FOR THE BIRDS

FEBRUARY 2002

By

Helen O'Shea

Sightings

• Ian Harte saw a Hooded Merganser at the Fortress Barachois on December 23 and a Snowy Owl at Gooseberry Cove on December 13.
• Dougie Stevens watched 22 Loons in a cove at Catalone Lake the morning of December 9. Later that morning he counted 50 Loons in the same location.
• Warren Bagnell has more Juncos at his feeders than I have seen anywhere else in the Town. December 11 he gave me photos of the Baltimore Orioles that had been in his yard and a photo of the White-breasted Nuthatch. He had a Song Sparrow at his feeder December 26 and 4 and White-winged Crossbills on January 6. He also related the story of a small hawk—either Sharp-Shinned or Merlin—that hit his window and lay stunned. He put on a pair of gloves and carried it to his son John’s sunny porch. As he carried it he could feel the strength of its talons. John took a video of the bird as it revived and flew off about ten minutes later.
• Bill Bussey has numerous Rock Doves, Crows, Blue Jays and House Sparrows at his feeders as well as an occasional American Goldfinch.
• Gary Peck flushed a large bird into a tree while in a wooded area in late December. The most likely suspect was a Ring-necked Pheasant.
• Pat and Bob Holland have a Great Horned Owl that has come to their property in the early morning and at dusk daily for several weeks.
• Susann Myers had 4 Red Crossbills at her feeders January 6. She also saw a Red-necked Grebe, 20 Common Eiders, 20 Common Goldeneye, 10 Buffleheads, 8 Red-breasted Mergansers, White-winged Scoter, Black Guillemots, 3 Great Cormorants, 2 Common Loons and 80 Purple Sandpipers as she birded around Louisbourg Harbour.
• Sylvia Trimm called me the morning of January 3 to report 20 Bohemian Waxwings eating the crabapples from a tree in her front yard. They didn’t move when she went outside.
• Kevin O’Shea saw the White-breasted Nuthatch in a tree by our driveway when he was here for a visit at Christmas. He also had a good look at the Northern Mockingbird.
• Marmon Smith reported a male Common Redpoll at his feeder on January 2 and a pair of Red Crossbills the next day. (The male Common Redpoll has a rosy blush to its chest—the female does not. They both have the red cap on the front of the head.)
• Colleen and Joe Rosta were in the woods behind their property in Northside East Bay on January 6. The only bird they noticed as they climbed a "mountain" was a Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker that went from tree to tree for about 15 minutes.

Here and there

On December 13 a Pileated Woodpecker flew alongside my car as I drove through Catalone.

December 18 a first year Northern Goshawk was perched the utility line at Peck’s Hill. Bill and I pulled in to a nearby driveway and watched it for 15 minutes through binoculars. It was still there 75 minutes later when we returned from Sydney. Susann Myers had seen this bird the week before and it was still in the area on New Year’s Eve. We birded the coast from Mainadieu through Glace Bay on December 28. We saw 6 Common Redpolls and a Black-headed Gull in Mainadieu. At Morien Bar there were 100 Black Duck and a pair of Black-bellied Plover. At Morien Breakwater there were Scoters, Long-tailed Duck and a Cormorant. At the Glace Bay Bird Sanctuary there were 6 pair of American Wigeon, a pair of Mallards and 200 Black Ducks. At Glace Bay Harbour and the Beacon Street dam there were Iceland, Glaucous, Ring-billed, Black-headed, Herring, and Great Black-backed Gulls as well as Black Ducks, Mallards and Rock Doves. We also saw 2 mature Bald Eagles at Catalone Gut and Mainadieu.

Around the Harbour

January 5 there was a lot of activity in the Fortress fauxbourg. 3 mature Bald Eagles were squabbling and dining on the carcass of a seal. A Raven and several Crows were watching them eat and would jump in to grab a bite when the Eagles were chasing each other away from the prize. Since January 1 we have seen numerous Goldeneye, a Thick-billed Murre, a dozen Long-tailed Ducks, 20 Snow Buntings, 3 dozen Common Redpoll, Common Loons, White-winged Scoter, Red-breasted Mergansers, Black Guillemots, Glaucous, Iceland, Ring-billed, Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls and Buffleheads. The Red-necked Grebe was there at the end of December.

Around the Town

On December 21, in the trees by the sidewalk by the Town Hall we watched a pair of Red Crossbill eating cones. We watched them pick a cone from the planters below the tree and fly to a higher point where they could watch for predators as they ate. Sonny Grey had 36 Bohemian Waxwings perch in his tree on Lorway Street for two days—January 3 and 4. This was their observation post. They flew back and forth eating crab apples from the tree on the lawn of Donald and Margie Cameron. By the afternoon of January 5 there was not a piece of fruit left. 8 of these Bohemian Waxwings were chased from a tree in our yard by the Northern Mockingbird and onJanuary 6 he kept 40 of these birds away from "his" rosehips in the multi flora rose bushes.

At my feeders

A Baltimore Oriole arrived in my yard at noon on December 10. It checked out my big feeder, the rose bush, the niger feeder and the ground below. It was around for 5 minutes. It was a first fall male—more yellow than orange.

The Northern Mockingbird is on patrol in the yard daily. The only birds not intimidated by his presence are the Crows.

A Brown Creeper and a White-breasted Nuthatch occasionally appear. Both birds have a distinctive voice that captures your attention.

SNOWY OWL

A Snowy Owl was sitting atop Black Rock at the Fortress at 2:30 p.m. on December 29. It had a white face but dense, dark bars on the white chest, wings and back as well as the crown of the head. It posed for more than 15 minutes allowing Bill and me to get great angles to observe it through our spotting scope and binoculars. The first year female, adult female, and first year male have similar plumage.

The Snowy Owl has a length of 23 inches and a wingspan of 52 inches. It weighs 4 pounds. It is very large and sleeker than other owls, with relatively small head and smooth plumage. It has relatively narrow, pointed wings. The adult male is nearly pure white. (The Sibley Guide to Birds, National Audubon Society, 2000, page 275) Immature Owls go father south in fall and in winter. Although they are primarily nocturnal, when under stress they are more active in the day. In Alaska they eat mice and lemmings as well as razorbills, dovekies, puffins, small gulls, murres, ptarmigans, young geese, coots, sandpipers, grebes, crows and when the water is not frozen wade in and catch fish and small marine mammals with taloned feet. When further south the Snowy Owl subsists on what it can catch including rabbits, weasels, moles, mice, voles, squirrels, rats and often scavenges dead animals. (John K. Terres, The Audubon Society Encyclopedia of North American Birds, 1995, p. 672)

The first time I saw a Snowy Owl was in December 1991 as I was driving along Route 22.

It was coursing the field between the Administration Road and the old Stella Maris Cemetery.