Black Oil Sunflower
Seeds
Attracts:
blue jays
black-capped chickadees
tufted titmice
red-breasted nuthatches
white-breasted nuthatches
northern cardinals
indigo buntings (summer only)
rose-breasted grosbeaks (summer only)
red-winged blackbirds
purple finches
house finches
evening grosbeaks
American goldfinches
pine siskins
common redpolls
Millet Seed
Often mixed with sunflower seeds
and sometimes peanut hearts.
Good for ground-feeding birds like:
mourning doves
song sparrows
American tree sparrows
chipping sparrows
dark-eyed juncos
Thistle or Niger
seed
From an Ethiopian plant unrelated to our
local thistles. Niger seed will not germinate
in our climate, so there is no danger of
introducing African plants beneath a feeder.
Excellent food for smaller finches such as:
American goldfinches
pine siskins
common redpolls
Suet
Excellent source of energy for many birds.
downy woodpeckers
hairy woodpeckers
black-capped chickadees
red-breasted nuthatches
white-breasted nuthatches
"The joy is to see them in their natural habitat," said Bets Brown, who shares her husband's interest in birds. When Brown was getting a Ph.D. in marine biology at the College of Marine Studies at the University of Delaware, Wilson came over one day from Johns Hopkins to conduct a seminar for graduate students, and they got talking about birds. "Did you know about the errant white-fronted goose in Rehoboth Beach?" she asked. Always monitoring bird hot lines, of course, he did know, and off they went to take a gander at the errant (i.e., out of its normal range) goose at a pond near the coast. "That's how we discovered we were both birders," said Brown, who has taught marine biology and a women's biology Jan Plan at Colby and serves as associate director of corporate and foundation relations. "Real serious birders chase birds all over the place."
Real serious birders also go to great lengths to attract birds, although most stop short of dead calves. Kestrels have bred for three years in a box in the barn of the couple's three-acre South China, Maine, home–"a pretty spot to perch," said Brown–and pairs of bluebirds and tree swallows nest in some 25 or 30 boxes located around the property and an adjacent farm. Wilson fills eight feeders once or twice a week, and in a year goes through 300-400 pounds of sunflower seed, 30 pounds of thistle seed and some suet. (He still hasn't had time to repair two feeders that were damaged in the ice storm in January 1998. "After all, he's chair of the department," Brown joked.) Brown and Wilson also planted mountain ash and highbush cranberry bushes, which retain berries all winter, to attract Bohemian and cedar waxwings and pine grosbeaks. Fruit trees on the property entice orioles. It's all simple, they agree; when you know what each kind feeds on, you can bring in an array of birds.
Just as simple is their home equipment: binoculars kept handy to watch what's going on outside, and a spotting scope, a tripod with high-powered lens, to see farther and in more detail. From the house they have identified 91 species, including bald eagles, hawks and owls. Although birding is Wilson's vocation, at such moments at home it remains his avocation. "He's relaxed," Brown said, "You just drop what you're doing. It's being outside, the educational side, that's important."
Together Wilson and Brown are coordinators of the Christmas Bird count in Waterville, and both participate in the U.S. Breeding Bird Survey for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, tracking migrant and over-wintering birds. It's important to do the survey for a number of years, Brown says, because the count, monitoring which birds are breeding and which are declining, is a barometer of environmental health. Each year for the last eight or nine years she and Wilson each have completed three of Maine's 43 routes in the survey. You begin a route at dawn, she explains, counting the numbers of each species you see and hear in three minutes, then drive a half mile down the road and count again for three minutes and so on until you've made 50 stops in 24 1/2 miles. "The more advanced birders like Herb do the count by hearing rather than sight," she said.
Colby lore includes a treasured example of birding by ear by world-renowned birder Roger Tory Peterson, who received an honorary degree from Colby in 1974. After the commencement ceremony, Dean of Faculty Paul Jenson leaned over and politely inquired of Peterson how many birds he'd identified during the proceedings. "Eight," Peterson said without a moment's hesitation, pegging them by both calls and contours.
Reminded of this anecdote, Wilson nodded; he understands another pro perfectly. "We're always listening and comparing notes on any outdoor activity," he said. "We do it subconsciously."
Peterson told Jenson that his record, set when he was the speaker at a university commencement, was 12. Wilson nods at that, too, as if the bird in the bush–or the chickadee in the arboretum, the waterfowl below the dam near Fort Halifax, the osprey or bald eagle at Togus Pond–is worth just as much as the bird in hand. If it hasn't already been sized up and pored over, maybe–like the white-fronted goose in Rehoboth–it's worth even more.
