Q&A Birding in the Area

Q. I’m new to birding and to the area, what could I expect to see around here and at my feeders throughout fall and winter?

A. This is a prime time to be seeing increased numbers of the regular birds and even spot a rarity or two. Birds are on the move for a few reasons, some are migrating south, but this time of year there is also a “reverse” migration: that is some birds that don’t usually come into our range will head north and hang around a while before leaving for their wintering grounds.

Another phenomenon is post breeding dispersal which is natures way of preventing inbreeding, some of these species may overshoot their normal range and show up in your back yard.

And still others will be showing up in greater numbers now that the stress of nesting and defending territory has passed, and don’t forget all those first year birds. We are seeing chickadees in greater numbers, they’ve let down their guard and are traveling in loose flocks in search of food.

Chickadees are known for their food finding abilities and it’s not just ornithologists who’ve noticed this, other birds have caught on too. Migrating and local birds will seek out and follow chickadee flocks and cash in on their skills.

So if you’re out birding or in the backyard and hear chickadees, take a moment to check out every bird, Boreal Chickadee, nuthatches, woodpeckers, creepers, warblers, kinglets and vireos hang out in these chickadee flocks.

Some birders will “pish” or even play a tape of chickadees mobbing a Saw-whet Owl

to attract chickadees then sit back and watch for what else might come to investigate what they’re scolding.

There are some finch on the move, I’ve already been hearing and seeing Evening Grosbeaks (they’re part of the finch family) around Albert County, Purple Finch are showing up along with some American Goldfinch and Pine Siskins. The Winter Finch Forecast for 2010-2011 predicts a Common Redpoll invasion, I’m sure they put a lot of science to work to come up with this, but redpolls usually follow the every-other-year visiting schedule, so that’s no surprise. Redpolls eat the seeds from white birch which had a poor crop in the north this year, that means they’ll likely be coming south to enjoy our wild seeds and to take advantage of our nyjer and black oil sunflower feeders.

The Downy and Hairy Woodpecker are two common visitors but we may have five or more other species around and possibly even coming to suet. The Pileated Woodpecker is common; depending on where you live, once you learn it’s call and drum you might be noticing it every day. The American Three-toed Woodpecker and Black-backed Woodpecker are around in winter but unlikely to show up at feeder yards. The odd Northern Flicker stays for the winter, and every now and then we have a mini invasion of the Red-bellied Woodpecker and even more rare and more mini (or is it minier?) invasion of the Red-headed Woodpecker. When these last two occur they do come to feeders, enjoying a bit of everything…. sunflower, peanuts and suet.

Right now we have a very friendly White-breasted Nuthatch and a secretive but predictable Brown Creeper. I smear peanut butter on the side of his favourite tree and he likes raw suet, so when I hear him I know where to look.

I’m anxiously waiting for one of my most anticipated visitors of the fall, the Gray Jays should be showing up soon to begin storing food for the winter. They follow me around the yard because they know I have a bag of peanuts or small cubes of peanut butter suet in my pocket. I haven’t tried to hand feed them, but I’m sure I could. They often land on things I’m holding, like branches or lengths of steel I’m painting.

A few of the summer sparrows may hang around in winter and maybe even a rarity will show up, but the most common winter sparrow is the American Tree Sparrow, they’ll be feeding along side Dark-eyed Junco and if you’re lucky Snow Buntings.

I’m sure I missed lots of birds, drop me a line to tell me what you are seeing or what you’ve seen in previous late fall, early winter seasons.

Q. I walk along the river with my small dog and I have cats, should I be worried about the eagles?

A. I too have a small dog and I never give it a second thought. I watch eagles cruise up and down the shore line and in 18 years have never had an eagle even take a second look at my dog(s). I have heard stories, questions and concerns but haven’t found any evidence of hawks, owls or eagles taking small pets. It’s usually cats that I hear about, I was at a presentation by a New Brunswicker who studies and bands birds of prey. He said he often saw left over skeletons in nests and kept track of what each species was hunting. When I asked if he’d ever seen a cat in any of the nests, he seemed surprised by the question but said he never did.

I hear the concern often, and it’s increasing. If a cat disappears it’s very unlikely an eagle, it’s much more likely that it was hit by car or coyotes caught it (especially if it disappeared over night).

