Today at the Birdfeeder….

Greetings fellow Birders!

I know it is often helpful to see which local birders are seeing which birds in the neighborhood at a given time of the year, so that you can know what to be on the lookout for in Sonoma County. We’re 3/4 of the way through a very sunny, mild March here, and the birds appear to be thriving in my gravenstein apple tree. Here’s a list of who’s been stopping by the feeders today for a gourmet meal of organic sunflower seeds, or simply to pull up a branch for a rest:

Acorn Woodpecker
Red-shafted Flicker
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
Housefinch
California Quail
Scrub Jay

The sparrows and housefinches keep knocking the blossoms off the tree. Why are they doing this? They are clearly eating something. Is it the blossoms, bugs in the blossoms? I would really like to know. Hey, just as I’m saying this, I see a squirrel out there eating the blossoms in a most charming and endearing way. Birds and Animals! I’d like a few apples on my tree this year. Please leave a few flowers.

Other birds that have been prominent this week:
Lesser Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
Starling
Oak Titmouse
Varied Thrush
Western Bluebird
Nuttall’s Woodpecker
White-breasted Nuthatch
Mockingbird.

These are the birds I’m seeing on my walks and in my garden. How about you? Who’s in your neck of the woods this week?

The Mockingbird brings spring to Sonoma County

Greetings!
This week, my husband and I have celebrated spring with the purchase of two lovely crabapple trees for our garden. The Mockingbird knows that the glorious season is upon us, too, and has burst into his song of praise.

I am always surprised by the scowls and groans that the Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos, elicits from human beings. They complain, of course, of having been kept awake by this bird who will sing from sunrise to well beyond sunset, particularly in the springtime. To me, his song is a lullabye, a composition that surpasses the works of Vivaldi, of Tchaikovsky, of Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. We were thrilled this week, the official start of spring, to find that our neighborhood Mockingbird of the year seems to be a musician of supreme talents. Each of these birds is different, with a different repertoire. We heard our bird give perfect imitations of:
a Red-tailed hawk
a Kildeer
a Dark-eyed Junco
a Scrub Jay
an Acorn Woodpecker

We have a favorite memory from about 3 years ago when we sat up late on a warm summer’s night, trying to count the seemingly endless calls of the resident Mockingbird who lived near us that year. His frogs and crickets were amazing. Other people report hearing car alarms, tractors, construction sounds, sirens. The mockingbird is the great composer of the North American bird world, and he is a year-round resident in Sonoma County.

If you are lucky enough to have a neighborhood Mockingbird this year, you will enjoy observing his vivid springtime behavior. The male bird chooses a high perch, such as a telephone pole, and makes a great, eye-catching display of bursts into the air, spinning round like a propeller, flashing his white wing bars and the white streamers on his tail. He sings while he does this and it is fascinating to watch him.

Mockingbirds have adapted well to suburban life where there are some open grassy areas nearby for feeding and thick shrubbery for their nesting. They are extremely territorial and will actively chase off other birds, animals, and sometimes even humans who make them feel threatened. They build their nests of plant matter in a low hedge and lay 3-6 green eggs.

All around us, right now, the bird world is incredibly active. A simple walk up and down your block can treat you to the sight of many, many species, all of them bent on building their nests and starting their families. This is a joyous time.

I also wish to add to this a tidbit of gardening advice. For years, I have been in love with crabapple trees. They come in many hybrid varieties, but the ones I favor most are those with the bright red buds and very pale white flowers with just a tinge of pink. We hunted high and low for these at nurseries this week and could not find them, though we did see other pretty kinds. At last, I discovered that the simple Malus Floribunda was the tree I sought and we found a pair of them at Friedman Bros. nursery department in the town of Sonoma. Simply radiant trees! To me, the blossoms of this crabapple look as though each was lovingly sculpted of fine china, and we are very happy to have at last included these elegant trees in our garden.

And now, before the day waxes any later, I’m going to get outside for some spring sunshine and say hello to our new Mockingbird friend. I hope you can do the same!

Identifying the Pileated Woodpecker in Sonoma County, CA.

Greetings Readers!
Allow me to present to you the great king of all local woodpeckers - Dryocopus pileatus, the Pileated Woodpecker. For sheer size, he far surpasses all other woodpeckers you will see in our region, and with the exception of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, he stands as the largest of all U.S. woodpeckers at up to 19 1/2″ from head to tail.

In my mind, I have a most perfect, unforgettable image of this regal bird soaring over a reflective, green forest pond, and alighting on a craggy, dead tree trunk at the far shore. There are two white bands on his upper wings and a large patch of white on his under wings, and his red head is like a flame that is truly startling when one is walking in the gloaming of a wood.

He is the only crested woodpecker in California. As we’ve discussed in previous posts, a crested head is a perfect field mark for beginning birders to use to help easily identify new birds. In Sonoma County, we have 4 birds with crested heads: the Oak Titmouse, the Cedar Waxwing, the Stellar’s Jay and the Pileated Woodpecker. There is simply no mistaking this bird, when you see him…but it is seeing him that can be the challenge!

It never ceases to strike me that a tiny bird like the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is brave enough to allow me to stand a foot away from him as I fill my birdfeeder. In point of fact, he lets me know he is rather impatiently waiting for me to serve up his meal. By contrast, a huge powerful bird like this woodpecker is incredibly shy and most people encounter them by accidentally flushing them out of a hiding place. They take off at the slightest crackle of a twig or crunch of leaves underfoot. We have enough Pileated Woodpeckers in the Bay Area to make it quite likely you will encounter one if you keep your eyes open, but you are more likely to hear one than see one. And when a Pileated woodpecker makes his kuk-kuk-kuk call or hammers a tree, the whole forest knows about it.

