More news

We saw a chipping sparrow in the yard for the first time in awhile. On the weekend we saw a cowbird in with a group of grackles etc, and this was the first cowbird we had seen in some time. On Saturday we had a large flock of the black birds in the forest area near the creek on our lot. We could hear them all rather than see them. I really love the collective noise they make- a tinkling that sounds a bit like wind chimes.
Other than that, it's still the down time between the summer and winter birds. There seems to be quite a few hairy and downy woodpeckers around. Sunday morning we saw three downys flying around the yard. The blue jays are still among our first visitors in the morning, waiting for the peanuts to go out. The house and gold finches have been busy at the niger seed feeders as well. The gold finches have lost their bright yellow colouring and are now their greenish/grey winter plummage.

Here's a link to another bird-related article in the star that I thought was interesting:
http://www.thestar.com/news/sciencetech/article/702408
"Scientists tout fossil as missing dino-bird link"
I love the picture that goes along with it.

Butterflies

Just read this interesting article on butterflies in the TO Star
http://thestar.com/sciencetech/article/700808

It serves as a reminder of how much we still have to learn about the natural world and why conservation is so important.

Vultures!

Things have been very quiet in the yards lately.

Yesterday was one exception, when we saw eight turkey vultures soaring over the fields. Last year, we saw over 30 congregating in the neighbour's field as they were prepping to fly south for the winter. These vultures were flying relatively low and just soaring in circles for a long time. Seeing these birds means there was probably something dead in one of the fields. These are one of the few birds of prey that can use their sense of smell to detect food and they pick up on the odours that start after something begins to decay/decompose. That's why they don't have any facial feathers- so that the dead matter doesn't get stuck in there after they start eating. Actually, I once saw an episode of "The First 48" where a person's dead body was found when someone went to investigate all the turkey vulture activity.
Another interesting fact is that, according to whatbird.com; "a group of vultures has many collective nouns, including a "cast", "committee", "meal", "vortex", and "wake" of vultures." I always find it interesting to learn what the different groups of birds are called.

hmmmmm

Nothing much has been going on in the yard at all. We still see the juvenile red tailed hawk once-twice a week, along with evidence of his feedings.


The summer birds seem to have all moved on. I saw one errant hummingbird fly through the front yard one night this week. I have not see a single one at the feeders since our return from camping on labour day weekend.

In my opinion, there were not the same huge number of black bird flocks this year. Last year there were days when there were hundreds of them- in every tree, all over the front yard, the fences, the backyard and all singing and talking. HUNDREDS!!! This year, there were some larger groups, but nowhere near what we got last year.

It's still a little early for the winter birds to be back. We'll be waiting to see the juncos and the
common redpolls.

The woodpeckers are already taking over the yard again. We are seeing the downy and hairy more often. Dave saw a juv. male red-bellied one day this week too. He thinks it's the same juvenile that's been around and has come into his colouring. Hopefully we'll see more of them all since they are among our favourites. The red-breasted nuthatch may have made a quick reappearance, but we're not sure. I also feel like I haven't seen a cardinal in a long, long time. The blue jays are still out every morning to take all the peanuts. They are so noisy and if we sleep in, they get in the backyard tree and call and call and call at full volume until we get out. Apparently we are well-trained.

Some interesting links

An interesting article about how this summer's weather has impacted the monarch butterfly mating and migration. It also gives us another reason to garden, garden, garden! Native plants and milk weed are key to so many insects and birds.
http://thestar.com/news/sciencetech/article/695753

We went to the Toronto Vegetarian Association's Food Fair on Sunday and attended a lecture by Erica Ritter about her new book "The Dog By The Cradle, The Serpent Beneath." It was an interesting discussion on the complicated relationships between people and animals- how we cherish and love some and demonize, villianize others.

We visited the new Chapters in town on Sunday. Of course we spent most of our visit in the "Animals and Nature" section. We picked up a new read called "Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from The Urban Wilderness" by Lyanda Lynn Haupt. I'm looking forward to getting started on it.

and that reminded me of a book my mom bought us for xmas last year called "Alex and Me". A great read about the life of a very famous macaw. I remember seeing a documentary about Alex years ago and being fascinated by it. He could identify matter (tell if it was wood or metal etc), count, express his thoughts, etc. Here's a link to a review on the book: http://www.cityparrots.org/post/book-review-alex-me

If you have any other books you can recommend on a similar subject line, please pass them along!

Kestrel!

Dave spotted an American Kestrel on the neighbour's barn yesterday morning. It was being harassed by blue jays; it's the smallest N. Am hawk. The kestrel is about the same size as a jay and I don't think would pose a real threat, but they didn't let up. The kestrel was eventually chased away. We've seen the kesterl before, but this is the first time we've both seen one in so close to the house.



Interesting Kestrel facts from whatbird.com:

• Nestlings squirt their feces onto the walls of the nest cavity. The feces dry on the cavity walls and stay off the nestlings.
• A group of kestrels are collectively known as a " flight", " hover", and "soar" of kestrels.

