Keep Calm and Bird On: December 2020

Ginger Andrews • December 1, 2020
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews

As December begins to flirt with cold weather, birders readjust their quests to the completely different cast of characters available with the change of season.


Bird feeders, of course, mean the luxurious comfort of indoor birding with robe, slippers, and hot beverage. You just never know what will show up. Sometimes exotic or out-of-range species find a feeder to be a lifeline.

Above: an unusual “feeder bird” was a female Western Tanager that was attracted to sunflower seed last winter.

It does take a certain level of fortitude to go out and fill the feeders. And to really enjoy winter birding it is necessary to get thoroughly bundled up. But once you have gone to the effort of putting on the underlayers, lined or windproof pants, sweaters, parka, boots, gloves, and hat, why not get some real use out of them and brave the elements? And it is one time when a mask is a really great face-warmer.


Pond ducks are a delight, and they can be found wherever there is open water. American Wigeon, Redheads, Canvasbacks are winter treats.


But sea-watching is probably the ultimate in winter birding. To endure the buffeting of the raw wind, while Northern Gannets plunge head-first into a wild sea, is invigorating. A male Harlequin Duck, with blue and white-patterned head, and chestnut flank, glowing in the low-angled winter sun, is breathtaking. White-winged Gulls such as Iceland or Glaucous are a change from the usual. Watching a delicate, graceful Bonaparte’s Gull (see below) stir a wave for its food is an unforgettable experience. Scoters keening, Razorbills diving, Long-tailed Ducks in their multi-voiced conversation flying overhead—these are the irreplaceable essence of winter. Study the wind, find a lee, or walk briskly, and look for the transcendent beauty that summer beachgoers never see.

Recent Posts

By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 27, 2025
This is what our landscaper for MMA calls it. “The ancient vine.” He tells the people who work for him not to touch the “ancient vine.” I have probably made him – and all of them – terrified of it. I am even terrified of it to some degree. I refer to the grape vine behind the Mitchell House this is supposed to be Peleg Mitchell Junior’s grape vine – Maria Mitchell’s uncle who inhabited the house from about 1836 to his death in 1882. It has two trunks but one died several years ago. Because of that, each year I try to root shoots. It’s fairly easy to do – when you cut back the vine in late fall/early winter. I have had success but not success protecting the shoots I baby all winter from bunnies and other critters try as I might. I started doing this when the one trunk died – I was PANICKED! The landscaper stays away because I have told him if anyone is going to accidentally harm or worse yet, kill, this grape vine it would be me so I only have myself to blame. So each November/December – once ALL the leaves have fallen off – I climb my ladder and quietly, carefully, and fearfully cut back the stems typically to two buds. I have been somewhat successful in spurring grape production – and these grapes attract some amazing birds in the fall. It takes me some time – and I pretty much hyperventilate the entire time – and then, I stare at it all winter. Passing under it multiple times a day to reach my office. Hoping, and yes, praying, it will come out in the spring. It’s a late budder so just recently the buds started to show themselves – thank goodness! – and I was rewarded today (May 5, 2025) with this wonderful hot pink color on the edges of the leaves as they are uncurling. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 19, 2025
May 27. {1857} There is this great difference between Niagara and other wonders of the world, that is you get no idea from descriptions or even from paintings. Of the Mammoth Cave you have a conception from what you are told, of the Natural Bridge you get really a truthful impression from a picture. But Cave and Bridge are in still life, Niagara is all activity and change. No picture gives you the varying form of the water of the change of color; no description conveys to your mind the ceaseless roar. So too the ocean must be unrepresentable to those who have not looked upon it. Maria Mitchell would tour the Mammoth Cave and the Natural Bridge during her trip to the southern United States as Prudence Swift’s chaperone – I have written of these travels and Prudence before. Niagara Falls is a place she likely saw on her way to visit her younger sister Phebe Mitchell Kendall, who once lived with her husband in Pennsylvania. I was a bit surprised that she feels the way she does about the Cave and Bridge being well-represented by images but I do kind of se her point. But Niagara, the ocean, any moving body of water – she is right. You don’t fully comprehend it until you hear it, touch and taste it, see its colors, and feel it splash, sprinkle, or mist across your face. Niagara certainly mists across your face – sort of like a breezy day at the beach and the salt mist that slowly builds across your face and coats the beach grass so that it shimmers in the sunlight. JNLF
By Jascin N. Leonardo Finger May 12, 2025
I have been watching it. Waiting. Today, I was rewarded with the scent as they have now started to open. From late fall, all through the winter and early spring, there is a very large patch of dirt with traces of roots and purple-like portions of some sort of plant. Then, they slowly start to send their shoots forth – up from that dusty pile of dirt come little greenish pips that become the leaves. Then, you start to see the stems tightened against the leaves and then lovely chartreuse buds are visible that then turn to white and slowly open from top to bottom. As soon as they star to open, I wait. Knowing that one morning I will walk by soon and then I will get a delicious waft of Lily of the Valley. I have written about this patch at the Mitchell House before. I have always been fascinated by the fact that these grow in full sun – they have no shade whatsoever. And this patch is old. I’m not sure how old – I do not think late nineteenth century but possibly – or maybe very early twentieth century. We have one or two images in the collection from the early 1900s but one does not show the ground, and the other not so much either. I also think this is one of the earliest flowering patches of Lily of the Valley on island – let me know if you’ve seen others this early. And in FULL sun to boot! But in any case, today was the day – May 5, 2025 – that I got the first waft. Saturday when I was here, they were not ready yet. But now, they are! And when I smell it, I know why it was my mother-in-law’s favorite flower. JNLF
Show More