Stony Lake Birds

Petroglyphs CBC

2009-12-17T07:42:00.003-05:00

This year's edition of the Petroglyphs CBC will play out on December 27.
Petroglyphs Count Circle (click to enlarge)
Last year, some great birds were found, including Red-bellied Woodpecker and Great Gray Owl.
Great Gray Owl near Jack Lake courtesy of Anne Anthony
Nature lovers and birders of all skill levels are welcome to participate. Please contact Tony Bigg at tanddbigg [at] sympatico [dot] com or phone 1-705-652-7541.

We've moved...

2009-09-12T12:41:00.001-04:00

We're hosting a new blog in northern Ontario.

Fledged!

2009-07-27T13:18:00.005-04:00

Something had to give. Yesterday morning, the five very mature nestlings were crowded on the nest. I checked on them a few hours later and there were only two birds on the nest. I glanced overhead and saw the missing three perched on one of the rafters.

Today, all five were outside, perched on the roof of the boathouse. They took regular flights in the company of the adults and seemed very adept on the wing.

Full credit goes to my neighbour who only complained about the droppings.

Almost fledged

2009-07-22T17:09:00.006-04:00

This nest of Barn Swallows in our neighbour's boathouse is one of few we've seen this year. Several cottagers who perennially host several families have told me that their boathouses are vacant this summer.

This family is almost set to go. There have been three adults attending five, then four young. Here's what they looked like only four days ago.

Because the nest was off to one side of the structure, most droppings fall clear of the boat - undoubtedly a fortuitous choice by the parents.

Odds and ends

2009-07-03T14:39:00.003-04:00

The fate of the backyard Tree Swallow brood is unknown. Three days ago the parents were relentlessly feeding the noisy chicks, one of which appeared in the doorway, looking like it was close to fledging. The next day, there were no swallows to be seen or heard. I suspect that fledglings might have dropped from the nest on to the well worn path of the local feral cat.

Seen from the canoe

2009-06-25T21:02:00.005-04:00

I went out for a very pleasant evening paddle, past three active Osprey nests and a summer Double-crested Cormorant roost on a small island.

New Loons

2009-06-24T20:58:00.001-04:00

With a few mid-day whoops, this loon family began its migration from the cattail marsh in the back bay, past my dock and out to the nursery area sheltered by a cluster of small islands, about 1.3 km away. The chicks were fed small fish fry along the way.

This is the third consecutive year we've watched the loons exit the nesting area. The dates vary and may be related to fluctuating water levels earlier in the spring, when nesting commences.

July 5, 2007
June 19, 2008
June 24, 2009

Waterfowl in the bay

2009-06-12T20:25:00.005-04:00

As always, Canada Geese are making a good living on the groomed lawn in the neighbourhood. In addition to three families, there appear to be several no-breeding adults on our shore.

This fresh brood of Mallards appeared on our shore. In most years we see one or two Wood Duck broods in the bay.

This evening, I was sitting at our picnic table when I heard a noise overhead. I glanced up in time to see a female Hooded merganser flying from the old, diseased Sugar Maple that shades our cottage. It's likely that the merganser's nesting in cavitity about 8 m. up, in a rotted out knothole. This certainly merits closer monitoring.

American Avocet visits the Greater Stony Lake Area

2009-06-12T19:46:00.007-04:00

Local birder Jerry Ball found this beautiful American Avocet on a cattle watering pond in the south end of Peterborough (Greater Stony Lake Area) a couple of days ago. I was in the area today and was very happy to observe the bird dashing about, catching insects in the shallow water.

To my knowledge, this is the first record for Peterborough County. Sadler (1983) makes no mention of the species.

Pine Warbler

2009-06-11T20:39:00.000-04:00

This male Pine Warbler was flitting about the White Cedars in front of the cottage this afternoon.

Wednesday Teal and a Golden-winged Warbler

2009-06-03T13:24:00.002-04:00

Woodland birds

2009-05-31T21:04:00.002-04:00

Our feeders have only a handful of species attending frequently - Hairy Woopecker, both nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-winged Blackbird (mostly females), Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch and a lone Pine Siskin this morning - the first in weeks.

A late afternoon walk through the hardwoods near our home turned up very few birds although I had good looks at Scarlet Tanager, Veery, Eastern Wood-Pewee and Black-throated Green Warbler.

Shield-edge birding

2009-05-29T20:31:00.001-04:00

I was out with a friend to do a little birding at the edge of the shield, Between Bobcaygeon and Burleigh Falls. I was very pleased to see and hear some late warblers - Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, Mourning and Canada, which hadn't materialized around our cottage. Also new to me were a few open country birds - Clay-colored Sparrow, Bobolink and Savannah Sparrow. Near Woodview, we encountered some Evening Grosbeaks and some Small Yellow Lady Slipper Orchids growing in a boggy wetland - new to me!

Heron on water lily roots

2009-05-27T21:01:00.002-04:00

Twenty metres off our shore is an island composed of uprooted water lily rhizomes. The uprooting occurred when the lake level was drawn down in the winter. Ice formed withing the matrix of roots and when the water level was increased, the rising ice tore the roots up from the mud. Now, on any given day, our odd little island may provide footing for Great Blue Herons, Hooded Merganser, Northern Map Turtle, beaver and muskrat.

Spotted Sandpiper

2009-05-23T07:27:00.003-04:00

This Spotted Sandpiper landed for a moment on our dock and then flew to the neighbour's. The species nests on the lake but seldom visits out bay.

The Yard Birds

2009-05-19T11:44:00.003-04:00

We are accustomed to seeing Evening Grosbeaks looking resplendent against a snowy background. It's unusual for us to see them in late may and to hear their calls along with those of BAOR, WOTH, WAVI, and PIWA.

I took a ten minute stroll around the house mid-morning and noted the following:

Canada Goose
Ring-billed Gull
Red-shouldered Hawk with prey (being mobbed blackbirds)
Hairy Woodpecker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Common Flicker
Wood Thrush
American Robin
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Black and White Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler
Magnolia Warbler
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-capped Chickadee
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
Song Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow

A green birding day.

2009-05-18T16:56:00.006-04:00

I went cycling/birding this morning and afternoon around the eastern end of the lake, south along a county road through rich hardwood stands, flooded meadows, limestone barrens and old farms.

Among the known breeding birds on this route are Cerulean, Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers. A pulse of additional northbound warblers at this point in May allows the possibility of seeing 20+ species of warbler. Alas, this wasn't to be. If I count the species I hear around our home (Pine, Yellow-rumped and Northern Waterthrush), I ended up with only 15 species. Few were singing. The highlights were three male Golden-winged and one male Blue-winged Warbler, all in spots where we'd seen these species before.

Other additions to the year list were Sandhill Crane, Killdeer, Red-headed Woodpecker, Warbling and Philadelphia Vireos, Magnolia and Black-throated Blue Warblers, Eastern Towhee, Sandhill Crane and Red-headed Woodpecker.

Skyped hummingbird

2009-05-17T17:18:00.004-04:00

This isn't just another bad image of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. It's actually an image captured through the built-in video camera on my MacBook during a Skype "videoconference" with Martha. This is her capture from the video that I was streaming to her, via my wireless router.

The sensitivity of the built-in microphone and the high fidelity of the audio stream are better than you might expect. If I point the WIFI enabled laptop towards an open window, Martha, who's sitting at her desktop computer 1300 km away, has no trouble picking out the songs of Baltimore Oriole, Tree Swallow, Pine and Yellow-rumped Warbler. Skype is pretty awesome - perhaps the coolest thing ever to come out of Estonia.

Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

2009-05-16T19:12:00.002-04:00

This pair has been visiting throughout the last few days.

Tree Swallows nesting?

2009-05-15T22:00:00.002-04:00

We found an old next box when we moved here. It looked like it had once been used by House Wrens. After cleaning it out, we installed it about 4 metre off the ground on a hydro pole. It appears that a pair of Tree Swallows are keenly interested.

Wild Turkey nest

2009-05-14T07:24:00.000-04:00

I flushed the adult off this nest in a hardwood stand near Woodview.

Singing Cerulean Warbler

2009-05-13T11:58:00.005-04:00

I was happy to locate this singing male Cerulean Warbler at a known breeding site. It will likely be joined by a handful of others in the coming days. I apologize for the shakiness - I had initially intended to record the song and then I noticed the bird hopping around through the view finder.

Other species singing/calling in this area include Red-eyed and Yellow-throated Vireo, Least Flycatcher, Black-throated Green Warbler, Ovenbird, Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Veery.

Pitched migration

2009-05-11T21:58:00.004-04:00

I was away in northern Ontario for a couple of weeks. On my first May morning on Stony Lake I walked out into the yard and heard my first Ovenbirds, Northern Waterthrush, Pine, Yellow-rumped, Black and White and Nashville Warblers, Wood Thrushes, Great Crested and Least Flycatchers.

Common Grackles, Red-winged Blackbirds and Blue Jays are dominating the feeders and are sometimes joined by White-throated, Chipping and Song Sparrows. Yesterday, a lone female Evening Grosbeak and a single Pine Siskin seemed like throw backs to winter.

Today, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird hovered in front of a window where our nectar feeder hangs from May through September - it's tempting to imagine that this is a returning bird that remembered that a feeder once hung in that spot. I quickly installed the feeder to the apparent satisfaction of the hummingbird.

Brown Thrasher and a few other notes

2009-04-22T08:49:00.001-04:00

Some birds have moved on in the past few days, among them American Tree Sparrow, Fox Sparrow and Common Redpoll. Other fish-eating birds are here for the summer. A single loon is diving in our bay where it is joined periodically by single Ospreys and Great Blue Herons.

Less expected was the Brown Thrasher that was tossing leaves in the garden outside our kitchen window this morning.

We are still being visited several times each week by a female Red-bellied Woodpecker. She used to come for the sunflower seeds. Now, she only eats the suet.

