The Nature of Delaware

By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

With the warm temperatures this week, I am being lulled into believing that spring is closer than it really is.  This morning on a pre-dawn dog walk, I thought I heard distant Spring Peepers, a small frog that emerges to breed in early spring.  It turned out to be a mechanical humming from a neighbor’s garage few doors down.  Despite my imagination, there are some real signs of spring here and there.  For instance, the sap is flowing from the maple trees at Ashland Nature Center.  We have five trees tapped and children and families have been enjoying maple-sugaring programs here for about a week now. 

On the Monday bird walk at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve, we found one of the first signs of spring, blooming skunk cabbage. 

Skunk cabbage is beginning to bloom in our area. This is one of the first signs of spring. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

As the skunk cabbage flower opens and the air temperature goes above freezing, the flower generates its own heat through respiration.  The spadix, or hood around the flower is very spongy and is thought to insulate the flower and keep some of the heat inside.  The heat does several things for the flower, including melting the snow around it, speeds up the development of the plant, and releases volatile chemicals that may attract pollinators.

Desperate for spring, a member of our birding group leans over to smell a blooming skunk cabbage. Photo by Joe Sebastiani

I have noticed other signs of spring as well.  On Monday, as I led the bird walk at Bucktoe, we heard drumming woodpeckers and singing Carolina Chickadees, Northern Cardinals, Song Sparrows, and Tufted Titmice.  At the Delaware Nature Society’s Burrows Run Preserve, a Great Horned Owl is incubating eggs on a nest high in a tree.

Have you seen any signs of spring yet?   

Join us on Friday, February 13th at Ashland Nature Center for a Breakfast and Birding event starting at 8am.  This is our kickoff for the nation-wide Great Backyard Bird Count.  Email me at joe@delawarenaturesociety.org if you would like to attend.

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White-winged Crossbill male.

Continuing with the story that Joe Sebastiani shared earlier this week, I would like to share images of White-winged Crossbills that I located today near Newark, Delaware.  A row of Norway Spruce trees held a large flock of these colorful and fascinating birds, fastidiously feeding on spruce seeds.

A female(top) and male White-winged Crossbill feeding on spruce seeds.

A male White-winged Crossbill grasps a spruce seed in his curved beak.

A female White-winged Crossbill feeds on snow on the ground.

A male White-winged Crossbill perches after "drinking" from the snow.

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By Joe Sebastiani, Members Program Team Leader

On Monday, Harold Davis attended the Bucktoe Creek Preserve weekly bird walk.  He took several photos of a Kestrel and Merlin and sent them to me, inspiring me to write about these two small falcons using the preserve this winter. 

The American Kestrel is the smallest falcon in the USA and has been seen on the property for several years.  Two years ago, William Ryan, the Preserve Director, and I installed a nesting box for Kestrels on a dead tree (snag) that William “planted” on a knoll in a field on the preserve.  Last year, a pair nested in the box, raising 3 young.  It was fun to observe the young birds as they developed and began catching their own prey.  Eventually, late in the summer, they youngsters left for an unknown wintering ground.  It was a thrill to host a nesting pair, since Kestrels are declining rapidly in the northeast as a breeding bird, and no one is certain why. 

This American Kestrel has been seen sporadically at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve. Notice that it is molting its primary flight feathers. Photo by Harold Davis.

The Kestrel wintering at Bucktoe may be the female of the pair that nested here last summer, or it could be a bird that is overwintering from somewhere else. 

The other small falcon that is wintering at the Bucktoe Creek Preserve is a Merlin.  Merlins breed across the northern boreal forests and prairies in North America and Eurasia.  Unlike the Kestrel, Merlins are increasing in numbers and expanding their range.  In fact, they have been breeding in NY state for many years, and several pair have been discovered nesting in northern PA recently, usually in or around small towns with lots of small songbirds to eat.  Merlins use the old nest of a crow or other raptor instead of constructing their own nest, or nesting in a cavity like a Kestrel.

The Merlin is a little bigger than an American Kestrel and is heavily streaked on the breast. They mostly eat small songbirds, like this bird is doing in the photograph. Photo by Harold Davis.

A pair of Merlin wintered on the Bucktoe Creek Preserve for four years in a row earlier this decade.  They would even return to the same tree to roost year after year.  The bird that is here now is usually seen eating its prey on one of the ”planted” snags on the preserve.  Usually, the Merlin zooms in from somewhere very quickly, carrying a small songbird, lands on one of the snags, and feasts. 

We welcome you to participate in the free birding walks at Bucktoe, each Monday at 7:45 a.m.  Directions can be found at www.delawarenaturesociety.org on the “our locations” page.

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