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BIRD COLUMN FOR OCTOBER 3,
2004
By Benjamin P.
Burtt TOPICS The October Feeder Survey Starts Today Fox Sparrows Migrate South Through Central New York
This Month Introduction This column is
divided into two sections here Section 1 contains a copy of the column as it
appeared in the newspaper on the date above. Section 2
contains additional information for the reader who is interested in learning
more about the subject of this column SECTION
1: THIS IS A COPY OF THE COLUMN THAT APPEARED IN THE POST STANDARD ON OCTOBER
3, 2004 The October feeder survey
The
October feeder survey starts today and ends Saturday. Will you help with the
45th year of this scientific project? Here is what you do. Spend a few minutes at the window making a
list of all the species you see and the number of each. Try to do this once
each day. The more often the better. At the end of the week, send a list of the species and the
largest number of each that you saw at any one time. For example, if you see
12 jays this week, but never more than three at a time, then three is what
you report. List the species in the order shown in your field guide.
Put each species on a separate line with the number first, followed by the
birds name. At the end of the week, put the list on a post card or in a letter
or use e-mail. Via Mail: Send to Ben Burtt, Stars Magazine, P.O. Box
4915, Syracuse, NY 13221 Via E-mail: Send to features@syracuse.com. Be sure to put
"For Ben Burtt" in the subject line. To read the detailed
instructions for the Survey,click this line Fox sparrow due
Watch for the fox sparrow this week. It breeds in Canada
and migrates south all through October.
A few will show up now, but many more will be in your yard by the
middle of the month. It will not show up here again until April. As shown in Bob McNamara's painting below, it resembles a
large song sparrow. The breast is
heavily streaked. The streaks come
together to form a central spot on the breast. These markings on the fox
sparrow are much broader and darker than those of the song sparrow. The fox sparrow's most distinguishing feature is the
rusty-brown rump and tail. It is this
fox-like color that gives it its name. You will need to put seed on the ground to attract it.
Since it finds most of its food on the ground, it will never visit a tubular
feeder with perches. At my home I put cracked corn and millet on a huge flat
rock whose top surface is just above the grass. While the seed can be gobbled
up there by chipmunks and squirrels, I keep it on that rock from now through
the first week of November to attract the fox sparrow, the junco and the many
other ground feeding sparrows that migrate through.
CAPTION: The fox sparrow makes two brief visits to Central
New York each year. Now it is on its way south. It returns next spring, en
route to Canada. This was painted by
Bob McNamara of Constantia. He is a wildlife artist and you can see more of
his work by visiting his web site at http://www.artofwilderness.com SECTION 2
COVERS THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL THAT DID NOT APPEAR IN THE NEWSPAPER: A. Some more
life history of the Fox Sparrow.. B. The migration of the fox sparrow, where
it nests and where it spends the winter. The
fox sparrow is one of the most attractive members of the sparrow family. It
breeds in the far north and is now on its way to its winter home in the
southern part of the United States.
The winter range extends from southern Pennsylvania, southern Ohio to
northern Florida. Some winter on Long
Island. Since it is only here in
Central New York for the month of October, you must keep your eyes open. You won't get another opportunity until
April when it passes through on its way north to nest. So we get two
opportunities each year to see it as it passes through. The fox sparrow is the largest of the sparrows that we see
here. Like the towhee, it feeds by scratching away dead leaves in its busy
search for fallen seeds or insect food. Both its feet are used together and
it makes quite a commotion in the brush. In fact, one usually hears the
scratching and rustling in the leaves before actually seeing the bird. From now until early November, it can be found in the
woods or secluded thickets or amongst the bushes at the edge of a field.
Since it feeds on the ground, it seldom is seen perched high in trees. When
disturbed, the bird usually will fly into the lowest branches of some nearby
trees and be quite conspicuous and easy to identify. In a moment or two it
will return to the ground to scratch around some more. The summer home of the fox sparrow is in the extended
forests of Canada that go on and on for miles. There, it breeds from the
limit of the trees, south to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In Newfoundland, it is
one of the most common nesting birds. South of the St. Lawrence River there are a few nesting
spots. In Nova Scotia it occurs on
one big island and along the eastern coast. Its summer neighbors there are
such northern species as the rough legged hawk, the pine grosbeak, the gray
cheeked thrush, the white-crowned sparrow and northern shrike. The only place
it nests in the eastern United States is in the northernmost tip of Maine. It nests in the northern parts of the western provinces of
Canada. As for the western United States, under ordinary
circumstances, California, Colorado and other western states in this country
are too far south to be breeding grounds for the fox sparrow. However, the
higher elevations of the mountains in those states have a climate and plant
and animal life similar to that of Northern Canada. Fox sparrows can be found
in summer even in Southern California if one searches the high mountains just
below the timberline. Since it migrates through Central New York into November, the
fox sparrow is just about the last of the small land birds to migrate. Now
and then one or two will stay on for the winter, but this is a rare
occurrence. . |
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