President’s Message Spring 2023

Hello my little birding friends! Hope this newsletter finds you well and enjoying the birds. I’ve had quite a few different birds at my feeder this winter and a Coopers hawk swarms by a few times a week. All the birds disappear! In the middle of January, I had about 25 or more Robins flying around my yard eating the holly berries. It’s a big tree and a lot of berries. My son’s boat, which is in the driveway for the winter, and our full of poop trucks were a testament as to just how many berries the Robins were eating! They came and went in one day and not a berry left! Supposedly, they are the Robins from the north that come down when ours go down south. It has been warm so maybe they are ours too. They were also scavenging for bugs under the leaves in my flower garden. 

Remember I told you in the last newsletter not to rake your gardens in the fall so the birds had some food in the winter? I noticed on our bird walk to Connetquot State Park this winter that we had some young birders! Nice to see and hope they continue. That same trip Ken pointed out a tree that was bent at the bottom of the trunk and then went straight up. He said the Native American Indians would put a big rock at the base so it would bend and use that tree as a marker. Of course the tree was much older now and it was easier and thinner to do back then. Still don’t know how they did it but ingenious!

I enjoyed seeing the winter birds and ducks this winter, but now it’s spring and time for other colorful ducks and birds to be here and all our spring flowering bulbs to come up. I always put a brick over the tulip bulbs after I plant them so the squirrels don’t dig them up. They don’t like to eat daffodil bulbs. I always try to plant perennial flowers that make seeds that the birds like too, like thistle and cone flowers. Some people feel we shouldn’t feed the birds that much in the summer because they will depend on the seed and won’t eat other things like bugs and flowers. Use your own discretion. 

We will have our May dinner event at Captain Bills and our summer wildlife event at Brookside. It’s finally nice not to have to worry so much about Covid even though it’s still around. Enjoy the spring and summer and happy birding!