Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: Bluebirds and beavers
Eastern Bluebird. FOR THE GAZETTE/CHUCK STERN
The Eastern bluebird population has increased significantly in recent decades. FOR THE GAZETTE/CHUCK STERN
Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Rd. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Road. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Beaver lodges in the marsh off the rail trail in Amherst by Station Rd. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Bluebirds at Mikey Ratherbun s home in Amherst. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
Eastern bluebirds at Mickey Rathbun’s home in Amherst. The birds can also be found nesting in holes in fence posts and dead trees. STAFF PHOTO/CAROL LOLLIS
It's the monthly Bird News program on The Point: wildlife biologist Mark Faherty brings us the latest of the season's birding highlights (and reports on
If there’s one thing you can count on each December, it’s counting. It’s when we hold the counts during which we count all the birds we can count. I’m talking about last weekend’s annual Cape Cod Waterfowl count as well as the various Christmas Bird Counts that begin this weekend. At last count, there were at least nine such counts in the CAI listening area, ten if you count the boat-based Stellwagen Bank count. So you know there’s a count near you.
Cape Cod Bird Club’s annual waterfowl count always kicks off this season of counting. Since 1984, the club has conducted this survey on the first weekend of December, a time when a lot of the winter waterfowl will have arrived. Volunteers are assigned either whole towns or groups of ponds to visit over the course of two days, counting all the ducks and other waterfowl on a respectable chunk of the almost 1000 freshwater ponds estimated to be here on the Cape. This year more than 40 counters fanned out across the l