Birds add colour to November
The autumn season can be broken down into a three-act play. Act One is the transition from summer to autumn that takes place gradually over late August and September. October is the middle scene showing true fall in its the brilliant colours that wow us every time. Unfortunately the climax of this play happened in Act Two. The final Act is November. The colourful leaves are being raked into bags. The branches are steely-grey and lifeless, the skies are frequently grey and you eat your supper in the dark. November certainly has its dreary moments, but there is colour if you look for it.
As the leaves drop to the ground we notice a brightening red glow in the hills. It is the exposure of the dogberries. Not only are the berries in fantastic abundance, but they are huge and extra red this fall. The warm sunny days of fall with rain at the right time in September was the perfect recipe for producing prime dogberries. The birds are going to love this. Robins in particular are fans of the dogberry. Most robins will leave the island this fall as is habit for the species, but a certain per cent will be enticed to linger into winter to dine on the gorgeous nutritious red berries.
The flashy yellow, black, red and brown northern flickers are present in healthy numbers these days. They have it made at this time of year with the ground still soft enough to find insects in the soil and all those berries ready for the gobbling everywhere they go. We hope the waxwings will find us this winter. There are currently small flocks of cedar waxwings present. They should stay around for the winter with the promise of a good food supply. The real winter waxwing and everyone’s favourite is the bohemian waxwing. They venture to Eastern Canada in winter searching for a good berry crop. If they do not find what they need in the Maritimes they will keep going east until they discover our dogberry feast. There have been no reports yet in Eastern Canada.
The cold rocky coastlines are breathing a new life as sea ducks arrive from the north. The charismatic long-tailed ducks are back in good flocks at traditional wintering sites around the coast. The first flocks of common eiders are building up at strategic capes and shoals. Common loons, red-throated loons and rednecked grebes are diving for fish in bays and coves. There is life in the highly oxygenated rough and rocky coastlines of our province.
Rare birds
There is still plenty for the weekend warrior birders to look for. A beautiful western kingbird graced Cappahayden. This rare flycatcher has a brilliant lemon-yellow breast and contrasting black tail that it spreads wide while chasing aerial insects in the open sky. This is a tough flycatcher. On cooler days it can resort to dogberries or searching for spiders around windowsills. On the opposite end of the scale for ease of viewing was the marsh wren at Bay Bulls. This incredibly secretive bird teased birders with its “chek-chek” calls from within thick bushes. Some birders waited over an hour to get a glimpse of part of the bird. Others waited three hours and only heard it. An unusually showy and cooperative bluegray gnatcatcher delighted many birders in the St. John’s area as it caught insects in the willows along the Virginia River where it meets Quidi Vidi Lake. November is actually a very good month for birders. Some of the most exciting finds of the year happen in this month.
Bird feeders now or later? Can I put up my bird feeders again? When can I start feeding the birds? These are the questions making the rounds in the underground birdfeeder network on the island of Newfoundland. Some say they heard it was OK to start. Others are heeding the warning that we need a good frost to kill the parasite frounce before we can start. The latter is probably the right answer. However, it is not law. It is only a guidance to help prevent the potential death of finches and other feeder birds through the spread of frounce that thrives where birds feed close together. There were a few cases of frounce detected in early summer. A halt was called to feeding birds and that seems to have worked. The pressure to start feeding the birds again is strong. It is like a dam leaking profusely at the seams and about to completely give way. We have not really had a good frost yet. You make up your own mind. By the way there is a big cone crop in the woods so there is plenty of wild seed for birds. Juncos, goldfinches and other birds are going to be slow to turn to birdfeeders until we get lots of snow anyway.
There is still plenty for the weekend warrior birders to look for. A beautiful western kingbird graced Cappahayden. This rare flycatcher has a brilliant lemon-yellow breast and contrasting black tail that it spreads wide while chasing aerial insects in the open sky. This is a tough flycatcher. On cooler days it can resort to dogberries or searching for spiders around windowsills.