Early Spring migrants in Northumberland

Nature Notes for March 16, 2012

Over the past two weeks, there have been a number of reports of Bohemian Waxwings from all over the area. There have been reports from Jamieson Rd., Brown’s Rd.and Kellogg Rd. in Port Hope Ward 2, Cold Springs in Hamilton Township, and from the Roseneath area.

This waxwing is a bit larger than the Cedar Waxwing which nests in our area. They have gray underparts with rufous undertail coverts, where the Cedars’ underparts are bright yellow with white untail coverts. In the field guides, they may appear very much alike, but once they are seen together, the differences are very clear.

Bohemian Waxwings nest in the Boreal Forest, from extreme north-western Ontario through to Alaska. They winter within North America, where they wander widely. Some winters, they can be found as far east as Newfoundland. Sometimes they turn up, as they have recently, in southern Ontario. Before long, they will be returning north and west to their breeding grounds.

Also within the past two weeks, Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles have been on the move. They typically appear in this area in the first week of March, although there was one report from Hamilton Township on February 27.

Along with the blackbirds, migrant American Robins could also be found. Some were singing as though on territory from the tops of trees, especially on sunny days.

A few Song Sparrows could be found in brushy area on March 13. There have been a few reports during the past week of Killdeer and TurkeyVultures.

Some of these birds may be local nesters but many of them stop here to rest and feed before continuing to move further north.

If the area gets another dump of snow, we may well witness a reverse migration. That is where the early arriving migrants turn around and return a little further south to await warmer weather. This week, the weather has been quite spring-like, but it is only the middle of March and winter may not yet be done with us.

There are still plenty of ducks and geese gathering. The pond in Garden Hill Conservation Area has held between 1,500 and 3,000 CanadaGeese every time we’ve visited over the past two weeks. Along with the Canadas has been one Snow Goose, two or three Trumpeter Swans, many Mallards and American Black Ducks, and lesser numbers of Common Mergansers, HoodedMergansers, Green-winged Teal and American Wigeon. There are still good numbers of Northern Pintail, reported in the last column, but the numbers are decreasing.

Waterfowl are also gathering all along the Lake Ontario waterfront awaiting open water further north. This is a good time to check out wet agricultural fields. These temporary ponds often contain migrant waterfowl.

The warm weather may mean that viewing conditions will not be the best for the Presqu’ile Waterfowl Festival on March 17 and 18. There will probably still be lots of ducks, but they will be far out on the bay and difficult to see and identify.

Today (March 13), Rice Lake had quite a lot of open water, but there was still quite a lot of ice. The lakes further north are probably still well iced covered, but it won’t be long before open water will welcome the returning migrants.