Posts Tagged ‘birds’
making November warm #5
I can watch birds any time of year of course. But, to me, November seems made for bird watching. Just seeing those tiny birds gobble up the various types of seed, makes me realize how lucky I am to be sheltered and warm on the bitterest of days.
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I do not feed the birds until November. In part, this is to reduce the chance of spreading the various viruses that plague the wild birds. This year, I discarded all my old feeders and found feeders that did not feature sitting surfaces. I think it is better for the birds to land and leave. Flat platforms gather moisture and breed pathogens. The new sunflower feeder has narrow wire perches and no way to sit among the seeds. I also feed with nyjer seed and that feeder also has no perches, just small holes where the birds can pull fresh seeds from the tube.
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We have a variety of birds at our feeders. I love the chickadees. They are greedy feeders, preferring the sunflower seed. They seem timid, landing only long enough to grab and go. But they often squabble with their own and other species.
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I also like the little nuthatches. This year we have both red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches. They feed happily together. The red-breasted nuthatches will store seed in tree crevices. I have seen them poke seeds under the shingles of our house!
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We also have a small group of blue jays who love sunflower seeds and various types of finches who go after the nyjer seed. I do not see the diversity of birds I saw thirty years ago when we first fed the birds here. I think some of that is due to the large number of bird feeders in our area.
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The birds I would love to see at our feeders are the Canada jays. Forty years ago when I was working on the draft of my thesis up in our attic rooms, the grey jays, also called whiskey jacks, would come and say hello and eat scraps from my hand. The other bird I have never seen at our feeders (or anywhere) is the cardinal. My husband has seen them in our grey woods, but I have yet to add a cardinal to my Life List.
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All my best.
Stay warm!
Jane
summer drive
We are so lucky to live in New Brunswick. Driving down any road is a kaleidoscope of flowers, especially in June. We have green hills, streams and rivers gushing after our recent rains and lots of wild life to see. And we have river ferries!!!!
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Today we drove home from our camp by way of the Gagetown ferry. It’s only been operating a few days but we have ridden the ferry so many times it feels like a cruise on the river.
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In the Gagetown area, there are lots of osprey nests to see. This time of year there is usually at least one adult, sometimes two, feeding young chicks.
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We do not have road runners, but we have road crossers. Last week we watched as an American bittern ran across the road, its neck stretched forward parallel to the ground as it ran. Today we saw a woodcock walking slowly across the road, not concerned in the least about the truck or the photographer. Unfortunately, the photographer lacks skill but you can see the woodcock’s short legs and his long beak over his right shoulder …
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And, this week, there are the roses (Rosa spp.), pink and fragrant. Some with a single whorl of five petals. Some doubled and redoubled.
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And other flowers:
bladder campion or maidenstears (Silene vulgaris), with deeply-notched petals and red-veined inflated calyx …
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bedstraw (Galium sp.) grows in mounds in the ditches, with leaves in whorls and white flowers …
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and lupins (Lupinus sp.), crowding the ditches in pink, blue and purple and occasionally white, already setting seed …
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Looking forward to many drives this summer. I know that gasoline is expensive, but this is my entertainment of choice.
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All my best,
Jane
checking out the berries
As I have often written, our cabin is an enjoyable place to be. We read; we go for walks; we watch the birds; we occasionally do a little work (keeping the trails clear, working on the cabin).
This past weekend we identified the trees surrounding the cabin and we were pleased to find we had 13 different trees:
- horse chestnut
- red maple
- mountain birch
- white birch
- trembling aspen
- green ash
- apple
- red oak
- willow
- white pine
- black spruce
- balsam fir
- shad bush
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The berries on the shad bush are just beginning to form. At this stage they are about as big as a small pea.
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We weren’t the only ones interested in the progress of the shad bush fruit. While we watched, a cedar waxwing landed and stayed for a while.
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Last year we had fun watching the cedar waxwings feeding wild strawberries to one another! If you’d like to see those photos, click here.
Al my best!
Jane
Partridge and Grouse – which are you???
In New Brunswick, we have three birds which I confuse and name ‘Partridge‘. Remember I am a botanist and come by my bird knowledge through secondary sources.
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a ruffed grouse or a grey partridge? the first clue is habitat (the mainly hardwood woodlands)
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The Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) is a bird of the woodlands (mostly hardwood) and is the bird heard ‘drumming’ in our woods in spring. Its plumage varies from pale brown to bright mahogany. It has a fanning tail and head feathers which stand up like a crown. The feathers around the neck ruff up too. Since these birds are locally referred to as ‘partridge’, there can be confusion between the Ruffed Grouse, the Spruce Grouse and the Grey Partridge.
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Ruffed Grouse crossing the Old Shepody Road in eastern New Brunswick
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Ruffed Grouse in our grey woods
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The Spruce Grouse (Falcipennis canadensis) is a bird of mainly coniferous woodlands. It eats spruce and pine needles. It is a chicken-like bird with variable plumage, mostly grey and black in the male and grey-brown in the female. The bird has a fanning tail, but does not raise its head feathers the way the Ruffed Grouse does. For a good photo of the Spruce Grouse see https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Spruce_Grouse/id
The Grey Partridge (Perdix perdix) is a bird of open areas and grass lands. It is a roundish bird with a brown back and grey sides and neck. The chest-area has a darker brown mark. When startled, the bird flies upwards on rounded wings. For a good photo of a Grey Partridge see https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gray_Partridge/id
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All my best,
Jane
scribble bird
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Winter Wren
Troglodytes hiemalis
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How to find
centre of forest.