Also, the number of hummingbirds has declined. They must be moving on. I was reading yesterday that it's important to keep hummingbird feeders out until November. Some people think that if they keep the feeders out that the birds won't migrate, but that's actually not the case. Keep the feeders out to help the younger and/or stragglers who will need the food to make the journey. A little bit of sugar water goes a long way to help out!!

Since the posting about the Baltimore Orioles, they have moved on. The oranges and jelly have been untouched in September. There was a flurry of activity for that final August weekend, where they must have been stocking up and now they've left us until the spring.

Fall migration is underway. We might get some new birds stopping in at feeders. There have been multiple reports of shorebirds in the Brittania Rd area, so we'll be looking for those as well.

Birding in Awenda

I think we had a successful birding weekend as we were able to add some a new bird to our life lists- the blue-headed vireo! Unfortunately, we were not able to get a picture as these guys move very quickly through the tops of the trees. We were able to use the binoculars to make an ID, but that was it. We used the colour, the movement and the white eye ring to help us identify it. Here's what I've learned about the blue-headed vireo from whatbird.com:

• The Blue-headed Vireo, the Plumbeous Vireo, and Cassin's Vireo were formerly considered a single species known as the Solitary Vireo. In 1997, the Blue-headed Vireo reappeared as a distinct species when molecular genetic studies demonstrated differences among the Solitary Vireo complex.
• Because the deciduous trees have not leafed out when the vireos arrive on their breeding grounds, most courtship nests and first breeding nests are built in evergreen hemlock trees.
• Their dependence upon hemlocks may prove troublesome because this tree is being decimated by an introduced Asian insect, the hemlock wooly adelgid.
• A group of vireos are collectively known as a "call" of vireos.

and from Birder's Digest, I learned this about their calls:
Blue-headeds have a sweet song; high, clear phrases with sweet notes: see you, cheerio, be-seein-u, so-long, seeya.

So lovely!

Here is a picture I found online:


We also saw the black and white warbler, which was our first sighting of this bird in 2009. We thought we saw a yellow(ish) warbler, but since these birds don't stay in one place for long, it was impossible to be sure. Here's an online pic from http://nationalzoo.si.edu



Other birds we saw include brown creeprs, crows, the white-breasted nuthatch, hairy and downy woodpeckers, chickadees, robins, crows, and bluejays.

Rare sightings for us included:

-the yellow-bellied sapsucker (there were plenty of those around, making very loud squeaking noises). You can see the pattern on the tree from where the sapsucker has made holes.

-the eastern wood pewee (we heard this bird quite a bit, but didn't see any at all)

-the pileated woodpecker came down by our site and worked her way along trees, which allowed us to watch her for quite some time.



-the red-tailed hawk that decided to fly directly through our site, then perched in a tree just across from us for probably close to an hour. This gave us one of our longest and most close-up views for an adult red-tailed ever. He/She went after one of the sapsuckers, but the sapsucker got away.



-the great blue heron that flew overhead and made lots of noise (again, too fast and too far for a picture)

-Common loons spotted across Kettle Lake.

-American redstarts- one adult male and a female or juvenile as well.


We woke up the first night at some point to three loud, distinct "hoots". We knew it was an owl, but we weren't sure which one until we looked up the calls online and we are fairly certain it was the call of a long-eared owl. Another first!

On our last morning (Monday) we heard the distinct call of the Barred Owl (twice), echoing throughout the site. That was the first time we've heard this in the wild.

This is the only physical evidence of owls we saw:


We also identified a gull as the ring-billed gull. We haven't paid much attention to gulls before now, but we're thinking we'll start adding them to our lists as well. The gulls are similar to sparrows in that there are so many of them with just some variation between each that it can be overwhelming to new birders (or at least to us!).


Overall, a great long weekend with lots of fun and lots of birding!

This just in!

Four male Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds battling it out over access to the sugar-water feeders. I don't think we've seen four males at one time before (Dave??). Lots of squeaking and spreading of tails and wings.

Return of the Woodpeckers

We are seeing Downey Woodpeckers





and Hairy Woodpeckers on a much more regular basis- both male and female, adult and juveniles. The baby Hairy WPs will be on the tree trunk and peep their little hearts out.



We also saw quite a bit of the baby Red-Bellied Woodpecker on Friday and Sunday. Unfortunately we haven't seen an adult yet. I hope the parents are both okay. In the fall/winter we see the adult female almost every day and the male every now and then. We'll be keeping an eye out for their return soon (fingers crossed).

Misc. sightings

The Gold Finches are starting to lose their bright yellow colouring and taking on their winter dull greenish/yellow plummage.



The first year male House Finches are starting to get their red chest feathers. They grow up so fast!



The White-Breasted Nuthatch decided to check out the orange feeder.

Our juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk is still around. This was the closest shot we got of him- high up in the neighbour's tree, watching below. He flew off towards a neighbouring barn, away from our house.

The Chipping Sparrow is still around. We saw one where something must have happened to his head- an attack? molting? We're not sure.