Who’s counting?

No one needs incentive to venture out in the fine sunny weather we’ve been having here in PA.

So, while out, why not spot some local birds, or even tally some for the Great Backyard Bird Count (running through Monday)? 

Here are the birds we’ve been seeing this winter on a small stretch of Little Crum Creek:

• blue jay
• common grackle
• American crow
• dark-eyed junco
• white-throated sparrow
• house finch
• hairy woodpecker
• downy woodpecker
• red-bellied woodpecker
• tufted titmouse
• chickadee
• wren
• nuthatch
• cardinal
• mourning dove
• brown-headed cowbird
• robin
• house sparrow
• starling
• goldfinch
• turkey vulture
• red-tailed hawk
• sharp-shinned hawk
• Cooper’s hawk

Some are easier to count than others.  Some are easier to photo …

From top: robin, house sparrow, goldfinch, downy woodpecker, starling.

 

Introducing the house sparrow

Histories suggest that English house sparrows were first introduced to the United States in New York during the 1850s.

Introductions then followed in several other cities, including nearby Philadelphia. 

Surely soon after, house sparrows found their way to Little Crum Creek where they now seem quite at home.

These gray-capped & black-bibbed males, tawny-topped females, and young ones who closely resemble their moms might be the most frequently seen birds in our area.

Shown taking advantage of a mild winter, several dry their ruffled feathers in the warming sun while others plunge in the rippling shallows of the stream below.

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The house birds

One might easily pass a climbing mass of multiflora rose and
barely notice all the birds meeting there throughout a winter day.

 But then a sudden flutter reveals a house finch, flanked
by house sparrows, on a tangle in the sun.

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