Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk Visits 

Cooper's Hawk

This week a Cooper's Hawk visited our yard.  I noticed it early in the morning sleeping in a tree on the river side our our property.  It stayed there for at least a half hour giving us ample time to observe and photograph it.  It was perched very quietly and appeared to be sleeping but with a casual eye for its surroundings.  At one point a Sharp-shinned Hawk came soaring on outspread wings around the house, which it often does checking on the bird activity around the feeders.  When it got fully into the yard, it did a double-take, putting on the brakes and doing a quick floundering turn-around and quickly winged its way back in the direction from which it had come. It clearly looked like it spied the Cooper's Hawk and made a quick decision to disappear.  The Cooper's Hawk remained on its perch in the tree.

How did I know the perched hawk was a Cooper's Hawk?  It was obviously large for an Accipiter.  That would make it either a Cooper's or a female Sharp-shinned.  The Cooper's Hawk is larger than the Sharp-shinned with the female being larger than the male.  That is also true of the Sharp-shinned Hawk.  But what makes it sometimes difficult is that sometimes their sizes are close.  The male Cooper's and the female Sharp-shinned can be nearly the same size.  The hawk showed the rufous horizontal striping on the breast of an adult.  Its tail tip was rounded and not square like that of the Sharp-shinned Hawk.  It showed a contrast between the dark cap and the gray nape which is also a trait of the Cooper's Hawk.  And, the behaviour of the Sharp-shinned was also a clue.  It recognized the Cooper's as a threat.  The Sharp-shinned showed its square tail clearly when it did its turn-around.

Cooper's Hawk

For good information on distinguishing a Cooper's Hawk from a Sharp-shinned Hawk, see a previous post on this blog entitled, 'Sharp-shinned or Cooper's?'.  Following is additional information on distinguishing the two species.  The length of the wing tips in the perched bird is a good marker.  In the Cooper's Hawk the wing tips extend less than half way down the tail.  In the Sharp-shinned they extend about half-way down the tail.  Head shape is also significant.  The Sharp-shinned head profile is always rounded.  The Cooper's looks rounded when its hackles are down but it often elevates its hackles.  The Sharp-shinned never raises its hackles.

When the birds are in fresh plumage as in the spring, the Cooper's has a wide white terminal tail band.  In the Sharp-shinned it is narrow.  Although this is not definitive and it is mentioned only in some texts, the distance the striping on the breast comes down may be significant.  In the Cooper's sometimes the striping is only on the breast and does not go all the way to the feet as seen in the photo above.  In the Sharp-shinned it usually comes all the way down to the feet.  Taken alone this is not significant but when taken into consideration with all the other features it may be helpful.  In the bird seen this week and shown above, the tail shape and the crown 'cap' confirmed for me it was a Cooper's Hawk.

This species is listed as rare in this province by the 'Birds of New Brunswick:  An Annotated List'.  It has bred here and is now seen occasionally in winter.  It frequents bird feeders and other areas where birds gather.  It is capable of taking a mourning dove or a robin.  Sharp-shinned Hawks normally take smaller birds.  Peterson's Field Guide to 'Hawks' lists the Cooper's as a permanent resident in Nova Scotia and the very southern part of New Brunswick.  I believe this to be true given the number of sightings we record of this species throughout the year especially here in southern NB.

Salamanders begin to run

A bizarre "unisexual" salamander scrambles over some old elm bark in its single-minded drive to reach its ancestral breeding pool. This salamander is a blend of any of a few of several species, or maybe all: blue-spotted, Jefferson, smallmouth, and tiger. I have written more about the unisexuals in THIS POST from a number of years ago. I'm not sure they - the experts - know much more about them now then they did back then.

