October is an excellent month for birdwatching
The taste of October is in the air.
Blue jays are migrating. Small flocks flying south along the coastlines or maybe just flying across the street and not coming back are distinct signs of October.
In the northern parts of its wide range in eastern North America a certain portion of the blue jays migrate south. It is only because of bird feeders that some chose to remain in Newfoundland during the winter.
I know we are under a general feeder ban until the first deep frost as a measure to curtail the spread of the parasite frounce. Frounce is easily spread from an infected bird to another, especially finches concentrating around bird feeder. It is not a law but common sense to hold back on the bird feeding until a good frost or two later on this fall. I also see it as OK to feed blue jays peanuts since they are not making contact with one another when they come to get their peanuts.
My blue jays are up to their usual fall-time antics. It is part of an instinct for blue jays to store peanuts and other high calorie food for the winter larder.
Instinct overrules common sense in blue jays. Blue jays traditionally bury food in climates where there is no snow in winter so have a good chance of finding them in times of need. Around here snow buries everything in winter. Most of those peanuts they stash away in the leaves and flower pots are rarely found again by a blue jay. However, it is a small price to pay for the entertainment of watching them going through the process.
At my house we give them a couple handfuls of peanuts in the shell at breakfast and supper time. In anticipation of feeding time they fidget about on the clothesline and the deck railing eyeing the sliding glass door.
They are waiting for the first sign that it is going to open meaning the peanuts will be tossed out. Almost before the first peanuts hit the deck they are swooping in to grab one.
Blue jays look particularly blue at this time of year.
Another bird in conspicuous migration during October is the northern flicker.
Like blue jays, flickers are active in open forested areas around the coast lines migrating toward the mainland and
then south into the United States for the winter. A certain percentage will remain in Newfoundland for the winter.
Many flickers will be enticed to linger into winter by the excellent dogberry crop. Flickers indulge in dogberries when they are good and ripe. At this time of year they spend a lot of time on the ground seeking out ants and grubs.
It is a good time to be a flicker. Another sign of October is the appearance of small numbers of snow buntings and their browner cousins the lapland longspur.
Both of these birds are Arctic nesters. They will not go much farther south beyond the province and some snow buntings stay for the winter.
During October they are found on barren coastlines and headlands where they look on the bare ground for small grass seeds and barren ground berries. St. John’s birders look for them at Cape Spear.
There is only a short window of migration for the longspurs. The brown birds are inconspicuous but tame making them favorite targets for photographers.
Rarities of the Week
Every week during fall migration active birders are out there finding rarities.
However, even if you are just out for a hike and not particularly looking for birds you might come on to something unusual for the province.
An example of this is was a rare but obviously different looking bird, a yellow-headed blackbird, photographed by an unknown hiker at Cape St. Mary’s. Chris Brown was out birding but was still quite surprised to see a rare common nighthawk fly past him in Witless Bay on a bright sunny afternoon. These insect-eating birds are not really hawks at all but hunt insects on the wing at dusk and dawn.
Cliff Doran photographed a rose-breasted grosbeak at Trepassey.
Richard Thomas and Brandon Ward turned up a blue grosbeak by the old helicopter landing pad at Cape Race. The blue grosbeak is regular in tiny numbers in mid fall in southern Newfoundland but they come from fairly far south in the United States so they always generate a little extra excitement.
Male black-throated blue warblers are good lookers in Nova Scotia where they nest but look particular good where they are rare in Newfoundland. Alison Mews and Ethel Dempsey adored one on the Cape Spear road and yours truly enjoyed another farther south near Renews.
There was a good variety of mild rarity birds seen like warbling vireo, red-eyed vireo, Philadelphia vireo, dickcissels and Baltimore orioles over the last week.
Bring on the Thanksgiving weekend!