FOR THE BIRDS

January 1992

By

Helen O'Shea

There was an error last month. Gwen Lunn reported sighting a Hairy Woopecker not a Downy Woodpecker. There have been 2 female and I male Hairy Woodpeckers in the maple tree near my feeder. Occasionally one will fly over to the platform feeder and grab a sunflower seed.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk also uses the maple tree as a lookout spot. He was there on Tuesday morning looking in through the window at me from about 20 feet away. The adult Sharp-shinned Hawk has a blue-gray back and a rusty barred breast. This "accipiter" tends to be quite common around bird feeders during the winter. With a red fox wandering about the yard under the feeder, a squirrel visiting much too regularly and a hawk in the tree, life at the O'Shea bird feeder is exciting.

The birds keep coming too, in spite of a brief lull during warm days a week or so ago. There are black-capped Chickadees, 2 Red-breastedNuthatches, a Song Sparrow, a few Slate coloured Juncoes, a flock of 40 excitable Evening Grosbeaks and a Brown Creeper. When you first see a Brown Creeper, you might think that it is a strange looking Nuthatch climbing up or down the trunk o a tree. Its brown striped back and white belly are excellent camouflage. The bill is slender and curves down. The Brown Creeper is usually found in woods though, sometimes, one will appear at a winter feeding station attracted by suet. Oh yes, the eagles have landed. During Christmas week there were two adults on the trees at Slattery's. Rovie Macdonald from Havenside is the only person to let me know that she has several bird feeders. Rovie also reports that she and Bruce saw Old Squaw ducks feeding in the Harbour below their house.

Other people who feed the birds include Gwen Lunn, Dan Joe Thomas, Arthur Covey, Donald and Margie Cameron, Susann Myers and Ernie Lahey.

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

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