Winter Solstice 2025

Cardinals and juncos are the first to arrive at the feeders. They fly in before first light. They are also the last to leave for their night roosts in the early evening, well after sunset. Late afternoon yesterday, it was a cardinal convention at the feeders: 7 male and 5 female cardinals. These were mixed in with many of our winter songbirds. The flock of ten turkeys passed through mid-afternoon. 

About 4:00 in the afternoon yesterday, while I was watching the bird feeder birds, a red-shouldered hawk landed on a tall white pine tree in our neighbor's yard, across from our house. It scooched over about a foot until it was pressed up against the tree trunk. We watched til it got too dark to see. As soon as it was light enough to see this solstice morning, I looked across at the white pine, and the hawk was still leaning against the trunk. It got a good 14 to 15 hours sleep, as it didn't budge until 7 AM, when it fluffed its feathers and scooched over about a foot from the trunk. 

Two male cardinals tried to harass the red-shouldered from a distance, but it didn't move from its perch, about 35 feet up in the pine. Around 7:15, I saw a pileated woodpecker fly to the same tree trunk and then the hawk was gone. I missed its movements while I was looking down at a white-throated sparrow and the woodpecker distracted me. The birds in our yard at the time -- downy woodpeckers, finches, juncos, chickadees, titmice -- were not bothered by having a red-shouldered hawk (a mostly mammal and amphibian predator) nearby. If it were an accipiter all hell would break loose: small birds scattering and woodpeckers going stock-still for ten minutes or more. 

After a few very cold weeks this December, last week ended with several warm days and nights, melting away the snow in the south-facing areas. A fresh opossum track is printed in the remaining snow, heading toward the cover beneath an old shed. They aren't well-adapted for the cold with thin ears and a bare tail, but they persist. Rabbit tracks and pellets are everywhere in our yard: beneath bushes, atop the snow, on exposed, green lawn. Our grass should be well-fertilized. 

Seven gray squirrels joined the birds beneath our feeders. Most them seem content picking at fallen seeds. But one or two are quite athletic and determined to reach the feeders. We watch as they fling themselves from the nearby crabapple tree or make a running leap from a garden fence post. They miss 5 out of 6 times, but manage to nail the landing enough that they try again and again after we shoo them off.  

Twenty different bird species visited our yard over the weekend. While I was brushing my teeth, I caught sight of a brown creeper foraging on a black birch in our backyard. It's always good to be alert in the bathroom. In Costa Rica last March, I was in our open air bathroom when I spotted a pale-billed woodpecker climbing the trunk of a large tree. The first and only sighting on the trip. At La Leona Lodge on the Osa Peninsula, iguanas climbed the walls of our outdoor shower. 

 

Ten Turkeys

Since late summer we've watched a flock of ten wild turkeys wander through our neighborhood. We don't catch sight of them every day, but when we do, we are impressed that all ten are still alive and together. Especially given a wet Spring, drought in late Summer, and a cold December. It's a mixed flock of two to three hens and their offspring (males and females). We note their traits that help them survive predators--a heavy, bulky body,;daytime feeding habit; and nighttime roosting in tall trees--traits that defy our local predators (coyotes, foxes, bobcats) that hunt by night. 

These turkeys have a regular route, but shift their roost site and daytime movements a bit, perhaps to further confuse any predators or to choose roost sites that provide more cover during cold, windy nights. Near us, they roost in stands of tall white pines or big oak trees, hopping up to some of the highest limbs before settling down on a branch. How they sleep and balance their bulky bodies is still a bit of a mystery.

We've watched them march back to their roost areas late in the day, before sundown. In the morning they fly down from their roost after sunrise and start the march toward preferred foraging areas. Sometimes we see them on the move in the woods behind our house. Other times they use the road to travel from their roost to daytime feeding areas, and back again. Despite these slight variations they always seem to roost just north of us and travel south to feed in woods that are sandwiched between a large wetland and a hay field. 

The ten turkeys today, on their way to roosting in the late afternoon.

The ten turkeys in our yard in early November, a morning stop.