STOKES BIRDING BLOG

Winter Bird Therapy: Beauty at your Bird Feeders!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:19:00 +0000

Through the window, winter bird therapy: Symphony in blue, yay! the Carolina Wren is surviving, black on white, our winter "snowbirds." Hope you all who are stuck indoors and enduring the frigid temps, are feeding the birds. It's beauty, entertainment, engagement, and knowing you are helping these feathered spirits.

Red Squirrel Cuteness!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 17:54:00 +0000

Red Squirrel has a home under the now buried brush pile that was originally for the birds. It did not come out during the storm. Red Squirrels (unlike gray) are territorial and have territories averaging 2-5 acres. They have a main cache of food usually hidden in the ground, a stone wall, a burrow, or under a brush pile. They can make their nest in trees, or live under fallen logs, in stone walls, buildings, or underground tunnels they dig themselves. Ounce for ounce they are one of the feistiest critters out there but so cute!

How To Help Birds in Severe Winter Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Sat, 24 Jan 2026 15:28:00 +0000

American Goldfinches and Pine Siskin on lower right

Dark-eyed Junco in snow

Severe winter weather with below 0 degrees temperatures and storms is invading much of the eastern area of the country now. This makes it hard for birds to find food and survive. Birds cannot live for more than a day or two without food and providing feeders may help them survive. To help your birds get through winter in areas of the country where there is severe winter weather, start with an excellent bird feeder set up. Make sure you include multiple tubular, hopper, screen, and suet feeders filled with a variety of quality bird seeds and suet. Focus on providing black oil sunflower (which has a high oil, thus calorie count), seed mixes that contain a good amount of black oil sunflower and, for finches, Nyjer (thistle) or finch mix seed. Also include suet which is a calorie-rich food that provides much needed energy for birds in cold weather.

Place feeders near cover so the birds can escape wind and cold. Near pines or other evergreens is ideal, especially if they face south. Place feeders on poles with squirrel baffles and locate them 12 or more feet from any place from which a squirrel can jump.

Clean off snow from feeders whenever it accumulates from a storm. This includes shoveling snow from under the feeders so ground feeding species like Mourning Doves, White-throated Sparrows and juncos can access seeds that birds drop from the above feeders.Consider using the snow blower to clear under the feeders if it is feasible. Some people make a big brush pile with a hollow middle inside and sprinkle seed on the ground in the middle of it so ground feeding species can get the seed. The more feeders you have, the more kinds of birds you will attract.

Winter target birds. In addition to regular winter birds like chickadees, titmice, goldfinches, nuthatches, cardinals, jays, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, juncos, and White-throated and White-crowned Sparrows, you may attract rarer species like Common Redpolls, Pine Siskins, and Evening Grosbeaks.

Once you finish shoveling the snow go inside, pour a cup of hot chocolate, get out your binoculars and field guide and, though the window, watch a lot of happy birds flock to your feeders.

And if you're looking for to identify the birds you see, get our new Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to the Birds of North America. With 250 species and over 580 stunning photos, it contains all the birds you will see at your feeders and the essential ones beyond. For the more advanced birders on your list get our best-selling,

Buy Now! The Stokes Field Guide to the Birds of North America

It was recently divided into Eastern and Western editions, and we also have a new pocket guide for backyard birders.

Buy Now! The New Stokes Field Guide to Birds, Eastern and Western Regions

Buy Now! The Stokes Essential Pocket Guide to Birds of North America

Enjoy!

Winter Birding

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 15:45:00 +0000

Cold. Windy. Car birding. That's what it's been like. A Northern Mockingbird warms up on the roadside near its treasured winter food supply of winterberry. 5 Song Sparrows make a living on the weedy roadside. Eastern Bluebirds are still here and eat berries (and suet at my feeder). A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker was found on my Christmas Bird Count, one of a handful in the CBC area, unusual to have so many here now relatively speaking.

(Nikon P950 photos)

FIRST BIRD OF THE YEAR!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 21:23:00 +0000

What was your first bird of 2026? Mine was 25 juncos with a Fox Sparrow mixed in! Happy New Year and good birding in 2026!

HAPPY BIRD-FILLED NEW YEAR1

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 21:28:00 +0000

MAY YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL 2026 FILLED WITH BEAUTIFUL BIRDS AND MANY LIFERS!

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Sun, 21 Dec 2025 15:48:00 +0000

Happy Winter Solstice! Enjoy the birds, get out in nature and celebrate the return of increasing daylight hours!

