FOR THE BIRDS

DECEMBER  2005

By

Helen O'Shea

Sightings

Ø     Gary Peck watched a Common Snipe searching for worms in the Catholic graveyard on Clarke’s Road on November 3.

Ø     I observed 2 Tree Swallows were on Route 22 between the Royal Battery and the Administration Road on November 8.  It was 7 degrees.  The Turkey Vulture was circling over the home of Mary and Kenneth Cross in Catalone.

Ø     Pearl Magee had a pair of Tree Swallows on November 9.

Ø     Colleen and Joe Rosta of Northside East Bay (and the Louisbourg Motorhome Park in the summer) reported a flock of Purple Finch in their driveway on a windy, wet and mild November 10.

Ø     Pearl Magee reported a flock of approximately 30 birds overhead on November 11.  She felt that they were either Crossbills or Purple Finch.

Ø     Emily and Gary Peck reported Swallows at the Visitor Centre on November 11.

Ø     Two large white birds were reported at Main-a-dieu on November 4 and were still there a week later.  One was thought to be a Snowy Egret.

Ø     Sandy Balcom and Bill O’Shea reported a Killdeer on the Fortress site on November 15.

Ø     I watched a Chimney Swift fly between St. Bartholomew’s Church and First United Church in the late morning and early afternoon of November 17.  It was a mild sunny day (14 degrees) that became cold suddenly near dark (minus 4).  This bird flew within 4 feet of my head as I stood near Arlie’s parking lot.  Clifton Peck saw this bird near the Micmac Trail at the Visitor Centre.  No doubt it perished with the cold snap.

Ø     Minnie MacLeod called on November 18 to report a Great Egret at the Havenside Barachois in mid-morning.  It did not return after that time.  Was this one of the Egrets seen in Main-a-dieu by the boardwalk on November 4?

Ø     November 19 there were 2 Boreal Chickadees in a tree on Riverdale Street.

Ø     November 20 it was 6 degrees with a storm coming up the eastern seaboard and a cold front from Quebec.  Pearl Magee reported Golden-crowned Kinglets, American Goldfinch, Black-capped and Boreal Chickadees, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch at her feeders.  A Pine Warbler was moving up and down the side of her house near her window searching for insects.

Ø     Margie and Donald Cameron had a Baltimore Oriole arrive on November 24.

Ø     Everett and Greta Beaver had 5 Black-capped Chickadees and a dozen Goldfinch at their feeder on November 25.

Ø     Bill Bussey has inherited his uncle Warren’s Dicksissel.  It appears with the sparrows at his feeders.

Ø     Gary Peck watched a Great Horned Owl fly over Route 22 near the New Boston turnoff late in the afternoon of November 28.

Ø     I watched a mature Bald Eagle fly over Main Street on December 3.

Ø     Pearl Magee reported a flock of American Goldfinch and a Red-breasted Nuthatch on December 6.  She also saw 5 Evening Grosbeak about a week before. 

Chimney Swift

 This bird looks like a cigar with wings.  It is 12-14 cm long.  It is a blackish swallowlike bird with long, slightly curved, stiff wings and no apparent tail (unless spread).  It appears to beat its wings not in unison but alternately (actually this is an illusion); the effect is more batlike, unlike the skimming of swallows.  They seem to fairly twinkle, gliding between spurts, holding the wings bowed in a crescent.  Range: southern Canada to Gulf of Mexico.  Winters in Peru.    (see Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Eastern Canada—p.204. The chimney swift roosts and nests in chimneys.  Wolfeville and Truro N.S. are two locations where they congregate. A number of years ago Bill and I watched a large group of them returning to a chimney in Wolfeville. 

Two Turtle doves & a partridge in a pear tree.   

We all know the 12 Days of Christmas song – it is an old French song  introduced to England around 1780. And we all know there are a number of birds mentioned – so I’m on familiar territory. There are 7 swans a swimming,  6 geese a laying,  4 calling birds, 3 French hens and of course the two turtle doves and the famous partridge in a pear tree. 

I’ve never seen a partridge in a pear tree but Bill and I have watched ruffed grouse (our local partridge) in the apple trees on the fortress compound road happily eating away.

“The turtle dove is a dainty dove, slightly larger than a blackbird. Its upper parts are distinctively mottled with chestnut and black and its black tail has a bright white edge. The gentle purr of the turtle dove is an evocative sound of summer, but has become increasingly rare following substantial population declines.  It lives anywhere with thick hedges, bushes and low trees - woodland edges, copses, commons, heaths and parkland… and winters in Africa. It is mainly a bird of southern and eastern England, although it does reach as far as Wales.”

A calling bird is actually an alteration of the word “colly” or “collie” which means black, and came from an old word for coal (collieries is a word familiar to Cape Breton ) so we are talking about 4 blackbirds.

“There are four well-known breeds of French hen, namely Faverolles, La Fleche, Crevecoeurs (named after a Normandy village) and Marans. The Faverolles have superior egg laying abilities during the winter months - always handy over Christmas – “

Have a good Christmas Season, all the best to you and your families.  

Helen O’Shea

Extracted from © The Seagull, Helen O'Shea, For the Birds

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