Dec 21: Winter Solstice - the sun is at its lowest point in the sky. It's the shortest daylight of the year and the beginning of winter.
Dec 24: Christmas Eve: Watch for a blinking red light and reindeer in the night sky! Santa, Rudolph, and 8 tiny reindeer: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen are making their rounds!!! Merry Christmas!
Dec 31: Hamburg/ East Aurora Christmas Bird Count.
Dec 31: Dunkirk/Fredonia Lake Erie Bird Club Christmas Bird Count.
Raptor migration is essentially over by mid-month.
Bald Eagles may be seen along the Niagara River. Nest-building begins. Babies born mid-March!
Great Horned Owls are pairing up this month. Listen to their "Who's awake? Me, too!".
This is a great time to teach chickadees and titmice to feed from your hand.
Look for waterfowl migrants such as shovelers, swans, mergansers, canvasbacks, long-tailed ducks, mallards, goldeneyes, and numerous gulls along the Niagara River.
Watch for unusual birds at feeders such as: Redpolls, Pine Siskin, American Tree Sparrows, both Crossbills, Evening Grosbeaks, and Pine Grosbeaks,
Fox and Gray Squirrels' mating seasons.
Watch for Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks feeding on birds in your backyard throughout the winter. (Root for the House Sparrows and Starlings for meals! lol)