I know I’ll hear from people who saw an eagle with a dead cat, or who know someone, who was talking to someone, whose cousin’s half sister saw a cat collar hanging out of an eagles nest. If that happened, I’d love to see a picture, but I’d be more inclined to believe it was picked up as road kill, that’s what eagles do.

New Website for Bird Enthusiasts

Last week was the launch of a new birding site called Birding New Brunswick, at BirdingNewBrunswick.ning.com. It’s a social network for bird enthusiasts. You can post pictures, video, ask the group questions, promote your favourite birding area, blog, post nature related events, chat and report sightings. You are automatically given your own page, with photo album, blog postings and more.

If your Facebook friends are saying, "enough with the birds already", sign up, nobody in this group will complain. I think a site like this is needed to get (and keep) young people involved. When I mentioned this to one geezer he said, “Social networking? Nobody will ever do that.” I said, “Come on Dad, get with the times.” (He doesn’t read my column either.) Sixty years from now, I want the guy changing my diaper to be interested enough in birds to fill the window feeder for me.

Oh yes, it's free, no gimmick that I can tell and there are no advertisements, so I’m not constantly reminded of my “shortcomings”.

I’m a member of a very similar site from the States called WeLoveBirds, this was a spin off of from one of the subscriptions I bought when I was researching hummingbird nectar. It was started by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, it was fun to go on and check out the question and answer section, many consist of a photo and the question, “What bird is this?” It’s a good challenge to see how many you can answer, but the problem is the site is for all of the States and a lot of the questions were coming from the west, birds that I’ve never seen and know nothing about. So when I saw a similar site for New Brunswick I was quite excited, then the first question came across and it was a picture of ducks taken in North Carolina. Oh well, I’m sure that will change soon.

There’s already one special interest group, the NB ODONATA GROUP, for members with a special interest in dragonflies and damselflies. If you have any questions or pictures it’s a great opportunity to ask Denis Doucet, one of the provinces leading authorities on the subject has volunteered to edit the blog and field questions.

BirdingNewBrunswick should turn up some interesting sightings, I know since I started this column there have been a few firsts that were sent to me that may have gone unreported otherwise. For example the first Laughing Gull at Cape Enrage or the first nesting Peregrine Falcons on the Assumption Building in Moncton. (Both are pictured and discussed already on BirdingNewBrunswick.) That’s the thing, you never know what will be turned up next, in the age where everyone has a camera on them all the time. You may have a picture of a Starling or it may be a first for the province.

So instead of surfing around the US site I’ll be spending my time checking out the beautiful pictures that were taken in my own province, at least I recognize most of the bird pictures. Dragons and damsels interest me, especially the pictures, but I can identify only about 4 of our species so far.

That’s the thing about birds, they seem to be the universal draw, I started hanging out with other bird people who also had and interest in dragonflies, butterfllies, wild flowers, mushrooms and more. We all came for the birds (at least I did), but others would be pointing out other interesting aspects of nature, eventually it starts to rub off. If I live to be very old, I may become a well rounded naturalist.

I picked up a little about mushrooms, there are still only 3 species that I will pick and eat. But, this is shaggy mane season and one of my all time favourite meals is “Cream of Shaggy” soup. I can’t stress enough the importance of knowing what you’re doing. You can’t go to a half hour presentation, pick a mushroom and say, “Yeah, that looks like the one.” You’ve heard the expression, “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing”, well that was coined by a liver transplant surgeon after a guy ate the wrong mushroom.

OK, you caught me, the saying was around before they were doing liver transplants, but you get the point.

Once you’ve done all the tests and your sure you have shaggy manes, pick them before they open, after they open the spores will blacken you soup, I still eat it but it doesn’t look as good. Dice and cook the mushrooms with garlic and onions, add them to diced cooked potatoes, I leave the potato water for thickener, it drives my mother nuts but it works. Then add cream, the good stuff, at least 18% fat. You can add corn if you like, once I dumped in a bottle of bar clams. It’s quick and delicious.

I love feeding this to the in-laws, while I’m cooking it I make comments like, “This one doesn’t look like the rest.” or “No dear, I don’t think that’s the destroying angle.” When you call them to the table, don’t touch your spoon, leave your hand folded on your lap, give them your best evil smile and tell them to go ahead and try it. I guarantee, nobody’s touching that soup until you take a bite.