Through the Year in Fairbanks, Alaska October 29, 2006 All photos © Barbara Logan 2006 This is the first page I am making to share some of our wonderful Fairbanks, Alaska sights and observations throughout the year. I have a lot to share! I hope it isn't too much! (SMILE) There is just so much beauty and so many wonderful things to see here, if you just take the time to slow down and pay a little bit of attention. I know it helps me to relax - watching the birds visit the feeders in our yard or seeing a new squirrel come into the neighborhood. I have so many stories I could tell you about birds and squirrels! (SMILE) I will try to spread them out.... Well, we forgot that last night was the night to return to Alaska Standard Time ("fall back"). We finally realized it at about 10 am (actually 9 am) this morning, so after setting the clocks correctly we felt like we had an extra hour today! (SMILE) This year we didn't get snow that "stuck" until last weekend, and the birds have really been hitting our bird feeders all week. It has also gotten a little cooler since our nice warm "Indian Summer" that was here the last month or so has ended. The temperature at 5:22 PM today is 28° F, according to "Time and Temperature" (844) in downtown Fairbanks. The National Weather Service says it was 27° F at 4 pm and today's low was 18° F. We had mostly cloud cover today, but the sun peaked out a little while this afternoon. You can see what it looks like in downtown Fairbanks by visiting the Arctic Webcam located on Cushman Street, just north of the Chena River at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner office. We have seen some new bird species in our neighborhood this last week. They may have been here all along, but we had never seen them. When it snowed last weekend we were watching a couple of redpolls eating the seeds in the "catkins" in our birch trees when my husband saw a larger bird in the crab apple tree next door. With binoculars we could see that it was a Pine Grosbeak! Perhaps a young male with just a blush of pink on its head. I watched it eat a crab apple, but I couldn't get a clear photograph. Since we had only ever seen Pine Grosbeaks last year for the first time at the Alaska Bird Observatory, it was exciting to see them in our neighborhood. They are very pretty birds; the male differing from the female only in the head color - females are yellow and males are red. They are large birds as well and really stood out in size compared to the Redpolls which are smaller sparrow-like birds. There are also several Ravens in the neighborhood this winter. They are only here in the daylight hours, as they roost somewhere north of town in the woods with a huge flock of Ravens. People who know where the roost is keep it a secret, so as not to have idiots go out and shoot them. (Yep, there are some idiots out there who shoot Ravens and other things like STOP signs for no reason whatsoever, even though it is illegal) Seems the last few years the Ravens have become a lot more prevalent in our neighborhood. We never USED to have a lot of problems with the Ravens getting into the plastic trash bags we put out on the curb for garbage pickup. Although for many years I have seen them get into trash bags that were being hauled to the dump in the back of open pickup trucks. Maybe I had just never noticed them in the neighborhood trash. Now it seems like there are Ravens waiting for the bags to be set out. Smart birds (and scavengers) that they are, they have learned to tear the bags apart looking for any morsel they can eat, and make a huge mess in the process! (I hate having to clean up our trash when it has been strewn all over the street!) Now we put our bags in trash cans at the curb. The Ravens will also get into pet food left out in a yard, as we saw with the neighbor's dog. I had never seen that until about six or so years ago. The dogs eventually give up barking at the Ravens and just go inside their dog house, while the Ravens eat their food! The Ravens are neat and are the most vocal birds with many interesting sounds including "clucks" and "water drops" and of course "caws." My bird book says they are "cooperative hunters, and will often communicate a good food source to other Ravens." Last weekend we also saw a Woodpecker on the suet block and at first we thought it was the female Downy Woodpecker that came to the feeders last year. But it looked bigger - a LOT bigger, so I took a few pictures and compared them to the pictures from last year. Turns out it was a female Hairy Woodpecker! It is at least another 2-3 inches longer than the Downy! It has been back a few times this week - another first sighting for me, after almost 30 years in Fairbanks! It seems to come when we aren't watching as the suet blocks have been eaten on a lot. I also saw a Male Downy Woodpecker at the suet feeder the other day! (SMILE) Several Black-Capped Chickadees have been coming to the feeders for a while now, and also a small flock of wild pigeons has been foraging for dropped seeds as well as learning how to land on the feeders to knock seeds to the ground. Pigeons don't belong in Fairbanks, but some birds escaped from someone years ago and have established a large population in town. Since they don't belong here, the bitter cold at times really gets to them. I have seen it first-hand.... One winter many years ago a large flock of pigeons started coming to my deck where I was feeding Redpolls and Chickadees. I started feeding the pigeons, as I felt sorry for them, and soon there were literally hundreds of pigeons waiting on the deck, the house and the wires as soon as it was light out. Some started spending the night on the wires close to the house. On some bitterly cold mornings I watched as the pigeons' breath froze their beaks to their chests - when they lifted their heads their chest feathers were pulled out in clumps. I also found several dead pigeons in the yard. There were pigeons with missing legs as well. They were so hungry they were not afraid to be touched when I was on the deck feeding them (standing surrounded by them). It was a sad situation. One day while sitting in the dining room, watching the pigeons eating on the deck, I saw the pigeons "spook" and fly away; all except for one pigeon who was looking straight up into the sky. In a flash the pigeon was dead and a huge juvenile Northern Goshawk was sitting on my deck with his talons wrapped around the pigeon. (I wish I could have gotten a picture of that!) In a few minutes the Northern Goshawk flew off with the pigeon. That was the most awe-inspiring thing I think I had ever seen! Then I REALLY felt bad for the pigeons; seems I was feeding them to be Hawk food.... I was told by someone at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that they had also seen this juvenile Northern Goshawk around the barn at Creamer's Field Wildlife Refuge, feeding on the pigeons roosting there.... Northern Goshawks are not generally migratory, and this juvenile apparently had plenty of "pigeon" food for the winter. At other times I found evidence in our yard that he had been back, finding a tasty meal amongst the flock of pigeons in my yard. Although I have nothing against the "circle of life," and I know that the Northern Goshawk needed to eat too, I did stop feeding the pigeons after that winter.... It appears that this year is definitely a "Redpoll Year." The Redpoll population fluctuates from year to year - we hardly saw ANY last year, but THIS year is a truly different story! There has been a flock of about two dozen around this week. They just discovered all the various feeders we have out and the last two days they decided that they like the thistle bags the best! I got some great pictures of the Redpolls today - the best I think I have ever gotten. So enjoy them and I will close for today. Barbara Logan P.S. If you like the Redpoll pictures, you can have a large picture for your computer wallpaper! (1280 x 1024) Just open the link, then Right Click the photo after it loads and choose "Set as background." Enjoy! Redpoll Wallpaper My background picture on this page is of Crabapples in the new snow, taken this week. BACK to the Year Page (SMILE) OR BACK to our Home Page (SMILE) This page was created 29 October 2006 © Barbara Logan URL is http://freepages.family.rootsweb.com/~soakbear/year/10-29-2006.htm