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March 28, 2002 - A goodbye to a fallen comradeThe Suffolk Times • March 28, 2002 goodbye to a fallen comrade Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh This little goldfinch, dressed In its winter plumage, was feeding at one of our thistle feeders when a hawk rushed in and scared all the birds away. Sorry to say this unfortunate goldfinch flew up trying to escape, hit one of our win- dows and was killed. 1 "D LIKE TO RELATE AN 1ncicent inat happened on our back porch that made us feel sorry and sad. Barbara and I were eating breakfast as we always do by the big window. It gives us a good view of our woods and bird feeders that hand FOCUS from our back porch. Just the ON day before an NATURE unfortunate goldfinch had by Paul flown into the Stoutenburgh window and was killed. What had happened was one of the woodland hawks that prey on small birds dashed in and scared the feeding birds up, some flying into the window trying to When we heard the bird hit the win dow we went out and picked it up. It was dead. Barbara held it in her hands as we looked at its beautiful winter colors and dainty shape. We then tem- porarily laid it down on a flower shelf nearby with the idea of later burying it. Well, that was a day ago. Now, as we munched on our morning toast, Barbara happened to look out the win- dow and there was another goldfinch not six inches away, crouched down just looking at its deceased comrade. It made us think that maybe, just maybe, the bird world does have feel- ings somewhat like our own. For here, this beautiful little finch that was once alive, and now dead, had what anneared to be a mourner by its side. Was this one of the group that every day visits our feeder and gives us such pleasure? Were there real feelings there? We'll never know. The bird stayed frozen in place for probably 10 or 20 minutes. Then it was gone. It made us think about things we had not thought about before. Goldfinches are one of the latest birds to nest. They are just starting to nest when most other birds have fledged their young and the summer is half over. It's believed the reason for the goldfinch holding off its nesting dates is that, being mostly a seed eater, it waits until-plants have gone to seed. This theory is backed up by close observation of baby birds being fed a regurgitated, half - digested mass of seeds at each feeding. By late summer the goldfinch's favorite food, the this- tle, is now bursting through its pod, along with a multitude of other seeds that become available. I remember finding my first goldfinch nest in the abandoned park- ing lot that was once an outdoor movi theater just west of Moores Woods in Greenport. It was truly a work of art. Its outside structure was made of woven grasses and what looked like fine strips of bark. But the real wonder was the interior of the nest. It was made up of soft thistle and cattail down, the perfect insulator. The nest was but five feet off the ground in an autumn olive bush, which made it easy to look into. As I recall, it was the beginning of September, a late date for any bird to be thinking of nesting, except the goldfinch. The goldfinch's late nesting abit usu- ally places it outside the devilish nest- ing habit of the cowbird. Remember, the cowbird is the culprit that lays its egg in other birds' nests, leaving the unexpected host the job of incubating its young. This wouldn't be half bad if that's all there was to the story, but it isn 't. Usually the young cowbird hatch-1 es a few days before the other young and therefore is fed first and gets a head start before the host's young even hatch out. This habit of the cowbird laying its single egg in other birds' nests is some- times foiled by the host bird rebuilding a completely new nest over tne cow- bird's egg. This outsmarting by the h4 bird is only occasionally found, sorry It's more likely the cowbird's fiendish trick is successful, with the end result being the young cowbird has grown bigger and stronger, so much so that it demands and gets most of the food that's brought to the nest. It seems odd that most parent birds don't realize what's going on, but continue to feed the young cowbird to the detriment of its own young. One last bit about the young cowbird: It grows so fast and so big and is so greedy that it often pushes the smaller, weaker birds right out of the nest. Now it has no competi- tion and so develops into a strong, healthy cowbird that will grow up to follow in its parents' foot- steps. This trick of a parent bird's shirking its rearing duties, leading to the demise of other young nestlings, has devastat- ed some near - extinct species, such as the Kirkland's warbler. So concerned are some birders that they go out to the warblers' nesting grounds and liter- ally remove the cowbird's egg from the warbler's nest, thereby assuring the young warblers' rightful place in the sun. While we are on the subject of finch- es, I'm sure many of you have noticed colored bird that comes to your feeder or that you see in your driveway or yard. It has an interesting history, for at one time there were none of these birds found in the east, the reason being it originally came from the west, where it flourished from Alaska to Mexico. Because of its cheery song and strik- ing color, it was often captured from the wild for caged -bird sales in pet shops in- the city. Then, when the pet- shop owners were informed they had illegal birds for sale and they became aware of the legal ramifications, they set their caged birds free. The year was 1940. Little did they realize how this bird, a visitor from the west, would soon start to spread throughout the metropolitan area. Today, it's been seen as far north as Maine and as far south as Georgia. It's taken its place along with the house sparrow in nest- ing and food supplies. They both do well around man. The finch often nests in hanging flower pots, clinging ivy vines, birdhouses and many of man's other structures. From that meager beginning back in 1940, they've become a common feed- er bird, sometimes to the extent of there being just too many. They are cheerful little birds, the male with his raspberry coloring and the female with her streaked grayish -brown coloring. We have both finches that come and feed at our finch feeders. One is the tube feeder, where only finches can feed by hanging upside -down, which keeps the other birds away. Then there's the sock feeder, which is basical- ly a coarsely woven net bag especially made for finches, that we put thistle feed in. They seem to like that even better than the tube feeder. It makes it easier for their little claws to grab the mesh and hold on as they pull the seeds out. Many seeds are dropped, which makes it nice for the doves, spar- rows and juncos that feed on the ground exclusively. And so we have the two finches that are colorful and cheer- ful to have around, the goldfinch and the house finch. P.S. We've now moved our feeders a good distance away from the house, where the little goldfinch was killed. Those woodland hawks are just getting a little too aggressive, so we'll have to do everything we can to make it safe for our feeder friends.