18
Wednesday, May 24, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Changing bird
populations
At my bird-feeder in the
front yard of my domicile
I have a mystery going on.
Without an acceptable reason,
house finches and house spar-
rows have taken a nosedive in
populations, along with my
white-crowned sparrows.
In previous years, white-
crowned sparrows have been
in good numbers, feeding
alongside the juncos and quail
(with a now-and-then desert
cottontail and at least a chip-
munk or two getting in their
way).
Even the rufous-sided
towhees appear to be among
the missing, but the presence
of the all-too-obnoxious scrub
jays hasn’t dropped. In fact,
I’ve gained one more nest-
ing in my back yard; and the
unspeakable Eurasian doves
have increased three-fold!
Having the jay move in
makes all the songbirds ner-
vous as a pregnant fox in a
forest fire. Jays make a living
by eating baby birds — even
bluebirds that jays can snatch
out of a nesting box.
Lola Knox, who lives
out in Tollgate, is also see-
ing fewer white-crowned
sparrows than she has in past
springtimes.
I’ve been looking for the
usual feral (or neighbor’s)
cat that will cause a great stir
upon the behavior of feeder
birds, but aside from a very
big black one that shows up
occasionally, there haven’t
been any others at my feeder.
Oh, sure, an accipter can
also raise holy-cats-let’s-get-
outta’-here with the feeder
birds, but usually when the
sharp-shinned or stealthy
Cooper’s hawk go off to
higher forests to nest about
now, and song birds settle
down and numbers return to
normal.
Well, that may be a loose
statement. I had one female
Cooper’s who was really
good at what accipiters like
to do: kill and eat song birds.
This one learned a new strat-
egy when she moved in, or
it may have got on to it at its
past residence. When it first
showed up, about six months
ago, it would sneak into the
big juniper next to the feeder
without putting the Fear of
God (literally) into everyone
on the feeder and/or ground
under it.
But when the birds spotted
her, the quail would explode
from under the feeder and
vanish into the sagebrush and
juniper trees like a bunch of
F-16s on a stealthy mission.
The juncos would scamper
under the long walkway I
have between the driveway
and porch.
At first the juncos thought
that was a safe refuge — but
not from that ruthless, hun-
gry Cooper’s it wasn’t. That
sneaky little accipiter would
watch them run under the
walkway and then, giving the
juncos time to think they were
safe, she’d go after them.
Just about the time her
shape appeared the juncos
came busting out of the hide-
away like feathered rock-
ets. So the Cooper’s gave up
that strategy. So did the jun-
cos. Then the juncos thought
that running for cover in the
twisted branches of the bit-
terbrush was the way to stay
safe. Nope, that didn’t work
either….
That sneaky Cooper’s
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would just fold those short
rounded wings in and go right
after them, using her velocity
to keep going like a bullet,
and steering with that long
tail. She got about six juncos
that way before the survivors
caught on.
Now she doesn’t bother to
chase them. She just comes
to the feeders like a rocket,
sends everyone scattering and
watches for the one that hits
my window. Then she makes
a beautiful Immelmann
fighter plane turn (named
after a German World War
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Contractors continue construction of the
roundabout at the intersection of US 20
and Barclay Drive/McKinney Butte Road.
In order to complete the
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The majority of work will occur Monday
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I ace) and grabs the stunned
junco, dove, house finch or
house sparrow.
Another that I haven’t seen
at my feeder in ages are the
evening grosbeak families.
They’d appear in flocks of
20 or so when we first moved
into Sun Mountain, but they,
too, have been very scarce
over the last few years.
Please send me a note if
you have also seen things
happening with your bird
populations that are some-
what askew: jimnaturalist@
gmail.com.
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PHOTO BY LOLA KNOX
White-crowned Sparrow. How many did you see last fall, and this spring?