Red Squirrel

Usually, there are 3-4 gray squirrels in the backyard. They're like vacuum cleaners, tracking back and forth over the yard cleaning up any seed or suet dropped from the feeders. Every couple of weeks, a red squirrel shows up and I can always tell which type is which (and not because of the color difference).

Red squirrels different don't travel in gangs - they are loners. They spend more time up in the trees (or running along telephone and power lines) than down on the ground.  And they move much faster. It's easy to distinguish red squirrels from grays when they're moving around the branches of a tree because of the speed. Red squirrels look like they have somewhere they need to go NOW. No sauntering, no looking around, no indecision. They move and move quickly.

Twice today there was a red squirrel in the yard. It was checking out the birdfeeder on the fence and then rushed off to the large pine trees on the hill. Maybe it had an appointment...

I could get used to this...

This January has been remarkable - we've only had 2 days with morning temperatures below zero while for most daytime highs we've had above average temperatures. I do miss the snow since we can't use snowshoes, but I don't miss shoveling. The amazing thing to me is that this will only be the seventh 8th warmest January on record. I just don't remember such continuously warm days in the middle of winter. I am not complaining, though. After tomorrow, only 60 days of what we really consider to be winter and then it's spring - sunshine, warmth, and rain. Let the countdown begin!

Chickadees at the Feeder

I was watching chickadees eating from the feeders by my kitchen windows. The seed is a mixture of cracked corn (which they always ignore), whole peanuts, peanut pieces, and sunflower seeds. They'll toss the whole peanuts out of the way and pick up a small piece of peanut or sunflower seed. The piece is transferred to between their feet where the bird will carefully peck at it, dislodging an even smaller piece that it will then eat. Other small birds will eat the small pieces whole, but the chickadees break up the food. I didn't realize they were such delicate eaters.

Drizzly Day

Today it's gray - gray with drizzle. It's cold enough that you'd expect any precipitation to be in the form of snow, but no - it's raining lightly. According to www.weatherquestions.com, "Freezing drizzle can occur if it is produced in clouds forming in a warm air layer overlying a shallow cold air layer whose surface temperature is below freezing. The layer of air must be shallow enough so that the drizzle drops do not have time to freeze before they reach the ground."

Drizzle is big pain - every surface ends up coated with ice, especially curved surfaces. I hate having to clear my car windows in this kind of weather. First, you have to navigate to the car over the slick sidewalk and driveway. You get the door unlocked and pull, only to realize the drizzle has frozen the door shut. So, you pull. And pull. And tug. And, of course, when the ice breaks, the door flies open and you need to grab it to keep from flying backwards into the garden. You can start the car and crank the heat. To high. Grab the scraper and now you get the fun task of trying to remove the thick skin of ice that is as strong as concrete, but a lot colder. Scrape, brush, scrape, brush, shuffle, shuffle, shuffle...cleaning the windows is an interesting dance. And I prefer singing to dancing. But drizzle just makes me curse rather than sing...

Butcher Bird

Yesterday morning, at Dodge Nature Center, we spotted a gray and black bird sitting on top of one of the bluebird houses. It looked a little like a gray jay, but they don't live this far south. That's when we realized we had a shrike - aka, the butcher bird. Minnesota gets both the northern and loggerhead species, so it took awhile to figure out which we were seeing. Our bird had a black eye mask that meets over the bill. The bill was black above and lighter gray below. Those characteristics identified this bird as the northern shrike. It's nicknamed the butcher bird because it takes its prey (usually small birds) and impales them on branches or wire fencing. I'll have to keep my eyes open for shrike signs around the nature center.

This picture is showing a shrike I spotted in my backyard several years ago. But it's the same as the one we spotted today.

Early Morning Visitor

As I was heading out to my car, leaving for work this morning, I heard the "wolka - wolka-wolka" call coming from the north. Scanning the sky - there it was - a pileated woodpecker. It flew over the house and landed somewhere in the backyard. I went back inside and spotted it on the poplar tree on the hill. Then it flew to the birdbath, not the suet feeder like I expected. This is the third time the bird has come early in the morning - just about 8 a.m. I've read that pileated woodpeckers have a large territory - over 100 acres. (according to Birds of Minnesota and Wisconsin by Jansen, Tessen and Kennedy) It also says, "Because they require a large home territory, these magnificent birds are not encountered with much frequency." The suet and fresh, liquid water seem to be a way to get the bird to come back to the yard with some regularity.

