HER FINAL COLUMN
After 39 years, it’s time to hand over the reins
Unseasonably cold weather has slowed the travelling birds and the feeders have been much in demand. Then on the 20th there was another snowfall that covered over most of the sources of food for ground feeders. Surely, with the first day of spring, there should be some steady improvement in the weather.
Starlings invaded the suet feeders here and we saw an example of their intelligence … they are members of the crow family, highly intelligent. There were four of them on one of the cages with suet. Two of them were observed at the chain from which it hung. They worked at this until they pushed it up over the hook and released the cage that fell in the flower bed below. The birds descended on to it and within half an hour it was empty.
Bruce Di Labio has been in Florida where he saw some interesting birds. A highlight was a flock of red knots, a number with leg flags.
Three newly arrived robins were reported on March 18.
Now it is my turn to say “thank you” to all the birders who have supported me over the past 39 years and made the column possible. It has been a very pleasant collaboration for me. And thank you for all your heartwarming messages in the emails and on the phone.
It has been a remarkable journey over all these years and I have made so many good friends and learned so much about the birds. Their amazing ability to run their lives so successfully, to undertake the long journeys in migrations twice a year, coming back to the place where they were born.
I shall miss opening all the reports and seeing the beautiful pictures that were made possible by the digital cameras and the great photographers, but I have many happy memories. So, it is goodbye, long life and many more wonderful pictures to you all.
Last week’s column, given over to wonderful photos of the birds, was so great that this is another one “for the birds.”
1. New Holland honeyeater in Australia just south of Sydney by Nickolas Haramis.
2. Great grey owl by Bernd Rohde in Beacon Hill North.
3. Saddle-billed stork photographed by Pete Stethart in Lake Nakaru in Kenya w ere there are 450 species of birds.
4. Plush-crested jay in Brazil by Brigitte Reynolds 5. Yellow-crowned night heron in Florida by Ted Lukaszewski.
6. Red knot in Florida by Bruce Di Labio. Note the leg flag.
7. Black-crowned night heron at Myrtle Beach by Jennifer Bennett.
8. Snow goose at Casselman, alone, by Sandy Sharkey.
9. Red-winged blackbird by Wilson Hum in Ottawa.
10. Australian pelican by Alex Brown, one of the many beautiful birds he saw in Australia. The Wild Bird Care Centre for orphaned and injured birds is at 613-828-2849. The Birds column will continue next week with a new voice.