Veteran birding expert is turning over column
Iwrote my first column for the Santa Fe New Mexican on March 26, 2009. For most birds, almost 12 years would be an exceptionally long life. For me, it seems not so long ago.
This column is my last. I am stepping away because my wife, Dawn Graber, and I have sold our Wild Birds Unlimited store to a wonderful local family who love the birds. We are going to spend time relaxing, birding and traveling, when it’s safe to do so.
But the For the Birds column will continue in The New Mexican with a new voice, Ken Bunkowski, who is the new owner of the almost 28-year-old Wild Birds Unlimited store, which has become a Santa Fe mainstay.
Over these dozen years, when choosing a subject for this column, I wrote about what you told me was happening in your backyards. If you came into our store talking about an explosion of evening grosbeaks at your feeders or told me you had spotted a beautiful western tanager, that’s what I wrote about. With this column, I wanted all of you to have a heads-up so you knew what to look for and how to better attract birds.
My first column in 2009 was about robins and how many of them winter in our area. Many of you are seeing flocks of robins right now mobbing birdbaths and eating old berries from berry-producing shrubs and trees. Some of you are also reporting evening grosbeaks, in small flocks, eating sunflower seeds at your feeders. Flocks of little gray bushtits are a common sight now at suet feeders, and for some reason more of you than ever are seeing the highly camouflaged brown creeper eating bark butter (spreadable suet).
We have had reports of eastern blue jays busy at local feeders. They are not typically found here. Some of you have seen a few cedar waxwings mixing with robins and bluebirds at birdbaths. In general, bird activity is terrific.
Some of you are home more because of the pandemic, so you are seeing bird activity that you would have normally missed. If you are home more, you might also be more likely to notice when feeders and birdbaths are empty. We have seen interest in the hobby of feeding backyard birds increase over these challenging past 10 months. Bird and nature lovers have been incredibly supportive of our local store, and in the process helped birds and brought a bit of joy and calm to a tumultuous time.
I have loved writing this column and I have appreciated every one of your comments, ideas and even grammatical suggestions. I have spent countless hours researching birds and bird activity to be as accurate as possible, and I am better for it.
Thank you for reading this column all these years. Thank you to The New Mexican, which was always supportive of For the Birds and of me. Keep feeding the birds and take good care.
Look for Ken’s first column to appear in these pages soon. I’m excited to read it!