Rough-legged Hawks, Snowy Owls, Pine Siskin - Winter Birds Arrive

Nature Notes for November 28, 2014

The dramatic change in weather last week led to a corresponding dramatic change in the bird species present in the area.

Rough-legged Hawks have arrived and can be found hunting over farm fields. There must be a healthy population of meadow voles this year, since several of these Arctic nesting hawks could be found this week along Lakeshore Road between Port Hope and Wesleyville. As well, there were several Northern Harriers in the same area. Both of these species feed mainly on small rodents.

Snowy Owls are being reported in southern Ontario. A couple have been seen at Presqu’ile Provincial Park and one was reported in Cobourg Harbour. Owl researchers working on Bylot Island in the Canadian Arctic last summer found record numbers of Snowy Owl nests there, so there may be an influx of Snowy Owls into southern latitudes again this winter. They predict that they will not be quite as numerous as last winter, since the birds have to travel much further to reach us. Last winter’s Snowys were thought to have hatched in Northern Quebec, still quite far north, but considerably further south than Bylot Island.

Snowy Owls are being seen in Northumberland County this November.

Photo © Rob Lonsberry Photography

Pine Siskin, a small finch of the Boreal forest, have been mobbing local feeders. Last Sunday (Nov. 23), I had 60 at my feeder. Other feeder operators have reported similar numbers. Keeping them in niger seed has stretched everyone’s bird seed budget.

So far, there have been only two local reports of Common Redpoll. This small finch breeds further north, above the tree line. They may arrive in numbers later in the winter.

Both Pine Siskin and Common Redpoll are irruptive species. That is, they don’t migrate regularly, but turn up in southern Canada in years when the seed crop in the north does not provide enough winter food. Although southern Ontario’s summer 2014 was wet, in the west it was very dry. Remember all those forest fires? The western Boreal forest did not have a good seed crop this year, so the finches will have to move in order to survive.

There have been several reports of Evening Grosbeaks in Northumberland, but in small numbers. One White-winged Crossbill briefly visited my feeder a couple of weeks ago. Perhaps we may see Red Crossbills and Pine Grosbeaks, too, before the winter is out. Time will tell whether these finches will visit us in numbers.

Wild weather often blows unusual species out of range. As I write this, a Townsend’s Solitaire is being seen just north of RiceLake, along the boundary road between Northumberland and Peterborough Counties. This species breeds in the mountains of British Columbia, Yukon Territory and Alaska, but once in a while one wanders east. The bird is being seen on both the north and south sides of the road, so will probably appear in the bird records of both counties.

By the time of my next column, two of the three Northumberland County Christmas Bird Counts will have taken place. Christmas Bird Counts are held throughout North America. In Canada, they are coordinated by Bird Studies Canada and in the U.S. by the Audubon Society. The Presqu’ile-Brighton Count takes place on December 14, Port Hope-Cobourg on December 20 and Rice Lake Plains on January 1, 2015. For more information about Christmas Bird Counts, go to www.bsc-eoc.org/national/cbcmain.html

New Project FeederWatch Season Begins

Nature Notes for October 31, 2014

For two days in the week of November 8, you will find me, for part of the day, sitting in the rocking chair near my back door, counting the birds visiting my feeder. November 8 marks the beginning of another Project FeederWatch season.

Project FeederWatch is a winter-long survey of birds that visit feeders at backyards, nature centers, community areas, and other locales in North America. FeederWatchers periodically count the birds they see at their feeders from November through early April and send their counts to Project FeederWatch. FeederWatch data help scientists track broad scale movements of winter bird populations and long-term trends in bird distribution and abundance.

Project FeederWatch was started as an Ontario based feeder survey, begun in 1976 by Dr. Erica Dunn of Long Point Bird Observatory. By 2014, it had grown into an international research project, co-sponsored by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Bird Studies Canada.

In the 2013-14 season, 128,586 checklists were submitted from 9,940 unique locations. Counts were submitted from every province and territory in Canada and every state in the U.S., including two from Hawaii.