Joy the objective.
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Tiny tail
shivers as he sings.
Delirious trill.
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Troglodyte
darts into thickets,
creeps into crevasses.
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Lifts an eyebrow,
joins a chime of wrens.
Elusive ripple,
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varied trill,
incoherent whir,
tremble to warble.
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Distinguish
the note, the half-note,
the tone, the tangle.
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Forget where
you once were going,
indecisive
scribble bird.
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All my best,
Jane
a feast of wild strawberries
This week at our cabin the wild strawberries are hanging from their stems. When I see them I think of the sweet wild strawberry jam my mom used to make. And, after this weekend, I will think of cedar waxwings.
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As we sat in the cabin, eating our dinner, we saw a bird making trips between the birch tree in front of the cabin and the grassy field to the side, where the wild strawberries grow.
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My husband identified the bird and spotted where it perched in the tree. The cedar waxwing is one of the common birds at the cabin. They love to eat fruit and we have wild strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries on the property.
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There were two cedar waxwings on the branch, sharing a meal of wild strawberries. Sharing fruit is a ritual behavior between male and female cedar waxwings.
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The cedar waxwings nest in our big white pines and sing in the top branches of other nearby trees. I will never see them without thinking of their little feast of berries.
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All my best,
Jane
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Safe place for a nest
No surprise to me … a robin has built a nest in the eaves of our house. Eighteen feet above the ground, this is a safe place for a nest. The robin does not think so. When I sit on the deck for my daily cup of tea, the robin sits in a near-by tree and scolds me. He gives a single annoyed chirp. If a robin could scowl, he is certainly scowling.
winter wren and the morning bird chorus
This morning, just after sunrise, I listened to the song of the Winter Wren. This little wren and its tiny tail shiver as he sings. I call his song a scribble-song. Its powerful trills and whistles last for several syllables. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology website All About Birds describes it as “a rich cascade of bubbly notes.” To me it celebrates the busy joyfulness of our Grey Woods in spring. To hear the song of the Winter Wren, go to https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Winter_Wren/overview
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I have listened to the morning bird chorus every day for the last week. This morning I heard:
Black-capped Chick-a-dee
Northern Parula
Winter Wren
Eastern Phoebe
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I often include elements of the morning bird chorus in my poetry. This poem, written about the Salmon River Covered Bridge, is in my poetry book in the shelter of the covered bridge (Chapel Street Editions, 2017). To obtain a copy of the book, go to Chapel Street Editions or contact me through the comments.
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The Salmon River Bridge, near Sussex, Kings County, was built across the Kennebecasis River in 1908. Today it is used as a rest area. In the absence of traffic, wild life has occupied the bridge. Virginia creeper covers one corner of the roof and rose bushes crowd the edges of the road. In mid-May, when we were there, birds were busy in and around the bridge, preferring to be left to their own springtime activities.
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scribble
Salmon Bridge
Kennebecasis #7.5
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The robin, chary. Her beak drips
with wet meadow grass and chickweed.
She clucks, longs to add another strand
to her nest in the rafters,
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woven with the trill of a scribble bird,
a winter wren delirious. And downy
woodpeckers, wing-flare and scrabble,
flirt in the willows, weeping.
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A warbler (yellow blur-bird)
and a red-wing, toweeeee.
Pink roses, meadowsweet
chip, chip, chip, so-wary-we
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and beneath the bridge
in soft mud beside pulled grass
the bleary track of a black bear
claws and pads
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Published, in the shelter of the covered bridge, Chapel Street Editions, 2017
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All my best,
Jane
natural treasures – gems from a day in early spring
After a wet spring, we were not certain when we would be able to reach our camp this year. Although the snow is gone, we don’t want to risk getting stuck or damaging our lane.
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just a week ago there was still snow on the road and the ruts we could see were very spongy
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We were so happy when we were able to drive all the way to our cabin door. We did a bit of tidying, put markers at the base of the little cedars we lost in the tall grass last fall and my husband did some clipping of trees over-growing the road.
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I did a small display of two of the treasures we found last year, a big pine cone and a chunk of pinkish stone. But I can’t display the best treasures of the day:
- the back and forth banter of two Barred Owls. This is the big owl who calls ‘Who cooks for you?’
- the tremolo of a Common Loon on the lake. The tremolo is one of at least four distinctive vocalisations from this bird. The vibrating ‘who-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo’ is usually a call to warn of intruders or to announce arrival at a lake.
- the ‘I love dear Canada, Canada, Canada’ of the White-throated Sparrow or the nasal ‘fee-bee’ of the Eastern Phoebe.
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I love our trips to our cabin and the treasures offered to us by nature every time we visit.
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Hope you are enjoying the spring season.
All my best,
Jane
puddle ducks
This time of year the St. John River is at flood levels and backwaters are good places to see many species of duck.
Last weekend, when the water still had a few shallow grassy places for dabbling, we saw these fellows along the old Trans Canada between Oromocto and Jemseg:
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Wood Duck … notice the long crest at the back of the head …
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American Widgeon … a rosy breast and a white cap on his head …
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Mallards … notice the white ring around his neck and his yellow beak …
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Ring-necked Duck … a terrible photo … note the grey beak with a white ring, vertical white before wing and black back …
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There were also lots of Canada geese and a Blue Heron we scared up from a roadside pond …
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I am not a good photographer but that cannot take away from the thrill of seeing these birds every spring!
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Happy bird watching!
Jane
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