Owling near Apsley

2009-04-14T08:58:00.003-04:00

Last night between 8:30 pm and 11:30 pm I monitored our Ontario Nocturnal Owl Survey route, east of Apsley. Ours is one of about 300 such routes in the province which are attended by volunteers co-ordinated by Bird Studies Canada. The protocol is simple. Over a 12 minute period at each of ten stops we listen for owls before and after we broadcast calls of Barred and Boreal Owls - we're told that the Boreal Owl call elicits calls from the closely related Saw-whet Owl.

Participants also collect data on other crepuscular/nocturnal animals including calling amphibians and courting Wilson's Snipe, American Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse. Each route is monitored on one evening each April, a month when owls are most likely to exhibit territorial behaviour. The data are compiled by Bird Studies Canada and provide a means of monitoring changes in owl populations over the long term. The Ontario survey began in 1995. This was our third year on this particular route.

The cold night air depressed the frog chorus and made it easier to listen for owls. At three of the ten stations along the 20 km route a pair of Barred Owls responded aggressively to the recordings. The birds flew to trees within 30 metres of the car and energetically declared their territory. The photo above shows one of the birds that we encountered at our first stop. At a fourth stop, a single nearby Great Horned Owl hooted before and after we played the calls of the other species. We didn't hear any Saw-whet Owls calling this year. In past years Saw-whets have been heard on the last leg of this route.

This was the first year we didn't hear any snipe, woodcock or grouse although I did see a lone Ruffed Grouse at the roadside as I drove to the first station, a few minutes before sunset. The only amphibian I heard was a single Spring Peeper.

Hoary Redpoll and and other wonders

2009-04-08T18:03:00.007-04:00

Over the years we've looked at many thousands of redpolls swarming our niger feeders.
At times we've been able to study several hundred birds at once. We've marveled at their variability. Some are heavily streaked: some are radiant pink. We have always scrutinized the palest birds in these flocks, hoping to differentiate the Hoary Redpolls. Until today, we've never been satisfied that the characters of the pale birds fell enough beyond range of the Common Redpoll to call them Hoary Redpolls.

Today, a pale bird joined the throng of Song, Fox and American Tree Sparrows feeding below the sunflow seed hopper. It never joined the Pine Siskins, Common Redpolls and American Goldfinches tending the niger seed silo. The characters - bill shape and nasal feather tufts, frosty colour and reduced streaking - correspond closely with the exipes reace of the Hoary Redpoll. This is a new bird for our our yard and our BIGBY list!

This was one of 22 species we had visiting our feeder. The high number of individuals was also impressive - American Tree Sparrows, Dark-eyed Juncos and Common Redpolls numbered more that 50 each.

I scattered some cracked corn on the roof of my workshop, beyond the reach of the deer and just right for a pair of Rock Pigeons.

Purple finches reappeared only a week ago after being wintering to the south.

Snow day - II

2009-04-07T22:33:00.011-04:00

With the added inducement of cracked corn, birds of 20 species swarmed our feeders all day. It was hard not to stop and gawk out any of our windows.

There were seven or eight species under the feeder at any given time - click on image to view large and count the species.

Buffleheads, Hooded Mergansers, Mallards and Wood Ducks swam off the dock.

Redpoll numbers grew through day - there were 50 or so here at supper time.

Of course there were the regulars - Hairy, Downy and Red-bellied Woodpeckers, White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, Black-capped Chickadees, Blue Jays and Crows.

The four Fox Sparrows stood out among the scores of Dark-eyed Juncos, American Tree Sparrows, Purple Finches and American Goldfinches.

Snow day!

2009-04-06T09:57:00.005-04:00

The warm weather that sent the salamanders marching also thawed much of our bay over the weekend. Ones and twos of Common and Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks and Mallards are foraging along the edge of the receding ice. I heard my first Eastern Phoebe in the early evening and a few hours later, a Woodcock displayed over the nearby gravel pit while an unseen flock of Common Goldeneye passed overhead. All were welcome additions to the BIGBY list, which has grown to 40 species.

We are now experiencing a late spasm of winter weather - about 5 cm of snow has fallen with more expected this afternoon - tough on the Phoebe's I suspect. There was lots of activity at the feeder all day - 17 species. Even a Robin landed in the snow among the juncos and poked around the sunflower seed hulls.

Dark-eyed Junco and American Goldfinch.

Fox Sparrow

Sparrows trying to kick up some breakfast.

Purple Finch and Pine Siskins

Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackle

European Starling

Rusty Blackbird

2009-04-03T13:09:00.001-04:00

As drenched Black-capped Chickadees, Common Goldfinches and Pine Siskins have been feeding heavily through this rainy day, a lone male Rusty Blackbird has been hanging around under the feeder.

Salamanders and Barred Owls

2009-03-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

For the first time this month, warm evening temperatures (+5 C) and rain coincided to trigger a wave of salamander migration. At 8:30 pm I walked out to the county road, adjacent to a known salamander breeding pool, and counted close to thirty Blue-spotted Salamanders and half a dozen Spotted Salamanders crossing the road.

In a week or two, the night air will be filled din of spring peepers and chorus frogs. Tonight, the only calls I heard were those of dueting Barred Owl, one of which called from a white cedar close to the road. The other was perhaps a kilometer away - I only heard it because of the silence of the frogs.

Barred Owls are known to exploit migrating salamanders, and other seasonally restricted food items. They didn't seem to be interested in marching salamanders tonight.

Ice-out waterfowl

2009-03-27T18:17:00.007-04:00

Right on schedule, the winter ice is receding from Stony Lake. The Burleigh Channel, and other sections with current, are now ice-free. As the bays open up, waterfowl are staging as they wait for more northerly lakes to thaw.

Today in Dunford's Bay, the gang included, in decreasing order of abundance, Common Merganser, Hooded Merganser, Ring-necked Duck, Canada Goose, Mallard, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, American Wigeon, American Black Duck and Wood Duck. On two of my last three visits, single Bald Eagles were patrolling the ice edge where winter killed fish can be expected. All can be viewed leisurely from the public landing at the bottom of Dunford Road, about 1.5 km south of the Big Cedar General Store, northeast of Burleigh Falls.

[On the Mississauga River, where it is crossed by CR 36, just east of Buckhorn, I saw my first Pied-billed Grebe of the season this afternoon.]

Tangled banks

2009-02-12T12:37:00.051-05:00

Charles Darwin began the final paragraph of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection with this vivid imagery:

It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us.

The bank of vegetation along our shore - in what an ecologist would call the riparian zone - is a tangle of fern, sumac, grape, dogwood, gentian and a dozen sedges and grasses. Rooted in muck in the parallel littoral zone is a similarly rich tangle of pondweeds, water lilies, milfoils, bladderwort and eelgrass.

There's a lot to say about the riparian and littoral zones of Stony Lake: their vital functions, their diversity, their degradation and their preservation. One could focus on a single wetland species and consider aspects of its form, distribution, life history and origin in an intellectually robust manner made possible by Darwin. All of these are complex and important subjects which merit thorough exploration.

But for today it's enough just to momentarily reflect on the stretch of shoreline we've come to know well with a modest appreciation of some forms most beautiful and most wonderful.

A number of most beautiful forms flourish within these tangles. Song Sparrows and Northern Yellowthroats nest discretely in the thickets. Eastern Phoebes stuff their chicks with freshly emerged damselflies gleaned from the stems of the rushes. Just below the water line, thick mats of vegetation provide spawning substrate and nursery habitat for many fishes. By early summer, teeming schools of fry can be seen warming themselves at the surface. Some birds follow the fish.

A little deeper in the bay, down a narrow channel through the cattails, the loons nest. Only hours after the young hatch, the family swims out into the main body of the lake to a sheltered nursery area among some small rocky islands. Other fish eaters - mergansers, kingfishers, bitterns, herons and ospreys - nest elsewhere on the lake but forage along our shoreline. Big fish come to feed on the small fish. With the myriad forms comes a tangle of sounds - splashing, squawking, buzzing, trilling, screeching, drumming, warbling, hooting, chipping, rasping, cooing, peeping and croaking, lots of croaking.

Yet this is more than a sumptuous feast for our eyes and ears. Darwin's great insight - that of our shared ancestry - makes it personal and profound. He shattered the arrogant myth of a separate creation and freed us to find community and communion in all living things. That seems pretty wonderful.

Thanks and happy birthday Charles Darwin.

Some people don't like their banks tangled. Here's a disentangled bank.

Related and recent:

Rick Salutin's Valentine for Mr. Darwin (Globe and Mail - 13-02-09)

Verlyn Klinkenborg's Grasping the Depth of Time as a First Step in Understanding Evolution (New York Times - 23-08-05)

Blog for Darwin

Darwin Online

A Shoreline Primer from Fisheries and Oceans Canada.

A rail jumps the track

2009-02-06T09:04:00.031-05:00

On a bitterly cold day exactly three years ago, a resident of nearby Apsley discovered this unfamiliar bird on the street, beneath a discarded Christmas tree. It had a damaged leg, was unable to fly, and was thin as a rail. A few calls were made and the bird was driven to the Toronto Wildlife Centre for assessment. It was identified as an immature Purple Gallinule.

This pigeon-sized marsh bird is common in the tropics and subtropics. In the U.S. it breeds in wetlands along the coastal plain of the Gulf of Mexico with spotty records extending up the Mississippi watershed as far north as Illinois. There have been a few summer sightings in southernmost Ontario but these birds are thought to be individuals that overachieved on their northward migration. A winter occurrence is very unusual.

Unfortunately, the leg injury proved to be very serious and the bird was eventually euthanized. The story is both sad and illustrative.

