February will bring first migrants back
Winter residents continue to seek food and sunshine
The last week of January started with another snowstorm followed by a short thaw. But now it is February and horned larks will appear on the soft shoulders of country roads searching for seeds and grit ... the first migrants.
Meanwhile, the great grey owls continue to delight local birders and also many who are coming from considerable distances to see these rare visitors from the North. One of these owls turned up in Winnipeg, where it was seen and photographed by Barbara Stewart, a bird environmentalist who is working hard to reestablish colonies of chimney swifts in suitable nesting places.
Margaret Fleming in Carleton Place was happy to see the brown creeper back on one of its sporadic visits and to know that it is surviving the very cold spells of arctic weather. A temporary disappearance of all the small birds was caused by an immature northern shrike sitting on a branch near the feeder.
Bohemian waxwings can still be seen if there are berry-bearing trees or shrubs with fruit on them. Heather Pikor reported them in Nepean, first in a big maple tree and then across the road to feast on some succulent red berries.
The winter birds know how to take advantage of any bright sunshine for warmth. Michael Nelson in Ottawa noticed a white-breasted nuthatch clinging to the sunny side of a tree all day, “except for a few dashes to the suet feeder.” Linda Noble’s “sunbathing” bird was a blue jay. She saw it basking in the afternoon sun on the coldest day in Ottawa last week.
A flock of turkeys reported and photographed by Joan Armstrong near Carp came for “food and entertainment from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.”
Phil Benson has considerable numbers of birds coming to a very active feeder. They include 40 redpolls, 30 American goldfinches and seven starlings.
June Pye is feeding a small flock of at least 12 cardinals that are travelling together, males and females. On Jan. 28, she noticed a female purple finch, no male with her, and one American tree sparrow, a winter “chippy.” It has a small dark spot on its breast that is missing on the summer chipping sparrow. There are also juncos there.
Les Bovell, reporting from Lynwood Village, told of a pileated woodpecker that flew in, scaring the cardinals into the hedge. It then flew to the nearest telephone pole and started hammering on it. It is thought that possibly the vibration in the pole makes the bird think there is a grub moving around inside. They cause a lot of problems for Hydro, which has to replace its damaged poles.
Leslie Wade’s male pileated woodpecker was only nine feet from her kitchen window in Bell’s Corners, very photogenic.
Judy Hill has had visits from Cooper’s hawks in Russell. First there was a juvenile that hunted unsuccessfully. No. 2 hawk was an adult. It caught a pigeon that it proceeded to sit on, watched by two crows. When the hawk finally flew away with its lunch, the two crows followed, hoping, no doubt, for some leftovers on the carcass.
Bob Cermak, reporting for the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club, tells of many gulls on the ice at the Moodie Pit on Jan. 19, including two Iceland and a glaucous. There were both Iceland and glaucous gulls at the Russell dump and 14 greater blackbacked ones.
Other interesting birds reported were a robin, a northern flicker, a grey partridge, Carolina wren, female black-backed woodpecker, male green-winged teal, a pine grosbeak at the Duck Club all week and a merlin in Kanata.
Bruce Di Labio is just back from a quick visit to Florida. Great weather, and he saw many herons, egrets and brown pelicans. The Eurasian collared doves are continuing to increase in numbers and there was a small flock of Nanday parakeets. All of these were seen on the Indian shore of the Gulf Coast.
Christine Schnupp in Kazabazua has 15 evening grosbeaks that are a great joy to her with their flamboyant black-and-yellow plumage.
Isabelle Rivard and her son Lukas had an exciting weekend when Lukas noticed a small owl perched on a piece of wood on the top shelf in their garage. It was an eastern screech owl that might have flown in after a mouse and got trapped when the door was closed for the night. It might have been there for two days before Lukas spotted it. The door was left open for an hour and the owl flew safely away. They will not forget “Owly,” as the fiveyear-old named it.
Bryan Shane has compiled an ebook, A Snowy Owl Picture Book. It is $2.99 at ebookit.com/books/0000002186/A-Picture-BookSnowy-Owl.html, and is dedicated to improving awareness of raptors in general and conservation of snowy owls in particular. It contains best images taken over six years of photographing in the Ottawa area. Small poems by Patricia Lafferty accompany each picture and the foreword is by Bruce Di Labio.