Great Backyard Bird Count 2012

Nature Notes for February 17, 2012

This weekend, all my readers have an opportunity to participate in the Great Backyard Bird Count. The 15^th annual Great Backyard Bird Count will take place this year from February 17-20.

To participate, you can count birds at your backyard feeder for as little as fifteen minutes. If your preference is to go on an all-day hike in Presqu’ile Provincial Park or the Northumberland or Ganaraska Forests, you can count all the birds you encounter there.

For each day and/or location where you bird, you fill out a check list and submit it over the GBBC web site.

Volunteers submit check lists from all over North America. This allows scientists a snapshot view of where the birds are over this short time period. A few of the questions being posed this year are:

●How will this winter's snow (or lack of it in Ontario) and temperatures influence bird populations?

●Where are winter finches and other “irruptive” species that appear in large numbers during some years but not others?

●How will the timing of birds’ migrations compare with past years?

●How are bird diseases, such as West Nile virus, affecting birds in different regions?

●What kinds of differences in bird diversity are apparent in cities versus suburban, rural, and natural areas?

●Are any birds undergoing worrisome declines that point to the need for conservation attention?

Locally, there are flocks of PineSiskins and White-winged Crossbills, two of the irruptive finch species. Although they haven’t been at my feeder, I’ve found them several places feeding on seeds from white cedar cones. The crossbills prefer white spruce. It will be interesting to see in what other places they are being found.

As to migration, there have been reports locally of ducks returning earlier that usual. Flocks of Northern Pintail have been found in the past few weeks in Cobourg Harbour, Presqu’ile Bay and Garden Hill pond.

Scientists can learn a lot by knowing where the birds are. Bird populations are dynamic. That is, they are constantly changing. No single scientist or team of scientists could hope to document the complex distribution and movements of so many species in such a short time.

Over a long period of time the GBBC data can be combined with data collected by Christmas Bird Counts and on eBird to give some indication of bird population trends.

In 2011, the top ten species, that is the species which occurred on the most checklists, were Northern Cardinal, Mourning Dove, Dark-eyed Junco, Downy Woodpecker, American Goldfinch, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black-capped Chickadee, House Finch and Tufted Titmouse. All but the last one occur regularly in winter in NorthumberlandCounty.

The top ten list of most numerous birds were European Starling (with 1,378,210 reported!), American Robin, Common Grackle, Canada Goose, Red-winged Blackbird, Snow Goose, American Crow, American Goldfinch, Dark-eyed Junco and Mallard. Several of these species would be unusual in this area in winter, although Northumberland can certainly contribute to the starling numbers.

Last year, checklists were received from the Northumberland County towns of Cobourg, Grafton, Port Hope, Brighton, Colborne, Hastings, Harwood, Campbellcroft, Campbellford and Castleton.

There is also a photography contest attached to this event. Bird photographers might want to participate.

Check the website for detailed instructions: www.birdsource.org/gbbc As checklists are submitted, maps are updated throughout the weekend. You can find out what species are being recorded and where in North America they are.

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a joint project of CornellLab of Ornithology, National Audubon Society and Bird Studies Canada.

Feeder Birds scarce this winter

Nature Notes for February 4, 2012

“Where are all the birds? I haven’t had any birds at me feeder for over a week!”

I have been asked variations of this quite a few times over the past month. The questioners are usually people who are used to enjoying birds in winter at backyard feeders. This winter, they have not had many avian visitors.

For most of the winter, there has been very little snow. Although the ground is snow covered as I write, the forecast for later today is for above freezing temperatures and rain which will probably remove most of the snow. In these conditions, birds can find lots of food without visiting feeders.

Many feeders welcome big flocks of various finches in most winters – American Goldfinches, Pine Siskins and/or Common Redpolls. The goldfinches are around, but not at the feeders in big numbers. The Port Hope/Cobourg Christmas Bird Count in mid-December tallied a record high number of American Goldfinch. The ones that I saw, however, were mostly not at feeders. They were feeding on the cones of white cedar and white spruce.

The same holds for the Pine Siskins. They are around. A Willow Beach Field Naturalists hike in on Jan. 22 found a single flock of about 70 birds on a side road just north of Burnley. They, too, were feeding on the cones of white cedars. The week before, siskins could be found in several locations in the Northumberland Forest area.

Only a few Common Redpolls have come this far south this winter.

All of these species are irruptive. They only migrate in response to food shortages. There has not been a food shortage this year.

Both Red and White-winged Crossbills can often be found in the Northumberland Forest at this time of year. There have been a few small flocks of White-winged Crossbills, but they have been hard to find. Observers have to get a bit lucky to find them, as they are often very quiet and easily put to flight. Neither of these species is a regular at feeders.

As for other feeder birds, they are around, although perhaps not in as large numbers as usual.

My own feeder in the urban part of Port Hope has hosted Black-capped Chickadees, a Northern Cardinal pair, two Blue Jays, a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches, Dark-eyed Juncos, a male Red-bellied Woodpecker, a pair of Downy Woodpeckers, a female Hairy Woodpecker (which just turned up this week), a few American Goldfinches, a gang of European Starlings. The most abundant bird has been Mourning Doves – up to thirty one day last week.

The mild winter has also brought one more unusual bird, a single White-throated Sparrow. Although these are not a rare bird, my garden has not held one for an entire winter since I have lived here. This bird has made an appearance on every one of my weekly ProjectFeederwatch counts, starting last November.

Of course, whenever an abundance of small birds does turn up, the local hawks will be attracted, too. Although I haven’t seen them in several weeks, earlier in the winter, my feeder was visited by both Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks.

So I guess my response to the opening query is just to keep  watch. The birds are out there and eventually they will take advantage of human provided food.