I
became interested in bird watching while taking a course titled Field Biology-Ornithology, the study of
wild bird behavior with focus on the native and migratory birds near the campus.
The class spent a lot of time in the woods and fields in northeast Pennsylvania
and students were encouraged to pay careful attention to the birds around their
residences. Before the end of the course I had built and installed a platform
feeder outside the kitchen window of our third floor apartment in Meadville where
the winters are harsh—I know because I lived through three of them. Because of
the inclemency of the weather, our feeder was visited en mass by those birds
that were natives as well as a few species on their way south in the late fall
and north in the early spring.
One
of the more interesting species that we observed was the evening grosbeak; the
males are beautifully marked with gold and black, the females are very plain. The
males are cowards. A flock of a dozen or so individuals would arrive on the
scene near dusk every evening and perch on the limbs of a nearby oak. After a
few moments, a lone female would land on the feeder, look around cautiously and
then begin feeding. Soon she would be joined by the males in the flock who
having determined that since nothing bad happened to her, it was safe. Without
showing an ounce of gratitude for the risk she took, the males muscled her off
the feeder and she had to wait until the males were sated to join the other
females who had been waiting patiently in the nearby tree. At the conclusion of
the course I continued my observations and put up bird feeders wherever we
lived after I graduated.
After
I retired, my wife and I moved to south-central Florida where we spend eight
months of every year, the other four we live in our RV in north-central Ohio or
travel. At home we maintain one suet cage and three seed feeders, in Ohio a
hummingbird nectar reservoir and two seed feeders. I have been feeding and
observing birds now for over fifty years and have learned quite a lot about
their behavior.
At
our feeders, there is always squabbling between individuals for the best perches
on these feeders but the quarrels are resolved quickly and taking turns soon
restores tranquility. At least that was true until last winter when a menacing,
marauding mockingbird took up residence nearby. (Although the northern mockingbird
abounds in both Florida and Ohio, they only visit our feeders in Florida.) He
immediately began guarding all of the feeders, swooping down on any bird just
landing on one like a fighter plane attacking a bogey. He dove at white winged
doves almost twice his size without hesitation. He drove off woodpeckers, blue
jays, cardinals, catbirds and thrashers with equal ferocity—until he was
outsmarted by a bird one-third his size. As the days shorten and cool, the
local pine warblers leave their usual habitat and begin visiting our feeders in
numbers. The mockingbird responded as usual driving off the few early arrivals.
However soon their numbers increased and since he could only ward off one or
two warblers at a time, while thus preoccupied a half dozen or so warblers
would fly in to occupy the unguarded feeders. Although a very determined bird,
our marauder finally gave up his policing after two weeks or so of exhausting
and futile attempts to keep the feeders exclusively his, and left the area.
This winter he returned but only for a few days. It appears that the pine
warblers have won again, an example of the effectiveness of a unified group in
defeating a common enemy.
What do you think of this article? Please post your comment
on my Facebook Timeline, on Facebook, or send it to me at mailto:bfoswald78@gmail.com. Thank you.
