Nature
Notes for October 27, 2017
Sometime
during the week of November 11, you will find me, on two consecutive days in
the rocking chair in my living room that overlooks the garden and my bird feeders.
I will be counting the number of birds of each species that visit my feeder.
I
know that more than 20,000 people throughout Canada and the continental U.S.
will also be counting birds. We are all participating in Project FeederWatch,
which this year runs from November 11, 2017 to April 13, 2018. This is a winter
bird survey using an army of volunteers, called Citizen Scientists, to collect
data in a systemic way.
Dark-eyed Juncos are one of the birds commonly seen in winter at my feeder.
Photo © Rob Lonsberry Photography
What
surprises might this winter bring? Just last winter, for the first time in
twenty years, a Northern Flicker was a regular at our feeder. Most flickers
migrate out of southern Ontario in winter, so this was a treat. One year, a
Chipping Sparrow spent most of the winter at the feeder, until some time in April,
there were two Chipping Sparrows. For a number of years, a female Pileated Woodpecker visited our peanut feeder. My peanut feeder has sometimes been
visited by a Carolina Wren. This species is at the north edge of its range in
Northumberland. There are often a few White-throated Sparrows that come and go
and feed with the Dark-eyed Juncos.
Sometimes,
there are large numbers of one species. When northern finches such as Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll irrupt south, they may mob the feeder and niger seed
will disappear before one’s eyes. The prediction is for a big flight of finches
this winter, so be prepared to spend a lot on niger and black oil sunflower
seeds.
Project
FeederWatch began in Ontario in 1976 when Dr. Erica Dunn of Long Point Bird Observatory started the Ontario Bird Feeder Survey. By the winter of 1987-88,
the project had evolved into Project FeederWatch and was jointly organized by
Bird Studies Canada and Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The massive amounts of data
collected by FeederWatchers across the continent help scientists understand:
●long-term trends in bird
distribution and abundance
●the timing and extent of winter
irruptions of winter finches and other species.
●expansions or contractions in the
winter ranges of feeder birds
●the kinds of foods and
environmental factors that attract birds
●how disease is spread among birds
that visit feeders
FeederWatch data is regularly
published in scientific journals, regional birding and nature newsletters,
national magazines and newspapers continent wide.
Anyone who runs a bird feeder and
would like to take the time to learn their backyard birds can participate. In
Canada, participants register through a membership in Bird Studies Canada. Participants
will be sent a kit which contains, along with data sheets and instructions, a
colour poster of common feeder birds. I have mounted this poster and have it
hanging in the kitchen. I have seen all but one of the birds illustrated at my
feeder over the years. There is a special kit for use by classroom teachers or
homeschoolers.
The
species most commonly found at feeders in Ontario in the 2016-17 season was
Black-capped Chickadee, followed by Downy Woodpecker, Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch and White-breasted Nuthatch.
For
more information about this project or to sign up as a Citizen Scientist, go to
feederwatch.org. Perhaps you will be surprised by the visitors to your yard.
