Snow Brings New Yard Birds to Feeders

With the recent snow (over 14 inches in my back yard) our weekend trip to Middle Creek wildlife Area was cancelled, as the tour road was closed - so I decided to spent some time watching my feeders.

Yard Feeder Area

At first the usually suspects showed up: Junco's, Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees and Red Bellied woodpeckers.

Red Bellied Woodpecker

After about 20 minutes, I noticed a different sparrow species other than the Song Sparrows I have been seeing, but it remained hidden under the pine trees (see photo of feeder area above)showing itself only briefly. Determined to see what species this was, I set up my scope and waited...after a few rounds of hide and go seek - I finally got a good look and was surprises to see a Fox Sparrow - a first for my yard..needless to say I was delighted. After watching the Fox Sparrow 'scratch' for food - it  confirmed the species.   

Fox Sparrow

What happened next, surprised me even more, I saw another sparrow species that was somewhat different from the Songs and Fox, it was much smaller and different colored...and after careful looks and checking my guide to confirm...it turned out to be a Lincoln's Sparrow - another yard first and rare bird for this time of year and area.

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I was quite excited, two (2) new yard and year birds in one day and one of the them a rare species....I had high hopes of seeing even more of the them..when the resident Cooper's Hawk decided to visit the feeder area looking for breakfast and everything scattered...that was after 1-1/2 hours and 20 species..not a bad day.

Until Next time