In Praise of Winter Birds

By Anne Bloomfield
Anne is the Program Manager for the Applied Farmscape Ecology Program

As we gain daylight, the land begins to show us many signs of spring. Migratory birds are beginning to arrive from their long journeys. Even though there is still snow on the ground and the temperature continues to dip below freezing, birds have started to sing their spring songs. In the winter, many bird vocalizations are simple in nature – a soft chip note or a buzzy call note. With spring fast approaching, birds begin warbling, trilling and drumming as they turn their attention to setting up territories in order to find mates and protect their young in the spring. The photos in this gallery were taken on bird surveys that are conducted as part of our long term monitoring to better document habitat use year round by birds on farms in our region. At the Farm Hub we have documented 177 species of birds including several species of conservation concern.

On a particularly bitter gray winter’s morning, the old gravel pit was silent save for this pair of mourning doves roosting at the field edge

An inquiry by the great blue heron suddenly caused me to feel vulnerable. Patience manifested in feathers, I slipped away as to not interrupt the stalk

Does anything break the grip of a cloudy winter day like the cobalt blue, rich chestnut and crisp white of a male Eastern bluebird?

As I walked along the boundary between an unmowed field edge and the moist woods, a female eastern bluebird, with her muted but still remarkable coloration, alighted on a branch.

Often overlooked as ordinary, I stopped to admire the rust, coal and snow white colored plumage of an American robin who was busily feeding on fruit in the floodplain forest

At the farm pond, the sun was low in the sky. A flock of hooded mergansers splashed and paddled actively, their already magnificent coloration reflecting the golden light.

In spring, the Northern mockingbird sings its repertoire of songs day and night. Winter, on the other hand, brings an inward, contemplative tone as if it were a different creature entirely.

In Praise of Winter Birds

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