Birding on My Local Patch

Nature Notes for July 22, 2011

I hadn’t been to the A.K. Sculthorpe Marsh Trail in almost a month. Since I consider it part of my “local patch”, it was high time that I made a visit. This spur of the Waterfront Trail at the east end of Port Hope runs between Lake Ontario and a small cattail marsh.

The east end of the trail is the mouth of Gage’s Creek. There are large trees along parts of the trail while other parts have primarily red osier dogwood shrub.

Of course, I seldom walk without carrying binoculars, so this was also a birding outing. I have often written that you never know what birds might be around the next corner. Last Saturday evening (July 16) produced a bonanza.

Before we got out of the parking lot onto the trail, a Belted Kingfisher made his presence known by his loud, rattling call. These birds dig nest holes into dirt banks. He might have been nesting either along the Lake Ontario shorecliff or in the much lower banks along Gage’s Creek.

A Swamp Sparrow, which has been singing at the west end of the marsh all season, was still in full song. There has also been one at the east end of the marsh, but on this evening, his area was quiet.

The marsh itself now has very low water levels, quite a contrast to earlier in the spring when the water was as high as I have ever seen it. On closer inspection, a bump in the pond proved to be a fairly large snapping turtle. Quite small frogs could be seen as little shining bumps in the muck. Probably because of the frogs, a Black-crowned Night Heron and a much smaller Green Heron were found hunting along the edge of the cattails.

The low water levels had forced the normally secretive rails into the open. For the first time in several years, both a Sora and a juvenile Virginia Rail could be seen among the cattails here.

The only shorebird in evidence was a single SpottedSandpiper. This muddy marsh is now quite good shorebird habitat. Since there is not much of this type of habitat locally, we will be keeping a close eye out for southbound migrant shorebirds here.

A few Northern Rough-winged Swallows and Barn Swallows were foraging for insects over the marsh. Suddenly, every small bird in the area was in the sky making a terrific commotion. This is the birders’ cue to look for a raptor. Sure enough, there it was: a Northern Harrier flying through.

On the lake and at the mouth of Gage’s Creek, we found a total of eleven Bonaparte’s Gulls. This small gull with pointed wings has been quite scarce on this part of Lake Ontario’s shore line for the past several years. It was good to see them back. Bonaparte’s Gulls nest in the Boreal forest and the Hudson’s Bay lowlands, so are seen as migrants in our area. These birds were the young-of-last-year, and would not have bred this year.

On closer inspection, one bird in this gull flock was a bit different: slightly smaller, finer bill, a dark “cap” on the head. It was a Little Gull. Although Little Gulls are common in Europe and Asia, they are rare in North America. Although a pair did nest in Second Marsh in Oshawa about fifty years ago, most North American Little Gulls probably nest in remote areas where they are not easy to detect.

The Little Gull was the sort of treat that all birders hope for when they take to the field. This one was quite close to shore and on the water, so it was easy to study.

It might not be there now, but perhaps some other bird will arrive to gladden the heart of an observer. All you have to do is visit often and pay attention.

Answers to Some Readers Questions

Nature Notes for July 8, 2011

One of the interesting things about writing this column in the faith that readers have that I can answer all questions related to birds and their behaviour. This column consists of a number of things I have been asked recently, along with my best attempts to respond.

“Is it the same robin that has nested in the same place in my yard for several years?”

It might be, but without marking the bird in some way, it is impossible to tell. Many banded birds have been known to return to the same place to nest several years in a row. In the fifteen years that I have been monitoring Tree Swallow nests, several females have come back to the same nest box in successive years.

It is thought that if a pair of birds successfully fledges nestlings, they will return to the same place again. That place is safe from predators and has enough food resources for the birds to raise a family.

“The baby robins/blue jays/starlings (Readers can fill in the species.) in may yard can’t fly. They are sitting in the middle of the front lawn and I don’t see the parents anywhere.”

This is the time of year that many young birds are leaving the nest and learning about the world. In the nest, safe behaviour is be still and be quiet. When the fledgling does that in the middle of your lawn, it seems rather odd behaviour for a bird. If the youngster survives for a few hours and can make it to cover or to the branches of a shrub, all will be well.

It is true that many of these fledglings don’t fly very well at first. They flutter and scramble about on the lower branches of shrubs or trees. Last week, my husband and I found a newly fledged American Robin on the top of the front tire of a parked car in a parking lot – not a safe place to be if the owner of the car decides to drive off. To the accompaniment of much scolding by the adult robins, we placed the chick on the lower branches of a nearby tree, where it would be somewhat safer.

Please believe me when I assure you that the adult birds are around. They don’t spend any more time with the young ones than is necessary to fly in and stuff food in their mouths. When the adults approach, the youngsters make a terrific commotion. This has the potential to attract the attention of any interested predator, which is not in the best interest of the fledgling. The adults make frequent, brief feeding trips to the chicks and then quickly leave.

“What has happened to the young Blue Jays from the nest in my garden? I have enjoyed watching them and now they are gone.”

The young Blue Jays are probably not far off. The adult birds will have taken the young to a safe place with good foraging. Once the young birds are somewhat independent, you will probably see them again.

In some species which raise more than one family per year (Blue Jays usually have only one brood), the male tends the fledglings while the female starts the next nest.

“What has happened to the hummingbirds? I had several at my feeder from early May until about June 12, but I haven’t seen any since.”

There are a couple of possibilities here. Perhaps the birds at the feeder were migrants which were just passing through to nest somewhere else. If a hummingbird finds a convenient feeder, it would take advantage of the extra energy provided.

The other possibility is that some of the local Ruby-throated Hummingbirds may have lost their nests. There were several severe storms in our area in early June with extremely high winds. These storms might have destroyed the nests, so the birds went somewhere else to try again.

There is much to learn about the other creatures which share our space, if we just take the time to observe.