Some authors describe rails, including crakes, coots, moorhens and gallinules, as very weak flyers and there's nothing in my personal experience to suggest otherwise. I have seen very few rails (other than coots) on the wing. Most often I've heard them and once or twice each summer I'll glimpse a Sora or a Virginia Rail skulking among the cattails. In the hand, they seem lean and bony. They certainly don't have the obvious broad pectoral muscle mass required for explosive vertical takeoffs that we see in Ruffed Grouse.

Yet grouse seem to stay very close to home and rails of many species seem not to have realized that they are weak flyers. Vagrant Purple Gallinules have shown up in Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Labrador and Newfoundland. Others touched down in Iceland, Norway, the Azores and South Africa. There's even a record from the Galapagos (West and Hess, 2002). Several other rail species have a histories of straying across continents and hemispheres. They may not be the best navigators but they seem to be perfectly competent flyers.

One result of all of this poor navigation is a remarkable global distribution that includes Africa, Australia, Eurasia and the Americas. Many oceanic islands have been colonized. Where such islands lack predators, natural selection seems to have favoured those descendants that allocated energy into more earthbound pursuits. The flightless Laysan Rail (Porzana palmeri) was one of many such examples. The progenitor of this species is the Old World Baillon's Crake (Porzana pusilla), a number of which made landfall on Laysan (at the north end of the Hawaiian Island chain) after it was exposed by falling sea levels about 125,000 years ago. The loss of flight occurred in a mere blink in evolutionary time (Olson 1999).

[Alas, it only takes a few years for introduced predators - rats, cats, mongoose, snakes and humans - to wipe out these flightless insular species. The last Laysan Rail died in the mid-1940's. Since 1600, 20 insular rail taxa (of which 18 were flightless) have become extinct]

Our Purple Gallinule should have been wintering in a subtropical wetland in the company of ibises, anhingas and egrets, perhaps in the Caribbean. In finding itself in the coldest depths of an Ontario winter it sealed its fate and demonstrated a familial trait - that of straying - which has allowed the rails to successfully colonize far-flung continents and scores of oceanic islands.

Sources and photo credits:

Olson, S. L. 1999. Laysan Rail (Porzana palmeri), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/426a.

West, R. L. and G. K. Hess. 2002. Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica), The Birds of North America Online (A. Poole, Ed.). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; Retrieved from the Birds of North America Online: http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna/species/626.

Photos of injured Purple Gallinule courtesy of Kim Valenta of the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

Photo of Purple Gallinule on lily pad in Melaque (Jalisco, Mexico) courtesy of Howard Platt.

Range map linked from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Related and recent:

A nice series of Purple Gallinule images taken in Guatemala City by Mike at 10,000 Birds.

Rail images from Lake Titicaca by Paul at The Lost Frenchman Blog.

Weekend feeder update

2009-02-01T11:01:00.010-05:00

Again, few changes since the last update. Daily visitors include Pine Grosbeaks (2), Common Redpoll (~10), American Goldfinch (~12), Pine Siskin (~6) as well as one to four each of Hairy Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch. A dozen or more Blue Jays rule the roost for several hours each day. A pair of Rock Pigeons put in a brief appearance earlier in the week.

The highlight of the week was a first-time showing by a White-winged Crossbill, this morning. It joined a handful of Common Redpolls on the platform. It's not a huge surprise, give the magnitude of the ongoing crossbill irruption but it's a nice addition to the other finches that frequent the feeders.

A few years ago, we enjoyed watching Red Crossbills at a neighbour's feeder down the road, closer to Petrogylphs Provincial Park, which is a very good place to observe both crossbill species.

Common Goldeneye

2009-01-25T18:31:00.003-05:00

We can expect to see the Common Goldeneye through the winter, usually in the ice-free fast water above and below the locks connecting lakes along the Trent Severn Waterway. We often see goldeneyes and Common Mergansers together. These birds were diving in the churning back eddies of Burleigh Falls.

Birding goes green

2009-01-23T13:51:00.033-05:00

Long ago, bird watchers amplified a mild hobby to quixotic extremes. In 1939, Guy Emerson got things rolling with a total of 497 species seen in North America. The Big Year record didn't last long as a succession of fanatics invested increasing time and resources into raising the bar. According to the Wikipedia entry, from which I've culled these numbers, the current record is 745 set in 1998 by Sandy Komito. It's a great accomplishment under which must lie some other remarkable numbers. I don't know any of the particulars of Komito's travels but it will serve the purpose of this entry to consider the logistics of a former record holder.

In his book Call Collect, Ask for Birdman, author James A. Vardaman chronicles his 1979 record setting tally of 699 species. To achieve this total, he covered a lot of miles - plane (137,145); car (20,305); boat (3,337); bicycle (160); and foot (385).

Thirty years later, one can't help but think of the carbon footprint involved such an intense chase. Many have eased back on the throttle and it is becoming more common for Big Year and local birdathon participants to compete without burning fossil fuels.

No one have given this more thought than Richard Gregson, of Baie d'Urfé, Québec. Richard came up up with the catchy acronym of BIGBY - the BIg Green Big Year - to promote a culture of birding with a very minimal carbon footprint. Participants in the BIGBY initiative sign up and share the results of their efforts to find birds using human propulsion.

In 2008, Andrew Kleinhesselink and Josiah Clarke took the concept to a new planet-friendly extreme. From their base in northern California, the Bike-by Birders, cycled their way to an amazing 295 species.

Closer to home in the annual Carden Challenge, a local fund raising birdathon, the bicycle borne Carden Plain Janes have set a fine example in each of the last two years. In 2008, The Janes raised $907.00 for conservation while tracking down 102 species during the one day event.

In a similar spirit I will track the birds I see in the Stony Lake region, within areas circumscribed by circles with diameters of 80 and 24 km, centred (44.547873, -78.152851) at the government dock on Juniper Island.

The the larger circle includes a good variety of habitats north and south of the margin of the Canadian Shield. Many areas can only be reached by canoe or trail. Others, I drive through regularly as I commute to and from Peterborough.

The smaller circle is the same size as a Christmas Bird Count circle; and overlaps the Petroglyphs CBC circle on its east side. Within this circle are familiar hiking and ski trails as well as the backwaters we like to explore by canoe.
I'll track the results in the right hand column. BIGBY birds - those seen within the green circle, without the use of a car or power boat - will be listed in green.

Pine Siskins

2009-01-21T21:04:00.005-05:00

Pine Siskins may show up here in any month although sometimes a year or more may pass between visits. This year, they have irrupted south of their breeding range throughout eastern North America and a half dozen or so showed up at the niger silo this morning, in the company or the more regular American Goldfinches and a Common Redpoll.

Weekend feeder update

2009-01-17T14:53:00.011-05:00

There hasn't been a whole lot of change in the feeder gang this week. A lone Evening Grosbeak was here for a day. A pair of male Pine Grosbeaks and 5 or 6 American Goldfinches are daily visitors.

Here's what I've seen today:

Red-bellied Woodpecker -1
Hairy Woodpecker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Mourning Dove - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue Jay - 10 +
Black-capped Chickadee - 10 +
American Tree Sparrow - 2
American Goldfinch - 6
Pine Grosbeak - 2

While the bird activity has been constant this week, deer visits and persistence are on the rise.

Cold turkey

2009-01-15T16:24:00.014-05:00

A mass of cold arctic air settled in this week and the bird feeder continues to be busy. In addition to the steady stream of chickadees, nuthatches, Blue Jays and woodpeckers, deer are present through the day. Most are does with swelling mid-sections. They quarrel with each other and scratch the snow for what seems to be the very meager reward of a few fallen sunflower seeds.

Just down the road the servings are more generous. Today I watched the deer assemble in anticipation of their afternoon feeding at the neighbouring resort. Rob, the employee who dispensed feed from a 50 lb bag, pointed out some of the individuals he's come to recognize. One had a healed forelimb fracture, another was missing part of her lower jaw and another had a good sized tumour on its flank. I asked about predators. Rob said that coyotes have keyed in on the area and that there are several kills a week, usually out on the lake ice. I guess it's not easy being a deer.

At dawn it was -36 C - cold enough to freeze the wattles off a rooster I suspect. I wonder how the Wild Turkeys, with their unfeathered heads, cope with the deepest of freezes. The 20 or so birds mingling with the deer seemed to be just fine - they gobbled and squabbled and scratched as they always do. I looked closely at their exposed extremities and saw no signs of frostbite. Tough birds.

Habitat # 1, dammed headwater lake

2009-01-13T20:29:00.006-05:00

White Lake, near Gooderham.
This is headwater lake in our watershed. The submerged stump field is typical of most of our lakes, which were dammed more than a century ago. Many of the higher elevation lakes are drawn down by more than a metre each autumn to help reduce the risk of spring flooding downstream.

Fowl reception

2009-01-11T19:31:00.006-05:00

As seen near Buckhorn today.

This isn't our antenna although ours is similar. We see pigeons around the feeders, only two or three at a time, maybe several times a year, if at all. One of the first times was also the last for one very unfortunate bird.

A Yellow-bellied Sapsucker does like to drum on our steel antenna in late April.

Weekend feeder update

2009-01-10T20:56:00.008-05:00

The backyard feeder is doing a good business these days. Finch numbers vary from day-to-day. Here's what I noticed this morning:

Red-bellied Woodpecker (female - see photo)
Hairy Woodpecker - 3
Downy Woodpecker - 1
White-breasted Nuthatch - 2
Red-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Blue Jay - 12 +
Black-capped Chickadee - 12 +
American Tree Sparrow - 5
American Goldfinch - 6
Pine Grosbeak - 3

Pine Siskins were here on and off through the week, as were a few Common Redpolls.

A new yard bird for the year was Ruffed Grouse that landed in the cedar outside the bedroom window.

Near Gannon's Narrows today, I came across a flock of 30 Cedar Waxwings and an overflying dark phased Rough-legged Hawk.

Northern Hawk Owl makes the news

2009-01-09T09:38:00.017-05:00

click to enlarge
It's kind of nice to live in a part of the world where an owl sighting is front page newsworthy.

