Birding report for mid-January

In the late afternoon of January 12 a Northern Harrier, aka “Marsh Hawk” was spotted hunting along the fringes of the Spurwink River. On this same day there was Rough-legged Hawk along Black Point Road in Scarborough. A cold climate hawk, Rough-legged’s nest and rear young in the tundra regions north of the boreal forest.

In the early morning hours of Jan 17 a very cold looking Hermit Thrush was seen in a Winterberry bush along Shore road.

‘Tis the hooting season - on the evening of Jan 18 (Super Blood Wolf Moon was on Jan 20) I had just arrived home from work and was standing in our front hallway when all of a sudden I thought I heard hooting. Seconds later there it was again, the evenly spaced, low pitched, deep but seemingly distant booming sound of a male Great Horned Owl. Stepping outside to further investigate the matter, I was treated to the higher and huskier hoot notes of the female as well.

The last time that I heard Great Horned Owls calling from our property was February 2017. During January and February these owls become vocal. Later in the year the birds are less vocal, but now and then, especially in autumn, their hooting may be heard. As many folks may know, the Great Horned is a very early nester, often with young in the nest long before the snow has left us for the season. In “Birds of Massachusetts and other New England States” (1927) Edward Howe Forbush describes the nest of a Great Horned as “well lined with a handsome , yellow mass of warm feathers from the mothers breast which seemed analogous to the downy lining of a ducks nest.” Another important factor contributing to the need to nest early is that this is a large raptor that takes longer to grow and mature to a point where the bird (known to some as the Tiger owl) can master complex hunting maneuvers.

Additional and perhaps somewhat noteworthy mentionings - There is a Baltimore Oriole’s nest hanging over the road, (close to the intersection Scott Dyer Road and Starboard Drive). Brown creepers can still be found quietly going about their business in Robinson Woods. An overwintering Northern Mockingbird was seen in Delano Park. Part of the reason these mimics are so resilient (stick around) is that they can switch from eating mainly insects in the summer to eating mostly fruit in the fall and winter time. Lastly, we are still seeing good numbers of Pine Siskins on our Nyjer tube. One Pine Finch sat on a snag a few feet from my head and waited for me to refill the seed tube. It is very likely that these birds are less cautious of humans because they don’t encounter us very often in the isolated conifer groves of the northern forests.