Winter Birds and Tennessee's Ice

Ice presents stressful winter conditions, not only for people, but for wildlife.  Though beautiful to witness from warmth and safety, a wintery mix of precipitation that coats food sources presents challenges for bird survival.

In Tennessee we have birds that live here year-around and remain for the winter because of the generally moderate winter conditions and abundance of food.  If enough food is available, many bird species can survive temporary plummets in temperature.  Extended periods of sub-freezing temperatures, however, such as the single digits that we recently experienced, and a quarter inch coating of ice over everything increases survival challenges considerably.  

The American Robin is one of the species that we call resident birds because they remain during the winter.  Many northern robins join our local ones to take advantage of the food sources, so we may see large flocks of robins descending on our yards and visiting fruit producing trees and shrubs. Asian holly is one of the berry producing shrubs that attracts many species of birds, though if you are planting holly, the native American Holly is a better choice.

In these images, you see a Robin picking berries from the holly.  He not only was feeding on berries, he soon claimed the holly for himself, driving away other robins and also driving away the area bluebirds that came to visit.  He ignored sparrows, the Hermit Thrush and did not bother the Mockingbird, the bird we all expect to be territorial with a holly.

The ice and the several days of below 20 F temperatures, presented conditions so stressful, that many birds we normally don't expect to be aggressive were chasing others away from their food source. Above, you see the robin in the act of grabbing another berry.  Notice what happens to the berry in the next image.

An ice coated berry is hard to hold on to!  People feeding birds during the ice storm and deep freeze temperatures in east Tennessee noticed many territorial birds and an influx of species that weren't commonly seen visiting their winter feeders.

I'll show you some of those species in the next few posts.

Next:  Bluebirds and ice--a special matter

More on wintering birds in this blog

A good article on Winter time feeding and water--Cornell

Pileated Woodpeckers in the Snow

Pileated woodpeckers are delightful birds to watch and it is an extraordinary experience to observe one at eye-level and have it linger for a while.

On January 28th, during a beautiful snow fall, I first heard, then located, two pileated woodpeckers foraging around the yard, visiting old growth trees both in the yard and its wooded edges.  It was 19 degrees F, COLD and windy.  

Above, you see the female (top) and the male below her after she briefly landed on the same tree and they foraged together for a few minutes.  Below, the male as he looks up from foraging.  This bird's woodpecker movements are jerky, alert, ever scanning the environment and checking movement above and below, even though they sometimes ignore humans.  Among their predators are Cooper's Hawks and the Great-horned owl.

I finally retreated inside because I was so cold and my view was obscured by other trunks and limbs. Within 30 minutes, as I stood looking out the window at the snow and feeder birds, I saw the female as she landed on a tree at the edge of the patio.  This is the sort of opportunity that calls for grabbing a coat and camera and maneuvering out the door as carefully as possible.

Above is a photo of her farther out in the yard.  Notice how she has her tummy feathers fluffed with air protecting her legs from the cold and adding to her overall warmth.  She has a very young face and I suspect that she is the male's offspring rather than his mate.  I have seen this family together in April in seasons past as they begin their breeding season.

I opened the door and was very surprised that she ignored me and continued with her foraging.  Clearly she was finding something of interest. I was torn between zooming to get close images, or pulling back to get her whole body in.  I adore seeing the expression on her face, but also like the image below that shows that long sturdy tail-brace, so important in her movement and balance.

Below you can see her tongue as she probes under the bark. Woodpeckers have sticky, barbed tongues that help retrieve the insects that are hidden in crevices and underneath the bark.

Communication among family members is as facinating as watching these woodpeckers scoot up a tree, as they periodically stop to probe, pound, and extract insects.  The bugle-like call can be heard on the Cornell All About Birds site (link below) and is their most famous and loudest call.

There are also more intimate calls that specifically occur when family members are together, most often attributed to mates, but also heard when juveniles are foraging with parents.  On this occasion, I only heard the bugle call and occasionally the "kuk-kuk-kuk" sequence.

The habitat here is old growth forest with decaying trees in a suburban area where home development is interrupted by undeveloped wooded slopes.  These are the kind of broken zones that support many woodpecker species and allow people and wildlife to peacefully co-exist together.

The winter months are exceptional woodpecker-viewing months in east Tennessee.  Woodpeckers are easily spotted on bare trunks and tree limbs.  They are busy foraging to keep warm and sustain their nutritional needs.  Some woodpeckers from the mountains come down to the Tennessee Valley to spend the winter, among them the yellow-bellied sapsucker.

Above, a male yellow-bellied sapsucker forages in the yard at the same time the pileated family was present. Below, the male pileated woodpecker among large decaying limbs.

Images were taken with a Canon Rebel T2i with 100-400 Canon zoom lens.

Links and Resources:

More pileated woodpecker family posts on this blog.
Cornell All About Birds--Pileated Woodpecker.  Be sure to listen to the calls.
Cornell on Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.  Be sure to also listen to this sapsucker's call.  He blends with tree bark so well, that the call will likely be how you learn of his presence.

