Banded Short-tail Albatross

An important – and hopeful – milestone in the conservation of the endangered short-tailed albatross was recorded at Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in November.

On Nov. 16, refuge staff observed an adult short-tailed albatross incubating a freshly laid egg on Eastern Island, one of three small flat coral islands that comprise Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge about 1,200 miles northwest of Honolulu. Since then, refuge staff have observed the male and female trading off incubation duties. The adult male was banded as a fledgling in 1987 on Torishima  Island, a Japanese possession. The female was banded as a fledgling in 2003, also on Torishima.

If the pair’s breeding effort is successful at Midway Atoll Refuge, it would mark the first confirmed hatching of a short-tailed albatross outside of Japan in modern history.

Establishing a new nesting colony is one of several important steps needed to continue the rare bird’s recovery because volcanic activity regularly threatens the short-tailed albatross’ main nesting grounds on Torishima. The species’ recovery also depends on reducing the threats of contaminants, especially oil contamination at sea and plastic ingestion; reducing bycatch of these seabirds from commercial fisheries; and addressing invasive species and other competitive  species at nesting colonies.

The pair first “met” at Midway Atoll Refuge during the breeding season four years ago (2007-08). That season, they were observed spending only a little time together. During the second season (2008-09), their time together increased. By the third season (2009-10), they arrived at the Eastern Island breeding colony together in October and built a nest. Now, in their fourth breeding season (2010-2011), they appear to have copulated and laid an egg.

Newly banded Short-Tail Albatross

The short-tailed albatross, listed as endangered since 1970, is the largest seabird in the North Pacific with a wing span of seven to 7.5 feet. It is known for the golden, yellow cast on its head and nape; for its large, pink bill with blue tip and black border around the base; and for its pale bluish feet and legs. Its life span is 12 to 45 years. Pairs begin breeding at about seven or
eight years of age, and mate for life.

Once thought to be the most abundant albatross species in the North Pacific with a population of more than 5 million adults, short-tailed albatross were hunted for feathers, and harmed in other ways, to near extinction.

By the 20th century, only two colonies remained on remote Japanese islands – Torishima Island in the Philippine Sea and Minami-kojima Island near Taiwan in the East China Sea. In 1939, the short-tailed albatross’ main breeding grounds on Torishima were buried under 30 to 90 feet of lava after a volcanic eruption.

Population numbers plummeted to 10 nesting pairs. Since then, conservation  efforts have helped increase the population to approximately 2,400 birds, which forage widely across the temperate/subarctic North Pacific and can be seen in the Gulf of Alaska, along the Aleutian Islands and in the Bering Sea.

Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge has actively planned to host a nesting colony for more than a decade, and this conservation effort seems to be paying off. Short-tailed albatross were rarely seen on Midway Atoll before the effort began. This season marks the pair’s first known mating and nesting attempt. Refuge staff and volunteers will continue to monitor the nest daily with the use of a remote video camera.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

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Bats with Tell Tale signs of WNS

Damage to bat wings from the fungus associated with white-nose syndrome (WNS) may cause catastrophic imbalance in life-support processes, according to newly published research.

This imbalance may be to blame for the more than 1 million deaths of bats due to WNS thus far, proposes Carol Meteyer, a pathologist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center and a lead author of the research published in BMC Biology.

Physiological problems caused by the novel fungus, may, in fact, represent a completely new disease paradigm for mammals, Meteyer and her colleagues wrote. Other skin infections in mammals due to fungi (ringworm, athlete’s foot) remain superficial and do not invade living tissue—typically they only affect the surface of skin, hair and nails.

Not so for the aptly named Geomyces destructans.
“This fungus is amazingly destructive — it digests, erodes, and invades the skin — particularly the wings — of hibernating bats,” said Meteyer. “The ability of this fungus to invade bats’ wing skin is unlike that of any known skin fungal pathogen in land mammals.”

The authors examined nearly 200 bats that had died from WNS, and also reviewed the critical function and physiology of bat wings during hibernation. As a result, they propose that G. destructans may cause unsustainable dehydration in hibernating bats, triggering thirst-associated arousals.  In addition to the direct damage to the wings that would alter flight control, the erosion and invasion of skin may also cause significant changes in circulation, body-temperature regulation and respiratory function.

