Photos by David Lee
SPRING MIGRANTS CONTINUE to pour into our area and the air is filled with the happy sounds of birds singing everywhere. Some of our yard birds like the tree sparrows have left to go north along with the little dark-eyed juncos as they prepare to follow. Black bears have been around our area already so be prepared to have your bird feeders raided. A few years ago I had some expensive feeders bitten in half, so I follow DEC’s rules to stop feeding in early spring. Since the bird seed attracts the bears to a yard there could be danger to us, so be vigilant when you go outside. If you see a bear it is best to stay inside and not go out to take pictures or try to scare it away. Bears can run and move fast. If a bear has found food it is likely to return so it would be good to take in the feeders and stop feeding.
Many waterfowl have moved up the Hudson River and gone north. Huge flocks of swallows are coming up the Hudson and can be observed flying and skimming the surface for insects. The majority are tree swallows and there may be others including barn, rough-winged, and bank swallows. This can be a dizzying task while looking through binoculars.
A turkey vulture was checking out my field today. It was wary, and the American crows flew in to harass it. After all, it is the “crows’ field.” In 1803, Audubon carried out the first bird-banding experiment in America at Mill Grove, PA when he attached silver thread to the legs of eastern phoebe nestlings before they migrated. The next spring, he recaptured two of the marked phoebes, which had returned to his property. From that time until today, ornithologists have employed bird banding to track birds’ migratory movements and to ensure accurate counts of their populations. The Eastern Phoebes are flycatchers and they have come back to my place just in time to do insect patrols. There are lots of flies and bees under the house eaves and these birds really clean them up. They also eat ticks which may carry Lyme disease and this makes them stars as far as I am concerned. (more…)