Last Saturday night was the first potentially good run for salamanders in my neck of the woods. It was about 50 F, and mild showers dampened the ground. That's when the mole salamanders in the genus Ambystoma emerge from subterranean pairs and march overland to their breeding pools. For whatever reason, not many were on the move in the west-central Ohio locale where I hunted. Maybe it wasn't wet enough. Only two of the aforementioned unisexuals were found. But, a major Holy Grail and the species that I was most interested in finding did reveal itself.

Read on...

Yes! A whopper of a tiger salamander! I was just about to throw in the towel after lots of country lane cruising when this bruiser appeared on the road. It was about 9 inches long - they can get nearly a foot in length - and smack in the middle of the wet pavement. After a brief photo session, the animal was placed in wet grass well off the road, on the side that he was headed for. Good thing, too, as several cars whipped along while I was working with him, and the slow-moving amphibian surely would have been pancaked. Road mortality in salamanders is a significant threat in some areas.

Tiger salamanders are among our rarer amphibians, and I'd dare say most people haven't seen one. Big ones like this are a sight to behold, and finding one - better yet, many - makes the late wet nights well worth venturing out in.

I'd say the big salamander runs are still in the future, and I'll do my best to be out there for them. Expect some more salamander imagery before long.

Sunshine and Flowers

Our exceptionally warm temperatures for the season

and daily sunshine have brought us spring flowers

like these Crocus

Snowdrops

and Winter Jasmine

The full moon got me out walking to capture a lovely sunset.

It shone brightly in my neighbourhood

A day's outing by the lake in the town of Morges.

The mountains were misty, but the water reflected the beautiful blue of the sky.

Other people were out enjoying the lovely weather.

Another day I took a boat over the lake to the town of Evian for the day.

I was amazed and thrilled to see the first cherry blossom of the year.

It is very early, but luckily this is ornamental cherry.

The fruit bearing trees need to remain in hibernation a while longer.

Leaving the French town of Evian and surrounding mountains

to return to the Swiss side of the lake where I live.

I have been enjoying spring flowers in pots for a few weeks now.

Like these orange primroses and ivy leaves.

Spring crochet is getting ready to decorate my home with fresh colours

and a new tiny owl scissor fob was made over the weekend.

I found the lovely pattern here:

Anabelia craft design

A wacky experiment in mega-magnification

A friend (I don't want to say who so as to avoid giving any hint about this location, but I am very grateful!) recently tipped me to a great horned owl nest, and as it was near a site that I was going to anyway, I stopped by for a peek. As it turns out, the owl was incubating atop an old raptor nest and was fairly visible. But a long ways away! I measured the distance from where my camera rig, above, sits to the owl nest using Google Earth. A whopping 665 feet, or well over two football fields!

Great horned owls using platform nests like this should not be approached. Owls atop such relatively exposed nests tend to be very skittish, and will likely flush even when the interloper is still a long ways off. But in this case, the road and place that I parked was far outside the owl's discomfort zone.

I decided to try an experiment. The rig above, which is securely mounted on a Gitzo tripod and Wimberly head, is the Canon 5D IV and Canon's stellar 800mm f/5.6 lens. Sandwiched between lens and camera are the Canon 2x III teleconverter and 1.4x teleconverter, linked by a 12mm extension tube (the teleconverters will not directly connect). The end result: a 2240mm lens! That gave me the oomph to reach out to that owl nest, but given all the layers of glass that I was shooting through, I didn't think the results would be very good.

And they're not, but they do provide documentary images. Also, two things decidedly not in my favor were overcast skies, and gusts of 15-20 mph. The results would certainly be better on a calm, bright day.

Here's the uncropped owl photo. From 665 feet away. To maximum sharpness, I shot in Live View, which prevents any mirror slap, and used 10-second delay, so there would be no operator-caused movement. I also removed the enormous lens hood, which reduces wind shake, and held the camera strap in a way that it wouldn't blow or cause camera movement (to lazy to remove it).

