Prospecting Wood Ducks

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

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

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

Loons return

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.