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Feeding frenzy

Late season snow brings huge influx of sparrows, finches and others to feeders

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 5/4/17

he recent late-season snows may have left most of us grumbling, but there’s a silver lining in every cloud, and for anyone who feeds birds, a late April or early May snowstorm is guaranteed to up …

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Feeding frenzy

Late season snow brings huge influx of sparrows, finches and others to feeders

Posted

he recent late-season snows may have left most of us grumbling, but there’s a silver lining in every cloud, and for anyone who feeds birds, a late April or early May snowstorm is guaranteed to up the entertainment value. This time of year, the woods are filling with migrants from the south and so a return to winter-like conditions draws them into feeders like a magnet.

Sparrows of all kinds, finches, and blackbirds, in addition to the regulars at the feeder, have been hanging out in exceptional numbers. Even a decidedly unhappy looking robin recently opted to partake of the mix of seeds I had on offer the other day. While robins vastly prefer fruits, insects, and worms, in a pinch they’ll choke down a bit of cracked corn and that’s what this one was doing— with the expression you’d expect from a French gourmand forced to subsist on Cheetos.

Most of the other visitors show a bit more enthusiasm. The purple finches, pine siskins, and white-throated sparrows have been packing it in from the feeders, along with the regulars, like blue jays, gray jays, chickadees, and nuthatches.

Much of the activity was on the ground. I regularly throw cracked corn on the ground, but when the migrants come through I mix in some of the cheap wild bird mix just to give the sparrows a little variety. With the recent snows, the ground has been alive much of the time with dozens of sparrows, juncos, blackbirds, and the two or three ruffed grouse that stop by several times a day as well for a fill-up.

And it’s not just birds… there’s a dozen red squirrels out there, a snowshoe hare stops by regularly and even that pesky doe that began raiding my feeder this winter was back after the initial burst of spring grasses had distracted her for a couple weeks before the latest return of cold weather.

The cold snap and the snow momentarily stalled the migration north, which means we get a longer visit from birds like fox sparrows and tree sparrows, that are normally around for just a couple of weeks in the spring and fall. The fox sparrows breed well up into the boreal forest in northern Canada, all the way up to Alaska. The tree sparrows, contrary to their name, breed even further to the north, mostly in willow scrub on the otherwise treeless tundra.

But, for now, they’re waiting on spring to return so they can continue their trek to the Far North.

Fortunately, the rest of our flock won’t follow. The white-throated sparrows, which winter well south of our region, spend summers here in the North Country, serenading us with their beautiful, clear “Oh Can-a-da-da-da” whistle. It’s one of the sounds of summer that many people associate with the northwoods, and rightly so.

The juncos will disappear for a while, but that’s mostly because they’ll be out in the woods raising little juncos, so we won’t see them much at the feeder. Every once in a while, when we have a junco nest near the house, they’ll bring the fledglings in for a snack.

With the return of more seasonal weather as we head into the weekend, we can expect spring to get back on track. That means the hermit thrushes can start singing again after going quiet for the past week. They had just arrived ahead of the snow and their ethereal musings at dawn and dusk had left me with full-on spring fever.

And I was hopeful of a return of nesting phoebes after our singing male, who’d been with us since the third week of April, finally attracted a girlfriend. They’ve been hunkered down for the past week, however, and I’ll be waiting eagerly to hear them strike up the courtship again with the warmer weather.

There is still much more to look forward to. Almost two-dozen species of warblers are still to arrive, along with vireos, orioles, and rose-breasted grosbeaks. Our temporary return to winter slowed things down for a time, but you can’t stop spring for long. The show, as they say, must go on, and I’m just happy to sit back and watch.