The state of the season
We are riding the crest of summer. The warm sunny days are being fully appreciated. My heart goes out to those who live on a foggy coast, which is much of the southward-facing coastline of Newfoundland in summer. We are in the timeless calm between the rise of the summer and the beginning of the turn toward fall. I know it is sacrilegious to even mention fall while we are just getting used to the beauty of the summer plateau. No worries whatsoever. The turning of the seasons moves like a gentle giant.
Birds are highly tuned into the seasons. Their lives depend on it. This is a time of plenty and luxury for birds. Robins are carrying food for their second set of nestlings. Juncos are sitting on eggs again for the second time this year. I expect to hear from people discovering a junco nest in their hanging pot of flowers by the door. Please do not get the eggs wet, but if you must you can try to water those plants or better, just give the flowerpot up to the juncos. It makes a perfect home with total protection from ground predators, especially cats.
Young tree swallows are out testing their wings. They can be told from the adults by the brown colour of their back. They appreciate the warm weather and flying insects. Families of crows are about. The young can be heard begging for food from the parents. A family of blue jays arrived on the back deck looking for peanuts. One of the parents knew where to expect the peanuts. When it flew up to a railing with a peanut morsel it was immediately surrounded by three wing-quivering youngsters begging for their first peanut breakfast. They were not disappointed.
The morning chorus of birdsong is greatly reduced but not yet dead. With the bedroom window open all summer long I enjoy the sounds of the first robin singing a little after 4 a.m., a full hour before sunrise. I’ll miss the first morning without their serenading. Yellow warblers are still actively singing. They are always busy later into the summer than the other warblers.
Gull and tern colonies around the coast are very noisy these days as the young are beginning to take their first flights. Bald eagle young are already flying while osprey young are still nest bound for another few weeks.
It is encouraging to encounter red crossbills regularly this summer. Hopefully they are having a successful nesting season. Their summer time bonus food supply at our bird feeders has been basically shut off with the decree adopted by most to stop feeding the birds this summer to prevent the spread of the parasite called frounce that is fatal to finches. Their cousin, the white-winged crossbill are arriving in the province. These highly nomadic birds have discovered Newfoundland’s impending cone crop. They have been heard singing at widely scattered locations indicating they have arrived to nest. Both species of crossbills are certainly aware of the excellent cone crop growing on our trees. This ensures a good wild food crop for them and the other finches through the months of fall and winter.
A number of people have noticed bright pink male and olive-grey female pine grosbeaks on their lawns. These birds have a taste for dandelion seeds at this time of year but will also be enjoying the cone crop when it ripens in the fall.
Shorebird migration
Shorebird migration is starting to pick up. The migration started back at the beginning of July with the arrival of whimbrels, known as curlews to some. Numbers and species diversity picked up this week with the arrival of other species departing from their Arctic nesting grounds. Ruddy turnstones still in their bright orange, black and white breeding plumage have begun showing up at favoured coastal locations. Sanderlings with a touch of orange on their throats are watching the surf along sandy beaches. Semipalmated plovers become ubiquitous later in the season are appreciated more as they first arrive in late July. Shorebird watching is a great past time of late summer and fall. The season is just beginning.
Caplin birds update
The caplin are taking their time. They are here, but perhaps not performing at their best. The birds and whales that depend on caplin are present but in low concentrations. St. Vincent’s beach continues to entertain whale watchers, but bird numbers are not overwhelming. A rare summer laughing gull was found there on the weekend looking for caplin with the kittiwakes. Many gulls, terns and gannets have also been attracted to St. Vincent’s beach, but there are no shearwaters there as is expected in a normal year. The best shearwater concentration so far has been the thousands resting on the water and flying past St. Shotts. There is still time for the caplin story to unfold.
There is plenty yet to look forward to this summer.