The Effects of Geomyces Destructans Infection on Bat Wings

Back-lit photographs of wings of White-nose Syndrome (WNS)-positive little brown bats, one with subtle circular and irregular pale areas (arrows) indicating areas of fungal infection (A) and another bat (B) with areas of relatively normal tone and elasticity (black arrow), compared to a WNS affected area that looks like crumpled tissue paper with loss of elasticity, surface sheen and areas of irregular pigmentation (white arrow). (C) Microscopic section of wing membrane from a little brown bat showing extensive infection with the fungus (magenta structures), G. destructans.

Since signs of the disease were first observed in New York during the winter of 2006-07, the fungus has spread through 11 states and 2 Canadian provinces, resulting in the first sustained high-mortality disease affecting bats in recorded history.  Biologists assume that as the disease spreads to new areas, cave-hibernating bats in those areas will also be at risk, including some that are endangered.

“The high number of bat deaths and range of species being affected far exceeds the rate and magnitude of any previously known natural or human-caused mortality event in bats, and possibly in any other mammals,” said Paul Cryan, a lead author of the paper and a USGS bat ecologist at the Fort Collins Science Center.

Although the powdery white muzzles of affected bats gave the disease its name, the authors believe that the skin of bat wings is the most significant, though often less obvious, target of the fungus.

The order of bats is called Chiroptera, Greek for “hand-wing,” appropriately named since bat wings are essentially modified arms. Imagine, for a moment, your human hand with its fingers spread apart. Then imagine your fingers are 6 feet long, and the whole skeletal affair is covered with two layers of thin, somewhat transparent membranes attached to the sides of your torso and legs.  Sandwiched between the membranes are blood and lymphatic vessels, delicate nerves, muscles and special connective tissues that help you fly and help keep you physiologically healthy.

“The disproportionately large areas of exposed skin that make up bat wings play critical roles in maintaining safe internal body conditions during hibernation,” noted Cryan. “Healthy wings are essential for day-to-day survival, even during winter when bats are mostly just hanging around.  Wings damaged by the fungus may not always look so bad to the naked eye, but under the microscope things get ugly fast.”

When Meteyer examined wings of diseased bats microscopically, she discovered wing damage was often so severe that it led her and her colleagues to suggest multiple life-threatening effects on hibernating bats.

“A bat’s wings,” said Meteyer, “are obviously critical for flying, but they also play a vital part in essential functions such as body temperature, blood pressure, water balance and blood and gas circulation and exchange.”

Insect-Eating Brazilian Free-Tailed Bats (Tadarida brasiliensis)

Healthy bats occasionally rouse themselves from hibernation, probably to change roosts, drink, mate and even overcome sleep deprivation, biologists think. But bats afflicted with WNS arouse much more often. In fact, a characteristic of hibernation sites with WNS is daytime flights of affected bats outside caves.

“The prevailing hypothesis is that daytime winter flight is a last-ditch effort for starving bats to find insect prey,” Cryan said. “What we propose is that thirst, and maybe not always hunger, is driving these arousals. Unusual thirst during hibernation may result from water essentially leaking out of wings damaged by the fungus.”

Anecdotally, bats at hibernacula affected by WNS are sometimes seen flying over and drinking from water surfaces or eating snow, highlighting the plausibility of this hypothesis, the authors noted.

Hibernation itself is one reason this emerging disease is so successful. During hibernation, a bat’s immune function and metabolism are dramatically reduced, and body temperature drops significantly. Also, some of the worst-affected bat species roost in humid areas in dense clusters to conserve energy and decrease moisture loss.

“These ideal environmental conditions, combined with the hibernating bat’s suppressed immune system, likely allow the fungus to invade body tissues for nutrients without resistance, making the hibernating bat a most accommodating host for this new disease,” Meteyer said.

The researchers compare the ability of this novel bat fungus to destabilize internal functions with the electrolyte imbalance that occurs in frogs infected by chytrid fungus, which, like G. destructans, is a novel disease of vertebrates. Chytrid infection impairs the ability of frog skin to regulate hydration and internal equilibrium, causing electrolyte imbalance and ultimately cardiac arrest.

“The skin plays a critical role in the physiology of both amphibians and bats,” Meteyer said. “We suggest that a similar, but less subtle, disturbance could be occurring in the wing membranes of bats with WNS.”

The journal article can be accessed online.

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Orange Spring Peeper by Cori Rose, Couresty of Chelmsford Patch.

