Featured
FeederWatcher:
Arabella Tubbs
Arabella Tubbs has counted birds for Project FeederWatch from the same location in Maquoketa, Iowa, for 20 years. She always enjoyed birds but never had time to really pursue bird watching until she and her husband retired. That first summer after retirement, they cleared some
land on a wooded part of her husband's family farm. She wrote, "that entire summer it seemed
I was kept company by many birds, especially an Indigo Bunting--a first for
me." The Tubbs' retirement home sits 12 acres of second
growth forest that has been used only as wildlife habitat and forest preserve.
In
the past Arabella was a member of the Dubuque Audubon,
and she continues to participate in the Christmas
Bird Count and the Wildlife Conservation Board's Sandhill
Crane survey. Arabella has been on Elderhostel birding
trips including a trip to Big Bend National Park in
Texas, where she watched "Green Jays, Painted
Bunting, Scaled and Harlequin quail, and too many
hummingbirds to list!" She also traveled with
Elderhostel to Winona, Minnesota, where she was able
to view a Peregrine Falcon nesting on the bluffs above
the Mississippi River. Arabella took a Smithsonian
trip to the Bosque Del Apache National Wildlife Refuge
in New Mexico, where she saw her first Golden Eagle.
Just this past September, Arabella spent two weeks
with an International Elderhostel at Aigas Field Centre
in the Highlands of Scotland where she became acquainted
with Scottish birds and enjoyed "fabulous field
trips which stopped for all the birds!"
 Feeding area
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Arabella's Count Site includes tube and platform
feeders. She offers a single type of food in each feeder, usually nyjer, safflower,
sunflower hearts, and black oil sunflower seeds. She also has a suet feeder and
a heated birdbath during the cold months. Arabella watches her feeders from her kitchen windows, usually in the
early morning, late afternoon, and again at twilight when, Arabella says, " the cardinals
are always the last to gather for a late snack." |
Photo by Heather Aubke, Albany, Ohio |
Feeder birds
Common birds visiting Arabella's
feeders in winter are goldfinches, chickadees, titmice, cardinals, Downy, Hairy, and Red-bellied woodpeckers as well as the ever present Dark-eyed Junco. Both Cooper's and Sharp-shinned hawks occasionally visit. During the 2005-2006 winter, a Carolina Wren joined her feeder bird contingent for the first time.
FeederWatching Tips
Arabella recommends that FeederWatchers keep binoculars and bird guides handy and that they find
birding friends they can call and consult when they are having trouble identifying a bird. She also suggested, "Never lose a sense of awe and wonder about birds."
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