Family 214

Near Clayton, New York, in the middle of one of the busiest sections of the St. Lawrence River, where the freighters lumber past and the speedboats roar by, on a nesting platform at the top of a channel marker, is an osprey family. Seeming oblivious to the noise and frenetic activity of all those humans in the area, this couple returns, year after year, to the same nest, where they raise 2 or 3 nestlings.

Osprey nearly died out in the 1960s. DDT in the food chain made its way to the fish they are dependent on, and it leached calcium from their bones, making their eggs weak and liable to crack. When DDT was banned in 1972, their outlook improved, but it took an extensive program of building nesting platforms throughout the breeding area before they really came back. Now, you can see them everywhere, their distinctive M-shape soaring majestically through the sky as they hunt for fish, or perched on trees and utility poles. They like to nest on those poles, which can be dangerous -- another good reason for the nesting platforms.

We visit Family 214 every year. We don't get to see them in May, when the chicks are young and helpless. In July, they're pretty big, almost as big as the adults, but they still have the speckled back that marks them as juveniles. They can usually fly short distances by then, but it takes a long time before they are proficient hunters, and both the female and the nestlings rely on dad for food throughout the nesting season. By the first of September, they are starting to migrate south, following rivers or the Atlantic coast so they can hunt for fish along the way.


Family 214 raised 3 chicks this year (3 is the average for all osprey nests). When we visit them, we canoe out to the channel marker and "park," as well as we can in a canoe, nearby. If we get too close, the female, standing guard, will fly out and circle around us, just to remind us that this is her territory. We try to stay back and not alarm them. Photographing them in a bobbing canoe is a real challenge, and I have taken hundreds of blurry, tilted photos! The thrill of seeing these magnificent birds and watching their progress keeps us coming back for more. I can't wait 'til next year!

The River

Every summer, we spend a week in the Thousand Islands, in the St. Lawrence River. I'm always surprised by how many people back in the Midwest have only a vague idea where that is. The St. Lawrence is the 4th longest river in the United States. Stretching 750 miles from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the river marks the boundary between the U.S. and Canada along the northern edge of New York, then continues through Montreal and Quebec. The width of the river varies from 2.5 miles at Lake Ontario to 80 miles at its mouth.

Near Lake Ontario, the river is relatively calm and slow, and dotted with islands ranging in size from -- well, without getting picky about the math, let's say from teeny-tiny to pretty darn big. Some are large enough for just one tree, and some are privately owned. Wellesley Island is one of our favorites, since it has a large, wooded state park with a nature preserve and trails.

My mate4life grew up spending summers on Grindstone Island, and we spent our honeymoon in his family's cabin there. The cabin is gone now, but for 2 weeks each summer, we stay in the home his father built on the mainland, a short drive from the river.

These days, when we go, we spend a lot of time in our canoe, on the river or in one of its small, winding creeks. We watch the ospreys catch fish and take long walks in the meadow, looking at wildflowers, butterflies and birds. The St. Lawrence valley is a beautiful place, and in the next couple of postings, I'll try to share a bit of that beauty as we have found it.

Proud papa

Every year, we have a nest full of house wrens in our yard. I like to think of them as the same devoted pair coming back every year, but this is not actually too likely. The male travels all around the perimeter of our yard, singing a pretty, warbly song at each stop he makes.

This year the male built a dummy nest in our other nest box (which we'll remove, now that we know it's not being used). The female chooses the nesting site from among the incomplete nests, and then finishes the job with soft material like moss and feathers. According to the Cornell Ornithology Lab, house wrens stick a spider egg sack down in the nest box. When the spiders hatch, they eat the little mites and other parasites that can attack the baby birds. Clever!


This year there seem to be 4 chicks in the nest. They look maybe a week old aready -- eyes open, feathers developing, looking around alertly. Both parents are busy bringing food all day long. We picked a moment when both parents were out foraging to snatch a picture.


No wonder papa's so proud!

April chores

Now that we've all filed our taxes (you have, haven't you?!), it's time to think about a much more pleasant chore: hanging out the hummingbird feeders. In the midwest, tax day is the cue to clean out the feeders, make nectar, and watch for hummers.

According to the hummingbird migration map, they've already been seen in Indiana, and as far north as Chicago,
http://www.hummingbirds.net/map.html

There haven't been many sightings, but even a few are enough to get me excited. These plucky little guys are a real inspiration -- and a photographic challenge. I must have hundreds of photos of hummingbirds, many of them blurry, or showing just a bit of bird in the corner. They're a real test of my reflexes. I have a few that I really like.