Courtesy of the Lakefield Herald.

UPDATE - JANUARY 25

Other Northern Hawk Owls in the news this week:

Northern Hawk Owl makes rare visit, Ottawa Citizen, ON.
Rare Hawk Owl attracting tourists to region, Plattsburgh Press Republican, NY.
Northern hawk owl a rare sight in Maine, Bangor Daily News, ME.

Bohemian Waxwings

2009-01-08T15:42:00.005-05:00

I surprised a good sized flock, more than 250 strong, of Bohemian Waxwings along a farm road. Half were on the dirt road, picking up grit and the other half were gleaning fruit from roadside wild grape vines and Eastern Red Cedars. They were very skittish and noisy. The flock picked up and headed east after I'd watched them for a few minutes.

Petroglyphs Christmas Bird Count

2009-01-04T19:46:00.054-05:00

Petroglyphs Count Circle (click to enlarge)
For the 23rd year, local naturalists took stock of wild birds during the annual Petroglyphs Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Most of the (22 km diameter) count circle falls on the southern edge of the exposed Canadian Shield. Agriculture and road development are limited and much of the area remains forested. Bird counting, by sight and sound, is concentrated along county and township roads, ski trails and backyard bird feeders.

The day broke clear and crisp at -20 C. As for most of the past counts, open water was limited to a few very small seeps and some fast sections of streams. Water birds would be scarce at best.

Soon after dusk, Tony Bigg of the Peterborough Field Naturalists crunched the numbers tallied by 17 volunteers who had scattered across six sectors within the circle. Seven other people provided observations from their backyard bird feeders. In the following discussion, the number in parentheses is the average count from the last ten years.

A total of 2779 individuals of 38 species were found, close to the averages of 2773 birds of 34 species. The highest species count, 41, was in 1998 following an unseasonably mild autumn that left our lakes unfrozen and hospitable to five species of waterfowl.

As in past years years, three species - Black-capped Chickadee 859 (998), Blue Jay 437 (306) and Red-breasted Nuthatch 239 (179) - accounted for more than half of birds seen. Some others were present in record numbers. Eighty-nine Rock Pigeons and 93 Mourning Doves broke the previous records of 87 and 27, respectively. Prior to 2002, Wild Turkeys were unknown from the count. Last year, a record 29 were seen and this year, 51. Almost certainly the population will continue to increase. I wonder how and when their number will stabilize. Wild Turkeys - three - were found on yesterday's Algonquin Park Christmas Bird Count for the very first time, evidence of the spread of this species well beyond their introduction sites.

The only water bird seen was a hardy Belted Kingfisher (seen only once before, in 1998) beside a tailings runoff pool below the Indusmin Mine at Nephton. New to the count was a Red-bellied Woodpecker (a Carolinian species steadily marching northward) seen at a suet feeder at the east end of Stony Lake. The ecotonal character of the southern shield is reflected by the juxtaposition of this southern species with Black-backed Woodpecker (a spruce-loving bird of the boreal forest) found today in suitable breeding habitat in Petroglyphs Provincial Park and on the Kawartha Nordic Ski Club trails north of Haultain. Three Gray Jays, another northern species at its southern breeding limit, helped themselves to the hiking snacks of the Petroglyphs Park crew.

Birds of prey were present in small numbers. The observation of three Barred Owls, a resident species, marked the 13th consecutive appearance for this nocturnal hunter. Much rarer, recorded only once before on count day, was a single, day-hunting Great Gray Owl, found by Anne Anthony, Marilyn Taylor and Lynn Smith near Jack Lake. This is the third area sighting in recent weeks, leading some to wonder whether these birds represent the vanguard of a more significant flight. A spectacular winter irruption of Great Grays into Peterborough County last happened in 2004-2005.
Great Gray Owl near Jack Lake courtesy of Anne Anthony
A previous record high of two Goshawks was matched but no other accipiters were seen. A lone Red-tailed Hawk was the only buteo. Red-tails are much commoner in more open country south of the count area.

Veteran CBC participants are always mindful of "misses" - the absence on count day of a species they have come to expect. For species with low populations, misses are a statistical inevitability. If a Sharp-shinned Hawk - perhaps one of only handful in the 400 square km. count area - zigs moments before a human observer zags then the bird will be missed. A notable miss of this year was the sometimes numerous Snow Bunting. Only once before, in 1990, did this visitor from the tundra fail to appear on count day.

Nine species have been seen on every one of the 23 Petroglyphs CBCs. One is the numerous and conspicuous Common Raven. Seven are abundant feeder visitors - Black-capped Chickadees, both nuthatches, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Blue Jay and American Tree Sparrow. The ninth species, the Bald Eagle, is much less common (average of 5) and was very nearly a miss - only a single sighting - in this and five other counts. This year's singleton, a white-headed adult, was spotted by Jerry Ball and Bruce Kidd east of Kasshabog Lake.

Other interesting sightings included 11 Bohemian Waxwings and a single Northern Shrike. Winter finch numbers are highly variable as a result of annual fluctuations in natural food availability in the vast boreal forests of the north. The absence of both crossbill species in odd numbered years since 1999 reflects the cyclic scarcity of spruce and pine cones here and elsewhere. This count turned up 80 White-winged and three Red Cossbills. Rounding out the finch assemblage were 23 Pine Grosbeaks, 12 Purple Finches, 206 Common Redpolls, 75 Pine Siskins, 189 American Goldfinches and two Evening Grosbeaks.

Tony Bigg did an outstanding job of organizing the count and compiling the results. Thanks Tony.

I'm especially grateful to the feeder watchers in my sector: Christine Church, Robin and Roman Miszuk, Doug Charles & Elina Laird.

[The map above is derived from a handy utility, the CBC Base Map Generator, developed by Bird Studies Canada, the organization that oversees CBC activities in Canada.]

White-winged Crossbills

2009-01-03T14:52:00.002-05:00

White-winged Crossbills are very common in Central Ontario this season. The pair of males in this picture were in a flock of 10 birds I encountered this afternoon on Long Lake Road, south of Apsley where I was scouting sites in advance of tomorrow's Petroglyphs Christmas Bird Count.

Owls turn heads in the Kawarthas

2009-01-02T15:01:00.006-05:00

Northern Hawk Owl near Orillia
Snowy Owl near Fenelon Falls
Northern Hawk Owl near Buckhorn
During a day trip to Orillia, a few hours east of here, we thought we'd try to see both of two fairly reliable Northern Hawk Owls in the region. The more distant one, which has been seen for several weeks northwest of Orillia, wasn't visible on our first drive past, but when I returned an hour later on my way home, I saw it conspicuously perched atop a tall tree, about 300 metres from the road. It flew several times across the open field below, between the high perch and my stopped car. Once it landed in the snow after hovering like a kestrel. A Pine Grosbeak mobbed the owl for about 20 seconds, coming to within about five metres. The owl made no attempt to pursue its tormentor.

At midday, I relocated for the third time a second Northern Hawk Owl near Buckhorn - this one was less active and much closer to the road. Again, it was briefly mobbed by a Common Raven.

Between these two anticipated and much appreciated Northern Hawk Owls, we observed a mature Snowy Owl from some distance in a farm field on County Road 8, west of Fenelon Falls. Like the Yellow-headed Blackbird of yesterday, the sightings of the Orillia Northern Hawk Owl and the Fenelon Falls Snowy Owl are presented here "honourable mentions" as we saw them beyond 20 km. from Stony Lake.

Honourable mention - Yellow-headed Blackbird

2009-01-01T20:46:00.005-05:00

This Yellow-headed Blackbird was first seen at a backyard feeder near Bridgenorth, about 25 km southeast of Stony Lake, on December 23. It's a very rare bird in Peterborough County in any season and we were pleased to find it on our second visit to the area. On our first attempt, small bird activity was suppressed by the Cooper's Hawk we saw coursing back and forth over the yard where the bird has most frequently been observed. During today's visit, after we had taken this photograph, we saw dozens of of European Starlings and Mourning Doves scatter when again, the Cooper's Hawk streaked over the yard.

What a nice bird to see early on New Year's day.

The 2008 Stony Lake Bird List

2008-12-31T20:49:00.003-05:00

Here's an approximation of the birds seen close to home over the past year. I wasn't a good recorder over the second half of the year.

