KEEPING A BACKYARD WATCH ( 12/18/03)

We try to keep a close eye on the birds in our yard. From time to time we discover an unexpected visitor, or we notice a change in our usual population. Wherever we’ve lived, we’ve started a yard list of birds as soon as we arrived. We enjoy seeing how many species we’ve seen in the current year, as well as the total number. Of course, we’re always hoping to observe a new bird to add to our list. As I write, in our ten and a half years of residence, we have tallied 138 different birds, and who knows what we’d have seen if we were home all the time and were constantly attentive!

A lot, of course, depends on your particular habitat. We lack a stand of pine trees, popular with many birds, and although we also have no mixed woodland, we do have many large trees. Then, of course, there’s that old pear tree about which I have written many times. We also maintain several areas of thick shrubbery, artificial brush piles, two bird baths and feeders of different types.

Our latest visitor, number 138, was a woodpecker, a yellow-bellied sapsucker. He didn’t visit the suet (at least not when we were looking) but seemed content to go from one bare tree to another. This species shows a prominent wing stripe, easily visible at a distance, but since he lacked the red on his throat and head, we realized he was a first-year bird, not an adult. A look at a breeding bird map (http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4020id.html) revealed that this bird has been recorded as breeding only in the far western sector of our state. Unfortunately, we cannot count on his staying around, as he’s probably in migration — just a one-day wonder. 

This fall we added two other birds to our yard list. An Acadian flycatcher visited us for a day a few months ago. He was difficult to see, but his continuous “pizza! pizza!” call kept us apprised of his presence. This is one of the many birds that until the last several decades was restricted to our southern states, but like tufted titmice, cardinals, Carolina wrens and mockingbirds, it is now an established breeder in parts of New England. A look at a breeding distribution map shows the heaviest concentration of nests is in the mid-Atlantic states and westward, with a very light population in southern New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire. So you can see why we were so pleased to have this relatively rare bird stop for a visit in our yard!

A brown creeper also wooed us for just one day. If we had pine trees, we’d be more likely to have this as a winter bird. Although those three birds are, so far, the only new ones for our 2003 yard list, we have been pleased with other birds that rarely appear on our acre — or go overlooked if we’re away or not attentive enough. In mid-November we had two hermit thrushes using our bird bath and even coming to the suet. A month before that a red-breasted nuthatch spent a couple of days calling from different parts of the yard, but we’ve not seen or heard one since then.

Late last summer I was completely surprised when a yellow-breasted chat in full breeding plumage came to dine on the suet cake that is right outside the kitchen window. Chats seldom show themselves away from deep tangles, so he must have been mighty curious to see what all the other birds found so delectable. 

Although we have had white-breasted nuthatches at our feeders before, none has ever stayed more than a day or two. For several weeks now, though, we have had a pair coming regularly to the suet. Once we watched them inspecting the bird house where the screech owls have nested the past four years. However, we’re beginning to wonder whether what we thought was a housing inspection was actually the harassing of a sleeping owl, as only a few days after the nuthatches were there, we saw an owl looking out of the box. We hear screech owls almost every calm night, but we haven’t seen one looking out of the box again. No matter how much we learn about birds, they still remain a mystery in many ways!

Well, back to the subject of the suet. One reason ours seems to be more popular than in other years is that we are using a wire holder that is just the size of commercially-sold suet cakes. Those we’ve been buying either have peanut hearts or fruit pieces embedded in them. I’m not sure that we’ll switch back to beef suet for the winter after all our successes with these other varieties.

Reports from the mainland and other parts of the Cape indicate that this may be a good winter for red-breasted nuthatches as well as pine siskins and an assortment of other winter finches. So, keep your eyes (and ears) open and take me up on my suggestion that all of you readers keep a list of the birds that visit your yard. Right now, at the start of a new year, is a perfect time!

Please send your comments and anecdotes about birds to me in care of the Cape Cod Times, 319 Main Street, Hyannis, MA 02601 or, if you use email, to emiller@seepub.com. I regret that because of an overwhelming amount of mail, I cannot respond to each of you personally. However, I have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section to the web page with my current and past bird columns, now found at http://home.comcast.net/~elliemiller/index.html. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, try Bird Watcher’s Digest at 1-800-879-2478 or check out their FAQ at www.birdwatchersdigest.com. GRAPHIC: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, courtesy of John Slonina (Slonina Photography; http://www.sphotography.com)