Parent loons to chicks: 'You're on your own'

Q: Do loons migrate together as a family in the fall?

A: No, loons don't migrate in family groups. Instead, adult males leave first, usually in September, followed a few weeks later by adult females. Many adult loons spend several weeks on large bodies of water, like Lake Michigan, before heading to their winter homes, on the Gulf of Mexico or along the southern Atlantic coast. Juveniles leave later, sometimes as late as mid-November, using the extra time to hone their flight skills, before heading to the Gulf. Minnesota has the largest population of loons in the continental U.S., with something like 12,000 adults inhabiting many of the state's lakes. Loons will return to the same lake year after year to raise their families.

Q: I found a really interesting-looking feather under one of my feeders, and wonder how I could find out what bird left it there.

A: A good place to start is the extensive feather atlas maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This is a database showing images of flight feathers of North American birds. You can either start by browsing their collection, or focusing in on a particular kind of bird. Or you can use the "Identify my Feather" feature to learn what bird a feather belongs to.

Q: I was at a local park in early December and was surprised to see a group of bluebirds flitting around on a very cold day. Is this unusual?

A: It's becoming more and more usual to see bluebirds, and their thrush cousins, the American robin, around here in wintertime. They survive the winter by eating fruit and finding sources of open water, such as seeps, springs or streams. Bluebirds normally aren't attracted to bird feeders, but have been known to consume shelled sunflower and safflower seeds and crumbly suet. Another reader recently sent a photo of a large crowd of bluebirds gobbling dried mealworms at his feeder.

Q: How large is a pileated woodpecker's territory? I often see one on my walks and there's also one that visits my bird feeders. I'm wondering if it could be the same bird.

A: That's a good question, and I turned to the Audubon Society for an answer. Pileated woodpeckers in a study in Missouri defended territories that ranged in size from 130 acres to 400 acres, while another study turned up pileated woodpeckers defending territories as large as 1,000 acres in Oregon. If your daily walk doesn't take you too far from home, you may well be seeing the same woodpecker.

Q: We noticed a bird that looked like an oriole at our suet feeder in October. Then the bird showed up again in early December. Is this possible?

A: The photos you sent in December clearly show a male Baltimore oriole perched near a suet feeder. And it's certainly possible for an oriole to be around this late in the season — the Minnesota Ornithologists Union lists 15 sightings in wintertime in the state. This bird should have departed on migration back in September, so the fact that he's still around may indicate an injury or illness at migration time. Let's hope he's recovered and consumes lots of suet to withstand the cold. You might want to keep this county by county list of wildlife rehabilitators handy, in case the bird seems to need help: https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/eco/nongame/rehabilitation/wildlife_rehabilitators.pdf)

Q: Some weeks ago a large flock of crows was making a racket in my neighbor's fir tree, and it turned out that they were harassing a great horned owl. This went on for hours, on and off, all day. At one point a Cooper's hawk flew in to the same tree as the owl and started making a racket, as well. What do you think it was doing — was it joining in the harassment?

A: What an amazing, fascinating tale, and it must have been quite a sight. While I've seen many species of birds ganging up to try to drive an owl from an area, I've never seen another raptor joining the fray. So, I checked with Lori Arent, assistant director of the Raptor Center at the U of M, and she noted that red-tailed, red-shouldered and Cooper's hawks have been known to occasionally mob a great horned owl. "In this case, maybe the owl was near an inactive [hawk] nest and the hawk was still defending it and the area surrounding it," Arent speculated.

Another possibility: Cooper's hawks and crows are about the same size. If crows fear being preyed on by an owl while they sleep at night, mightn't a Cooper's hawk feel the same, and thus try to drive the owl out of the area?

Q: I put out a handful of peanuts-in-the-shell on my deck each morning for the blue jays, and they come in like clockwork and carry them off, one by one until they're gone. I was wondering if they are hiding them or eating them very fast. I just found several peanuts tucked carefully into branches of our blue spruce, so it seems they are hiding them.

A: You've found proof that blue jays, like all members of the corvid family, hide food for later consumption, and peanuts are a blue jay favorite. This is called caching, and they and their cousins, the crows and ravens, all do this. I watch the blue jays around my backyard heading for rain gutters, tree limbs and leaf piles each morning to hide their peanut booty. They stop to eat a few, too. It's quite likely that squirrels and other birds find some of their stash before they return to eat it.

St. Paul resident Val Cunningham, who volunteers with the St. Paul Audubon Society and writes about nature for local, regional and national newspapers and magazines, can be reached at valwrites@comcast.net.