January
Black-capped Chickadee (01.01)
Evening Grosbeak (01.01)
Pine Grosbeak (01.01)
Hairy Woodpecker (01.01)
White-breasted Nuthatch (01.01)
February
Blue Jay (02.01)
Common Raven (05.02)
Bohemian Waxwing (16.02)
March
Common Crow (12.03)
Downy Woodpecker (23.03)
Red-winged Blackbird (18.03)
European Starling (18.03)
American Robin (18.03)
Ring-billed Gull (20.03)
Great Blue Heron (20.03)
Common Grackle (26.03)
Mourning Dove (26.03)
House Finch (30.03)
April
Canada Goose (01.04)
Northern Cardinal (02.04)
Brown-headed Cowbird (02.04)
Eastern Phoebe (02.04)
Black Duck (02.04)
Canvasback (02.04)
Ring-necked Duck (02.04)
Common Goldeneye (02.04)
Turkey (04.04)
American Goldfinch (04.04)
Snow Bunting (04.04)
Osprey (05.04)
Song Sparrow (06.04)
Wood Duck (10.04)
Sharp-shinned Hawk (11.04)
Rock Pigeon (11.04)
Fox Sparrow (11.04)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (11.04)
Common Loon (15.04)
Merlin (16.04)
Northern Flicker (16.04)
American Woodcock (16.04)
Barred Owl (17.04)
Bufflehead (18.04)
Common Merganser (18.04)
Mallard (18.04)
Pine Warbler (20.04)
Herring Gull (20.04)
Red-breasted Nuthatch (20.04)
Purple Finch (20.04)
Swamp Sparrow (20.04)
Belted Kingfisher (22.04)
Broad-winged Hawk (22.04)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (24.04)
Caspian Tern (25.04)
White-crowned Sparrow (26.04)
Pine Siskin (26.04)
Black-throated Green Warbler (26.04)
Blackburnian Warbler (26.04)
Hermit Thrush (26.04)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (27.04)
Nashville Warbler (29.04)
Blue-headed Vireo (29.04)
May
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (04.05)
Hooded Merganser (04.05)
Great Crested Flycatcher (05.05)
Chestnut-sided Warbler (06.05)
Black-and-white Warbler (06.05)
Yellow Warbler (08.05)
Turkey Vulture (08.05)
Brown Creeper (08.05)
Least Flycatcher (08.05)
Palm Warbler (08.05)
Ovenbird (08.05)
Brown Thrasher (08.05)
Baltimore Oriole (09.05)
Common Yellowthroat (09.05)
Black-throated Blue Warbler (09.05)
Yellow-throated Vireo (09.05)
American Redstart (09.05)
Ruffed Grouse (09.05)
Northern Waterthrush (09.05)
Field Sparrow (12.05)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird (12.05)
Warbling Vireo (13.05)
Red-eyed Vireo (13.05)
Scarlet Tanager (13.05)
Blue-winged Warbler (14.05)
Tennessee Warbler (15.05)
Magnolia Warbler (15.05)
Tree Swallow (15.05)
Veery (15.05)
Golden-winged Warbler (15.05)
Eastern Towhee (15.05)
Cerulean Warbler (16.05)
Eastern Wood Pewee (16.05)
Eastern Kingbird (16.05)
Red-headed Woodpecker (16.05)
Spotted Sandpiper (22.05)
Killdeer (22.05)
Red-tailed Hawk (22.05)
House Wren (22.05)
American Bittern (22.05)
Virginia Rail (22.05)
Gray Catbird (22.05)
Clay-colored Sparrow (24.05)
Wood Thrush (26.05)
Alder Flycatcher (26.05)
Bay-breasted Warbler (26.05)
Lincoln's Sparrow (26.05)
Cedar Waxwing (26.05)
Common Nighthawk (27.05)
Blue-winged Teal (27.05)
Bobolink (27.05)
Barn Swallow (29.05)
Blackpoll Warbler (30.05)
June
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (01.06)
Purple Martin (07.06)
Double-crested Cormorant (07.06)
Eastern Bluebird (12.06)
December
White-winged Crossbill (04.12)
Bald Eagle (12.12)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (17.12)
Northern Hawk Owl (24.12)

A flourish of winter finches

2008-12-31T11:59:00.005-05:00

Our sighting of our first Pine Grosbeaks of the season yesterday presaged an influx of other "new" birds at our backyard feeder. Before noon, the feeder had been visited by a pair of Pine Grosbeaks, 15 Evening Grosbeaks, several Common Goldfinches and singles of Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll.

Northern Hawk Owl

2008-12-30T13:34:00.001-05:00

Local birders were recently abuzz over the discovery of a Northern Hawk Owl that's been haunting an intersection of county roads just west of Buckhorn, only ten minutes from our back door. News of the bird's rare local appearance reached us when we were some 1200 km away, in northern Ontario, within the actual breeding range of the Hawk Owl.

We figured the owl would be long gone by the time we returned to Stony Lake and this led us to make an extra effort to find this bird in the north, where we were organizing a Christmas Bird Count. As we drove over frozen logging roads and the Trans-Canada Highway, we searched the spruce-tops and hydro wires for the distinctive silhouette of the Hawk Owl. Nothing (but thousands of Pine Grosbeaks, Common Redpolls and Common Ravens).

On Christmas eve, we neared home in torrential rain and paused at Flynn's Corners where the bird had last been reported on December 20. We scanned the adjacent fields to no avail. Disappointed but hardly surprised, we set off for home. We rounded the corner on to CR 36 and there was the bird, sitting motionless on a hydro cable. The light was failing and the bird was soaked but there was no mistaking its identity. It turned to face us and we could clearly see its yellow bill and eyes and the dark margins of the facial discs. Beautiful.

We returned again on December 30 and saw the bird in better light. These pictures were taken at a roadside, out our car window.

The photo session was cut short by a pair of Common Ravens that harassed the owl until it flew into a woodlot at the back of the field where it had been hunting.

Pine Grosbeaks - first of this season

2008-12-30T13:12:00.007-05:00

Three of the six Pine Grosbeaks we saw today.
After watching the Northern Hawk Owl this morning, we returned home to find six Pine Grosbeaks at the bottom of our drive. These were the first we've seen in central Ontario this season and, like the Evening Grosbeaks, weren't expected given the this year's bumper crop of Mountain Ash fruit north of Lake Superior.
Ron Pittaway's Winter Finch Forecast, 2008 provides a thorough discussion of the distribution of irruptive winter finches in Ontario.
Male Pine Grosbeak in a Mountain Ash tree, we observed on the Marathon (Thunder Bay District), Ontario, Christmas Bird Count on December 21.

Redtail

2008-12-29T12:06:00.000-05:00

I wasn't quite quick enough with the camera to catch this handsome Red-tailed Hawk perched at the roadside.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

2008-12-17T13:26:00.004-05:00

We live just beyond the northern limit of the breeding range of this species. This is the first we've had visit our feeders.

Bald Eagles

2008-12-12T17:10:00.003-05:00

We see them every month of the year. Numbers seem to increase during the winter when they can be often be seen at our local landfill sites. This pair of birds flew up from the roadside - perhaps there was a roadkill off the shoulder, beyond my sight.

Return of the Evening Grosbeaks

2008-12-10T17:32:00.001-05:00

Throughout this week, we've had between one and six Evening Grosbeaks at the feeder. These birds put on a great show last season but we weren't counting on seeing them this winter. The nearest observations we'd heard of were of a handful of birds at Algonquin Park, a few hours to the north.

The spruce trees around ou house have produced a heavy crop of cones and these have attracted flocks of White-winged Crossbills. None have been tempted to sample the offerings from the feeders below.

Varied Thrush hits window

2008-11-25T17:59:00.032-05:00

Dorothy MacDonald, a neighbour in nearby Burleigh Falls, heard that dreaded "thump" at her kitchen window yesterday. When she ventured out into the fresh snow she found the warm, lifeless body of a bird that was unfamiliar. Dorothy checked her field guide and correctly identified the plump, robin-like bird as a Varied Thrush. She alerted local naturalists who facilitated the deposition of the specimen at the Royal Ontario Museum.

During some winters, this species ventures east of its normal range in the Rocky Mountains.

Wells and Rosenberg (1997) analyzed data for Varied Thrush from Project Feeder Watch and noted biennial peaks in abundance of birds seen at feeders within the regular wintering range in the west. Interestingly, these peaks did not correlate with irruptions into eastern North America.

So far this fall, there have been several sightings in Ontario. Another bird was reported to have hit a window near Baptiste Lake, about 60 km north of here. Fortunately, this specimen also made it to the R.O.M.

UPDATE - May, 22, 2009 Tony Bigg offered this photo of another Varied Thrush from the Burleigh Falls area, taken on December 11, 2008.

There are a few historical records. Sadler (1983) noted a single county record of a bird photographed by Michael Dumas near Buckhorn in December of 1980. The last report of Varied Thrush in the Stony Lake area was of a pair of birds, likely a male and a female, coming to the feeder of Dawn McArthur on Hull's Road, at the east end of the lake, January 17-26, 2001. Among several local naturalists who saw at least one of the birds was Larry Boyce, who enthused:

Once again visited Nephton and this time was rewarded with great views of the male varied thrush. I was only there from 4:10 to 4:55 and the bird only showed for 10 min., from 4:20 to 4:30. The deep rich colours of the bird were especially gorgeous against the backdrop of fresh white snow. He spent only a min. or two on the ground, the rest of the time in one of the front yard trees. He did seem wary & skittish and it was my movement trying to get a bit better look that scared him away. While there a pileated flew over, the same as the other evening when I was there. Two or possibly 3 brown creepers worked the large pine that is beside the garage.

Yesterday I was up in the afternoon for a walk in the Petroglyphs with my wife. We checked the street and the yards for the thrush, both at 11:15 and at 1:00. No thrush then but we did have a great walk in the park.

We had a great opportunity to observe this species wintering in northern California in 2006. These photos showing both sexes were taken near Woodside in San Mateo County (click to greatly enlarge).
click to enlarge

Citations

Range map linked from the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology.

Salder, D. 1983. Our Heritage of Birds: Peterborough County in the Kawartha Lakes. Orchid Press. Peterborough, Ontario.

Wells J. V. and Rosenberg K.V. 1997. The Rise and Fall of the Varied Thrush. Birdscope, Spring 1996, Volume 10, Number 2: 1-2.

Late migrants

2008-06-02T13:07:00.004-04:00

There are a few late migrants still passing through. Among the new birds this week were numerous Blackpoll Warblers singing high up in the treetops. I spotted this Yellow-bellied Flycatcher along a roadside near Nephton.

Field birds and forest mammal

2008-05-28T14:41:00.008-04:00

I did some early morning birding in some old fields near Buckhorn. As I walked among the hawthorn trees and juniper thickets, I flushed three Field Sparrows and one Song Sparrow off of nests. There were at least eight Clay-colored Sparrows singing. I also flushed a pair of Common Nighthawks who seemed very distressed - I quickly moved on.
Clay-colored Sparrow
Bobolink
Late in the morning, I briefly strayed into the forest edge, at the edge of a large pond.
Mother bear watches me closely
I soon saw half a dozen large piles of bear scat, deposited recently in a patch of violets. It looked very fresh. A rustling sound about 30 metres away revealed the very close proximity of a mother and two cubs. The cubs quickly climbed a tree while their mother stood at the base with her gaze fixed on me. I took a quick photo and headed off in the opposite direction. In retrospect, I think it was fortunate that I paused to consider the droppings. Had I not, I might have had a much closer and more consequential encounter with the mother bear.

