It’s wicked cold out there again! Perfect weather for feeder watching! Personally, I have been glued to the window here at the store this morning, with an abundance of activity outside. Especially exciting was the return of Carolina Wrens to our feeding station. After seeing one most of the last 2 years, we had not had one visiting the feeders since sometime in November, I believe. However, two have been frequenting a neighbor’s yard a mere 200 yards or so away. But, until today, they had not visited us. Jeannette and I were feeling unloved, but the two birds returned today and have spent most of the morning feeding on insect suet and pecan blocks. While I rushed out to restock our live mealworm supply, I do think the Black-capped Chickadees cleaned them out once again.

Especially popular in this bitter cold are heated birdbaths. Here at the store, it has been especially active today, and I’ve already had to refill it once after a flock of European Starlings decided to take a bath! Meanwhile, at our house in Pownal, a dozen American Goldfinches were lined up on the rim this morning, taking turns dipping for fresh, clean, and unfrozen water.

With the forecasts calling for strong winds, bitter cold, and bone-chilling wind-chills, I do believe that feeder-watching will be my most common activity for the next few mornings! At home, our neighbors across the street had a dozen Purple Finches this morning, so I’ll have to be on a lookout for them – we haven’t had them in the yard since November. Plus, I received another report of 2 pairs of Purple Finches at a Freeport feeder this morning. Although they have been common in Northern Maine, they have been nearly absent along the coast.

Is anyone seeing Purple Finches (or Pine Siskins?) in their yards? I would love to know (use the comment field below, but DON’T preview the comment as there continues to be some stupid bug in this system).

The very cold air is also concentrating waterfowl, so any open stretches of rivers and lakes, and sheltered saltwater coves should be checked carefully right now. Large flocks of overwintering Mallards – at places like sewage treatment facility outflows or springs – can sometimes hold out-of-season surprises. With the dearth of winter finches in the area, ducks will be our focus for a while, but other winter visitors, such as Rough-legged Hawks have been seen with unusual frequency of late. There’s never a time to stop birding!

I often mention that the free birdwalks that we lead from the store at 8:00am every Saturday morning will go in ANY weather – as long a I could make it to the store to lead it. Well, with the 4-5 inches of new snow yesterday, our driveway nearly prevented my departure, and I considered staying home to clear it instead of heading to meet the birdwalk group. I didn’t think anyone would bother making it out, but three hardy souls were here to greet me – good thing I made it down the driveway! And, we were all rewarded with a great outing, which included sightings of Barrow’s Goldeneye, Dunlin, Purple Sandpipers, Northern Shrike, Hooded Mergansers, and a Bald Eagle!

In other news . . .

An alarming story from my old haunts (where I spent a total of 12 months over the course of three years as a Tour Guide) of St. Paul in Alaska’s Pribilof Islands reports continued significant decreases in the Northern Fur Seal population there. This story hits home for me, because I could see the difference in the density of the island’s seal colonies decrease significantly between my first season (2000) and last season (2003) there.

On a sad note, the introduction of a self-sustaining Eastern population of the Endangered Whooping Crane took a big hit this year, when the entire year’s brood perished in the recent violent weather in Florida.

But, to end on a happy note, recent evidence suggests that the catastrophic decline of vultures in India has been stopped.