With those teleconverters, the base aperture is reduced to f/16, which is what I shot at. I used 1/500 shutter speed, as that's about the slowest that I thought I could get away with. Exposure compensation was +0.3. These settings spiked the ISO to 6400 - way past my comfort zone, but there was nothing to be done about it. Also, the teleconverters eliminate auto focus, so focusing must be done manually.

Here's the same image as above, but cropped about 50%. Neither image is art, to be sure, but they do identify the subject. And the subject probably scarcely noticed me. So, I learned that this complicated and quite expensive technique will work, but you'll probably never get truly superb images. It's more for documentation.

ADVICE? If you want to take bad long range photos such as this, save a ton of money and buy one of those inexpensive super-zoom point & shoot cameras :-)

Lapland Longspur

Lapland Longspur - A Winter Pipit 

Lapland Longspur [John Loch Photo]

The Lapland Longspur is a member of the Wagtail and Pipit Family (Moticillidae) and is uncommonly found here in fall migration and as a winter resident.  It is found in small flocks or singly with Snow Buntings or Horned Larks.  Shown above is a Lapland Longspur in winter plumage and accompanied by a Horned Lark (behind).

There are 4 species of longspurs in North America and the Lapland Longspur is the only one found here in New Brunswick.  The other 3 species are found in the west.  McCowan's Longspur and the Chestnut-collared Longspur breed in the southern parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan.  Smith's Longspur migrates through the prairie provinces and breeds in Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon.

The Lapland Longspur is found all over North America.  It winters in most of the US and breeds in Canada's far north.  A few winter here in NB and NS.  We usually see them as they migrate through on their way south in the fall.  I usually see them every winter at the Mactaquac Dam feeding on the ground with Snow Buntings.

Lapland Longspur

To the untrained eye the Lapland Longspur looks sparrow-like.  It is 16 cm long (6.3 in), about the same size as a Song Sparrow.  On quick view it looks brown and striped.  On closer view it shows a bold facial pattern, a dark triangle outlining a  buff-coloured ear patch.  It has dark streaks or patches on its upper breast and sides.  It shows a wide buff-coloured eyebrow and its lower parts are white.  This is the plumage we almost always see.  The breeding plumage is remarkably different in the male with a black face, breast and cap and a chestnut nape.  All plumages show white outer tail feathers in flight.  The beautiful breeding plumage would be seen in the far north and we only see remnants of it as the birds migrate south in the fall.

Lapland Longspurs are circumpolar in distribution.  In the UK they are called Lapland Buntings.  They winter in eastern England and Scotland and breed in Norway and across Siberia.  This species feeds on the ground on insects, seeds, and spiders.  It prefers open land like farm fields, airports, pastures, and grassy coastal dunes.  It breeds on the tundra in the far north and its nest is a depression on the ground lined with grass, lichens, moss and rootlets.

Lapland Longspur

Differentiating the 4 species of longspurs might be difficult in the west.  Their flight songs are distinctive so learning them would help.  In flight a close observation of the outer-tail feathers also helps with identification.  Observing habitat and behaviour are also good clues.  The only other species recorded from New Brunswick is the Chestnut-collared Longspur.  There are 2 records; a male from Nantucket Island, Grand Manan in 1914 and a female from Castalia, Grand Manan in 1996.

Lapland Longspur  [Mark Morse Photo]

The photo above shows a male Lapland Longspur showing a remnant of its breeding plumage.  Note the black on the breast and top of head and the chestnut patch on the back of the neck.

If you would like to see a Lapland Longspur now is the time to get out and look for flocks of Horned Larks or Snow Buntings on open land foraging on the ground.  Look closely for a different bird in the flock and it just might be a Lapland Longspur.  Winter birding can be fun!

Red-shouldered hawk, fore and aft

A gorgeous adult red-shouldered hawk scans for prey from a prominent perch. I photographed this animal last Thursday in a very suburbanized area of Columbus, Ohio.