Golden-winged Warbler

2008-05-23T19:01:00.002-04:00

So far, these have been difficult to find - there appears to be much more suitable habitat than Golden-wings. The tally so far is three Blue-winged Warblers and only a single Golden-winged, plus several birds I didn't see that were singing the typical Golden-winged song.

Cerulean Warbler

2008-05-16T14:59:00.004-04:00

Cerulean Warbler
The Cerulean Warbler is another rare species known to breed in the area. There are estimated to be fewer than 1000 pairs nesting in Canada and numbers in the US are in decline. This spring I will be checking suitable habitat (mature hardwoods) for their presence.

Today I visited a woodlot we had skied through last winter - we'd made a mental note to return to observe the breeding birds. While much of the woodlot seemed perfect for Ceruleans, I found none until I was deep in the lush core. I stopped to listen to a Red-headed Woodpecker calling when I heard the first of many Cerulean songs. I estimated that there were not fewer than four males singing. Given the season, I can't rule out the possibility that these were migrants. I'll return in a few weeks to get a better sense of what's going on.

Blue-winged and Golden-winged Warblers

2008-05-15T17:36:00.005-04:00

Blue-winged Warbler
Some of the county roads running south from Stony Lake hold good habitat for Golden-winged Warbler, a species designated as threatened species by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC). There is evidence that Golden-winged Warbler populations are negatively impacted through introgressive hybridization with the very closely related Blue-winged Warbler. We hope to monitor suitable sites in the coming weeks, when the males are singing on territory. A casual drive today turned up a single male Blue-winged Warbler (see photo) and a single male Golden-winged Warbler.

Summer warblers

2008-05-13T16:01:00.003-04:00

We awoke to the song of a Warbling Vireo in the yard. These birds are common breeders in the open parkland around the locks at Burleigh Falls and Youngs Point but in our yard, they seem to be transient. In the hardwoods, I heard a first Scarlet Tanager of the season. Warbler numbers are low although many of the resident species are on territory. Here are some of the more common ones.
Black-throated Green Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush

Grosbeak vs. Grosbeak

2008-05-12T14:57:00.004-04:00

More Blackburnian Warblers are singing in the patches of eastern hemlock along an adjacent cottage road. Each year, a few remain to breed.

A handful of Evening Grosbeaks continue to visit our feeders. Here is a brief video showing the usual outcome of an encounter between Evening and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks at the feeder.

...more arrivals

2008-05-09T10:48:00.005-04:00

Common Merganser swims by the dock
We heard a few timely arrivals around the house this morning, including a Baltimore Oriole and Common Yellowthroat. Off the dock swam a pair of female Common Mergansers.

A bike ride through the hardwoods turned up some new arrivals including four Black-throated Blue Warblers, an American Redstart, a Northern Waterthrush, and Yellow-headed Vireo. I heard Ruffed Grouse drumming in two areas.

The number of singing Ovenbirds seems to have doubled from yesterday.
Other birds seen and heard included Broad-winged Hawk, Great Crested Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue-headed Vireo, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Nashville Warbler.

Migration continues

2008-05-08T20:38:00.008-04:00

Migration proceeds. In the morning we heard our first Yellow Warbler of the season. Blue Jays are particularly abundant at the feeders with up to 30 attending at a given time. Numbers of White-crowned Sparrows are omnipresent this week - today we saw up to eight at once and heard their song wonderful song continually. Shortly before dusk, we heard a Brown Thrasher.

A walk up through the hardwoods revealed some new arrivals - Ovenbirds sang in only a few territories. No doubt more will arrive in the coming days. We also heard Black-throated Green, Palm, Nashville, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Blue-headed Vireos and Least Flycatcher.

In the evening, I paddled back into the cattail marsh to check on the status of the Wood Duck box. There was a lone male twenty metres from the box but there was no sign of the box being used. Also present in the bay was a female Common Merganser, a pair of Mallards, a pair of Common Loons, several Swamp Sparrows and a Belted Kingfisher.

Yellow-rumped Warbler and Rose-breasted Grosbeak

2008-05-04T06:36:00.003-04:00

The pace of migration is picking up. We wake up to warbler song filtering through the strident calls of Evening Grosbeaks and Red-winged-blackbirds. The above photo depicts one of a pair of male Rose-breasted Grosbeaks that visited the feeder yesterday evening. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is abundant right now. The bird shown below allowed us to capture a few snippets of his distinctive song.

Pine Siskins and new warblers

2008-04-26T14:39:00.007-04:00

We experienced an influx of White-throated Sparrows overnight. These were accompanied by the first White-crowned Sparrow of the season. A lone, lingering Evening Grosbeak was joined by three male Purple Fiches and four Pine Siskins.

In the nearby woods, we saw our first Hermit Thrush, Blackburnian, Yellow-rumped and Black-throated Green Warblers of the season.
Here is a close-up of a male Common Grackle tacken outside our kitchen window.

Caspian Terns

2008-04-25T10:14:00.000-04:00

Early this evening we heard the rasping calls of a pair of Caspian Terns flying past the mouth of our bay. This is the earliest arrival date we've had on the lake. Ring-billed and Herring Gulls as well as Common Terns nest on the rocky islets in the lake. We suspect that the Caspian Terns might also breed here but we've yet to find a nest. Last summer, we observed adults feeding fledges young of the year outside of Gilchrist Bay.

Another new arrival was Yellow-rumped Warbler, heard singing in our yard. This is a pretty late date.

Prospecting Wood Ducks

2008-04-24T09:47:00.000-04:00

Local Wood Duck populations are limited by the availability of cavity nest sites. Such sites are rarer than in the past as a result of swamps being drained and forests being cleared. Traditional forest management practices have undervalued the importance of dead snags to wildlife, including Wood Ducks. We have seen pairs prospecting for nest sites in an upland hardwood forests, more than a kilometre from the nearest wetland. This spring, we erected a Wood Duck nest box in a nearby cattail marsh - no signs yet of tenants.

Broad-winged Hawk

2008-04-22T20:42:00.003-04:00

We heard several Broad-winged Hawk calls this afternoon but didn't see the bird, leaving the identity of the caller open to question - the local Blue Jays are excellent mimics of both of our resident buteos. In the evening, a Broadwing flew over our picnic table as we ate our burgers. We also saw our first Belted Kingfisher of the season.

Norhern Flicker

2008-04-21T16:20:00.003-04:00

Another common woodpecker has returned. This one is a male.

Loons return

2008-04-20T13:45:00.009-04:00

Common Loons returned to the area in the last week. This pair appeared at the edge of the receding ice today - you can see some residual slush in the water. A pair typically nests in the nearby back bay. Also present were pairs of Common Mergansers, a few of which will remain in the area to breed. Martha took these shots from the canoe.Common Loons

Buffleheads moving through

2008-04-19T13:27:00.001-04:00

The Bufflehead is among the first species of waterfowl to appear when the lake ice "goes out". Like the other diving ducks, they don't readily take to walking up from shore; however, they seem content to court and dive for food in the shallow water near our shore. This species doesn't nest here. These birds will move on as lakes to the the north open up.

This shot was taken with maximum zoom, through our sun room window.

House Finch

2008-04-17T13:18:00.000-04:00

Like the Northern Cardinal, the House Finch thrives in the villages and cities to the south, but we seldom see it here. In fact we've seen it here only twice before. It superficially resembles the Purple Finch.

Arriving sparrows

2008-04-16T14:53:00.004-04:00

A lone White-throated Sparrow appeared today - the first we've seen of this species since late last fall. We look forward to their distinctive song although none remain to breed within earshot of our house. This is not the case for Chipping Sparrows, which also arrived today,

The big kahuna

2008-04-16T12:33:00.001-04:00

Our old hopper feeder is fine. It was improved substantially by the addition of a tray to accommodate more seed and more birds - sounds fine, but all of this accommodating allowed the emptying of the feeder in a few days. Normally, this is fine but in the depths of winter, the feeder gets cleaned out if we're away for a couple of nights. My solution was to build a much larger feeder, one that might nourish a flock of Evening Grosbeaks for a week or more. As you can see, this one holds lots of seed but it positively dwarfs the visitors. At this point, I'm questioning whether bigger is better. Perhaps I should donate this industrial-sized unit to a nature centre.

American Woodcock

2008-04-16T11:26:00.000-04:00

Woodcock?
Yes, this is an impressionistic rendering of the animated male we watched displaying in a small clearing beside the top of our driveway. Alas, our point-and-shoot camera was unable to focus in the light of our headlamps.

More sparrows

2008-04-11T17:49:00.005-04:00

Song Sparrow and American Tree Sparrow
Over the course of this rainy day, the numbers of seed-eating birds grew steadily. By late afternoon, we could see hundreds of American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. They were joined by a few Song Sparrows and Fox Sparrows. This year, we only saw the later species for a couple of days. Fox Sparrow

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

2008-04-11T12:22:00.000-04:00

I spotted this male (note the red throat) on the Sugar Maple outside our bedroom window.

This species is a summer resident. We expect to hear them drumming on our steel TV antenna in the coming weeks. A few summers ago, we watched a juvenile sapsucker eating the fruits from a Black Cherry tree in the yard. They have never been tempted by the suet we offer.

Wood Duck at bird feeder

2008-04-11T12:09:00.002-04:00

A common April sound is the squealing of Wood Ducks over the wetland and adjacent woods. Every now and then, a bird or two will walk up to one of our feeders. I looked our the window this morning expecting to see a flock of rain-drenched juncos instead of this striking fellow.

First ever Northern Cardinal

2008-04-07T11:57:00.003-04:00

Cornell University's Great Backyard Bird Count lists the Cardinal as the most frequently reported species.

