Happy New Year

Here at Fiddler’s Reach, it is ridiculously cold this morning! At 6:40 a.m., when we saw our FOY bird (Mourning Dove), it was -1° F. with a windchill of -26° F. The landscape is frozen, as is the Kennebec River.

We have a fire going in the fireplace. Sauerkraut and Pork is in the crock pot. (A Pennsylvania tradition is to have sauerkraut on New Years Day. Supposed to bring good luck.) We didn’t see pork roasts and sauerkraut flying off the shelves at Shaw’s Market, so I don’t know if it’s a tradition here in Maine or not.

Never-the-less, the birds are cold and hungry this morning. High energy food is a must to keep them warm. We made sure that all feeders were full before dark last night. Deer made sure that they cleaned out the ground feeders last night, so we bundled up at 5 a.m. and went out and refilled them.

The following are birds that visited our feeders this morning just after sunrise.

FOY (First of Year) 2009 Birds

DE Juncos: 16
American Goldfinches: 6
Tree Sparrows: 4
Pine Siskins: 11
Cardinals: 2
Chickadees: 7
Hairy Woodpecker: 1
Downy Woodpecker: 2
Blue Jays: 6
Titmouse: 5
Red-Breasted Nuthatch: 2
White-Breasted Nuthatch: 2
American Crows: 5
Red-Tailed Hawk: 1 (Chased by Crows)
a single Song Sparrow
a seemingly out of place White-Throated Sparrow

Click photos for a larger view.

Happy New Year and happy birding!

©2010 Birding in Maine. All Rights Reserved.

Related posts:

1. Pictorial: Birds of Summer 2009