Upon arrival at a postage-stamp natural area not far from my house, about the first bird that I detected was a red-shouldered hawk. Its strident screams couldn't be missed. An instant later, it flew in with a big branch, and led me right to its nest site. The nest isn't complete, and it may be a false start, but I hope the birds keep on with construction and use it as the nest is in a great place to discreetly watch the birds' progress.

Shortly thereafter, its mate flew in and the pair promptly copulated. Branches and other factors conspired to keep me from getting a good shot of that activity, but I tried.

The red-shouldered hawk population in Ohio and surrounding regions has been on the upswing for some time. This is a forest raptor, and as our woodlands have matured, so has favorable red-shouldered hawk habitat. Their increase has been especially notable in urban and suburban areas. Many of the neighborhoods in which I see them around Columbus now have numerous trees that are near climax stage. The effect is that of an urban forest, and in spite of all the people, houses, and traffic, the hawks have moved in.

No one should complain about having this species around. Very few raptors rival a red-shouldered hawk for showiness. In my view, their presence adds much to a neighborhood, and besides, they're fun to watch. In warmer seasons, red-shouldered hawks take lots of snakes and its always interesting to watch them rise from a dive with a wriggling reptile. I'll try and keep tabs on this pair, and see if they successfully nest at this site.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTE: The day that I took these photos was a typical white sky winter day. The bird in the images did cooperate nicely by hunting from a perfectly exposed perch, not far off. Red-shouldered hawks often can be quite tame, and as long as the observer is quiet they'll tolerate interlopers fairly well. Anyway, with that dastardly white sky as a backdrop, I had to GREATLY increase exposure compensation, to +2.7 EV (nearly three stops). Even then, the images were still somewhat underexposed, and I had to brighten them a bit more in post-processing. The shots were made with the Canon 5D IV and 800mm f/5.6 lens, at f/5.6, 1/320, and ISO 800, in manual mode. As often is the case, ISO drove much of my settings. I really don't like going higher than 800 if possible. As the lens was wide open at f/5.6, I had nowhere to go there. I also knew I needed all that positive exposure compensation - backing that down would have reduced the need for light. But I'm not into adding huge amounts of exposure correction in post-processing as I think it leads to poorer image quality. Thus, I dialed back the shutter speed to keep the ISO in my desired range. Even though that 800mm lens is a tank, by using good tripod-mounted stabilization techniques, it's amazing how slow a shutter speed one can use and still get a sharp image.

Nature: Dad's encouragement helped us become birds of a feather

John McCormac, shown here on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, helped foster his son's appreciation for nature/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

February 17, 2019

NATURE
Jim McCormac

My interest in nature is apparently innate. I was intensely curious about birds, bugs and other fauna for as long as I can remember. Fortunately, my parents were supportive of my two brothers and my interests and helped us develop them.

We all walked different paths. My brother Mike was always interested in rocks and became a geologist. My other brother John liked to fix stuff from an early age and ended up fixing people and disasters big and small as a fireman and paramedic.

Our varied pursuits were actively encouraged by our mother, Martha, and dad, John. It didn’t matter that their sons’ interests deviated from tried-and-true familial pursuits. For instance, my mother was a teacher and dad a lawyer.

By the fourth grade, I was already pretty knowledgeable about birds, my first passion. My elementary school teacher that year was Deborah Moon. She liked birds and greatly encouraged my interest. By the end of that school year, she had other kids interested in the feathered crowd, too.

Around the time that I turned 16, I met Bruce Peterjohn. He was a walking encyclopedia of all things avian, and his field-identification skills were amazing. Bruce went on to author the definitive work on Ohio’s birdlife, “The Birds of Ohio.” We began birding together, and did so scores of times over several years, giving me the equivalent of a Ph.D. in field ornithology.

Through Bruce, I met scores of accomplished bird people: Tom Bartlett, Dave Corbin, Jim Fry (former author of this column), Tom LePage, John Pogacnik, Larry Rosche, Esther Reichelderfer, Tom Thomson and many others. All of them patiently encouraged me, and jump-started my skills.

