Beware of adventurous titmice

• Nature Notes by Marlene A. Condon
•  January 7, 2025

I’ve had some unusual outdoor experiences over the years.

For example, in spring, I enjoy sitting on my deck to feel the sun’s warmth penetrating my skin and joints, which are painful due to rheumatoid arthritis. One day, I started falling asleep in my chair and heard the flutter of wings near my head, but I was so sleepy that I didn’t look up immediately. I listened to the sound come and go a few times, and I thought that a bird wanted to visit the nearby birdbath but was afraid to do so because I was close to it.

Suddenly, I felt a flutter of wings right at my head. I quickly opened my eyes and saw a tufted titmouse. It apparently had been working up the nerve to grab some of my hair for its nest. I had read that these birds would pluck hair from snoozing animals. Now I know from first-hand experience it’s true.

One winter evening, I was reading in my living room when I heard a sound from the window facing the deck. My deck is attached to my house just outside the kitchen and living room, and tall Chinese Photinias (Photinia serulata, or Red-tips, as they are often called) surround it.

When I looked out, I saw a dark-eyed Junco (a species that visits Virginia from more northern states every fall through spring) fluttering at the glass. It was pitch black and freezing out. I could not imagine what this little bird was doing, flying at night and seemingly trying to get into my house. It was spooky.

I thought about this and remembered that I had sometimes gone by the Photinia bushes at dusk and inadvertently frightened juncos out of them. These visitors to my yard were spending the night in the evergreen Photinia bushes, which provide good shelter from cold and/or wet winter weather.

I concluded the junco at the window must have been frightened out of the bushes, and because its vision was not good in the dark, it had flown to the illuminated window where it could see ahead of it. I wanted to help the junco find its way back into the bushes, so I put on the outside deck light and shut off the indoor living room lights, and indeed, the junco returned to its roosting site.

Since that time many years ago, this situation has happened again a few times, and I’ve learned what scares these birds out of the bushes — raccoons visiting to look for seeds that have fallen from the bird feeders on the deck. If a raccoon climbs to the deck via a Photinia bush with roosting juncos, the birds may be frightened and fly out, immediately heading to an illuminated window.

Now that I understand this phenomenon, it’s no longer eerie, and I know just what to do: put on the deck light, shut off the indoor lights, and peek out the sliding doors to watch the raccoon.

Marlene A. Condon is the author/photographer of The Nature-friendly Garden: Creating a Backyard Haven for Plants, Wildlife, and People (Stackpole Books; information at www.marlenecondon.com). She writes a blog at https://InDefenseofNature.blogspot.com/