Re: birds and other critters

The lake here is 315 acres, and lots of migratory waterfowl stop here. I've
seen ruddy duck, buffleheads, goldeneyes, mergansers and cormorants, among
others, but the most exciting sighting was a flock of loons. I counted 38 of
them! There are also great blue and green herons and kingfishers. I
occasionally see rose-breasted grosbeaks at my feeder, and just once, an
indigo bunting. I've also seen quite a few eastern bluebirds in NE PA, but
not at this elevation. There are bald eagles in the area, too. Auralie, have
you ever heard that there are peregrines nesting on the George Washington
Bridge? I think they live quite well on the pigeons in NYC.

There is a rapidly growing population of resident Canadas here, and the
Animal Control officer finds as many nests as he can in the spring and
shakes the eggs vigorously, then puts them back. It prevents the parents
from laying more eggs to replace broken or stolen ones. Unfortunately, he
misses more than he finds. It wouldn't be so bad if I only had to watch my
step in the yard, but my dog has goose poop radar, and she's on it like
white on rice. Groshem as they never
>> land here:-)  I've never seen a scarlet tanager; lucky you!
>> 
>> When we first built here and things were a tad more open, we had a
>> few red-wings, but they don't like woods, so don't come now. The
>> mocking birds aren't as numerous as they were for the same
>> reason...they like more open areas best; actually, same with the
>> starlings.  Used to have a resident family, but only see them in
>> flocks in winter now when snow covers everything as they like grassy
>> areas to hunt in.  I have seen red tailed hawks, but not on the
>> property...we seem to have a resident pair of red-shouldered hawks as
>> they are seen pretty regularly sitting in trees looking down for
>> rodents (they can have all they want...I encourage them...'catch
>> voles...catch voles'...all I can:-))  Not so thrilled when they
>> decide to hunt at the feeders!  But they are magnificent birds.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> To sign-off this list, sendve been seeing them for several years now.
> We're really very rustic even though part of the great "metropolitan sprawl."
> 
> Auralie
> 
> 
> In a message dated 02/17/2003 11:55:44 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> mtalt@hort.net writes:
> 
>> That is remarkable, Auralie.  You must have some open fields and
>> water near you to have red-wing blackbirds, kingfishers, mallards and
>> heron.  I get a flock of Canada geese flying over every evening on
>> their way to the Potomac River, but can't claim them as they never
>> land here:-)  I've never seen a scarlet tanager; lucky you!
>> 
>> When we first built here and things were a tad more open, we had a
>> few red-wings, but they don't like woods, so don't come now. The
>> mocking birds aren't as numerous as they were for the same
>> reason...they like more open areas best; actually, same with the
>> starlings.  Used to have a resident family, but only see them in
>> flocks in winter now when snow covers everything as they like grassy
>> areas to hunt in.  I have seen red tailed hawks, but not on the
>> property...we seem to have a resident pair of red-shouldered hawks as
>> they are seen pretty regularly sitting in trees looking down for
>> rodents (they can have all they want...I encourage them...'catch
>> voles...catch voles'...all I can:-))  Not so thrilled when they
>> decide to hunt at the feeders!  But they are magnificent birds.
> 
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