But no one was more supportive than my parents, and parents are usually the most critical to a child’s early intellectual growth. Before I had my driver’s license, they — and my brother Mike — would motor me to good birding spots and to see rarities that I learned about via the phone rare-bird alert.

Dad and I made some epic chases to see mega rarities. One of these was a Bachman’s sparrow, which spent part of the summer of 1974 at Highbanks Metro Park. It was the last known territorial bird in Ohio.

Even better was our successful pursuit of a red-cockaded woodpecker that appeared at Old Man’s Cave in 1975. The only other Ohio record dated to 1872, and no one thought another would appear.

Even after I struck out on my own, there were birding excursions with dad. Some were as far as Alaska and Costa Rica. All of these forays fostered a deep interest in nature, especially birds, in my parents.

Dad’s legal career filled his life with weighty responsibilities. After a short career as a trial lawyer, he became dean of Franklin University’s law school. He orchestrated its successful transition to Capital University, where he also served as dean. He went on to serve three terms as an appellate court judge, was president of the Ohio State Bar Association and served the legal community with distinction in many other capacities.

Through it all, he made time for me and birds. For nearly two decades, he volunteered at Highbanks Metro Park, where his favorite duty was tending to numerous bluebird nest boxes. Dad helped produce hundreds of bluebird chicks, something he considered a noble calling.

On Feb. 1, dad passed away at the age of 92. His legacy lives on through the countless people that he mentored, and the progeny of all those bluebirds that he cared for. We’ll miss him greatly.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Why We Should Get Out More

During the winter months, we often find excuses not to go out.

It's too cold, it's raining, snowing or the sky is grey

and it often feels so much more comfortable to stay inside with a good book!

It's a well known fact, that getting out every day is good for the morale.

Our horizons are widened

We see new things

We blow away any negative thoughts.

This week has been very springlike with bright blue skies and warmer temperatures

so there was no excuse to stay inside!

I heard birdsong and rejoiced!

Also, walking is healthy for us in so many ways.

We breathe deeper

Our muscles get a work-out

A daily walk can combat those who suffer from depression,

It alleviates stress and is even said to improve memory and lower blood-pressure.

My first walk today was right after breakfast.

There had been a night frost, but I did spy some tiny primroses

poking little yellow buds out of the earth and moss.

Tiny wild Cyclamen were dotted here and there among last autumn's acorns

under a big oak tree.

So much to see now with the days getting longer and there's a feel of a change in the air.

Beautiful spring flowers are available and tulips are one of my favourites.

Golden yellow to brighten one of the duller days.

Or these gorgeous deep pink ones splattered with white flecks on the outside petals.

They make me think of raspberries and cream!

I was fascinated to see how the colour changed as the days went by.

Graceful right up until the end.

Do you love to make soups at this time of the year?

I do.

Here's a delicious one for you to try:

400 grams each of carrots and sweet potatoes, diced

1 onion, diced

Toss briefly in 1 tbs olive oil and add

1 litre of water

Salt and pepper to taste

When tender, mix with an electric hand blender,

add some grated fresh ginger root.

2dl of coconut milk and 2 teaspoons of honey.

Heat gently, but do not boil.

Serve with a slice of wholemeal bread and a piece of cheese.

Just think how good this soup tastes after coming home from a walk in the fresh air!

My crochet project this week: tiny envelopes for Valentine's Day

and roses.

Pink for tenderness

or perhaps something with more impact and passion in red.

Are you with me on getting out more?

Even twenty minutes a day is good, but thirty is even better!

Shall we work up to an hour a day?

It's a wonderful objective, don't you think?

