Christmas birding
What a difference a day can make.
Last Saturday morning I was out early getting the loan of a Christmas tree from an undisclosed location in the forest along the Cape Spear road. After bringing the tree home I went back to Cape Spear to look at the eiders feeding off the point and seabirds flying offshore. I sank to my ankles in soft bog mud getting out to the rocks where my boots stuck like suction cups to the bare conglomerate rock. A deep and darkening lead-grey sky told the story of what was about to happen. Twentyfour hours later the sky was a cobalt blue with the sun shining down brilliantly on a fresh blanket of wind-whipped snow over the Cape Spear barrens. An overnight snowstorm transformed the feeling of late fall to a crisp, winter day reminiscent of mid-january. It was a rude awakening for residences of the Avalon, Burin and Bonavista Peninsulas but hey, we adapt quickly.
The day after the snowfall I began to hear about juncos returning to bird feeders everywhere. What interests me most is the unusual birds that might start showing up at bird feeders with the sudden frightful snowfall. Lingering species that were just getting by with the bare unfrozen ground in times of desperation might be forced to go to a bird feeder. It was only a couple hours into the snow fall when a blue grosbeak turned up at Bruce Bradbury’s feeder at Sandy Cove on the Eastport Peninsula. The blue grosbeak is a southern bird that strays to the province almost every year during their migration period in October. This is only the second one that has ever been seen as late as December in the whole province. It looked very healthy and in good shape in the photographs. With any luck, it will fuel up on the energy reserves at the bird feeder and work up its courage to make the long flight south to Mexico where the rest of it kin are right now.
A rare female summer tanager showed up briefly a week before the snowstorm at Edward Traverse’s bird feeder at Freshwater, Placentia Bay. I guess it did not go far away because it returned as soon as the snow started. There was a report of another summer tanager for just one afternoon at an east St. John’s feeder. Summer tanager is rare almost annual stray to Newfoundland, but it can get by at bird feeders for a while. However, summer tanagers like the blue grosbeak live year around in areas that we would call hot. They are not insulated with a thick coat of down under the exterior feathers like our juncos and other normal winter birds of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Also over the weekend a couple of yellow-breasted chats were found in east St. John’s. These brilliant yellow, green and white birds are also warm-weather birds but have a record of being survivors. They have lived well into winter at a well-stocked bird feeder. They eat fruit like the dogberry, but will also eat birdseed, peanut butter and suet at bird feeders when the going gets tough. An individual in a wet marshy corner of Quidi Vidi Lake will be given the special treatment by the birders with a peanut butter and suet block offerings.
The annual St. John’s Christmas Bird Count
The North American Christmas Bird Count season is here. The Christmas Bird Count is an annual event organized by the National Audubon Society taking place at hundreds of centers across Canada and United States during a twoweek period focused around the Christmas period. The rules are the same for every Christmas Bird Count (CBC). The count circle area is a 7.5mile (12.1 km) radius of a fixed point.
The St. John’s CBC is traditionally held on December 26 and you can help if you live in the St. John’s count circle area. The centre of the circle is the Confederation Building. The outer boundaries of the count circle are Torbay, the ferry dock in Portugal Cove, Mount Pearl, some of Kilbride and Maddox Cove. The birds coming to your feeder can be added to the total count. A rough guesstimate of the birds that you know are present at your bird feeder will do. At the end of the day or the following day you may email your bird list to the email address at the bottom of this column. Please include your name and address, or at least the general area in which you counted birds.
Keep those bird feeders stocked over Christmas. Keep and an eye out for something exotic and brightly coloured like a tanager, oriole or yellowbreasted chat.
Merry Christmas everyone!