Late Fall Bird Feeding Can Bring Surprises
November 26, 2011
By Steve Grinley

     If you haven’t started, or continued feeding the birds this season, you don’t know what you are missing. Two more late Baltimore orioles have been visiting feeders in Newbury near the Newburyport line. Offering mealworms, live or dried, fruit, jelly and suet are good supplements to round out your late fall feeding station to attract different birds like orioles.

If you happened to keep your hummingbird feeder up this long, you may have been rewarded, like the homeowner in Wareham who has a rufous hummingbird, from the western US, visiting their yard. It was only a few years ago when a Newbury resident hosted a rufous hummingbird in her yard. Very special indeed.

If you happened to keep your hummingbird feeder up this long, you may have been rewarded, like the homeowner in Wareham who has a rufous hummingbird, from the western US, visiting their yard. It was only a few years ago when a Newbury resident hosted a rufous hummingbird in her yard. Very special indeed.

A dickcissel made a brief appearance in Essex recently and we have had one at the store feeders three or four times over the years – one as late as January. Dickcissels visited feeders in Salisbury last winter, so keep watching those house sparrows for one with yellow on it!

I also keep checking the thistle feeders in case a redpoll or pine siskins shows up. A few have been reported, but maybe this past week’s snow up north might drive more of them down to us.

     There is a short window when fox sparrows move through the area, most on their way south. Occasionally one will stay the winter. We have had one only once or twice here at the store. It is one of my favorite sparrows. It is larger than most sparrows, and its strong rufous color highlighted by tones of gray is what I find most stunning.

     Doug Chickering of Groveland also enjoys fox sparrows as he shares this tale with us:

     “There was a time when we could expect to see Fox Sparrow at our feeders twice a year. They would show up in late March and sometimes remain until the middle of April. One year we had five that hung around for a couple of weeks. Then we’d get them again in November. This continued for about four years. After 2007 the fall visits ceased and the last two years we didn’t get them at all. Of course Lois and I were a little bummed. Especially this year when we had such a difficult time getting one at all.

     “Yesterday when we returned from a wind-blown, relatively birdless morning on Plum Island we sat down to lunch and I noticed some movement underneath the dead Moonglow tree. This tree pretty much dead for five years, toppled during the October storm but it was close to the feeders, looked like an ideal hiding spot for our birds so we decided to leave it lie until the spring. Now we saw some tell-tale movement deep under the tree. A Sparrow scratching at the leaves. Of course I expected to find a White-throated Sparrow; we get them all winter long. To my surprise and delight it turned out to be a Fox Sparrow. Later on the day we found a second bird. Last evening, after the birds had gone to roost I scattered more seed around the Moonglow and this morning they were both back. Just like the good old days. A great way to start the day.”

Steve Grinley
Bird Watcher’s Supply & Gift
Route 1 Traffic Circle
194 Route 1
Newburyport, MA 01950
BirdWSG@Comcast.net 
978-462-0775 
www.birdwatcherssupplyandgift.com 
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