Mild month means more birds (Ottawa)

[Donna]

The days are shorter now, the temperature is gradually falling, bringing frost and snow for many long weeks to come. Many observers are spending more time watching the birds at their feeders, close-up views that make identification easier and behaviour of the various species is a constant source of interest.

The mild November has kept the rivers ice free, enabling ducks and geese to linger here. Fields of cut corn, free of snow, provide good feeding areas for geese and sandhill cranes and the large flocks of over-wintering wild turkeys.

On Nov. 23, Bruce Di Labio spotted three Ross' geese in a field with some snow geese and hundreds of Canada geese. This bird is an occasional visitor here, a smaller version of the snow goose with a stubby bill.

Rick Harris had a wonderful experience with a huge flock, thousands and thousands of snow geese "filling the sky like pepper" and coming straight down to land at the sewage lagoon and surrounding area east of Chesterville.

Notable migrants passing through last week were considerable flocks of red-throated loons. Di Labio and Tom Hanrahan watched more than 120 of them flying west over the Ottawa River. Two additional flocks of 27 and 12 were seen, a few of them swimming.

An increase in the numbers of these loons coming here has been noted since the early '80s. This report, on Nov. 23, is the latest date for a flight; the previous late date was 33 birds seen on Nov. 14, 1995.

Mark Gawn saw two unusual ducks, male canvasbacks, at Deschenes. They have become quite rare in the last decade. A handsome diving duck, males have a chestnut head and neck, black chests, pale grey backs and white underparts with a black tail. They have long bills and sloping foreheads and a much longer, less rounded head than most ducks.

Christina Lewis saw a few greater scaup and goldeneye, one Barrow's goldeneye and eight red-breasted mergansers. A few common loons, horned grebes and great blue herons were also reported.

Interesting birds seen in Quebec included a red-bellied woodpecker, a gray jay and a rare Townsend's solitaire thrush seen in the Luskville area on the south edge of Gatineau Park. The solitaire is a slim grey thrush with a white eye ring, white feathers at the side of the tail and buffy patches on the wings.

Jamie Manuel noticed a peregrine falcon sitting on a ledge 10 stories up on the Brookstreet Hotel in Kanata. She works in a building next to the hotel and some of her co-workers were also able to look at it through binoculars.

There has been a sharp increase in the numbers of sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks as well as merlins being seen in the city, often hunting for their food at the feeders. In Russell, Susan McRae watched a sharp-shinned hawk having a rather uncomfortable confrontation with a group of blue jays that surrounded it and drove it away. Kathy Atkinson has a merlin that hunts regularly in her garden.

Di Labio reported numbers of Bohemian waxwings -- two flocks, one of about 70 on Carling Avenue and another of 40 in Kanata -- that have arrived or are moving through Ottawa.

He also noted the increase in the numbers of pileated woodpeckers that are now being seen in and around Ottawa. They are impossible to miss for their size, the flaring scarlet crests that both sexes have and the noise they make gouging out huge chunks and slivers of wood that pile up on the ground below the tree.

Chickadees and many other birds love peanut butter which is an excellent food in the winter months. Wilson Hum took some mixed with bird seed with him to one of the local feeders. Chickadees were soon there to enjoy it. One bird took 30 bites and soon came back for more. Woodpeckers are also attracted to peanut butter as well as three male and two female cardinals, some tree sparrows and juncos and two dozen mourning doves.

Judith Gustafsson enjoyed watching a group of 25 goldfinches that were feeding on the seeds in a patch of plants. They flew backwards and forwards to a tree and back down to feed. Males have lost their summer yellow colouring and now resemble the females.


The Ottawa Citizen