By Darcy Thomas
Winter is around the corner with its shorter and colder days. Some of you are looking forward to skiing, while others just want to cozy up in front of a fire. Some of you travel south. But what are the birds doing? They roost, finding warm places to sleep like tree cavities and brush piles. Some huddle together in groups to share body heat. They fluff their feathers to create air pockets to trap heat and lower their metabolic rate to conserve energy. They eat more. They take advantage of sunny days to warm their feathers. And some migrate.
Winter is time to watch for migrant birds from the North Country such as Snow Buntings, Rough-legged Hawks, Northern Shrike, Redpolls, Bohemian Waxwings, and maybe Snowy Owls. If you feed birds, you may get Evening Grosbeaks and winter finches. Some birds migrate that from higher elevations to lower elevations are easier to find – Steller’s Jays, Varied Thrush, and Pygmy Owls.
Don’t forget to look for animal tracks in the snow. Those wing and tail prints in the snow, however, are not from the birds making snow angels. They are the prints of an owl, hawk or other bird of prey, that has seized prey or swooped down to carry off prey. If you are a photography enthusiast, bright white, virgin snow is the perfect canvas to photograph birds. On a cold day with snow covering the ground, the crystalline silence magnifies the calls of birds.
I hope you have a good winter – wherever you are.
Happy Birding!