Christmas Bird Counts

Going into this year's Christmas Bird Count season, I had said that with the irruption of Snowy Owls happening this year, it would be a failure if we couldn't find a Snowy Owl on one of our counts.  Luckily, Lindsay salvaged count season by finding the owl in the photo below.

No, it's not a Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) in the sense of the large, white, circumpolar owl species that's been observed at various locations throughout the Midwest this fall/winter.  It is, however, an Eastern Screech Owl (Megascops asio) that must have had its head sticking out of that Wood Duck box for quite some time to accumulate a layer of snow on its head... hence, a snowy owl!  I'll take it.  Lindsay found this bird while we were driving past a wetland in South Bend during the South Bend Christmas Bird Count on 17 December.  During our count, Lindsay and I tallied 34 species in our portion of the southwest sector, and 57 species were tallied in the South Bend circle overall (both tallies were right on the mean for this count).

The next morning (18 December), I was at it again, joining Kip Miller, Gabriella Meredith, and Sherry Manison for the Berrien Springs Christmas Bird Count in Berrien County, Michigan.  On that count, our foursome tallied 42 species; I haven't yet heard the total for the count circle, but Kip mentioned that due to the range of habitats it is typically one of the top five or so counts in Michigan.  Some of our highlights were Common Merganser, Red-shouldered Hawk, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (2), Winter Wren, Yellow-rumped Warbler, and Swamp Sparrow.  Although not rare birds, we enjoyed nice looks at the Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) and the Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) shown above and below, respectively.

I have one more count to do this year, on 31 December in Elkhart, Indiana.  Christmas Bird Count season runs through 5 January 2012, so there is still time to join a count in your area.  If you've never done the Christmas Bird Count, I recommend it to beginners as well as experts.  The first count that Lindsay and I ever did was a Christmas Bird Count, and from that count we learned a lot about both birds and birding.

Looking for a Good Home

Last weekend while taking a break from the Great Backyard Bird Count, I was in our living room when I heard the familiar low warbling song of an Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis). Soon enough, a male was perched on a wire outside our window. The best that I could tell, he was scolding (and a few times attacking) his reflection in our window, thinking that it was another male Eastern Bluebird on his territory.


You may recall my post from last year about Eastern Bluebirds showing up on our platform feeder and near our windows. I can't help but to wonder if this may be one of the same birds.


A few minutes later, a female Eastern Bluebird showed up as well, and it appeared that the two were paired up and ready to find a home for the spring. I quickly went outside and cleaned out our bluebird boxes, just in case.


I haven't seen this pair since last weekend, so they've either left or taken up residence in one of our boxes. I'm hoping for the latter.

Abandoned

In May 2009, I botanized at a private property in Jasper County, Indiana. The property owners were so excited to know what was on their property that this spring, they gave me a bluebird box that they had made in exchange for spending time on their property. Because the early spring was so busy for Lindsay and me, I didn't get a chance to get the box up right away. In mid-May, we noticed a male and female Eastern Bluebird (Sialia sialis) hanging out around our house, often on our platform feeder and the window sills in front of our house. It really seemed as though they were looking for a place to call home, so I decided to mount the bluebird box that was given to me on the side of a large Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) in our front yard.


Almost immediately, the Eastern Bluebirds started checking out the box...


... and soon, they were collecting nesting material and loading it into the box.


It was pretty exciting to see the male patrolling the box while the female was inside building the nest (be sure to see the female's head sticking out of the box in the photograph below). I thought for sure that soon enough, baby bluebirds would be buzzing about our yard.


Unfortunately something happened, and I haven't seen the pair of Eastern Bluebirds in front of our house since late May or early June. I couldn't figure out what would have caused the bluebirds to abandon their house, so I decided to check it out. I opened the box, and there was a nest, but no sign of eggs or feathers in the nest. I then took a closer look at the box. If you look at the bottom right corner of the side of the box, you'll see a dark spot.


Upon closer inpsection, that spot was actually a hole... a hole that didn't exist when I mounted the box on the tree in mid-May. There was, however, a dark spot on the box at this location that might have been a weak spot in the wood.


The only thing that I can think of is that a woodpecker began pecking at this weaker spot, scaring off the bluebirds. I'm not sure if this happens commonly, or if maybe there is another explanation for what happened, but unfortunately, our bluebirds have abandoned their nesting box this year. Hopefully they will come back and nest in this box next spring.