FOR THE BIRDS

MARCH  2004

By

Helen O'Shea

• Pearl Magee had a Fox Sparrow, Common Redpolls and a few Goldfinch at her feeders on February 18. The Fox Sparrow was still there the second week of March. A dozen Evening Grosbeaks visit as well as 3 Blue Jays. She also has a dozen Black-capped Chickadees in the trees around her house and the Juncos have returned. For more than 2 weeks she has watched Crows carrying nesting material. Spring is on the way.
• Lizzie Morrison had a Pileated Woodpecker, 2 Downy and a Hairy Woodpecker in her yard as well as 6 Mourning Doves, Black-capped Chickadees and Evening Grosbeaks.
• Ruth and Dougie Stevens threw some frozen trout outside when they cleaned their freezer before February 11. 2 Bald Eagles flew in and nabbed it.
• Judy and Manning Burke watch the nervous Snow Buntings. They also observe a pair of Bald Eagles in a tree near their house.
• Florence Miron reported a Bald Eagle on the ice beside open water below her property. She also watched Snow Buntings in the angelica stalks.
• Percy Shepard met me on February 13 and told me the story of his outcast Crow. It can fly but usually walks out of the woods down a hill to his feeder. After it has finished a meal it walks away.
• Bill O’Shea reported 2 Gray Jays on the Park Administration road on March 2.
• Marmon Smith had 4 Redpolls in his yard the last week of February.
• Carter Stevens has several Black-capped Chickadees, Gray Jays, Blue Jays and occasionally sees Bald Eagles over the ice. He has noticed fewer birds this year and after the last February blizzard the numbers have decreased.

February 19, another blizzard, Ian Harte reported winds of up to 131 km. per hour at the Fire Hall on the Fortress site. February 24 we watched 61 Canada Geese at the Fortress Barachois late in the afternoon. There were 10 White-winged Scoters, 6 Buffleheads and 8 Black Ducks keeping them company. Howard Burke drove up to watch them too as did Henry Paige. The next day the Canada Geese were on the ice at the end of the harbour.

February 28 there were a pair of Lesser Scaup, a pair of Bufflehead, 8 Iceland Gulls, a Great Black-backed Gull, a pair of White-winged Scoter, 4 Thick-billed Murres and a pair of Common Loons off Commercial Street and the Government Wharf. At Black Rock off the Fortress site there was a raft of 400 Eiders and another 200 off Rochefort Point. Below the Royal Battery there were 4 Goldeneye and a pair of Bufflehead. An immature Bald Eagle was flying overhead and a mature one was seen over the Fortress Barachois. The next day there were 6 Long-tailed Ducks and the previously mentioned Eiders off Green Island and the harbour mouth.

Bill and I watched 2 White-breasted Nuthatches girdling the trees in the yard of Everett and Greta Beaver on our walk during the sunny, cold February 15. March 8 there were 60 to 80 Common Redpolls on the road in front of their house.

Since February 11 the Tree Sparrow is the last bird of the day in the yard. Now it is around after 5:30 p.m. The little snow, big snow of February 22 brought out 4 Crows, Redpolls, Black-capped Chickadees, a Mourning Dove and a Tree Sparrow. February 23 a female Hairy Woodpecker showed up by my suet feeder and circled a tree for more than half an hour several times in the afternoon. Maybe it was relocating to another area after the 20 cm of snow of the previous day. It was my first woodpecker of the year. A Pine Siskin made its appearance at the feeder on February 17. February 15 was the last visit of the Song Sparrow until one appeared on March 4. March 5 there were 9 Juncos in the yard as well as 40 Redpolls. The next couple of days the Sharp-shinned Hawk was visible in the maple or spruce tree as it looked for smaller birds to eat. A Pine Siskin showed up with the Redpolls during the freezing rain of March 6.

8 American Goldfinch and 6 Black-capped Chickadees arrived on March 8.

February 15 we watched 100 White-winged and Surf Scoters at Mainadieu as well as a pair of Common Loons.

There was a large hawk flying over the home of Mary and Kenneth Cross at Catalone. At Albert Bridge there were a dozen Common Mergansers and 50 American Black Ducks.

The Juncos began arriving in yards and at feeders the first week of March. These birds migrate south each winter. Males arrive first to establish their territory. They then welcome the return of the females. On a sunny March 1 morning, 15 Juncos were flitting through the trees in the yard of Elaine and Gary Carter. Since early February the yellow is becoming brighter in the plumage of the American Goldfinch. Susann Myers reports the return of the Black-legged Kittiwakes and Great Black-backed Gulls to their nesting areas on the Green Island. Geraldine and Seward MacKeigan saw a woolly caterpillar on the road March 5.

On a sunny, very cold day, February 16, I was sitting at the computer when a huge thump was heard. Obviously there had been an avian incident. There was the outline of a Mourning Dove on my dining room window and several feathers fluttered there. Looking down there were feathers below the window and off the back porch. I looked everywhere to see the predator. A mature Sharp-shinned Hawk was perched upon a Mourning Dove beside the baby barn in the yard of Linda and Phillip Burke. It plucked and ate the bird—a noontime pursuit that took at least 20 minutes.

Until the next time – keep watching the birds. 

Helen O’Shea

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

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