Rarities on the Wing
I took this screenshot late this morning via this always helpful and very cool wind map. They use surface wind data from the National Digital Forecast Database, updated hourly, to create this national flow of air. Even without it in motion you can see there is a huge trough in the east, with winds shooting down from the northwest until you get to about Chicago, at which point the bend brings them screaming out of the south and then the east higher into New England. All of this unsettled weather can easily push avian migrants out of their chosen path, bringing southern resident rarities up to...
Read MoreSnow Piling Up
The snow keeps piling up for us this February, its weight on the trees and the earth growing. We will have a lot of water to absorb into the soil come spring! If the conditions stay near normal throughout the next few months vernal pools should be filled with plenty of successfully reproductive amphibian life. Additionally, this upcoming weekend may finally thaw us out a bit (if we define “thaw” as the temperature actually rising above freezing for a few hours) and deliver a system featuring…gasp…liquid precipitation that does not freeze on contact! It is also known...
Read MorePine Siskin Feeding
Pine Siskins have been eating everything in sight at many homes across the region in the past few weeks, devouring seed at increasing rates with the increasingly stormy and snowy weather. If you are fortunate enough to have a flock you may be aided in pulling in a Common Redpoll, another winter bird that has been seen more frequently, albeit in lesser numbers, this February. I have yet to have the fortune of a Redpoll for the winter of 2014-2015, but I have spotted some Siskins. Even if you miss out on these two species during their winter stay keep your feeders filled through March and...
Read MoreRusty Blackbird Pair
Here is a Throwback Thursday to a Rusty Blackbird male and female in the winter snow looking for food at a bird feeder after a storm. The male is the darker individual and the female is the lighter bird. Please remember that no matter where you live it is absolutely vital to enter any Rusty Blackbirds you see into eBird, especially during the 2015 Rusty Blackbird Spring Migration Blitz! See more information on how you can help save the species here on our website.
Read MoreBroad-winged Hawks and hawk watch season
It is nearly time for an exhilarating explosion of raptors down the eastern seaboard. Kettles like this filled with tens, hundreds and thousands of Broad-winged Hawks like these are on the way. I’m ready…and the weather will be soon. Stretch your necks now. I’ll have more to come on the raptors, flight conditions, species to look for and hawk watching in action throughout the next few months.
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