Pine Grosbeak Beauty!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 14:39:00 +0000

This beautiful male Pine Grosbeak is in Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada along with the story of how I came to find and photograph him after a long search. The book is all things finch plus creative essays before each finch chapter which is unique among field guides. One of "Best Bird Books of 2024" according to ABA. I am so proud of it.

CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT 2025 IS COMING! HERE'S HOW TO PARTICIPATE

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 19:03:00 +0000

I did a recent scouting trip for my CBC (Christmas Bird Count), which takes place for me on December 29th (other areas of the country have counts on different dates from Dec. 14th to Jan. 5th). Hooded Mergansers, were hiding waay down the river, hope they stay for the count! To join the CBC count as part of a party or as a feeder watcher go here, https://www.audubon.org/.../chr.../join-christmas-bird-count

Snowstorm is coming but I'd Rather it be Snowing Snow Buntings!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 14:35:00 +0000

Show Buntings

Snow Bunting in flight

Major snowstorm predicted for MA tomorrow. I'd rather it be a Snow Bunting storm!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 20:36:00 +0000

Hoffman Bird Club talk, The Finches of the United States and Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 20:57:00 +0000

With Jonathan Pierce

With Tom Tyning

Bufflehead by Clair Postmus

Had a great time giving talk on Finches of the United States and Canada and book-signing at the Hoffman Bird Club in western MA on Monday. Saw friend Jonathan Pierce and amazing herp expert, Tom Tyning, coauthor of the Stokes Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians. Great, active, bird club! Then tried to see birds in a snowstorm! Managed to find some Buffleheads waaay out on Stockbridge Bowl, using the Nikon P950 like a scope. Then the next day had adventures looking for finches in the cold, snowstorm weather, more to come....

White-throated Sparrow New Arrivals!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 13:46:00 +0000

Happiness is, a newly arrived White-throated Sparrow at my feeder. Feeding birds is so rewarding. Each season brings the excitement of new arrivals, the pleasures of providing for them, and the mental health wellness of your engagement with them.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 12:51:00 +0000

Phoebe and her mom, Chanel

Eastern Red Bat

Short-eared Owl

Halloween Pennant

Great Horned Owl

Nature's Rhythms, Life Goes On

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 14:46:00 +0000

They say everything has a season. Don's season ended but life goes on and I embrace nature's rhythms: Yellow-rumped warblers passing through, the arrival of the first-of-season juncos (yay!), the parade of spectacular fall leaf hues, and the knowledge that the oak near Don's grave will blossom next spring attracting migrating warblers in their season of renewal.

RIP OBITUARY Don Stokes 2/21/47 - 10/7/25

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:20:00 +0000

Don Stokes

The Raven that flew over me

10/7/25 - On a beautiful October day, after a harvest-full-moon-Great-Horned-Owls-calling night, my beloved husband, Don, age 78, died, then a Raven flew over my head.

After a long 9-year decline, Don died of Lewy Body Dementia in a dementia facility he had been in for three plus years. I was with him in the afternoon, and even though he was unconscious, I think he heard me when I asked for two things: that he wait to die until my daughter got there (she did, and my son had visited in the morning) and that he send me a Raven, his favorite bird, after he died. After I had visited him, I had to run an errand, and my daughter, who was with him, then called to say he was gone. I drove back, and when I pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car, a Raven swooped down, flew low right over my head, and landed briefly on a nearby building, and then was gone. Rest in peace, Don, may you fly with the Ravens.

You all know him as a loving, kind, humorous, gifted teacher and deeply spiritually connected to nature. In place of a formal obit, let me tell you some things about Don you may or may not know.

Don was born in Philadelphia into a Quaker family and went to Germantown Friends School, then Swarthmore College, majoring in Comparative Religions. He was a talented musician who could sing, play the piano, and was an excellent tabla hand drum player. He even spent time in Calcutta, India, studying with a tabla guru there.

After college, Don moved to Berkeley, California, and in the hills kept careful and beautiful journals of the nature he encountered. He soon realized he was seeing things that little was known about. That planted the seed that later led him to begin writing about nature. After returning to Massachusetts, he taught at the Warehouse Cooperative School, where he met Bill Phillips, an editor at Little, Brown and Company/Hachette, whose daughter attended the school. Bill accepted Don's first book, Nature in Winter, and went on to become Don's editor for many years.