Loud is an understatement. He makes the tapping of other local woodpeckers sound like a mere whisper. Like a jackhammer, he bores into damaged trees and then probes with his long, sticky tongue for the carpenter ants that are the main staple of his diet. Because downed trees are good hosts for these ants, Pileated Woodpeckers are often spotted feeding on the ground, rather like the Northern Flicker. I will include here a link to Pileated Woodpecker Sounds so that you can learn to recognize his call and hammer. *However, don’t be surprised if a Stellar’s Jay ever tricks you into thinking you are hearing the Pileated Woodpecker. The jay makes a wonderful mimic of the call.

This woodpecker also drills very large, circular holes for nesting. 3-5 white eggs are common.

Male and female birds are very similar in appearance, but the female lacks the red stripe by the bill…hers is black, instead. We recently had the delight of witnessing a pair of these birds perched on adjacent power poles.

Where you can see the Pileated Woodpecker in Sonoma County
I hope you aren’t tiring of me urging you to go to Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen, but as we’ve had numerous sightings of these birds there over the past few months, this would be my best suggestion for any birder who is eager to see this majestic fowl. The eucalyptus grove and silo area beyond the upper parkinglot (turn right at the ranger’s kiosk) are exactly where to go, keeping your eyes and ears open.

My husband and I have been enthralled with the search for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. We have repeatedly read, and recommend Tim Gallagher’s The Grail Bird for a thrilling, insider’s account of this quest in the mysterious swamps of the South. When I see Pileated Woodpeckers, I get a hint of what these men have felt, standing in a silent forest, seeing that shadow of black and white skimming through the trees. As I doubt I will ever go to Arkansas, Texas or the other regions where the search is still being conducted, I know that my encounters with the Pileated Woodpecker are likely the closest I will ever come to the what the Ivory-bill seekers have experienced, and it gives me a little thrill!

Down in the South, folks call the Pileated the “Good God Bird”. The Ivory Bill is the “Lord God Bird”. This comes from the exclamations people make when they are startled by the sight of such large, distinctive woodpeckers, and because the Pileated Woodpecker is a year-round Sonoma County resident, you may set out on your own search for a great big woodpecker any day of the week!

See butterflies this week in Sonoma County

Greetings,
Due to some ill health and indifferent weather, we’ve had scant birding the past couple of weeks, hence the lack of posts here. However, yesterday was a wonderful day and I seem to be getting over whatever bug was ailing me, and we practically ran all the way to Jack London State Park in Glen Ellen, California, desperate to soak up some sun, some birds, some life!

White-crowned sparrows, Acorn Woodpeckers, Nuttall’s Woodpeckers and Western Bluebirds are in good shape in the park, though the sheer numbers of birds seem less now that winter is ending. Birding highlight of the day: a very large Pileated Woodpecker in the eucalyptus grove.

However, the afternoon had a different highlight for us, too. Jack London State Park is quite a good spot for Butterfly watchers, due to its varied vegetation, and yesterday, we found and identified the California Tortoiseshell Butterfly. Just beyond the silos, there is a nice sloping hill graced with fine oak trees, and here we saw a lovely display of these orange and brown butterflies, spiraling ’round one another, up toward the blue sky.

The California Tortoiseshell loves Manzanita, and the state park has a good amount of this and it just came into flower a week or two ago. The butterflies are a little less than two inches across, I would say, but please bear in mind that we are not expert butterfly folks. Their flame-like hues and a distinctive pattern of five chocolate spots on the upper wing make identification fairly simple.

Why Sonoma County residents need to be on the lookout for Butterflies in 2007
Did you see the butterfly migration in 2005? Northern Californians were thunderstruck by the passage of what may have been millions of Painted Lady butterflies. It’s a day my husband and I will never forget.

Pope John Paul II’s death was announced the day the butteflies came across our land. We were feeling very sorrowful, and got in our car, and began driving westward in the cloud of thousands of orange and black butterflies. I remember we had the radio on, listening wordlessly to the news coming from Rome, and our progress to the sea was made in the company of this flying host of winged creatures. If it sounds like this memory has the quality of a strange dream, that is because it did. We ended up at a church in Olema, CA. where a visiting priest from Rome was giving Mass. He had once met the pope, and that afternoon, the priest played the piano and sang a song in honor of the departed. It was very beautiful, and the whole long day was surreal in the extreme.

And then came 2006, and a combination of strange climate and loss of habitat resulted in almost no butterflies appearing anywhere in California - a subject of serious concern! To read more about the disappearance of the butterflies, please read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle on the subject. There has been a distressing decline in butterflies in California over the past 8 years, and 2006 was the worst year yet. I am very worried about this! Last year, I didn’t see a single Monarch, very few Western Tiger Swallowtails, Pipevine Swallowtails, Buckeyes, Skippers or any of the other butteflies I count on. And this is why, neighbors, we need to keep our eyes open for butteflies this year, to see who is visiting our parks and gardens.

I highly recommend a visit to Laspilitas.com if you’d like to learn more about identifying butterflies and providing habitat for them. Anything at all that we can do to help these creatures will be good for them and good for all of us.

Why not take a drive over to the state park in Glen Ellen this week to enjoy the simple, beautiful site of the California Tortoiseshell, rejoicing in its poetic life amongst the oak trees?