Nebraska Feederwatch

It was a busy week in the midwest, but the moments in between–the spandrels of my time–were happily filled at Carolyn’s feeders. Perhaps most of note was the continuing presence of several Pine Siskins, a species that breeds in southeast Nebraska every few years: this looks like one of them.

Winter lingerers and residents shared the buffet with arriving migrants. Chipping Sparrows, out of their breeding habitat in the walnut, oak, and linden woods, were willing nonetheless to gobble the millet sprinkled on the ground.

At least one Lincoln’s Sparrow, somber and beautiful, joined the frenzy.

Even a featherless quadruped or two stopped by.

Carolyn’s switch from oilseed to safflower has cut down on her squirrels, but there were still a number of foxy Eastern Fox-Squirrels.

This guy was a white-bellied red morph, but there were also brown-bellied reds and quite a few black-morph individuals. More surprising, at least by the standards of three decades ago, were the Eastern Gray Squirrels I saw: one at Carolyn’s feeders and one in Fontenelle Forest. That is, or at least was, a very rare mammal so far north in Nebraska.

The highlight of springtime feeders, of course, are the colorful migrants that give such stunningly close looks. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, just arriving on April 30, were all over the feeders by the time I left on Tuesday, and at least one male Ruby-throated Hummingbird was already monopolizing the sugar water. A male Summer Tanager, to my memory about as rare as Eastern Gray Squirrel that far north, arrived on May 4; Carolyn tells me that a pair of that species has frequented the grape jelly for a couple of summers in a row now.

My favorites, though, and how could it be otherwise?, were the Baltimore Orioles. It just doesn’t seem right that so common a bird could be so breathtaking, but seen against the dark background of greening trees in the mist, there’s nothing like it.

Carolyn and I were keeping ebird lists from her yard each day I was there, regularly scoring two dozen species during a ten-minute feederwatch from the living room. I’m sure by now all migration has broken loose, and tallies are probably approaching 40 in the woods out the window.