***

Crocheted rose pattern from Attic24

Common Merganser

Common Merganser - Our Largest Merganser

Common Merganser Male  [Lisa De Leon Photo]

The Common Merganser (Mergus merganser) is a common resident duck in New Brunswick.  It breeds here in summer and is present on most large open fresh waters during the winter.  I recently saw a raft of about 75 Common Mergansers sleeping on open water below the Mactaquac Dam.  They we huddled close together as they slept on the water, heads under their wings, all facing in the same direction.  Occasionally one would wake up and change its position only to soon tuck its head again.  It was a peaceful sight.  This is a common behaviour of this species in winter.

When one sees a flock of Common Mergansers on the water they show a lot of white, the white of the sides and breast of the males.  As seen in the photo above, the male has a white breast, sides, and wing feathers, a dark green head and back and a red bill.  The bill is long, narrow and serrated on the sides for catching fish.  The female has a rufous-brown head and neck, white chin and breast, gray body and red bill.  The white chin on the female is an identifying feature which distinguishes it from the female Hooded Merganser.  The female Red-breasted Merganser is similar  to the Common but has an all white chin, neck and breast.  

Common Merganser  Female [Lisa De Leon Photo]

The Common Merganser breeds as far north in Canada as there is open water.  Freeze-up in the fall pushes them south with some remaining on whatever open water is available. They nest in holes in trees or on the ground in wooded areas.  New Brunswick provides good nesting habitat for this species.  We have all seen female mergansers on our rivers, lakes and streams with a long line of ducklings behind them.  The females must make good mothers because you can sometimes see a female with 25 young ones, obviously there is some sharing of care of the young.  

Common Mergansers Sleeping

Common Mergansers feed on insects, fish and aquatic plants.  They feed either by diving and catching the prey underwater or by dabbling from the surface.  Sometimes while a flock is feeding gulls will hover around them waiting to steal the fish as they come to the surface.  

Common Mergansers are sometimes called 'sawbills' because of the serrated edge to their bills.  They share this name with other mergansers and smews, an European merganser.

Skunk-cabbage and an icy waterfall

I hadn't tripped the shutter on a real camera for several weeks, due to lots of more important things taking place, so getting out a bit last Monday was very photographically therapeutic. Time was short, so I ran over to two local spots. The first was Kiwanis Riverway Park, a postage stamp of a natural area but full of biodiversity. Kiwanis sits on the east bank of the Scioto River in Dublin, Ohio, and to me at least it is defined by the artesian springs that feed its wetlands. The boggy soil created by the springs is wonderful habitat for the first of our native spring wildflowers to bloom, the skunk-cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus. 

I was pleased but not surprised to find the skunkers lunging from the boggy mire, and a check of the more mature specimens revealed pollen adorning the tiny flowers. Full bloom, on February 11. I was especially pleased to be able to make photos of the plants in the snow. In this image, we can see evidence of the thermogenic nature of this odd arum. Skunk-cabbage generate heat as a byproduct of their growth, and self-warm enough to melt away the snow around the fleshy liver-dappled spathe - the fleshy hood that encloses the true flowers.

Spring has sprung.

As always, click the photo to enlarge

Only a few minutes from Kiwanis Park is one of central Ohio's most iconic waterfalls, Hayden Run Falls. So, over I dashed to try my hand at a landscape image. Abundant snowmelt and lingering ice formations cast the falls in an especially pleasing light, and I was glad that I made the short detour. If you've not seen this place, make a visit sometime, especially after rainfall has swollen the small feeder creek.

Sometimes when reviewing winter waterfall shots, I find that I don't particular like the colorized versions. That was the case here. The Columbus limestone has an orangish tinge in places, and the juxtaposition of mossy greens and various browns was a bit unpleasing to my eye. So I converted the image to black and white and was much more pleased with the end result. Ice, snow, and water often lens themselves well to B & W interpretation. I always shoot in color, though, even though I have the option of shooting in black and white with my cameras. Converting images to B & W is simple, and as I ALWAYS work off copies of original images, I will always have the original color versions should I ever want to use them.