As most gardeners do, I find it a spiritual experience to play amongst my garden beds and flowers. Imagine my surprise the other day when I saw what appeared to be an orange poison dart frog in my butterfly garden. Come again? Okay, not really a tropical rainforest tree frog, but the resemblance was  a bit striking, right down to its little sticky toe pads.

With an email to a few herpetologist friends I was able to confirm that what I had was indeed an orange spring peeper. The coloration is a bit unusual, but apparently not unheard of. It seems that the peeper has a chameleon-like ability that does allow it to darken or lighten, depending on its mood or its surroundings and orange varieties do seem to be more common further south (VA and NC).

The Northern Spring Peeper (Pseudacris crucifer) is a small chorus frog found throughout the eastern USA and Canada. The peepers that we usually find here in Chelmsford MA  are often some shade of tan/brown or grey in color, sometimes with a dark cross on their back (from which the latin name “crucifer” comes from).  They are usually very small, between 1″ or 1.5″ in size and compare in size from a nickel to slightly larger than a quarter (females are usually the larger of the two).

When I have a severe case of the winter blues and the first crocuses are just beginning to break ground, it is this critter that I truly yearn to hear. On the first warm rainy evening (if you can in your right mind call mid-40 F warm) as the last remnant of snow and ice is disappearing from the wetland edge, the male peepers come a-calling. I can usually be found up to my knees in cold (VERY cold – brrrrr)  water, head lamp on and camera in tow. As they are nocturnal and of minute size they are more often heard than seen.

Some interesting peeper factoids:

• Only the male of the species calls and it does so by pushing air out of and drawing it back into a sac on its throat.
• Spring Peepers produce glucose (sugar) in their liver that functions as an anti-freeze to keep their key organs from freezing.
• Other body parts suh as legs may form ice crystals and freeze and they spend the winter in this partly frozen state in the soil or under leaves or logs.
• They spend the majority of their time on land as carnivorous insect eaters, but require water (normally shallow wetlands or ephemeral pools) to reproduce.

Northern Spring Peeper USGS Photo by Brad Glorioso

Unfortunately, most amphibians including frogs are experiencing catastrophic declines world-wide that have biologists significantly concerned. The reasons are not fully understood but major contributors are believed to be disease, habitat destruction, modification and fragmentation, pollution, pesticide use, introduced predators, and climate change. This should be a concern to us all as they are often considered as an indicator species (“the canary in the coal mine” so to speak) that reflects the quality of our overall environment due to their sensitivity to external parameters. Maybe this will be a subject of a future blog…

For more information on these wonderful critters visit these links:

Vernal Pool Association

Rhode Island Vernal Pools

MA DF&W Natural Heritage

UMASS Amherst Natural Resources

Cori Rose is a wetland scientist and regulatory project manager with the New England District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in Concord MA. Cori is an avid gardener, especially for wildlife, and a volunteer with the Chelmsford Conservation Commission in her home town of Chelmsford, MA. Her Blog is called Turtles Crossing.

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A flock of Eastern Wild Turkeys feeding in my backyard.

This summer, a flock of Eastern Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris) routinely visited my Chelmsford, Massachusetts backyard.   The turkeys regularly pecked their way around the yard each morning, spending most of their time scratching and grazing on spilled seed from our bird feeders.

The flock was usually comprised of about a dozen hens (females), jakes, and jennies (young male and female turkeys).   The size and number of the birds, made them an imposing site in our suburan New England backyard.

New England Wild Turkey Population

Over the years, we’ve occassionally seen turkeys in the neighborhood, but never this frequently.  Suprisingly, due to hunting pressure and urban sprawl, wild turkeys were on the verge of extinction in the early 1930s, but through the work of conservationists their numbers have grown significantly.

In the early 1970′s, 37 birds were captured in New York and released in southern Berkshire County.  Transplants of the birds continued from 1979 to 1996, and expanded the range of the bird into other parts of Massachusetts. Today, the estimated population of turkeys in Massachusetts is between 20,000-25,000 birds.

The Life and Times of Wild Turkeys

They were first named ‘forest turkey’ in 1817, and have an average life span is 3-5 years.  Growing up to 4 feet tall and reach 30 lbs in weight, wild turkeys have excellent daytime vision, but don’t see well at night.  They are also very mobile, running at speeds up to 25 mph, and flying up to 55 mph.

Males are polygamous, and mate with as many hens as they can, using gobbling, drumming, and spitting as signs of social dominance, and to attract females.  Their gobble can carry for up to a mile.  Hens “yelp” to let gobblers know their location, and Jakes often yelp as well.

