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September 2004
 Patti Muzny, newsletter editor |
Patti's Chirpings
by Patti Muzny
As I perch in front of my computer, the picture window in my office at the front of our house confirms the dour predictions of a major winter weather event with live coverage from all of the weather gurus. Ma Nature’s definitely conjuring up significant wintry weather tantrums. At this point in the storm, while the heating unit is functioning and I don’t have to go outside for any reason, I rather enjoy looking out at the intensifying storm. Tiny ice pellets are bouncing against the window and landing on the icy porch. As long as the electricity stays on, it’s an interesting phenomenon.
I walked to the patio door and looked out to see if the birds were taking advantage of the black Russian oil seed we had put out. Things had been very quiet in the back yard. Since it’s the weekend of the ODWC’s Winter Feeder Survey, I’ve tried to look out periodically.
The first bird I saw was one lone Mourning Dove. I felt sorry for it, because the back half of its long pointed tail had a coating of ice on it. If it’s that cold, maybe I should build a fire in the fireplace?
Day two of the sleet and ice brought a pair of Cardinals, two Mockingbirds, one Starling, and seven Blue Jays to the back yard feeding station, along with around 40 English Sparrows and a greedy squirrel. Soon a swarm of starlings came down under the patio and began to eliminate the pile of stale slivered almonds I’d thrown out (yippee). Maybe that one starling spread the word.
The brilliant red slash of color the male Cardinal brings to the cover of snow is always a delight. While the sparrows hide in the honeysuckle tangle nearby, and make it difficult to get an exact count, it s hard to miss the Cardinals and raucous Blue Jays.
CBC Highlights
By Patti Muzny
Christmas Bird Counts have always been a highlight of my birding year. It’s a busy time, but to take the time to spend a day birding with friends is a privilege and entertaining as well.
I participated (with Brian) in three CBC’s in 2006. We went to Washita NWR first, then counted birds in Oklahoma City and in Cleveland County.
The OKC CBC is becoming more difficult due to the unbelievable loss of habitat. We have counted birds on Melot’s Game Farm, at County Line and Memorial for many years. But…we received word that the property had been sold to a California group and was going to be developed.
When we drove around that area, we noted little stakes that denoted where the entrances to the future development would be and heavy equipment parked inside the fence. So, we no longer had access to some of the best habitat in our far NW OKC territory. Soon most of the birds and wildlife that abounded there will be displaced.
The habitat loss may have contributed to our group’s total number of birds being down by 1,529 birds over 2005.
All was not totally a bust – we still had a good time counting where and what we could. Our group consisted of Nancy, Brian, Bill and Susan Schmidt, and me.
This year, we didn’t count at Crystal Lake, but began our count at Myriad Gardens. Yippee, we got to count Great-tailed Grackles and more Great-tailed Grackles! This area didn’t offer many species, but it got us off to a good start. From there we went to the far NW part of our count circle.
One of my highlights starred a curious and/or very hungry Red-shouldered Hawk on property near NW 122nd and Council. Nancy is a master at “squeaking,” and she was belting out a series of squeaks and squawks that would get the attention of almost anything. Suddenly a large form darted out of the cedars and out in front of us to land in a large tree behind us.
It was a Red-shouldered Hawk. She continued squeaking and it continued to dart back and forth near us. Its last pass was from the tree behind us directly toward Bill Schmidt’s back pocket! Had Bill raised his hand or a leg, he might have decked the agitated hawk! We had a hearty laugh over that one.
Another highlight, especially for Bill and Susan, was provided by a Cooper’s Hawk. We were driving away from the pond near Memorial, between Portland and May, when a Cooper’s Hawk zipped over our vehicle with something in its talons. It landed nearby at the side of the road, so we inched forward a little to watch it eat its prey.
We watched for a few minutes as the feathers flew and the hawk would look back and glare at us. We had two choices – continue on toward hot food or stay and watch this saga play out. Since this was a “lifer” experience for the Schmidt’s, we stayed quiet and watched until the hawk nearly consumed its feathered meal, then flew down into the brush.
Brian, Nancy and I had watched comparable scenes before, but we are still fascinated with the skills possessed by these predators. And Bill and Susan were thrilled with their “lifer” CBC experience.
A big surprise was a flock of Wild Turkeys. We saw 15. I think it’s the only Wild Turkeys we have ever had on the OKC CBC. Fun!
Our most abundant species was Great-tailed Grackle.
Then there was the Cleveland County CBC on December 31. The monster snow storm in the Panhandle kept Jimmy Woodard and Max Fuller in Oklahoma City, so I bribed Jimmy with homemade cookies if he’d PLEASE come with us! Nancy was confined to her house with a wicked sore throat and stuffy head.
Bill and Susan joined us again, as did Esther Key, along with Jimmy and Max. We had a hardy crew of seven and we did well. Our territory includes the Twin Bridges area and east around Lake Thunderbird. Since we’re mostly in the Little River SP, we have good habitat and excellent areas in which to hike. In spite of the cold and fierce wind, we hiked a lot and enjoyed being out.
Lake Thunderbird was extremely low and several of the coves that usually held water, were now muddy flats or entirely dried up. That changed the species we found in these areas, but it made it interesting. For instance, at one muddy cove we found five Killdeer and a flock of Least Sandpipers. That wouldn’t have happened when the lake was up.
One of the birds we missed for the first time in a long time was Bald Eagle. They just were not in the area. With seven pairs of experienced eyes looking, I feel they weren’t just overlooked. And how easy is it to overlook something as outstanding as a Bald Eagle?
Thanks to Jimmy, we added a Turkey Vulture and a Rough-legged Hawk to our species list. We found more Brown Creepers and White-breasted Nuthatches than usual and had a grand total of eight Eastern Phoebes. They seemed to be everywhere this year. This CBC around the lake had no grackle species. Our most numerous species was Double-crested Cormorant, with 525 counted.
New Year’s Eve was a cold and extremely windy day and we were cordially invited by the lady who was working at the park office to come inside and eat lunch in the employee break room. We certainly did not turn that down. What a welcome break!
Another treat was finding not one, but two Greater Roadrunners together in Jane Boren’s neighborhood, just northeast of Twin Bridges. We usually get one roadrunner in this area, but we located two this time. The second bird was fluffed up into a scruffy-looking ball on the north side of a line of cedars. He had more sense that we did – he was out of the cold wind.
We had a record number of 71 species of birds for this count. We normally tally around 62-63.
Our CBC at the Washita NWR was the warmest day of counting birds for us. The morning dawned chilly, but soon warmed to an incredibly balmy day. Birds were difficult to find. Perhaps the weather was just too nice?
Brian and I counted on the closed area of the refuge in the Cheyenne Point area. We were fortunate to have found adult and immature Bald Eagles. There were also an unusually large number of Horned Grebes. Sparrows were in short supply. The drought may have had something to do with that. At a large pond in our area we found Trumpeter Swans, along with several species of ducks.
Earlier in the day, the sky periodically filled with thousands of geese of several varieties. The sight and sound of large flocks of geese taking off, flying overhead and honking is fantastic. They do make it difficult to hear the other birds, though. Most of the Sandhill Cranes had already gone from the refuge, but we did see and hear a small flock.
It is always fun to be out on the refuge counting birds where it’s remote and quiet.
I thank each of my birding friends for keeping with the tradition sharing the end of the year with great birding and companionship.