According to the recently published Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Ontario, it nests in all of the survey squares immediately south of the shield in Peterborough County. They occur only sporadically north of the shield. Until today, we'd never seen one on the north shore of Stony Lake. Indeed, we've considered the absence of this species, whose geographic range is centred to the south, to be one of the more boreal aspects of our area. Is this bird, perhaps a young male, a vanguard in an population known to be expanding northward?

Cat vs Turkey

2008-04-04T11:49:00.000-04:00

In what we hope is one of very few posts relating to interactions between the local feral cats and wildlife, we present the moment before this cat jumped forward toward its quarry. This resulted in the Turkey puffing up to what seemed to be double its normal size, and a hasty retreat by the feline.

Snow Bunting

2008-04-04T11:44:00.000-04:00

This lone bird was found perching among the boulders in the gravel pit. Once before, in the winter of 2007, a flock visited our yard.

Arrivals: Red-shouldered Hawk

2008-03-26T14:00:00.005-04:00

Another timely arrival, this Red-shouldered Hawk perched along the roadside at the bottom of our fire route. The species nests in the area and we expect to see its courtship flights in the coming weeks.
The warmer weather also brought an influx of Mourning Doves.

Downy Woodpecker

2008-03-23T13:52:00.002-04:00

The Downy Woodpecker is an infrequent visitor to the seed dispensing feeders, unlike the closely related Hairy Woodpecker.

After the storm the pecking order was set aside

2008-03-08T10:10:00.006-05:00

Here we have Evening Grosbeaks, Pine Grosbeaks and a Hairy Woodpecker. It isn't common for us to see both grosbeaks on the feeder at the same time. Typically, the Evening Grosbeaks displace the Pine Grosbeaks. After a prolonged, very heavy blizzard, these birds seemed more intent upon feeding.

Martha snapped this shot while I shoveled snow. Click on the image to see it at its best.

Winter finches

2008-02-15T10:03:00.005-05:00

Common Redpolls and Pine Grosbeaks
These two irruptive species are common throughout central Ontario this winter. To some, these movements may seem erratic but they're not. The so-called "irruptions" of northern bird species are caused by failures of staple food crops in the boreal forest and beyond. Ron Pittaway has acquired some expertise in predicting the movements of "northern birds". His 2007-2008 Winter Finch Forecast is spot-on.

Winter finch arrivals

2007-12-20T21:49:00.001-05:00

Each winter brings a new mix of birds to the feeders outside our windows. A flock of 100+ Common Redpolls, accompanied by Pine Siskins and Common Goldfinches, ate nearly 50 kg of niger seed during the winter of 2005-2006. Last year, we didn't see a single Common Redpoll or Evening Grosbeak. This year is another story altogether.

Evening Grosbeaks first appeared in September and have stayed. Presently, we have two or three flocks totaling about 50 birds.
Common Redpolls now festoon the niger silo and the snow beneath. A few of the paler Redpolls may indeed be Hoary Redpolls but there seem to be intermediately coloured birds as well. Some day soon I will step up to meet Jean Iron's Redpoll Challenge, which involves learning to recognize the four redpoll subspecies presently wintering in Ontario.

This year-to-year variation makes backyard birding all the more interesting. To some, these movements may seem erratic but they're not. The so-called "irruptions" of northern bird species are caused by failures of staple food crops in the boreal forest and beyond. Ron Pittaway has acquired some expertise in predicting the movements of "northern birds". His 2007-2008 Winter Finch Forecast is spot-on.

Cerulean Warblers in cottage country

2007-05-23T21:45:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Lana Hays
We were delighted to find at least two Cerulean Warblers (Dendroica cerulea) singing in the hardwood forest less than a kilometre from our back door. I recorded some sounds from the first bird we found singing on May 21, 2007. On May 23, we found two males countersinging 300 m from where we made our May 21 observation. The video begins and ends with a Cerulean song. There's some Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus) chatter in between.

This follows our observation of a single Cerulean Warbler in the same woodlot in May last year. We don't know whether they're actually breeding but the habitat - mature, mesic upland hardwood forest - corresponds to that utilized by well-studied breeding populations at the Queen's University Biological Station, 200 km to the east. We'll monitor the site over the next few weeks for signs of breeding.

The Cerulean Warbler is a species of special concern* in Canada, where the population is estimated to be only 500-1000 breeding pairs. Some populations in the United States have experienced precipitous declines. One of the threats to the Cerulean Warbler is the destruction of the tropical forests in which it, and a suite of other Neotropical migrant songbirds, spend the winter. This is one of the reasons we choose to buy shade grown coffee [on-line] from Birds and Beans in Toronto.

Update - June 3, 2007. This species isn't unknown from the Kawartha Lakes. In the late 1990's, Cerulean Warblers were found breeding near Buckhorn, about 20 km east of us. As far as we know, they haven't been found there in recent years. We visited the area two days ago and located two singing Ceruleans as we drove slowly and listened through the open window of our vehicle, during the middle of the day. No doubt, there are more in the area.

The forests are similar to those near our home - second growth with a canopy largely enclosed by even-aged sugar maple. Just over a century ago, these lands were cleared for farmland; however, the soils are thin along the edge of the Canadian Shield and much of the land proved not to be arable. Succeeding generations from the pioneering families abandoned these farm fields allowing the forests to regenerate. Cerulean Warbler populations along the southern edge of the Shield appear to be benefiting, faring much better than those in the core of their range in the United States.

* Special Concern - A species of special concern because of characteristics that make it particularly sensitive to human activities or natural events.

COSEWIC. 2003. COSEWIC assessment and update status report on the Cerulean Warbler Dendroica cerulea in Canada. Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Ottawa. vii + 25 pp. Available here.

Hamel, P. B. 2000. Cerulean Warbler (Dendroica cerulea). In The Birds of North America, No. 511 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Urban Long-tailed Ducks, in depth

2006-11-23T18:12:00.004-05:00

A highlight of last weekend was the several hours we spent observing waterfowl in Toronto Harbour. Gadwalls (Anas strepera) , Mute Swans (Cygnus olor) and Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator) were among the common waterfowl we seldom observe at our inland home, about 200 km to the north. Most impressive were the rafts of Long-tailed Ducks (Clangula hyemalis) visible, and audible, throughout our visit. Some aspects of this bird's life history and charismatic presence in Toronto merit comment.
www.gregnewby.com.
Long-tailed ducks nest as far north as the 80th parallel - the highest of the high arctic, farther north than any other waterfowl (Robertson and Savard, 2002). Many winter on the Great Lakes with a significant number in the Toronto area. While these birds are quite at home in the rough, open waters of Lake Ontario, they appear to make a very good living in the inner and outer harbours created by the Eastern Headland (Tommy Thompson Park) and Toronto Island. A summary of Christmas Bird Count data for the past 25 years reveals just how hospitable the waterfront is to these visitors from the north. Three years ago, a record high of 13,938 Long-tailed Ducks was recorded. Low counts in the 1980's and 1990's likely resulted from the freezing of near shore waters in the city. In more mild recent winters, ice has not formed on Lake Ontario.

The call of the male has been variously transcribed as ahr-ahr-ahroulit, ahang-ahóo, ow owooolee, ow ow owoolik, or unk-on-alik, take your pick. Whereas other ducks may vocalize solely during courtship or during aggressive encounters, the yodelling notes of Long-tailed Ducks seem to accompany all aspects of their highly social lives.

Click here to hear a chorus of Long-tailed Ducks (.wav file), recorded in Toronto, courtesy of the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Whether flying our feeding, courting or resting, Long-tailed Ducks vocalize continually:the song is always in season. Surely these must be among the most garrulous of animals. Beyond its volume and ubiquity, the call has always struck me as exultant - a ringing lyric with overtones as ancient as the tundra.

No less remarkable than the male's vocal repertoire is its very elegant, stream-lined appearance. George Miksch Sutton and his colleague Olin Sewall Pettingill Jr., spent the summer of 1958 documenting the breeding birds of Iceland. Long-tailed Ducks, then known in North America as Oldquaws, were common on the tundra. Sutton's comments on Long-tailed Ducks echo some of the wonder we experienced as we watched these birds foraging along the Lake Ontario shoreline.

Sewall had a wonderful experience photographing the diving Oldsquaw. Perched with his camera on the cliff edge not far from Gudrún Pálsdóttir's house, he had been able to follow the bird as it moved gracefully about, had fed on the bottom, and finally come up with big eyes sparkling and water running down its sleek plumage. I had watched many diving Oldsquaw in the American Arctic and knew how beautiful they could be.Iceland Summer (p. 93).

While Martha and I strolled along the boardwalk just west of Wards Island, we lingered to observe about 50 very animated Long-tailed Ducks that were calling and diving only a few dozen metres offshore. They dove more-or-less synchronously, each leaving the surface with a clearly audible "plop". From our slightly elevated position, we could track each bird by the bubble trail reaching the surface. After about a minute below, the birds would bob topside, many calling or chortling with apparent enthusiasm. After only a few breaths, the birds commenced their next dive.
Long-tailed Ducks swimming toward shore at Ward's Island

Long-tailed Ducks are perhaps the deepest divers of their clan. On the Great Lakes, commercial fishermen have recovered tens of thousands of drowned Long-tailed Ducks from even their deepest gill net sets, some 70 metres below the surface - a vertical descent equivalent to the height of a 23 story office building. Associated with this hyperbaric extreme, Long-tailed ducks have the greatest heart muscle mass, gram-for-gram, of any duck, goose or swan (Bethke and Thomas, 1988).

On its wintering grounds, the species is known to exploit a range of animal prey, including epibenthic crustaceans, snails and, in soft substrates, oligochaete worms. We could only speculate on the nature of today's meal. Given the shallow break of the shore and the close proximity of the birds we observed, we supposed they couldn't have been feeding at more than a few metres depth. Offshore an additional 20 metres, a pair of Surf Scoters also dove. Each would surface with a single cluster of dreissenid mussels held in the fully gaped bill. The scoter would then break up the cluster and swallow, apparently with some effort, a smaller clump of mussels.