Hens lay a clutch of 10 to 12 eggs over a 10-14 day period, usually laying one egg per day. She will incubate her eggs for about 28 days, occasionally turning them until they are ready to hatch.  Newly-hatched turkeys leave the nest within the day to feed.

Wild turkeys are omnivores, prefering acorns, nuts, seeds, berries, roots, insects, and the occasional frog, lizard, or snake. Wild turkeys often feed in open spaces near the forest edge, and sometimes visit backyard bird feeders. Turkeys are also known to eat a wide variety of grasses.  Early morning and late afternoon are the desired times for eating.

Wild turkeys prefer open areas for feeding, mating and habitat. They use forested areas as cover from predators and spend the night in tall trees, near the edge of a clearing so that no obstructions will interfere with a quick flight.  A varied habitat of both open and covered area is essential for wild turkeys to flourish.

Wild turkeys live in flocks organized by “pecking order,” a social ranking in which each bird is dominant over birds of lesser social status. This instinctual drive for social dominance can create a nuisance when turkeys act aggressive towards people they encounter, most notably during breeding season.  They jump up and flap their wings, and can chase people they perceive as a threat. Once a turkey’s bold behavior is established, it can be very difficult change. Turkeys may also respond aggressively to shiny objects or reflections.

Preventing Conflicts with Turkeys

To avoid an ugly backyard skirmish with a wild turkey hell bent on domination, you can follow these tips.

• Keep bacyard bird feeders tidy – Clean up spilled bird seed, or use bird feeders designed to keep seed off the ground.
• Protect backyard gardens and harass turkeys searching for food. Dogs, fences, and netting are effective garden turkey deterrents.
• Don’t be intimidated by an aggressive turkey.  Harass an unwanted bird by chasing it, using loud bold noises, water sprayed from a hose, or a close swat from a broom.
• Eliminate or cover shiny objects that a turkey is pecking at.
• Inform the neighbors about your desire to prevent wild turkey conflict.

Wild Turkeys are important and valuable birds in Massachusetts and New England. They are classified as game birds for which regulated hunting seasons and management programs have been established.  If you are experiencing problems with turkeys or have any questions regarding them, contact your nearest MassWildlife District Office or local animal control officer.

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Pink Lady's Slipper on the trails of the Mills Crooked Spring Reservation in Chelmsford, MA

Hiking on the hillside along the eastern leg of the main trail at the Mills Crooked Spring Reservation in Chelmsford, we found the showy and rare flowers of the Pink Lady’s Slipper.

Pink lady’s slipper is a wildflower in the orchid family.  It grows 6 – 15″ tall with two large basal leaves at the base of the plant.  It is easily identifiable because of its bulbous flower hanging at the top of a tall leafless stalk. It generally flowers between May and July, is pink to whitish-pink, and sometimes all white.  Another common name for this plant is moccasin flower.

Like most orchids, the lady’s slipper is symbiotic as it has a mutually beneficial relationship with a fungus.  The pink lady’s slipper uses a fungus in the soil to break open their seeds and to draw food and nutrients to its seed. When the lady’s slipper plant is older, the fungus draws nutrients from the orchid’s roots.  Pink lady’s slippers also require bees for pollination, luring them into the flower pouch through the front opening.

Pink lady’s slipper takes many years to mature, living twenty or more years.  Pink lady’s slipper usually grows on a wet, acidic forest floor with mixed shade in the eastern United States.  The plants should not be removed from the wild because of their rarity and the near impossibility of successfully transplanting and maintaining the plant. New plants are difficult to start because of the need for the symbiotic fungi and their particular growing conditions.

If you Visit…

The 37-acre Margaret Robbins Mills Crooked Spring Brook Reservation was the first property purchased by the Chelmsford Conservation Commission in 1965.  This reservation is located in West Chelmsford, between Crooked Spring Road and Graniteville Road.  There are a number of trails on the property, with the main trail beginning at the parking lot on Crooked Spring Road and wrapping around the wetlands of the reservation.  The trails on the property are easy to walk and bridges and boardwalks have been installed across several wet areas.  There is a great diversity of wildlife here, including white tailed deer, red fox, beaver, muskrat, ducks, goldfinch and more.

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Eastern Bluebirds at Red Wing Farm in Chelmsford

On a cool, sunny New England spring morning bluebird love was in the air.