The 2013-14 year-end summary included an article about the effects of the severe winter weather in Canada. Average numbers of individual birds at feeders in Canada, as well as average numbers of species at each station were lower than the usual. Perceptions of feederwatchers were supported by the data collected.

The year-end summary lists the top 25 species of birds seen at feeders by region. For this region, the top of the list, that is the species seen at the greatest number of feeders, was chickadee. Because this region extends south into the range of the Carolina Chickadee, “chickadee” in the summary includes both Black-capped and Carolina Chickadees. 

 

Photo © Rob Lonsberry Photography

 Dark-eyed Junco, second in the "Top 25" list from 2013/14 Project FeederWatch in eastern North America.

Second on the list was Dark-eyed Junco. Third was Mourning Dove. Last winter’s harsh weather was very hard on Mourning Doves. FeederWatch data showed slight declines in the percentage of sites visited by Mourning Doves and also in the average group size across the country. One study of wintering Mourning Doves in Ontario found that the majority of birds spending the winter in Ontario had lost one or more toes to frostbite.

Project FeederWatch makes use of the information that can be collected from the popular activity of maintaining backyard bird feeders. The counts of numbers of birds and species of birds are collected in a systematic way, using a specified protocol.

I have been participating ever since the winter of 1996-97, the first complete winter I spent at my house in Port Hope. When I started, all data were reported on paper forms and mailed in at the end of the season. Now, the data can be directly input on-line, which makes the job much easier.

Anyone with an interest in birds and a feeder can sign up to participate in this project. Those interested can get more information at www.birdscanada.org/pfw.tml. There is a fee to participate. The fees support the project – printed materials, web site, data analysis, publication of a year-end report (which is sent to all participants). FeederWatch also produces instructional material in both print form and on-line to assist participants with tricky identification.

The Rhythm of Seasonal Changes

Nature Notes for September 26, 2014           

The rhythm of the seasons continues with fall migration. Although the cool summer season probably delayed the nesting of some birds, they did nest. This may be delaying the southward passage of migrants as the young birds need time to mature before they leave the natal area.

As well, the weather has not been conducive to migration of small birds. Winds have been very strong and out of the south, west and east. There have been many cloudy and rainy nights, too. Most small birds migrate at night, so this hasn’t helped them. They have to wait for clear nights with light northerly winds.

Nevertheless, the birds are moving. The southern Ontario hawk watches are up and running. Finally, this week, they are reporting good numbers of birds. Until Monday, September 22, Hawk Cliff on the Lake Erie shore south of St. Thomas had reported 75,803 birds for the season, with 683 passing on the 22^nd.

The flight line for hawks leaving southern Ontario in the fall is south to the north shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie and then southwest, to cross the Detroit River in the Windsor/Detroit area. They then continue south through the Mississippi basin. Some travel as far south as South America.

This week, there has been a noticeable flight of Blue Jays. They follow the same flight line as the hawks, but generally stop for the winter somewhere in the continental U.S. Like the hawks, they move during the daylight hours, so readers who live near the Lake Ontario shore may have noticed this flight.

In my neighbourhood, another sign of fall is the flock of Turkey Vultures that have again taken up roosting atop the water tower on Dorset St.W. These birds time their arrival with the arrival of the spawning salmon in the Ganaraska River. After the fish spawn, some die, which provides an ample banquet for the vultures. Last year, there was a report of about 200 Turkey Vultures along the Ganaraska between downtown Port Hope and Corbett’s Dam.

There was one unusual avian visitor on Port Hope’s west beach which appeared on Sept. 13 and stayed for a few days.  A Buff-breasted Sandpiper was found feeding on the algae alongside the Sanderling. Buff-breasteds are usually found on drier parts of the beach or in fields with short vegetation, so this was an odd location to find one. They nest on the tundra and travel to wintering areas in South America. 

Buff-breasted Sandpiper at Port Hope west beach.