Don then began teaching at the Massachusetts Audubon Society and was in the process of writing a bird behavior guide when he met Lillian (already an avid hawk-watcher who came from a background in animal behavior and psychiatric social work), who took his course on Bird Behavior. As they say, the rest is history. Don and Lillian got married and over more than 30 years produced 35 Stokes Guides, including 3 volumes on bird behavior (instrumental in introducing a holistic approach to birds), backyard books such as the Bird Feeder, Hummingbird, and Bluebird books, beginner's guides, and the national The Stokes Field Guide to Birds of North America. Stokes' books have sold over 6 million copies. Don and Lillian produced and hosted the first PBS national television series on birds, Birdwatch with Don and Lillian Stokes, as well as Stokes Birds at Home, which 40 million viewers saw. They gave keynote talks and taught at birding festivals and Audubon societies across the country for years. They spent many winters on Sanibel Island birding and teaching others at Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge through their Stokes Birding and Photography tours.They were Duck Stamp Judges and received a Partners in Flight National Conservation Award. Don belonged to many nature and conservation organizations, including the Nuttall Ornithological Club.

Befitting his beautiful, spiritual side, Don was a student of Haiku poetry, writing it for many years. Here is a fitting example.

Entering the wilds

Equipped to look at nature –

Wait! I am nature.

Don will be buried at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in MA (a famous birding hotspot) on Goldfinch Path (how fitting!!). There will be a private family Celebration of Life as per his wishes. If you would like to do something in remembrance of Don, send a contribution to the nature, birding, or conservation organization of your choice. Thank you.

American Avocet, Birding Parker River National Wildlife Refuge!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 15:46:00 +0000

Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs

Great Blue Heron and Great Egret

American Avocet

Had a great day co-leading a Spark Birding group at Parker River NWR with Peter Alden, Saturday. There were lots of migrating shorebirds, herons and the surprise unusual species for there was an American Avocet! The SparkBirding.com bird walks are for beginning and intermediate birders. I love teaching beginners!

Wilson's Phalarope and Migrating Shorebirds, Parker River NWR!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 14:31:00 +0000

Wilson's Phalarope

Tree Swallows

Greater Yellowlegs

Osprey

Semipalmated Sandpipers

Beautiful day yesterday at Parker River NWR MA and the highlight was a Wilson's Phalarope plus clouds and clouds of many thousands of migrating Tree Swallows. The Wilson's would disappear in the reeds then dart out and race around like a Border Collie, thrilling the many birders including a group from MA Audubon and a couple of birders from Germany. There were many Semipalmated Sandpipers, Greater and a few Lesser Yellowlegs and much more.

Common Nighthawks Are Migrating!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 14:03:00 +0000

Common Nighthawk, male. Males have a white throat, white subterminal primary bar on wings and a white band on the tail.

Common Nighthawk, female. Females have a buffy throat, smaller white primary bar and no tail band.

Common Nighthawk, male

Common Nighthawk, female

Common Nighthawk, male

Common Nighthawk migration is in full swing here in New England. Last night in NH we saw 301 from our deck. We have gotten good flights before, our previous high count has been 2,202 in one night. We live on a dammed-up section of a river, where the river flows north and nighthawks often follow river valleys on migration. We count from our deck and are often joined by our friends.

Common Nighthawk numbers have been declining in the Northeast so it was very exciting so see so many of them that night.

This is peak Common Nighthawk migration time, so get out and look. The best time to see them is at the end of the day from about 5 pm to dark.

Here are some tips for seeing migrating Common Nighthawks:

1. Look during the later afternoon to early evening hours, from about 4 pm to 7:30 pm.
2. Look north, as they generally move from north to south.
3. Get comfortable, use a chair if you can, you will be looking for quite a while. Tuck your elbows in, it is less tiring and steadier to hold binos that way.
4. Nighthawks often move along river corridors
5. Note if there is an ant hatch. Nighthawks are attracted to, and eat, dispersing ants who rise up in clouds.
6. Study the photos above, to learn nighthawk shape. Often you will only see distant birds with long pointed wings, flapping rather slowly. When feeding, nighthawks fly erratically. When migrating, they move more directly and may even rise up on a thermal sometimes.

Birds Drink Out of Humingbird Feeder Ant Moat!!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Fri, 08 Aug 2025 18:23:00 +0000

Do your yard birds do this? This American Goldfinch drinking out of the ant moat (little well of water the ants won’t cross) on the hummingbird feeder. Chickadees titmice, and House Sparrows also do this even though there are birdbaths nearby. Anyone else have birds doing this with your hummer feeders?

RARE HUMMINGBIRDS AT FEEDERS!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Tue, 05 Aug 2025 14:14:00 +0000

RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD

CALLIOPE HUMMINGBIRD

RUBY-THROATED HUMMINGBIRD

This is a great time of year, from now into fall, to look for unusual hummingbirds at your feeders in addition to the usual Rub-throated Hummingbirds whose populations swell because of the young birds. There is an increasing trend for western hummingbird species such as Rufous and Allen's hummingbirds and other's showing up outside of their normal range in fall in eastern states. Here are some photos of them from when I lived in NH.

The Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorous rufous) was visiting a feeder in Hollis, NH in Oct. 2009. This was a very unusual hummingbird for there. One was last reported in NH in 2007. The Rufous Hummingbird is a western species whose breeding range goes as far up as Alaska. Increasingly, Rufous Hummingbirds are showing up in fall in the eastern half of the country. This hummingbird was banded over the weekend and the bander reported it as a hatching year Rufous Hummingbird, sex could not be determined. Identification of female and immature hummingbirds can be tricky, especially telling Rufous from Allen's Hummingbirds. Sometimes only banders, holding them in hand, can tell them apart by subtle differences in the shape of the tail feathers and even then sometimes it is not possible to definitively tell their sex. The above photos shows the extensive rufous on the sides and rufous on the tail feathers.

This little hummer is a Calliope Hummingbird, male, a bird from the Northwest who strayed far from his usual range and migration route in Nov. 2013. He came to a feeder in Manchester, NH at the home of some very gracious birders who allowed many birders to view this hummingbird, a lifer for many! This was not the first time a Calliope Hummingbird had shown up in New England and there are records from other eastern states also. Calliopes also have been reported from MA and NJ. More and more out-of-range hummingbirds are showing up in the East in fall at feeders. No one knows exactly why this occurs. Some birds' internal compasses may just direct them east instead of south. Over time that species may have a range expansion if those individuals survive and have offspring. Other people think that having more hummingbird feeders available and hardy plants in a human altered landscape may make it possible for some of these hummingbirds to be in the East in fall and winter. So keep watching your feeders!

Biggest Week in Birding May 2025

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Thu, 22 May 2025 16:04:00 +0000

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Yellow Warbler

BIG!! Just got back from being keynote speaker with coauthor Matt Young at the Biggest Week in American Birding where we did a book-signing and led a Mother's Day bird walk. Big beautiful warblers, Big numbers of migrant birds, Big crowds, Big Fun, Big excitement, Big wonderful talks, Big birding talent, Big socializing! This will be a multi-day post. Our talk, based on our book, The Stokes Guide to Finches of the United States and Canada, was introduced by the wonderful Kenn Kaufman and was well received by a packed audience. Then we signed many books and I was so pleased to see some had brought their other Stokes Guides to be signed and say that my books were instrumental for getting them into birding! That is one of my biggest rewards.

Swainson's Warbler, Yes!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 15:12:00 +0000

Fondly remembering Swainson's Warbler, a hard-to-see grail warbler, that I saw a number of times during fallout on Sanibel Island. This skulking, understory warbler breeds in southern swamps and wooded ravines. Given it lurks in the understory I was on my stomach for one of these photos! Hope a lot of you see it during migration.

The Red-tailed Hawk Project unraveling mysteries of the Red-tailed Hawk

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Sun, 30 Mar 2025 15:52:00 +0000

Next time you see a Red-tailed Hawk look twice! Ponder that there are still mysteries about this common species that when solved will lead us to a greater understanding of its many plumage colors (there are 16 subspecies and some are polymorphic), genetic and ecological associations and even to a better understanding of the dynamics of avian evolution. See this great article by Scott Weidensaul on The Red-tailed Hawk Project a large research collaboration that is working to unravel the mysteries of this abundant raptor. My photos in winter show two different eastern subspecies. Top photo is the Buteo jamaicencis borealis subspecies with a white throat, chest and moderate belly band. The next two birds are the abieticola subspecies with a dark throat, colorful rusty chest and belly band with heavy dark blobs. The Red-tailed Hawk Project is cautiously examining and classifying what are the subspecies. It will be exciting to see what their research comes up with.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/.../red-tailed-hawk.../

WOODCOCKS ARE DISPLAYING NOW!

noreply@blogger.com (Lillian Stokes) — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 16:09:00 +0000

"Peent" last night heard (they are hard to see in the dark) an American Woodcock displaying to attract a mate. Woodcock males walk around open areas in the eastern part of the country at dusk "peenting" then launch into an amazing aerial display in which they can spiral up 300 feet, wings creating a chirping sound, then land and continue "peenting." Females come to the display grounds, choose a mate then go into the woods, nest on the ground, and raise the young themselves. Go listen at dusk near open field areas near woods. Woodcocks use that long bill to probe for earthworms in the mud eyes perched atop their head provide surround sight to look for predators. Woodcocks are truly one of the avian wonders this time of year.