After dropping my son off at school, I visited Red Wing Farm (a great open space in Chelmsford,Massachusetts to bird watch) and was fortunate to observe a pair of Eastern Bluebirds grazing upon fat grubs while perched atop their nesting box.

The bluebirds seemed a bit put off by me at first, but I kept my distance and was careful to keep my movements to a minimum.   Soon the bluebirds seemed to forget about me and began to go about their business of collecting grubs and insects, and defending their territory from encroaching tree swallows that had set up a nest in a cluster of nest boxes on the opposite side of the meadow.

The female bluebird sang throughout the morning.  She remained perched atop the nest box, bouncing from corner to corner cheerfully singing to her partner as he repeated his dash from tree to tree, snatching insects in mid-flight.  Her sweet songs were rewarded with a gift of the fattest grubs of the morning.  My reward was being able to watch (and listen) on a beautiful New England spring morning.

If you visit…

Red Wing Farm (Maple Road, Chelmsford, Massachusetts) is an ideal area for the bluebirds and for those who like to watch them.  The several acre area, once an abandoned apple orchard covered in thick vines and tall grass, now has large open fields, edged by large forested acres and wetlands.

The Bruce Freeman Rail Trail is accessible from Red Wing and it features a wetlands viewing station, as well as several walking paths.  Red Wing Farm part of the Chelmsford Conservation Commission and is maintained by Chelmsford’s Open Space Stewards.

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Traditional box style bluebird house

I recently completed a couple of bluebird houses made from discarded fence rails that were “rescued” from a burn pile at Sunny Meadows Farm in Chelmsford, MA.

Over April vacation, my sons and I worked with our town’s Open Space Stewardship program to help establish a tree nursery at Sunny Meadow Farm.  In addition to the plot used to grow trees for the town’s use, the half acre property includes the Walter F. Lewis Community Garden where residents are given plots of farm land to grow their own crops.

While building a large brush pile that day, I noticed a few pieces of the original horse chewed fence rails had been stacked in the burn pile.   Seeing the beauty of the patina of the boards, which had taken decades to form, and being a big fan of recycling materials, I grabbed a few of the discarded boards and loaded them into my truck.

Peterson style bluebird house

Both bluebird houses share functional features such as a pivoting wall for easy clean-out, canopied roof, ventilation and drainage holes, and copper lined entry holes (to prevent predator chew out).  I designed one birdhouse in the traditional bluebird box style and the other in the angled Peterson style.

With them placed in close proximity to each other (reduces chance of tree swallows nesting because of territoriality issues), I hope to see if the birds prefer one design over the other.  I’ve read that birds prefer the Peterson box, because it requires less nesting material because of the sloped bottom.

Aesthetically, I was careful to orient the wood so that the aged patina (nail holes, lichen, rot and all) would be highlighted.  I even incorporated the broken and worn edges of the age old whitewashed boards into the design.

The Askenburgs at work at Sunny Meadow Farm over April vacation

I am really pleased and excited about the completed bluebird houses.  Creating wild bird shelters out of discarded materials was a very rewarding project.

Also, having a small piece of my town’s history as a functioning part of my backyard birding experience makes the bluebird houses really special.

The Chelmsford Open Space Stewardship is an independent group of volunteers working with the Chelmsford Conservation Commission. It was established in November 2005, and the Stewards maintain and improve the trail systems within these open spaces – anything from picking up trash and keeping the trails free of fallen trees to replacing worn out bridges and kiosks.

Stewards provide a daily presence and ongoing maintenance so these special properties can be enjoyed by all.  If you would like to learn more about the great work that Chelmsford’s Open Space Stewards are doing for our town, I encourage you to visit their website.

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Pine Cone Bird Feeders

For me one of life’s simple pleasures is catering to the wildlife that frequent our yard. We live in a small, rural town where woodland surrounds our property. It isn’t unusual to see wild turkeys and deer trespassing across the lawn.

Now that Spring has sprung, we look forward to being able to open windows, feel the fresh air, and hear the chirps and chippers of our local and returning bird residents.

Filling the feeders has long been a routine and special time I enjoy with my kids.   A couple of weeks ago we were performing the endless task of picking pine cones out of the yard, when I was inspired to make our own feeders. These are easy and cheap to make…and a great craft project for kids!

Peanut Butter Pine Cones: A WILD (Bird) Treat !!!

