I HAVE READ that birds are smart enough not to bathe in heated birdbaths in winter.” So began an early February letter from a Northwood reader. The letter continued: “Our resident house sparrow shocked me last week when I saw him bathing in our birdbath when the temperature was only 23 F! All our other birds are drinking only. Our male House sparrow thinks of it as a spa, I guess. He then flew to a nearby ash tree and preened. He’s still around so I guess his feathers didn’t freeze as I was afraid they would.”
Birds bathe the year around whenever they can to properly clean their feathers. Preening returns feathers to their proper location and thus birds are kept warmer than otherwise. In winter birds do get much of their water from snow. However, if water in bird baths is available the year around, the birds would be better served. To keep a birdbath free of ice, adding boiling water several times a day does work, but that task can be quite time consuming especially when the temperature remains below freezing all day long.
Submersible electric water heaters that are especially designed to keep water from freezing in birdbaths are available at many stores where bird feeding supplies are sold.
Warning — in no case should antifreeze be added to water for birds!
Our Northwood reader continued: ‘Your 1/29/11 column told of the origin of the expression ‘murder of crows.’ I remember seeing a list of names for groups of birds.
Might you have such a list and could you put it in a future column?”
Several years ago one of our New Hampton readers furnished us with such a list that we published along with an explanation of the expression, “murder of crows.” He wrote: “There are terms for other bird flocks whose origin goes back some 500 years ago or more: a bevy of quail; a charm of finches or goldfinches; a company of wigeon; a congregation or a building of rooks; a covert of coots; a covey of partridges or quail; a dropping of shelldrakes; an exhilaration of larks; a fall of woodcock; a gaggle or skein of geese; a muster of peacocks; a nide of pheasants; a raft or a plump of ducks; a siege of herons; a sord of mallards; a spring of teal; a stand or wing of plovers; a watch of nightingales; a whiteness of swans; a wisp of snipe; a flight of eagles; a brace of pheasant and partridge; a rookery of herons; a flight or wing of ducks; and a robbery of rooks. This last comes from the fact that these birds like ravens, crows, jackdaws and other such blackbird and crow types have a bad, nasty habit of robbing other birds’ nests of eggs and young. It is easy to see how birds like these could earn such a title very easily.
“This information came from ‘The Bird Watchers Quiz Book,‘ by Henry Lamberton, Mary Evans Collins, and Henry Hill Collins Jr., written in 1961. The whole book is full of quizzes. I got it at a book sale and it is probably out of print now. It was published by Dover Publications, Inc., 180 Varick St., New York, NY.
“P.S. A nide means a nest or brood of pheasants. Sord means a flock or flight of mallards — from old English, French and Latin terms used in England hundreds of years ago.”
Once again we thank our New Hampton reader for this information.
A sandwich reader wrote: “In the Saturday 1/15/11, Union Leader I read with interest the Keene reader’s gray squirrel behavior. (In process of swallowing a chickadee.) “A couple of years ago I was weed whacking around a stone wall and near a utility pole supporting a power line and a transformer, I was surprised to find a gray squirrel with a blue jay firmly clutched by the neck in its mouth. There was a burned line from his rear paws up across its body. Apparently in his conquest he came across a hot line and was electrocuted. This was a new experience for me.”
A Sandown reader wrote in part on Jan. 30: “A family of 4 bluebirds who joined us about 3 weeks ago and are showing up 2-3 times daily to feed on suet and black oil sunflower seeds. This the first time we have had them in the winter, usually we have only seen them in the spring and summer. We have had many goldfinch, several titmice, chickadees and nuthatches; four woodpeckers. Hairy, downy, red-headed and redbellied. One Carolina wren about a week ago, many juncos, several blue jays, American robins and cardinals.
‘My wife and I have had bird feeders out year-round for the last 15 years and this is by far the best winter for seeing so many varieties of birds.‘
Stacey Cole’s address is 529 W. Swanzey Road, Swanzey 03446.
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