FOR THE BIRDS

FEBRUARY  2003

By

Helen O'Shea

• Carter Stevens called on January 20 to report that there was a Belted Kingfisher fishing below his house in Big Lorraine. The storm had blown all the ice out of the harbour so it could fish.
• Eugene Magee watched the Crows and Bald Eagles eating seal carcass below Hopkins Fish Plant the last weekend in January.
• Suzanne Kelly of Catalone has Purple Finch and Goldfinch at her feeder in Catalone.
• Barb Kelly-Landry and Louise Johnston watched a male Ring-necked Pheasant, fat with lofted feathers, at bottom of the Fortress Administration Road on Route 22 in mid January.
• Virginia Drover called to say a male Ring-necked Pheasant was in the yard behind the Senior Citizens’ apartments for 15 minutes on January 15.
• Bill O’Shea watched a Raven flying across the Park Administration Compound on January 17. A lone Crow flew out of a tree in a menacing way, then finding it was alone, flew back to cover. The Raven continued on with its flight.
• Joseph Rosta of Northside East Bay watched 2 Bald Eagles fishing in a Bras d’Or lake on January 21. Crows and Blue Jays are the birds at his feeders.
• Doug and Mary Locke of Main a dieu called to report that 50 to 60 American Robins stripped all the berries off their dogwood tree in the early morning January 15 (minus 10 and overcast).
• Brent Baker has a Sharp-shinned Hawk passing through his yard checking out the feeders.
• Joe Burke watched 3 American Robins eating berries in the yard of his neighbour, Henry Paige, on Upper Warren Street on January 20.
• Margie and Marmon Smith had 4 Robins in their yard the last day of January. A female Redpoll has made 3 brief visits to their feeders since Christmas.
• Bill O’Shea and Sandy Balcom watched an immature Bald Eagle on the road near Marconi February 4. It dropped a sculpin-like fish from its talons but waited in a tree to retrieve its meal once the car went by.

Around the Town

February 2 we watched 2 Great Black-backed Gulls land on the roof of the home of Beryl and Wilson Eavis. The next afternoon a Herring Gull landed on the roof of the home of Gary and Elaine Carter.

January 19 I watched a mature Sharp-shinned Hawk eating a Mourning Dove between the homes of Darlene and Chris Chisholm and Reverend Clayton and Betty Austin. When Bill went outside to take a digital photo the raptor flew off with the carcass. A Golden-crowned Kinglet flew over the snow bank at the foot of Lorway Street and landed in the lilac tree in the yard of Cecil and Kelly Vallis. January 19 was day with minus 10 as the high temperature. These birds eat sap when the insects are few and far between. February 2 there were a dozen Starlings on the lines in front of Millie Parson’s home. A Robin was on John Lemoine’s driveway on February 2 and on the utility line on Holland Street February 5. On February 7, I saw a robin on Diane and Raymond Barter’s lawn.

Around the Harbour

Groundhog Day was foggy, wet, and 2 degrees. We were able to observe a Goldeneye and a Black Guillemot in the harbour off Havenside Road. We also saw two Crows beside the barachois. Off the Government Wharf there was a female King Eider fishing for crabs and a Black Guillemot. In the harbour off Commercial Street there was a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers, 18 American Black Ducks, 4 pair of Bufflehead, 3 Iceland Gulls, and a Herring Gull. The last week of January a Snowy Owl was perched on Black Rock at the Fortress site.

At my feeders

A male Common Redpoll visited January 15 with 5 Pine Siskins. On February first a male Common Redpoll flew in to the disselfinks in the company of several American Goldfinch. The regular diners are Pine Siskins, American Goldfinch, Blue Jays, Juncos, Black-capped Chickadees, Mourning Doves, Starlings, Purple Finch, Evening Grosbeak, Sharp-shinned Hawk, 3 Song Sparrows, American Crows.

Rescues

Bill was on his way to work on January 22 when he saw Tom Dibbon walking along by the side of the road at the second gate to the Visitor Centre. He had a female Ring-necked Pheasant under his arm. It was minus 18 degrees but with the wind chill was minus 30. The bird was in a lot of distress from the cold. Bill drove them to the Warden’s Office where the Chief Park Warden Eugene Taylor tended to the Pheasant. Suzanne Myers brought some cracked corn and the warden placed it in a box with a tin of water and the pheasant. After a couple of hours the bird was quite contented. The next morning Warden Lee Anne Reeves found the bird to be really perky. It attempted to fly around the office. She released the bird in the area where it was picked up. She placed it a safe distance from the road in a sheltered area out of the wind.

That same afternoon Gary Peck and his grandson Kenzie Lahey rescued an American Robin from the ice of Jerrat’s Brook near some open water. The bird was very stressed and succumbed quickly when placed indoors in a box. I guess the temperature change and the small size of this bird made the difference.

Did you know?

Some Ruffed Grouse do burrow into the snow to roost at night while others prefer to roost at the base of a tree or even in evergreen bows. Pheasants will ground roost in ways that they actually become snow covered. Significantly high pheasant mortality can occur in winters when freezing rain caps snow roosting pheasants and they are trapped beneath the snow and die. (Clarence Stevens and Peter Hope—contributors to Nature Nova Scotia)

The American Ornithologists Union’s checklist committee, have decided that the common snipe widespread in the northern hemisphere, is actually two different species, with those in North America distinct from those in Europe and Asia. Our snipe are now to be called Wilson’s snipe, while those in the rest of the world retain the name common snipe. The name will be updated when there is a reprint of recent field guides. If you have a very old field guide, you’ll find Wilson’s snipe mentioned therein, as the "lumping" of the two species occurred in the first half of the last century. —Blake Maybank, Sunday Herald (What goes around, comes around.)

As you probably have heard from the Bird Hour on CBC Radio on February 3 the Robins lingered in Cape Breton late in the fall. By mid January we had an influx of Robins from Newfoundland. These birds become fruit-eaters in the winter enjoying mountain ash berries, apples and rosehips. Worms are too difficult to excavate from frozen ground below the snow banks.

Feeder maintenance

Make sure you empty seed from the feeders after wet weather. If it continues to sit it can go mouldy. This can cause illness in birds and will definitely make your feeders more difficult to empty and clean because the clumped feed adheres to the inside of the feeder. Make sure your feeders are dry before you refill them.

There should be new arrivals in the next month. We know it is spring when the Fox Sparrows arrive.

Until the next edition of the Seagull, keep your notes and let me know of your sightings. 

Helen O’Shea

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

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