Spreading the Peanut Butter

What you’ll need….
peanut-butter-on-pine-cone

15 pine cones*
18oz jar off inexpensive creamy or crunchy peanut butter
1lb wild birdseed
medium weight string or pipe cleaners
shallow dish or bucket
butter knife, spoon, or fingers
newspaper
(scissors)

*If you don’t have any pine cones in your neighborhood, you can purchase them at your local craft store. Also, if your pine cones are closed up, try heating them up in the oven on low. This should open them up and fix the problem.)

Coating the pine cone with seed

What to do….

Cover your work area with newspaper for easy clean-up. Or even better, make your feeders outside on the lawn and skip this step all together!

Pour some of the wild birdseed into your shallow dish or bucket.

Tie a secure knot on the stem of each pine cone using about 12 inches of string or Twist the middle part of your pipe cleaner around the stem.

Using a butter knife or spoon to cover each pine cone with about two tablespoons of peanut butter. We used our fingers. We like to get messy!

Fully coated pine cone

Place each covered pine cones into the shallow dish or bucket and roll it around until it is completely covered with seed.

Set pine cone aside and repeat the above until all pine cones have been coated and covered.

Now it’s time to hang your feeders. If you used the pipe cleaners, you can attached your feeders to trees by twisting the pipe cleaners ends around the branches … You can do the same with the string and/or you may choose to string several pine cones together to make vertical wreaths as we did.

What you’ll attract….

Bluejays, Northern Cardinals, Squirrels…lot’s of squirrels…careful where you hang your feeders.

Happy Birding!

Contributed by Jessica Layne of AllThingsNewEngland.com, New England’s own online magazine and resource guide.

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American Robin

According to traditional wisdom, they shouldn’t have been there at all.  So much for traditional wisdom. They were there in droves.

Dozens of American robins visited my yard over the weekend. Their visits, unfortunately, were short-lived. First they gathered in the trees in the backyard. Then they dispersed, some going to the birdbath and others hopping along the garden or driveway.

It was nice to see the robins again, especially so many of them at once. Even in the summer when robins are commonplace, I never see that many together. Like many types of birds, robins form large flocks in the winter.

I was happy to see the robins in February, however I was not shocked or even the least bit surprised. Robins may be thought of as signs of spring, but each year many of them stay with us here in New England throughout the winter. In fact, some remain as far north as southern Canada. They are often hard to find in the winter, but they are around somewhere — and usually in large groups.

With their feathers and down, robins are able to withstand bitter cold temperatures and extreme weather conditions, just like our other “winter” birds such as chickadees and kinglets.  Perhaps with the winters seemingly getting warmer, more robins than usual are sticking with us in the winter months. In fact, the robins in my yard the other week were treated to fresh earthworms. This winter has been so mild that a few industrious robins found the goodies by scraping away a few leaves. Usually, robins wander around in the winter looking for berries or crabapples.

Black Capped Chickadee by Chris Bosak

The robins that visited over the weekend were following a regular route around the neighborhood, similar to the feeding habits of goldfinches in the summer. They approached from the north in the woods and worked their way south through my yard and, eventually, darted off into a neighbor’s yard — not to return until the next day. They followed that pattern each day I saw them. It was hard to get a good count of the birds, but there were as many as six or seven in the birdbath at a time, so there were plenty of robins.

Another bonus of seeing robins in the winter is that they are all adults. Last year’s brood members are not juveniles anymore. They grow up fast, don’t they?
Although I haven’t been lucky enough to see them in my yard yet, I’ve also seen eastern bluebirds this winter. Bluebirds are a close cousin of the robin and also not widely thought of as a “winter” bird in New England.

Not that the yard hasn’t seen its share of action over the past few weeks. There have been slow moments, but also moments of frenetic activity with nuthatches, titmice, chickadees, house finches, cardinals, blue jays, white-throated sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, downy woodpeckers, red-bellied woodpeckers and starlings all visiting that same time. Oh, did I mention mourning doves? Mourning doves have taken up residence at my address: front yard, backyard, side yard. There’s always mourning doves.

With all those birds visiting, though, the cheerful robins were the highlight of last weekend.

Chris Bosak is a nature columnist for The Hour newspaper in Norwalk, Conn., and the Keene Sentinel in Keene, N.H. His column, For the Birds, has appeared each week for more than 10 years.  He is also a nature photographer. A collection of his columns and photos may be found at www.birdsofnewengland.com

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