14 December - 20 December 2021

Dear fellow flock of birders,

On last Tuesday’s Bird Walk we saw some good birds. Each of the 3 groups saw one special bird. Paul’s group saw a flock of 8-10 Common Redpolls at the east entrance to Juniper Knoll. Wade’s group saw a Merlin not far from the parking lot and my group saw a Pileated Woodpecker in the tall trees just east of Curtis Prairie. A photo of the Pileated Woodpecker is included.

On Wednesday night into Thursday morning we experienced some really strong winds of 50-60 mph. When I birded Thursday the winds kept the birds hunkered down and hiding. I hardly saw a thing.

By Friday the winds had disappeared and it was calm. The sun was shining and the sky was mostly clear. Yipee! The birds came out to enjoy the day so birding was good. I think birds love the sunny days without wind just as much as we do. The Crabapple Collection had American Robins, Northern Cardinals, Cedar Waxwings, House Finches and Wild Turkeys. 

On the south side of the Crabapples are two special birches called Whitespire and Sweet. They have female catkins that American Goldfinches find seeds in. But they are also trees that Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls will feed on when they are here in the winter. I found the American Goldfinches but there were also 2 Common Redpolls feeding there too. The Redpoll is a bit smaller than a goldfinch and has a distinct red patch on its head. It also has some stripes on the side and a white breast and belly. A photo of 2 Common Redpolls is included.

In the Pinetum there were 3 Red-breasted Nuthatches working the pine cones for food. Also there were at least 50 American Crows and they were cawing a lot as if they were mobbing an owl or a raptor but I could not find either one. Many were on the ground while others were perched in adjacent trees at the edge of Gallistel Woods. My interpretation of these loud cawing crows was that they were just a bunch of rowdy teenagers. A photo of just one of those crows is included.

At Teal Pond I saw 1 Pine Siskin and it came to the European Alder near me and inserted its pointy beak into the small, pine cone like, female catkins to extract really tiny seeds. There a very few Pine Siskins in Dane County so far this year.  A photo of the Pine Siskin is included.

Saturday, December 18th, was the day of the Madison Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The Madison CBC, as are all CBCs around WI and the US, is held within a circle that has a diameter of 15 miles. The Madison circle is subdivided into 23 Areas. A photo of the Madison CBC Circle and its Areas is included. Most of the Arboretum is contained within Area 13. Levi Wood is the captain of Area 13 and I help Levi. There were 8 birders to cover various parts of the Arb in the morning. We were able to find 32 different species. We did not find the Pine Siskin and the Common Redpolls that I saw the day before nor did we find a Barred Owl that I saw the day after. This is typical.

Part of Area 13 that I and two others had to cover were a group of houses (and their feeders) that are surrounded by the Arboretum. We found one house that had 43 Wild Turkeys eating in the front yard. The owner probably puts out corn or other food for the turkeys. The most humorous sighting was a Wild Turkey up on a platform feeder obviously meant for small birds. It flew up to the platform and stood there trying all the various foods. A photo of this bold guy is included.

Large flocks of European Starlings can sometimes be found in the Arboretum especially in the Crabapple Collection. Included is a photo of many starlings in a tree. Here’s the quiz. First estimate how many you think are in the tree without counting them. Then count them. How close was your estimate to the actual number when you counted them? Are you an under counter or an over counter?

This morning when I went birding the full moon was still visible. I tried to incorporate the moon with a bird in my photo but no birds were cooperating. Next I went to the flat metal sculpture that has a Sandhill Crane in it. The Sandhill Crane appears to be bugling at the full moon.

That’s the bird report for the past week.

I wish you all a wonderful holiday! If you need to take a walk after consuming too much food try birding.

Chuck