My latest column for The Record and Herald News is about American Robins, and features an interview with ace birder Rick Wright.

Some surprising info for some readers, perhaps?

The link is here.

Rob Fanning writes:

The N.Y. Times has a nifty story on owls today. Here's a sample:

"In the Western imagination, the owl surely vies with the penguin for the position of My Favorite Bird. 'Everyone loves owls,' said David J. Bohaska, a paleobiologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, who discovered one of the earliest owl fossils. 'Even mammalogists love owls'

"Owls are a staple of children’s books and cultural kitsch — here wooing pussycats in pea-green boats and delivering mail to the Harry Potter crew, there raising a dubiously Wise eyebrow in the service of snack food.

"Yet for all this apparent familiarity, only lately have scientists begun to understand the birds in any detail, and to puzzle out the subtleties of behavior, biology and sensory prowess that set them apart from all other avian tribes."

The link is here.

Bob Budich writes:

"We have had a winter bird-feeder up for many years.  Our yard is only about 1,000 sq. ft. 

"Two seasons ago, for the first time, an aggressive wintering mockingbird took over the feeder and kept all the other birds away.  He would even perch on top of the feeder to protect his 'private property.'

"We were hoping that he would not return this winter, but ....

"My mockingbird is still here and constantly chasing any bird that tries to come to the sunflower kernel feeder.  He does eat the seeds himself. 

"He does the same thing with the heated birdbath that is near the feeder.  This is his empire and he wants for nothing. 

"Unfortunately, I will have most of my bag of seed left at the end of the winter feeding period.  (The mockingbird cannot eat that much.)  I guess the squirrels will have a feast when I throw the old seed out.