FOR THE BIRDS

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• Pearl Magee reported 2 Lark Sparrows in her yard on September 14, 2004. They blended in with the gravel in her driveway.
• Cody Campbell found a Wilson's Storm Petrel ( Mother Carey's Chicken) on 21 September 2004. It had been blown ashore in Main a Dieu with high winds from Hurricane Ivan. Cory and his father Lawrence brought it over for me to identify. They then brought it back to Main a Dieu and released it into the wild.
• Kate Ley reported a Great Blue Heron in her yard on September 21, 2004. It was probably seeking shelter from the high winds of the hurricane.
• Louise Pennock watched 50 American Robins in her yard on December 15, 2004. The birds were worming in the wet grass.
• Victor Anderson had several Baltimore Orioles in December. We had a male 1st season Baltimore Oriole visit our feeder several days in January. His last visit was January 14. Shortly afterward Eileen Anderson told me about the loss of a male Baltimore Oriole to Sharp-shinned Hawk at Victor's. This death was also confirmed by Gary Peck.
• Winston Magee saw a Great Blue Heron fly over Sydney Harbour in mid February.
• Florence MacIntyre of Brickyard Road reported a male Pheasant in her yard.
• Lester Swain saw a male Cowbird at his feeder in March.
• David and Gilbert Dollimount watched a pair of Bald Eagles mating at the Lighthouse the first week of March. Florence Miron told me about a pair of mating Bald Eagles at Havenside end of Louisbourg Harbour the previous week.
• Bill Bate reported 40 Canada Geese at the Fortress Barachois on March 24. There were also 6 Bufflehead.
• Winston Magee was the lone observer of a Snail Kite on the causeway to the Fortress on April 10. He described it precisely. It was a large bird with gray-black feathers above and below. It had a wide white band on the top of the tail and underneath the tail. It had a red curved beak and reddish legs. It was busily munching on a carcass on the road and chased away a couple of Great Black-backed Gulls. This bird is definitely a stray that was blown off-course by a storm since it is an endangered tropical species and found in southern Florida. It feeds on water snails it plucks from marsh grass while it is in flight.
• Pearl Magee watched a male Indigo Bunting at her feeder on May 8. It was an exciting sighting.
  Ø Bill and I saw 60 Cormorants in the water at Albert Bridge on May 8. There must have been a run of fish.
• Minnie MacLeod is watching Tree Swallows that returned by Mother's Day.

Fox Sparrows

Fox Sparrows were scarce and their stay was brief at feeders this spring. Pearl Magee and I each had one Fox Sparrow that stayed over the Easter weekend. These birds were quiet. Usually they fill the yard with song. Sometimes Pearl has had as many as 4 dozen.

At My Feeders

I watched 2 White-throated Sparrows under the feeder on a snowy December 27, 2004 during a nor'easter that closed the Confederation Bridge. Throughout the winter we had White-throated Sparrows until the end of January. They appeared again on Good Friday. Our Song Sparrows over-wintered and appeared at the feeders almost daily. February 11 a male Red-breasted Nuthatch arrived. He has been seen irregularly with a female throughout the spring.

White-winged Dove

This bird appeared at my feeder on February 27 with a group of Mourning Doves. It has red eyes and a grey head with no black markings, a rounded tail and obvious white markings on the wing. The last day it was in the yard was March 10 when it was chased off by a Mourning Dove. The first sighting of this bird was on May 31, 1998 at the home of Minnie and Brian MacLeod on Havenside. This bird is a casual sighting on the east coast to the Maritime Provinces. It is more common to the southern United States and often nest in citrus groves or deserts.

Administration Road and Fortress

Bill O'Shea reported a male White-winged Crossbill on the compound road (Administration) eating gravel on February 1. There were 2 Ruffed Grouse on the bottom of this road and a Spruce Grouse on the service road at the Fortress site. March 5, Bill and I watched 4 brown phase Ruffed Grouse and 2 gray phase Ruffed Grouse eating grit beside the road between Route 22 and the service road. A Great Blue Heron was flying over the compound road to the harbour on the morning of April 26. A female Northern Harrier is nesting off the compound road and appears from time to time.

The Sightings of a Traveller in the Cornwall Ontario area:

Early April was a great time to see open water around the St. Lawrence Parkway and the corn fields in the farm country. We saw numerous Turkey Vultures (one eating a carcass on the ice), Red-winged Blackbirds, Canada Geese, Snow Geese, Ring-billed Gulls, Mallards, American Robins, American Widgeon, Cowbirds, Barrow's Goldeneye, 100 Common Mergansers, Hooded Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, Mallard and Black Ducks. A sure sign of spring were the groundhogs and beaver that were around. We also saw a Great Blue Heron and a Northern Goshawk while traveling through Lunenburg, Ontario which is much smaller than Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.

Warren Bagnell

The community lost an avid birder with the death of Warren Bagnell. He was always eager to share his sightings with me and other interested observers in the area. His prime location on Beatrice Street yielded Baltimore Orioles, White-breasted Nuthatch, Grosbeaks, etc. Many of these birds were recorded by photos he was proud to share.

The Spring North American Migratory Bird Count takes place on Saturday, May 14 -a one-day snapshot of all the birds in the area by all the observers.

For all those readers who have commented on my retirement from column-writing, I felt compelled to summarize some of the rare and/or seasonal sightings that have been reported. May you have a wonderful spring and summer.

Helen O’Shea

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

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