Nature: Common northern mockingbird is overlooked marvel

A northern mockingbird guards a nearby cache of rose hips/Jim McCormac

Columbus Dispatch

February 3, 2019

NATURE
Jim McCormac

Note: This column is a bit dated. What with all that's been going on, it's been impossible to produce much new material, or put stuff out that was already in the hopper.

With more than 350 Dispatch columns under my belt, I’ve covered many facets of Ohio’s extraordinary natural history. Birds are a large, conspicuous part of our world and I write more avian columns than on any other subject.

Occasionally I realize I’ve neglected some common, interesting feathered topic. Such was the case on a recent snowy day in Hocking County. While surveying birds for the annual Hocking Hills Christmas Bird Count, our team ran across a particularly audacious northern mockingbird.

No shrinking violet, the mockingbird was teed up atop a robust multiflora rose shrub. The thorny thicket’s branches were heavily beset with rose hips, and the bird was defending its cache against all comers.

His primary antagonists were a large flock of eastern bluebirds that loitered nearby. Also smitten with vitamin-rich rose hips, the bluebirds would attempt occasional raids. The mocker was having none of it and quickly drove off his competitors.

Mockingbirds are famed for their aggression. When I was a kid, we had a big black cat who was tough as nails. “Inky” was famed for combating other cats, dogs, or anything else that crossed his path. The only thing we ever saw intimidate him was the local mockingbird. When the bird spotted Inky in the backyard (before we knew cats shouldn’t be outdoors), the one-sided battle was on. The bird would swoop and scold, sending a thoroughly cowed Inky scrambling for cover.

Few birds are more aptly named than the mockingbird. Both sexes sing, and their repertoire largely consists of mimicking sounds they hear. This predilection is defined in the bird’s scientific name: Mimus polyglottos (mimic of many voices). A bird can retain about 150 song types at any given time, and their skill in aping other sounds is remarkable.

My local mockingbird perfectly reproduces nearly all the songbirds he hears: cardinals, robins, bluebirds, flickers and many others. More interesting is his ability to reproduce mechanical sounds such as fire-truck sirens and the backup beeps of garbage trucks. Why mockingbirds mimic is unknown.

Largely a southern species, in spite of the “northern” in its name (it’s the northernmost of four closely related species), the mockingbird seems to be expanding northward. Ohio is near the northern limits of its range, and the species probably didn’t colonize the state until the mid-1800s. They expanded northward throughout the 20th century and continue their march north.

Suburbia often provides suitable habitat for mockers: dense shrubbery, open spaces, scattered trees and plenty of berry bushes. They’re pretty common in Columbus and the vicinity, and many readers are within earshot of one.

The mockingbird’s varied song is pleasing, and trying to identify the various sources of its mimicry is fun. But woe to the listener in close proximity to an unmated male. These bachelors often sing throughout the night. I once had one that loudly sang from my chimney top, serenading the neighborhood throughout the wee hours. This bird sometimes reminded me of the title of Harper Lee’s famous book, “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.

Longer Days

The days are getting longer by several minutes each day

and that is what allowed me to witness this beautiful sunset when I crossed a bridge

to the other side of town at 5.30 pm.

This is the silhouette of the St. François church steeple in Lausanne.

I shall be looking out for more sunsets!

A mini snowstorm in my street

Winter is still lurking

while the spring flowers sleep.

But the tulips are here 

bringing wonderful colour into our homes!

They didn't want to open and so I put them out into the rain

which seemed to suit them very much.

It was worth the wait.

The garland of hearts is finished and looks fresh and cheerful

above the couch in my living room.

Here it hangs underneath the lithography of one of Magritte's paintings.

The painting is called "La page blanche" (the empty page)

which it isn't!

I like Magritte's surreal quality and his humour!

This reminder and quotation from Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne:

"Promise me,

You'll always remember:

You are braver than you believe

 stronger than you seem

and

smarter than you think."

Words spoken by Christopher Robin to his favourite bear.

***

For the beautiful pattern of the heart granny square

HERE