants, meaning that, when there’s a steady food supply, they may stick around through the winter. If they do fly south, their travel plans are modest: think Massachusetts, not Brazil. We’ve found robins crowded together in and near sumacs, presumably attracted by the shrub’s hardy fruit.
If you’re a male northern cardinal, there’s probably no better way to show off your bright red breeding plumage, than to contrast it against blue sky and bright white snow. This beautiful bird spent more than half an hour perched high in a tree, singing his heart out. Cardinals are another example of birds that don’t go far and come back early – and sometimes don’t leave at all. Over the past decades, they have expanded their range into northern New England. As Susan Shea notes in this Outside Story essay, describing cardinal courtship and chick raising, “When I moved to central Vermont 30 years ago, I never saw cardinals in my area. Now they regularly visit my feeder in winter, sing and nest in my yard, and attack my windows in spring. What a joy to have this brilliant bird in the neighborhood!”
Turkey vultures are also showing up now, and circling tired snowshoers as they struggle up snowy inclines. This is another bird species that has expanded its range, likely due to a combination of warmer winters and the smorgasbord of road kill that humans provide. Every year in Thetford, Vermont, a vulture pair sets up housekeeping in a jumble of boulders in a steep area of woods overlooking a trail, and they make a terrible fuss when people pass below this area. (Turkey vultures are known to disgorge their past meals and defecate on interlopers; happily, as far as we know, this hasn’t happened yet at this site.) Although they’re not fond of humans, the vultures seem content, or at least resigned, to share their habitat with porcupines; using high magnification lenses to maintain a respectful distance, we’ve seen the two species literally side by side on the rocks.
Many people don’t like vultures because of their feeding habitats and creepy looking featherless heads, but they have a reputation among bird rehabilitators as especially friendly, smart birds. And they have a number of cool adaptations, including holding their wings in a V shape as they soar, which allows them to take advantage of even the slightest updrafts. Here’s an Outside Story about them from Meghan McCarthy McPhaul. Warning: as Meghan writes, “You might not want to read this while eating!”
Finally, a trip out to the garage revealed this mouse track, which reveals what happened when the animal encountered the two foot “cliff” of a plowed driveway. The circle shows where it landed, tummy down, in the powder, also leaving an impression of its tail.
What have you noticed in the woods this week? Submit a recent photo for possible inclusion in our monthly online Reader Photo Gallery.