I had full intentions of heading to Scarborough Marsh on Monday morning, but with a steady light snow falling, I settled down in front of the window to enjoy the activity at the feeders. Although our 24 Wild Turkeys visit daily, I am still entertained by their antics at the feeding station. I also took some time to study our flock of 18 Mourning Doves; one bird was still retaining some of its juvenile plumage, while another was distinctly darker brown on the body, and very obvious among the flock. Individual variation of common birds is often overlooked, but it worth studying when you have the chance, if only to practice noticing plumage details.

Notice how much darker brown the second bird from the right on the platform feeder is.

After reading the Sunday paper which I never got around to doing on Sunday, listening to Al Gore’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech (my social commentary comment of the morning: while this was on CNN, I switched over to Faux News out of curiosity, and saw film of a guy shooting baseballs out of a pitching machine at his crotch. There’s a ton of symbolism here, which I won’t get into at this time . . .), and then back to some feeder watching. Before I knew it, it was time to head to the store.

Here at the store, the feeder activity has picked up again. Most likely the local Cooper’s Hawk(s) and/or the Northern Shrike has been frequenting our feeders a little too often. See, when you put out feeders you put out an unnatural quantity of food. Therefore, you attract an unnatural quantity of small birds. Therefore, when you attract the prey, you attract the predator. Typically, what you see is that the prey disperse – they have plenty of other food sources to fall back on, both natural and other feeders - and then the predator (now without an unusual concentration of potential meals) gives up and moves on. The small birds soon return. And, that seems to be the case here, with our usual cast of characters regularly visiting again, and our Carolina Wren in particular, has been much more regular than usual over the past few days.

Meanwhile, today, I did motivate out the door this morning (despite the thermometer reading all of 5 degrees) and headed down to Scarborough Marsh. Pine Point (the beach, the Narrows, the river, etc) was very quiet – and it was flippin’ cold! Just small numbers of the usual waterbirds were present, and very few gulls. Three Horned Larks and an adult Bald Eagle flew over.

Two Hooded Mergansers were in Jones Creek, and 10+ American Tree Sparrows joined over a hundred House Sparrows at feeders on Holly Street. Meanwhile, I encountered 5 Pine Grosbeaks at the Pine Point Business Park – the abundance of this species this season is really amazing, and its funny how sightings of such a “good” bird have become so routine. It’s to the point that I EXPECT to see them every time I go birding! That’s just plain silly!

The Scarborough River Preserve was quite active, led by about 30 American Goldfinch, about 25 House Finch, and 16 American Robins. Then, I took a stroll down the Eastern Road Trail, which too was quite productive. I enjoyed a late adult male Merlin, and two Red-tailed Hawks perched in the distance. Yet another Pine Grosbeak – this one “just” a single flyover, and 8 Common Redpolls passed overhead. A flock of about 30 Snow Buntings and about 10 Horned Larks were feeding and flying out over the marsh. And of course my camera was in the car when a very late American Pipit landed about 20 feet away from me, and went about its business, worried more about finding morsels of food in a small bare patch than it was about me.

Next, I checked Dunstan Landing, where three Hooded Mergansers and a very late hen Gadwall were in the river. While Prout’s Pond was frozen solid, Grondin Pond – thanks to its depth and saltwater intrusion – still had about 20% open water. Therefore, it hosted a handful of ducks: 7 American Black, 5 Greater and 1 Lesser Scaup (making for an excellent study), 3 Mallards, and 2 Ruddy Ducks. One Common Redpoll called as it passed overhead, and I found one of the three Eastern Bluebirds that are hanging out in the neighborhood.