© Rob Lonsberry Photography

Last Saturday was Alderville Black Oak Savanna’s annual Prairie Day celebration. The high winds concentrated the landbirds in the shelter of the wooded valley on the property. In addition to a large number of Black-capped Chickadees, some of which may have been migrants, there were many other migrants in the woods: Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Golden-crowned Kinglet, American Redstart, Nashville Warbler, Tennessee Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throatedGreen Warbler, Black-and-White Warbler, Northern Parula, Winter Wren, BrownCreeper, Philadelphia Vireo Red-eyed Vireo and Ovenbird.

In the past week, the first few White-throated Sparrows have turned up in my garden. They will soon be joined by Dark-eyed Juncos and perhaps the first few winter finches.

All these departures and arrivals reflect the change of the seasons.

Common Nighthawks on the move

Nature Notes for August 29, 2014

“I saw a flock of birds flying over my yard, but I don’t know what they are. They are bigger than a swallow with a white blotch on each wing and their flight in like bats. Would you have any idea what they are?”

Several times in the past couple of weeks, I have received queries similar to the one above. I wish all bird identification questions were as easy as this one. The birds in question were Common Nighthawks. There have been a number of recent reports of migrating Common Nighthawks and I’ve seen them over my house in Port Hope.

Common Nighthawks aren’t hawks at all, but are part of a group known as nightjars. For reasons that no one really knows, this group is sometimes called goatsuckers. It was thought that they entered barns and sucked on the teats of goats. This is, of course, a myth, but the name has stuck.

They are aerial foragers which hunt for flying insects primarily at dawn and dusk. For the size of the bird, they have a very large mouth with rictal bristles. These are similar to the whiskers on a cat and, combined with the wide mouth, are very effective in scooping flying insects from the air.

The colouring of Common Nighthawks is a mottled mixture of shades of brown. Since they prefer to nest on the ground in open sites, this coloration provides good camouflage. The white spots on the wings aren’t visible when the bird is perched.

Their natural nesting habitat is in open areas, such as those provided after a forest fire, or on rocky outcrops in the Canadian shield. Their nests can be found in openings in the forest due to fires or clear cuts, on sandy blowouts and in old, unused gravel pits.

Since the mid-1800s, they have also been found nesting on flat gravel roofs in urban areas. This type of roof is no longer in favour with builders, so this habitat has reduced somewhat. Initially, the rooftop locations provided protection from predators such as foxes, raccoons and skunks. However, urban gulls and crows have discovered the nighthawk nests and are now major predators of roof-nesting nighthawks.

In the spring, Common Nighthawks are most often detected by sound. Their call is a loud “peent”. The males have a spectacular display flight. The will fly to a great height and plummet towards the ground and a waiting female. Just when it seems that they will crash, they pull up, which causes a loud booming sound from the wind forced through their wing feathers. This boom can be heard over quite a distance and has contributed to another colourful name for this species: Bullbat. Bull was because of the loud booming sound and bat because of the style of their flight.

As with all the aerial foragers, their populations are showing declines. In the twenty years between the two Ontario Breeding Bird Atlases, there was a significant decline in the observations of Common Nighthawk. They are listed as “Threatened” by the Committee on the Status of Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) and as of “Special Concern” by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources  (OMNR).

Their breeding range includes most of North American south of the tundra. The ones that are passing through Northumberland now are heading to wintering areas in South America, as far south as northern Argentina.

Probably by the end of this week, when this article appears in print, most of the Common Nighthawks will have moved through the area.

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Presqu’ile Provincial Park is holding the 30^th annual Monarchs and Migrants event over Labour Day weekend. Check the Friends of Presqu’ile web site http://www.friendsofpresquile.on.ca/ for the complete schedule of events. They include guided bird hikes, bird banding and Monarch butterfly tagging.

On September 20, Alderville Black Oak Savanna hosts Prairie Day, a project of the Rice Lake Plains Joint Initiative.