November 2007 Newsletter
Hi, Bird Watchers!
Hope you are having a wonderful fall season. We were so glad to finally get some rain last week! We actually recorded over an inch in our new rain gauge at the house. It is part of the new Conant Weather Station line we are now carrying at Bird Watcher - a beautiful collection of brass rain gauges and thermometers. Hopefully we will have some more rain soon as we desperately need it. We have even started collecting water from the shower in a bucket while the water heats up to use in our bird baths and potted plants. Every little bit helps!
Yank! Yank! Yank! This is shaping up to be an “invasion” year for Red-breasted Nuthatches at feeders in our area. We typically only see White-breasted and Brown-headed Nuthatches in Georgia, but when the population numbers are up and the food sources are down in parts of Canada and the northeastern United States, certain species like Red-breasted Nuthatches will winter further south of their usual range.
Other “invasion” species include Pine Siskins, Purple Finches and Evening Grosbeaks. Keep an eye out this winter! We are keeping a good supply of Nutberry Suet Blend in our feeders and have attracted two Red-breasted Nuthatches so far. We also put out more White Millet during the fall and winter months to attract White-throated Sparrows, Song Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos and even the occasional flock of Wild Turkeys to our ground feeders.
By now most of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds have departed North Georgia, but we are starting to get some winter hummingbird reports. Our on-staff licensed hummingbird banders, Julia Elliott and Karen Theodorou, banded a beautiful adult female Rufous hummingbird in the Atlanta area last week and they still have a few other reported birds to check out.
If you see any hummingbirds at your feeders from November through early March please let us know! Twelve species of hummingbirds have been documented in Georgia during the fall or winter months. Many of these birds were at the homes of Bird Watcher customers, employees and even at our Roswell BWS store where a Black-chinned Hummingbird showed up in 1990-the first state record of this bird being in Georgia.
And just this past Monday, Oct. 29, another first state record bird was documented here in Georgia!
A Green-breasted Mango (a hummingbird typically found in Central America and Mexico) was banded in Dublin, Georgia by our good friend Bob Sargent of the Hummer/Bird Study Group.
You just never know where the next rare bird might turn up Maybe it will be at your feeder!
We are starting to stock up for Christmas at Bird Watcher and have several great new gift items this year - fun, soft, three-dimensional animal doorstops (kitties, frogs, squirrels and rabbits), beautiful kitchen towels, potholders, mugs, puzzles, doormats, and even chocolate-covered sunflower seeds - yum!
We also have new birdhouses, birdbaths, birdfeeders, and much, much more. Come by soon and see all the great new stuff!