The state of the season
Spring migration comes to an end as the nesting season get under way in earnest. If you remember, spring started off pretty nice. There was a string of warm dry days in last half of April. This gave the first nesters an early start.
Broods of black ducks and mallards appeared everywhere in the first half of May because of the good weather for nesting in April. In some years it is not until the Victoria Day weekend before we see a brood of ducks.
There were many reports of robin and junco nests about a week early as well. You may have noticed an increase in robins running around on the lawn or on the sides of road lately. These are the parent robins gathering food to feed the youngster in the nest. We are getting to that time of year when young robins become too big for the nest but are capable of only short weak flights. If you find such a robin on the ground leave it alone. It is not orphaned. The adults know where it is and are off gathering food to feed it. The young robins have the orange breast with many black spots.
The trend of below normal temperatures for the last 10 days of May is depressing for us human inhabitants but closer to life-threatening for the insect-eating birds. Swallows are the birds that suffer most. They not only rely on insects for food, but the insects have to be flying so they can catch them. Swallows can survive a day or two without eating while at the same time trying to keep warm in the below seasonal temperatures. They recover quickly when it warms up and the insects become active.
One can only imagine what the warblers and swallows went through after the 37 cm of snow in Gander and surrounding area on 24 May. The cold temperature and lack of insect activity must have severely stressed these insect-eating birds. This is not the first time there has been a significant snowfall in late spring. There have been ungodly snow falls in early June in central and western Newfoundland. We do not detect any overall effect on bird populations after such seemingly catastrophic events. Somehow most of the birds get through it.
Frounce — to feed birds or not to feed the birds
During the summer of 2016 and 2017 a parasite called frounce was detected in among finches, attending bird feeders in Atlantic Canada including Newfoundland. The highly contagious parasite is easily transmitted by the excess saliva caused by the parasite irritating the bird’s throat. When an infected bird feeds at it leaves some saliva and the parasite on the feeder. It does not affect people or pets. The parasite can survive only during the warm weather of summer. There is no sign of it yet in Newfoundland or the rest of Atlantic Canada. Voices on the various forms of media are saying take down the bird feeders now before it starts. I am saying wait to see if it is going to come back. At the very first sign of its return then I agree we should take down our feeders for the summer and not put them back up again until the first deep frosts of fall. Birds can look after themselves in the wild during the productive months of late spring and summer.
The finches, especially American goldfinches, pine siskins and purple finches are gorging at bird feeders at this time of year for the extra protein and vitamins. Goldfinches have increased immensely in Newfoundland because the birdfeeding community. Spring bird feeders probably have a positive effect on the American goldfinch numbers in Newfoundland. But there is another bird that may be more dependent on bird feeders than we may realize. The Newfoundland species of the red crossbill declined to dangerously low numbers in the 1990s and early 2000s. A government committee was set up to study the problem. There was no real answer to the reduction.
Some tried to put the blame on the introduction of red squirrels into Newfoundland. After all they competed for the same food source found in the cones of coniferous trees. In the early 2000s a man in Whitbourne started getting red crossbills at his bird feeder. This was a novelty at the time. Over the next few summers there were scattered reports of other red crossbills showing up at bird feeders and bringing along striped juveniles not long out of the nest.
The novelty has long since worn off. In the past two weeks I have received reports from more than a dozen feeder watchers with red crossbills coming to their bird feeder and bringing along newly fledged striped youngsters. In short red crossbills have discovered bird feeders. This is a good reason for keeping the feeders going as long as possible. It will help feed the growing population of goldfinches and get the red crossbills back on track.
One can only imagine what the warblers and swallows went through after the 37 cm of snow in Gander and surrounding area on 24 May. The cold temperature and lack of insect activity must have severely stressed these insect-eating birds.