A Winter Visit with Yellow-rumped Warblers

Despite the predominance of cold and gray, winter is a fun time of year to get reacquainted with feathered friends that only visit the yard during this season.  Besides the pleasure of having red-breasted nuthatches visiting the feeders daily, there are some other birds that I'm always delighted to see.

Some times yellow-rumped warblers make an appearance and because they are very busy, shy and acrobatic, they disappear before I can catch any images.  At other times, like this occasion, I just happen to be at the right place, still enough that they ignored me, and close enough that I could enjoy some intimate looks.

A warbler gleaning insects from around the brim of the bird bath caught my attention from the window and I stepped out with my camera a few minutes later to see if maybe he/she was still around.

 

I think I will always remember a speechless moment I had while attending the New River Gorge Birding and Nature Festival in West Virginia in 2010. We were all there to see warblers returning to their breeding territories and singing. On one day in the field we found a beautiful male yellow-rumped warbler along our walk. Having  previously only seen this species in the winter in Tennessee, I was delighted to see breeding plumage and snapped a bunch of images while he lingered on an eye-level branch.

I was lagging behind the others, as I often did, and a lady walked over to me and asked what I was photographing.  When I showed her, she waved her hand dismissively and said, "oh, I've seen a million of those".  

 

I had no words to respond.  It is doubtful that I will ever see a  warbler often enough to have no interest, especially this sweet annual visitor.   I'm still snapping images of  American robins when the opportunity arises.  There is always something new---different lighting, different behavior, a different color combination in their plumage, a different expression.

And these images were smile worthy.

 Do you think she's looking at her reflection?

Yellow-rumped warblers on this blog.  Click the link to see the warbler I was photographing in West Virginia
Cornell's all about birds:  Yellow-rumped warbler

A Special Visit with a Brown Creeper

I have been thinking lately about all the things I'm grateful for, a feeling that started long before the Thanksgiving holiday arrived.  The feeling was helped along by the fact that my laptop screen shattered internally into a million colored lines a couple of weeks ago. This, of course, is not a disaster in the relative world of disasters, not even in the world of computer disasters, but as you may know, it can make you feel temporarily blinded.  All digital creative work comes to a screeching halt.  

Within a few days, a friend brought me an external screen to use temporarily while I decided what I should do to remedy the problem.  This amazed me.  Not the friend's instant generosity, but how gently and swiftly a solution arrived.  Instead of feeling distress over this unexpected turn of events, all I could feel was gratitude.

And while looking at the image above, that same feeling came over me again.  I enjoyed about twenty minutes with this brown creeper at eye-level, and each time I thought she/he had flown away, back she came, no intention of leaving, simply re-positioning herself for better foraging.  And if that wasn't gift enough, take a closer look at the image.  Notice not only the exquisite camouflaging patterns in the creeper's plumage, but the gorgeous aqua blue lichen, the darker green moss along side it, and those same muted colors glowing from the background light beyond.

All of this captured in the image quite by accident.  I was simply being very still, intent on following this little bird with my camera for as long as she would allow it.  When I saw this image, I instantly wanted to paint it.  It says so much about nature's simple beauty and the hidden wisdom that it holds.  A tiny little brown bird, so cleverly blending into the cracks and crevices of a tree's bark with its perfect shape and plumage patterns.  Blink your eyes, and she disappears, even when you know she's still right there.

The brown creeper is similar to woodpeckers in that it uses its tail for a brace, spiraling up and around the tree's trunk foraging for insects using it's slender decurved bill like a pair of tweezers.  Unlike nuthatches, creepers can only move forward up the tree, not down, facing downward, as nuthatches are able to do.  This is part of the reason I kept thinking she was flying away.  When she wanted to move down the trunk, she fluttered up from her current position and back down again, landing just where she needed to be.

We are fortunate to have these visitors in the winter months in the Tennessee Valley. They breed in higher elevations in Tennessee and in the northeast, and wander during winter months to warmer climates.  Considered solitary in the winter months, according to Sibley's Guide to Bird Life and Behavior, they also may travel in mixed flocks.  And small groups of creepers may congregate to roost in tree crevices at night, maximizing their warmth.  Can you imagine that?  A whole group of cuddling brown creepers!

And if that mental image isn't charming enough, my Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Tennessee describes the creeper as building its nest behind a slab of bark on a dead tree and laying eggs that are often arranged in the shape of a wreath.  The young fledge in 13-16 days.  "After fledging, the brood roosts in a tight circle with their heads inward."

The deeper we look, the more we discover the fascinating in nature.  And to have these wonders all around us, wherever we are, is a certain reason to feel thankful.

Earlier in the week someone said to me, "being thankful is good for you".  Wondering about her observation, I inquired further.  She responded, "Thankfulness is directly related to happiness.  The more thankful you are, the happier you feel."  Helpful words to remember every day of the year.

Links and resources:
You may also enjoy reading my November article for Wild Birds Unlimited:  An Intimate Visit with a Brown Creeper.  To see the bird-related illustration project I'm currently working on, visit:  A Peek at One of My Art Projects at Vickie's Sketchbook.