Some other April birding chores:
--make sure the birdhouses are cleaned out and ready for new tenants. Some people put wood chips in the bottom of houses to give cavity nesters something to excavate.
--clean out the bird feeders. In Bloomington Indiana, the local Audubon society chapter hosts a feeder cleanout each spring, if you need help.
--we're hanging some new housing options -- gourds raised by my father. I'll post the results later in the season.

And then there are the gardening chores....but that's enough chores for one day!

Suet fiends

This morning, a male pileated woodpecker came to visit -- and found both suet feeders empty, in spite of our frequent checks on them. I photographed Mr. Big Bird, below, as he gave up and took off.


It's the starlings who throw me off; they're not supposed to be able to use the hanging suet feeders, but some, the big fat smart ones, can do it, and they gobble up the suet as quickly as we put it out. The yard is full of starlings these days, and grackles, and redwing blackbirds, and cowbirds. Only the starlings are considered an invasive species; the others belong in North America and are a natural part of the bird scene here.

The little birds don't seem too bothered by these more aggressive species most of the time. They just wait nearby until the coast is clear, then take their turn at the feeders. The woodpeckers seem to ignore them completely, unless large numbers of starlings gang up on them. Soon the starlings and grackles will move off into the fields in search of grain -- and good riddance!

There was a recall of some kinds of peanut suet due to the Peanut Corporation of America situation--the recall includes Morning Song, available in Walmart and other places. The FDA recall can be read here: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/scotts03_09.html

Thanks for reading!

Back on the water

The Heron, our beloved canoe, is back on the water. It was sunny and 75 degrees in Bloomington today, and in spite of the gusty wind it seemed the perfect day to return to the lake after the long winter. It was a little difficult to get the canoe in the water because the sandy shore was so soft and wet, but soon we were out paddling, sticking close to shore because of the wind.

The trees are still bare, and the woods looks brown and bleak. Up close, you can see buds on the trees and the promise of grass on the ground. We didn't see many birds, although we could hear a few singing back in the woods. The only birds we could watch were the turkey vultures circling over the water. A lot of people dislike turkey vultures. They're not really beautiful by our standards, and they have a job to do that we'd rather not think too much about.

In spite of all that, I really like to watch them. They soar on the wind, gaining lift from the warm updrafts, and rarely flap their wings. They also fly low to the ground because they locate carrion by smell. They weigh about 4 lbs., (about half what an eagle weighs), and have a wingspan of 67-70 inches. They hold their wings in a distinctive V-shape, or dihedral, and you can see the white flight feathers underneath as they soar overhead. We watched about 20 of them circle overhead, and perch in the trees. We guessed that, as the sun went down, they might be gathering at a roosting site.



We canoed along the edge of the lake for awhile, sometimes fighting with the wind and sometimes suddenly blown sideways. Quite a bit of water splashed into the canoe, but the camera stayed dry in the dry bag my mom made for me out of a piece of oilcloth. It felt so good to be back on the water, to be out exploring together. Work is necessary and satisfying, and fulfilling on many levels. But for that lift of the heart, that urge to laugh as the wind musses your hair -- there's nothing like a lake, a canoe, and your own true love.

Counting the signs of spring

It's cold. It's surprising how cold it is, actually. After a recent warm-up, I assumed we were done with all that shivering and piling on the thick coats and hats. I stacked the new seed catalogs on the table and placed an order for heirloom calendula and zinnias. But the cold returned, and it's been about 20 degrees in Bloomington and in the teens in Chicago.

Nevertheless, I think I see some signs of spring in southern Indiana. Here is a quick list:

1. TULIPS! coming up in the front flower bed. They're about 2 inches high.
2. Great blue heron hanging around the creek near our house. This is very unusual. I wonder if he got lost on the way to Lake Monroe?
3. Robins have been seen for the past couple of weeks in Bloomington, and they finally showed up in our yard.
4. Red-winged blackbirds are back.
5. Birdsong in the morning. Lots of it. Carolina wrens will sing all winter, but they've been joined by cardinals, titmice, and others.
6. The cardinals (I counted 7 pairs on Sunday) are chasing each other all over the yard. The males are getting pretty fiesty.
7. Twice I've seen birds checking out the nearest birdhouse in our yard. I'm not sure what the first bird was, but the 2nd was definitely a chickadee.

Note that this list does not include warmer weather. And I forgot to check for buds on the trees. I hope to update this list soon!