MV NATURE
NATURE in december story and photos by Matt Perry
Sometimes my mother would decorate our Christmas tree with a diverse flock of glass bird ornaments, and I think I appreciated it more than anyone else in the family. Some of the bird ornaments looked like they represented actual species, but the vast majority did not. They were merely generic bird shapes painted in vivid colors. I recall that a few resembled peacocks and one looked like an exotic kind of kingfisher. Regardless of ornithological accuracy, they were nice to see and they certainly looked more convincing nestled in the branches of a spruce than an ornament shaped like Santa or a reindeer. Our cats found the birds intriguing as well and more than once brought down the entire tree while trying to take one away. Of course, my hope during December is to have the outdoor trees festooned with real birds, and the more species the better. Most winter specialty species are not reliable visitors to the Mohawk Valley and it’s not unusual for several years to go by between their visits. One quintessential winter visitor to the region’s feeding stations is the Evening Grosbeak. In the 1970s through the early 1990s, the Evening Grosbeak would be seen nearly every winter. They would gather at feeders and snarf down sunflower seeds at a prodigious rate. These large black, yellow, and white finches were true winter luminaries and almost everyone looked forward to their arrival. They became rarities in the region by the mid 1990s, but some of us that live in higher elevations can still count on them showing up en masse about every 3 to
Flock of Common Redpolls feeding on Gray Birch seeds
5 years. Their visits south are prompted by a lack of food in their normal home range in the northwestern forests. The bright trilled calls of Evening Grosbeak flocks are often heard before the birds are seen. This year I began hearing them fly over in late October, and that tells me at least some of us will have them in our yards in December. There are early indications that the winter of 2020-21 will be a big year for them. The movements of Pine Grosbeaks are also hard to predict. Their visits to the Mohawk Valley are even rarer than those of the Evening Grosbeaks. A full decade can go by between their visits. The male Pine Grosbeak has mostly russet plumage on the head, breast, and back. The rest of its body plumage is gray. All sexes and ages have darker wings and show bold white wing bars. The adult female is much grayer overall but has a russet or yellow-green head. Colors are also variable in juveniles. When in our region the Pine Grosbeak is not usually associated with pine trees but is more typically encountered in deciduous seed or fruit-bearing trees. They adore crabapples, thornapples (from hawthorns), and are particularly fond of seeds from ash trees. They only rarely show up at bird feeders, which means even when they are in our neighborhoods, we may not know it. As usual, I am most often alerted to their presence by hearing their calls. In the breeding season, when they are in their home range in
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Northern Canada, they produce a bright warbled song which sounds to me like the mixture of the Purple Finch’s song and that of the Eastern Bluebird. When here, they give simple call notes, usually consisting of two or three short, trilled notes. Like all the other finch species that come through Central New York, they are highly social birds and associate with each other in tight flocks. We are well overdue for a visit from this lovely species and given that the local supply of their favorite foods is plentiful, perhaps this is the year. Be sure to look and listen for them in the appropriate habitat. There are a host of other winter specialties to look for in December. Most of them are species of finch and include the Common Redpoll, Hoary Redpoll, White-winged Crossbill, Red Crossbill, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin. Of those species, the Common Redpoll, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin are sure bets for this winter, and you can watch for them at your bird feeders. The Bohemian Waxwing is not a finch species, but it shares their nomadic lifestyle. They come into the region in force perhaps once a decade. Their plumage is like that of the common Cedar Waxwing but is more ornate and colorful. Like the finches, they travel in flocks, which sometimes number in the hundreds. They are partial to berry crops and other fruits. They may descend on a grove of laden berry bushes and strip them clean in an hour. Bohe-
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