If you give them want they need, they will come...(sometimes.)

Disappearing Opossum

Had a opossum in the backyard half an hour ago. I've spotted opossums in the backyard several times over the past couple of years, usually in the winter or early spring. The birdfeeders are the draw. One time, there were a couple of raccoons in the yard at the same time as the opossum. I thought there would be some fighting, but they just ignored each other.

Tonight, there was just the one opossum. According to Stan Tekiela's Mammals of Minnesota Field Guide, opossums don't hibernate, but, like raccoons and skunks, will den up when the weather is especially cold. With the temperatures being so mild this winter, it's not surprising opossums are active. The backyard has several feeders and during the day, the birds feed on suet and different kinds of bird seed. A lot of it ends up on the ground. The field guide says opossums will eat seeds, nuts, berries, bird eggs, fish, reptiles, amphibians, road kill, and worms. I'm guessing that the opossum isn't finding much in the way of bird eggs or fish or road kill in this neighborhood, so detritus from the feeders is welcomed.

After checking under the feeders, it wandered over towards the compost bins, then back into the yard near the woodpile. And that's when the opossum disappeared. Has it turned the woodpile into a den? I guess I'll find out when I start making maple syrup in March and need to take apart the woodpile to build a fire. (More about maple syruping in March.) Maybe I'll see tracks in the morning. (It's supposed to snow overnight.) Until then, keep an eye out for the opossum.

Stories in the Snow

We got about 1" of snow yesterday. Just enough to reveal any overnight visitors by the tracks left behind.  A fox wondered around, checking out the ground under the birdfeeders. If it's the one that's been in the yard before, it's a grey fox - about the two feet long and 1-1/2 feet high. Its tail is tipped with black and the face has a narrow nose. The fox shows up about once every two weeks. It may visit more often but with the lack of snow this winter, I can't tell for sure.

The picture shows squirrel tracks, too. There is a group of five that come throughout the day. If I put the trail camera at ground level, I get hundreds of squirrel shots in just a few days. I never realized how much they liked having their pictures taken!

Can you tell which tracks are which?

FeederWatch Day

Today is the first of the two days each week I monitor bird populations in my backyard. I'm participate in the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's FeederWatch program. Each Saturday and Sunday, I record not only what birds come to my feeders, but what is the largest amount of a species that are together at one time.

Today has been a good day - lots of activity and even an unusual sighting (a Cooper's Hawk). There have been chickadees, juncos, house finches, and house sparrows. Of the five kinds of woodpeckers that show up in my yard, four have made appearances today: downy, hairy, red-bellied, and a flicker. I'm hoping #5 will show up - the biggest of them all - the pileated woodpecker.

For the first time in over 20 years, a pileated woodpecker has shown up in the backyard. But that time, it came once and then was gone. Now it shows up about every 3-5 days. We've got a trail camera set up and it is helping us know for sure which days and how often the bird is coming. The suet feeder is definitely what draws him to the yard. (Yes, it is definitely a him: red on the "mustache" on the side of its face.) Pileateds are supposed to not be unusual, just not that common in urban areas. They prefer woods where they can carve large holes into dead trees as they look for insects or create nests. Here, the pileated flies into the mulberry tree, then lands on the suet feeder and pecks away. Big chunks of suet are dislodged as the bird twists around to get just the right angle for snapping out the chunks of fat. Surprisingly, I have seen it on the thistle feeder, too. I didn't expect it to like the tiny thistle seeds, not to mention that it looked like it was very awkward for the bird as it clung to the thin perches and tried to get at the seeds through the slots. Determination.

I couldn't ask for better entertainment on any day of the week.

Resolution Moon

The full moon fascinates me. I enjoy watching it slowly, night by night, become full. The illuminated landscape reveals a patchwork of lights and darks and oddly shaped shadows. But all too soon, the moon begins to wane. Less moon, less light, darker nights. 

Watching this month's full moon wax and wane got me thinking - the moon is like so many New Year's resolutions. You start out the year with big ideas and plans but you run out of time, energy, interest, and your resolutions are left unfulfilled. 

While the Native Americans called the first full moon of the new year the Full Wolf Moon (http://www.farmersalmanac.com/full-moon-names), I've decided to call it the Resolution Moon: full of possibility, but gone too soon. Fortunately, there's always next month!