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January 30, 1997 - Caution! Birds Flocking to FeedersJanuary 30, 1997 • The Suffolk Times • 7A Caution! Bikds Flocking to Feeders Much of the world around us travels in unpredictable cycles. One year we have good blue crabbing, the next year noth- ing. One year is good for certain kinds of fish, another year nothing. One year there are scallops, the next year almost nothing. This unpredictability throws many into a dither because in their world everything must run like clockwork; not so with nature. Take, for in- stance, raccoons. FOCUS Most of the time they are quite ac- on five around our Nature backyards and evi- dence of road kills by Paul seems almost com- mon, but then there g is a period when they are missed at their nightly antics and tricks. A disabling disease can spread through their population and in no time their numbers plummet. For a while our garbage pails and chimneys are left alone. Even the farmer can see this cycle of ups and downs as his crops are ravaged one year and not the next. As time goes on, the rhythm swings back and the raccoon pop- ulation builds up again. As I sit at my table looking out, chick- adees flit in and take advantage of the free handout of sunflower seed. There are only two. What happened to the usual six or more that used to come and pick just the right seed to carry off to a nearby branch where it would peck away at its treasure? I've been getting calls from concerned people who feed birds and it's always the same. "Where have all the chickadees gone ?" I wish I knew. Could this be another cycle? The winter so far hasn't been too bad for birds since their natural supply of hibernating bugs, eggs and larvae of all sorts are available, plus each year it seems more and more people are feeding birds so their winter food supply should be excellent. Some say there are more owls than ever and wonder if they could be the problem, but that theory seems wrong because most owls hunt only at night and chick- adees, like woodpeckers, nuthatches, tit- mice and others, find a bird box or con- venient cavity in a tree to spend the night in. Roosting birds like blue jays, mourn- ing doves, crows, etc., could fall prey to an owl but not the cavity dwellers who sleep content, warm and protected. Then what could be affecting these cheerful little bits of black- and -white fluff to bring their numbers down? Could it be hawks (sharp- shinned, Cooper's, etc.), for they hunt during the daytime? I'm sure many who have birds coming to their feeders have often wondered why, without any warning at all, the birds all take off at once. Often, but not always, it means a hawk is around. Many of my readers have called telling of hawks that have swooped in and taken one of "their" birds. Usually the hawk is spotted by one of the feeding birds who gives out an alarm to the others, who all fly off in a flurry of wings leaving Mr. Hawk to go bewildered and hungry. As yet I haven't completely determined if hawks could be the cause of our declin- ing chickadee population. It would take a concerted effort to determine if everyone was having the same results, or could it be just my telephone callers who seem to be having lower population? If that were the case, I'd say hawks are the culprit. I know this to be true in my own particular case, for I have a "sharpie" that hangs out down around the pond and could be the cause of my low population of feeding birds. It's hard to determine the cause of these cycles but it's easy to guestimate them. Add Suet to Birds I Diet While we're on the subject of feeders, I hope those who like to feed birds will make sure suet is on the menu. We just put down one of our cows, which we do each year, and distributed the meat to our kids' freezers. The animal is butchered locally and so we are able to get the best suet there is. We fill our suet feeders to the brim and then freeze the rest for future use. The one problem with feeding suet is that sometimes raccoons will help themselves, so you want to hang it in an onion bag someplace where he won't be able to get at it. Actually I haven't had any trouble with raccoons lately. Perhaps this is because there aren't as many rac- coons and their cycle is down as men- tioned earlier. We put a fair amount of bird seed on the ground and like to watch the ground feeders come and enjoy the spoils. Whenever you have birds feeding they naturally attract others. Proof of that was during the cold snap we had a week or so ago when we had two special visitors. Nothing too exciting but quite different for this time of year. First to come was a rufous -sided towhee, a bird of the sum- mer forest floor. They scratch in the leaves like chickens and we watched him do the same with the seeds that he scattered about the ground. Basi- cally the towhee is an insect eater that turns the duff of the forest floor over to find all sorts of goodies, but with the freeze -up that food supply was unavail- able and so our towhee resorted to other forms of energy food such as my bird seed. To lure birds to your feeder, try putting out an orange half or a handful of raisins. A few days later a brown thrasher came to our ground seed. That is one of my favorite birds and one I photographed Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh BROWN THRASHER —This summer nester usually heads south in the win- ter but on occasion it will spend the winter with us and if you are lucky, it might show up at your feeder. over 40 years ago in the woods right in back of our house. It was in a rather dark location so I asked my newly married wife to come out into the woods and hold a "flash" while I photographed the bird in its low nest. I'm not sure what it was but the thrasher didn't like being disturbed and flew at Barbara, who in turn quickly withdrew wondering just what she had gotten herself into. With a little coaxing and slower movements, we got the pic- ture and she's been helping me ever since. Thrashers and other interesting birds of- ten can be lured to your feeder by putting out half an orange or a handful of raisins. It's worth a try. A call from an ardent feeder watcher out in Orient last week told of a new- comer to her feeder — an oriole. This is the noisy singer of springtime who builds a beautifully intricate hanging nest on the end of a limb. After the leaves have fall- en from the trees we can see their hanging nests and wonder why we hadn't seen them sooner. Here, too, was an exception, an oriole enjoying a free handout at a feeder. Another good bird reported recently over in Fleets Neck was a yellow - bellied sapsucker that was revisiting its sap in a tree in the man's yard. This really could- n't be classified as a bird feeder but it acted as one, for sapsuckers drill a series of holes around a tree, which makes sap ooze out. With this supply of sweetness available, the woodpecker returns every once in a while to drink his fill. During warmer weather, insects are attracted to the oozing holes and when the wood- pecker returns he has the addition of meat on his menu. This woodpecker is an uncommon visitor to our East End. It all goes to show how fascinating feeding birds can be and how you can never tell when a new and exciting bird will show up. So keep your eyes open and your bird book handy, for your day could come along at any time. • fer1119: 1ve'vice Aou,- 119)977 ilKY All SerYiCeS II�0 1�[�5s. �Cro>>n[[t�[�,a[�c[tss. 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