From: drintoul@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (David A Rintoul)
Newsgroups: rec.birds
Subject: January Birding in KS
Date: 5 Jan 1993 22:19:31 -0600
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu

The following is a regular monthly feature of the _Prairie
Falcon_, the newsletter of the Northern Flint Hills Audubon
Society in Manhattan KS.  This column will appear in the Jan.
1993 newsletter.  Hope you enjoy it.
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"The inhabitants of cities suppose that the country landscape is
pleasant only half the year.  I please myself with observing the
graces of the winter secenery, and believe that we are as much touched
by it as by the genial influences of summer.  To the attentive eye,
each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it
beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which
will never be seen again..."

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature; addresses and lectures, Boston, Houghton,
(1876).

Indeed it seems to be true that many of us see neither the small nor
the large scenes that make the winter landscape special, preferring
instead to concentrate on shoveling the sidewalks, scraping the car
windshield, wiping the runny noses, or any of the myriad of other
duties that compete for our attention in January.  But if you can
force yourself to look away from these mundane activities and focus on
the boundless energy of a kinglet, or the malevolent beauty of a
shrike, then you will have transcended this earthly life for a moment,
and it may even get to be a habit!

     January is the coldest month of the year in the Great Plains, and
the hardy birds who remain here will be struggling in many cases to
survive until the spring.  A well-stocked feeder and a supply of
liquid water will earn you much gratitude among your avian
fellow-travelers, and can also make the difference between life and
death during a particularly deep or prolonged cold snap.  A
particularly helpful source of energy for birds in this season is fat,
in the form of suet or peanut butter.  Although your physician is
correct in telling you that too much fat in your diet is harmful,
don't make the mistake of assuming that fat is equally harmful for
wild creatures.  Fat is the most efficient energy source available to
animals, and thus can be very important for small animals such as
birds.  If you had to spend long mid-winter nights huddled in a cedar
tree, waiting for the sun to come up so that you could go hunt for
breakfast, even you might appreciate a handout of suet to start the
day!  So keep those feeders and birdbaths filled and cleaned, and you
will be surprised at the steady traffic that they can generate.

     Besides the birds that frequent your backyard (or frontyard)
feeders, there are many other interesting avian sights to see in
January.  Open water will attract large numbers of ducks, including
common goldeneyes, common mergansers, and mallards. Last January over
a hundred thousand common mergansers graced Milford Reservoir near
Junction City; perhaps this spectacle will be repeated this winter as
well.  These waterfowl flocks might also contain some more rare
species, such as red-breasted mergansers, common loons, or even a
Barrow's goldeneye.  Large flocks of gulls can also be found in some
winters; these consist mostly of ring-billed gulls and a few herring
gulls.  However, it pays to scan these flocks carefully; Thayer's
gulls, pomarine jaegers, and glaucous gulls have been found lurking in
these swirling, jabbering masses. So look for those birds that seem a
bit different from the crowd, and you might be rewarded by the sight
of a new species or two.

     Other obvious birds at this time of year include the many hawks
perched on utility poles, windmills, and fenceposts.  Most of these
will be some form or other of the highly variable red-tailed hawk,
with a smattering of rough-legged hawks thrown in for interest.  In
the western third of the state, red-tails will become less common,
rough-leggeds will predominate, and a few ferruginous hawks put in an
appearance as well.  Prairie falcons will be found across the state
(though more common in the west), pursuing their nomadic prey, flocks
of blackbirds, horned larks and Lapland longspurs.  Some owl species
can become common in Kansas in the winter; large roosts of several
dozen short-eared owls and a few barn owls have been found in cedar
groves in the central and western parts of the state.  The diminuitive
saw-whet owl can also be found in conifer groves statewide; look for
these innocent-faced predators in pines or cedars near streams or
ponds.  Last year a pair of these owls remained near the dam at Perry
Reservoir east of Topeka for several weeks.  Finally, early
indications are that this might be the year for a snowy owl invasion,
as significant numbers of half-starved juvenile snowy owls have been
taken to raptor rehabilitation clinics in southern Canada already this
year.  
                                                    Dave Rintoul

-- 
Dave Rintoul                Internet: drintoul@matt.ksu.edu
Biology Division - KSU     Latitude 39.18, Longitude -96.34
Manhattan KS 66506-4901                         TCN: id2418
(913)-532-5832 or 6663                  FAX: (913)-532-6653