In contrast, the Long-tailed Ducks, diving in shallower water, surfaced with nothing in their bills, suggesting that they were eating smaller, more easily manipulated prey. One possibility, given the time of year and the characteristics of the site, is that they were eating the freshly spawned eggs of Lake Herring (Coregonus artedi). While fish eggs have not yet been documented in the diet of wintering populations of Long-tailed Ducks in North America, a recent study in the Baltic Sea, off Lithuania, found that this species opportunistically exploited the "energy-rich" eggs of Baltic Herring (Clupea harengus membras) during the April spawn (Zydelis and Ruskyte, 2005).

Whillans (1979) noted that between 1880 and 1893, large numbers of gravid Lake Herring were harvested along the shore of Toronto Island. The stock disappeared over a century ago and to my knowledge, has not recovered. The return of spawning Lake Herring to these shores would certainly be noteworthy.

These highly energetic flocks of Long-tailed Ducks provide a glimpse of something truly wild - a very scarce commodity in such a built up metropolis. Against a backdrop that includes the CN Tower and completely industrialized port lands, it is deeply satisfying to note that the wild, exuberant presence of these birds is in no way diminished.

Charlie over at 10,000 Birds has compiled a stunning gallery of Long-tailed Ducks images taken on a sunny afternoon in Toronto Harbour - a must see!

Image Credits:
Photo Credits: Photo of male Long-tailed Duck (top) used with permission from Greg Newby Photography.
Christmas Bird Count graphic by Michael. Other Long-tailed Duck photos by Martha.
Citations:
Bethke, R.W. and V. G. Thomas. 1988. Differences in flight and heart mass among geese, dabbling ducks, and diving ducks relative to habitat use. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 66: 2024–2028.
National Audubon Society (2006). The Christmas Bird Count Historical Results [Online]. Available at http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc.
Robertson, G. J., and J.-P. L. Savard. 2002. Long-tailed Duck (Clangula hyemalis). In The Birds of North America, No. 651 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.
Sutton, G.M. 1974. Iceland Summer. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.
Whillans, T.H. 1979, Historic transformation of fish and communities in three Great Lakes Bays. Journal of Great Lakes Research 5(2):195-215.
Zydelis, R. and D. Ruskyte. 2005. Winter foraging of Long-Tailed Ducks (Clangula hyemalis) exploiting different benthic communities in the Baltic Sea. Wilson Bulletin 117(2):133-141.

Surf Scoter

2006-10-06T21:39:00.001-04:00

Human activity on the lake subsides markedly after Labour Day. The ski boats and personal watercraft have been stored for the winter and most of the cottagers won't return until late May. On this calm and sunny afternoon we crossed wakes with only a few fishing boats.

We were delighted to encounter a lone Surf Scoter, Melanitta perspicillata, swimming in about 10 metres of water, perhaps a kilometre from shore. While she wouldn't allow us to approach closer than a few boat lengths, she was quick to tuck her bill under her wing when we were more distant. Perhaps she was resting after a long flight from it's northern breeding range.

Of the three scoter species we've seen on the lake, this is the only one whose range is confined to North America.

Citations:
Savard, J.-P. L., D. Bordage, and A. Reed. 1998. Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata). In The Birds of North America, No. 363 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

Cooper's Hawk takes Rock Pigeon

2006-04-27T21:47:00.003-04:00

Click to view a substantially larger image.
Almost all of the birds we observe at our feeders are the native species one would expect in cottage country. Exceptions include three European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) that showed up for the first time this past month. Only once before have Martha and I seen feral Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) from our property, a high-flying flock that wheeled over our bay, heading west in high gear last September. We know of a few small flocks, several km to the north and south, that take advantage of the shelter and nesting opportunities afforded by bridges along Highway 28. Perhaps it was such an overflying trio that observed the many Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula), Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and Red-winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) at our feeders on April 23rd. The pigeons landed, tasted the cracked corn and so joined the list of 30 or so other species we've observed at the feeders. Since then, the same three Rock Pigeons have visited two or three times each day.

Late this morning, I glanced out the window and saw the three Rock Pigeons feeding along side a mixed flock of 30 or so blackbirds. The birds suddenly scattered - they are often startled by the construction-related traffic at the barge landing on our neighbour's lot. I then saw a fair-sized bird make contact with one of the fleeing Rock Pigeons and the two cartwheeled to the grass, just down slope from the feeders.

I called Martha from the kitchen and over the next five minutes, we watched the Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii) subdue and pluck the hapless dove. We were able to get a few blurry pictures by "digiscoping" our Coolpix 4500 against an 8 x 40 binocular objective. Our observations ended when an approaching motorboat flushed the hawk, which flew down slope to the east with its prey in its talons.

The pictures convey the rest of the story.

Our resident Canada Geese, celebrated below in their routing of a Red Fox, were unruffled by this particular predator. Indeed the two geese approached, on webbed feet, to within five metres of the hawk and quietly observed the pigeon's demise.

The two other Rock Pigeons returned to the feeder an hour or so later.

Tho' nature, red in tooth and claw

2006-04-22T21:35:00.002-04:00

Portions of small mammal skulls from a single owl pellet
Every few months we hear the call of the resident Barred Owls and a few times, I've caught glimpses of them flying across the beams of the truck headlights. This winter, a few Great Gray Owls were in the area and on Long Lake Road, only a few kilometres to the north of us, a cottager found an injured Boreal Owl under a window last month. Overall, I think our encounters with any of the resident species are rare.
Martha spotted an intact owl pellet lying beneath a Hemlock deep in the woods. When we teased it apart, we found the remains of at least three small mammals.

Two of the partial skulls and a single mandible are from shrews (family Soricidae) of the subfamily Soricinae, also known as the Red-toothed Shrews. The reddish colour is the result of iron deposited in the tooth enamel. Not represented here are members of the subfamily Crocidurinae, or White-toothed Shrews, a taxon comprised of species not found in the New World.

The first and third partial skulls are likely from Northern Short-tailed Shrew (Blarina brevicauda. The second (middle) skull is likely from a Meadow Vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus). These two widespread species are common in the area.

Acknowledgements

The title of the entry was borrowed from In Memorium A.H.H, by Alfred Lord Tennyson (1850).

Goose Step and Fox Trot

2006-04-14T21:19:00.004-04:00

Our shoreline was particularly busy during one evening last week. A pair of Wood Ducks (Aix sponsa) and a male Ring-necked Duck (Aythya collaris) gorged on cracked corn near the water's edge. Small courting parties of Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) and Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus) squabbled and paraded in the thawed margins of the bay.

The highly animated sights and sounds of courting Hooded Mergansers are not easily forgotten. Dugger et al. (1994) gave this account:

Head-throws, the most elaborate display, are usually performed with the male parallel to the intended female. With crest raised, males bring their head abruptly backward touching their back. A rolling frog-like crraaa-crrrooooo call is given as the head is returned to the upright position and turned away from the intended female.

More extraordinary was the drama that unfolded between a Red Fox, (Vulpes vulpes) and the resident pair of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis). Late in the afternoon a bedraggled fox coursed across our lot and stopped to glean small bits of suet that had fallen to the ground beneath our bird feeders. Soon, its attention was drawn to a pair of Canada Geese resting on the shoreline. And that is when things got more interesting.

But first, here's a little background on the responses of the local waterfowl to the approaches of (bipedal) mammals. Typically, when we walk down to the waterfront, the ducks and geese disperse. Buffleheads and Mergansers skitter into flight and disappear for an hour or more. The Wood Ducks also take flight, squealing as they wheel back into the wetland. The geese and Mallards generally swim out from shore and return soon after we've left.
Canada Geese repelling Red Fox. Photos by Martha.
On this day, with this potential threat, the geese responded very differently. Instead of swimming to immediate safety, the geese stepped up on shore and approached the fox while honking and hissing, standing in single file (see photo). The fox feinted to one side, and then the other, but these moves did not expose a vulnerable flank. Instead, the geese honked more loudly and the lead goose spread its wings while continuing to approach the predator. The second goose, standing directly behind its mate, remained in lock step.

This was all too much for the fox. It broke off the engagement and headed east, likely in search of easier fare.

Why did the geese make such a grand stand, and put so much energy into routing the fox, when they might have simply swam out of harm's way?

In an evolutionary sense, fox and geese are no strangers. In the Canadian arctic, where the ecology of nesting geese has been most closely studied, Arctic foxes (Alopex lagopus) can be significant predators.
Lesser Snow Goose gander repelling Arctic Fox. Photo by Gustaf Samelius.
Nests defended by two adult Lesser Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens), a smaller species, are virtually invulnerable to foxes [Learn more about this research here].

Nests defended by only a single parent are more easily predated (Samelius and Alisauskas 2001). Perhaps fox predation helped shape the evolution of the colonial nesting habit, and other behaviours, among ground nesting geese.

Perhaps what we witnessed on this evening was the "release" of an anserine defensive repertoire that evolved primarily as a response to foxes. Perhaps this goose-stepping and fox-trotting are moments in a very ancient performance, danced by two intimate evolutionary partners.

Citations:
Dugger, B. D., K. M. Dugger, and L. H. Fredrickson. 1994. Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus). In The Birds of North America, No. 98 (A. Poole and F. Gill, Eds.). Philadelphia: The Academy of Natural Sciences; Washington, D.C.: The American Ornithologists’ Union.
Samelius G. and R.T. Alisauskas. 2001. Deterring arctic fox predation: the role of parental nest attendance by lesser snow geese. Canadian Journal of Zoology: 79: 861-866. Abstract.
Photo Credits:
Hooded Merganser courtesy of Susan Allen.
Lesser Snow Geese defending against Arctic Fox courtesy of Gustaf Samelius. Learn more about this research here.