NATURE MONCTON NATURE NEWS
Dec 15, 2024
Nature
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**The short days of late December and early
January surely give a mood pick up with all the Christmas Bird Counts, many of
which got off to a great start on Saturday, with lots more to come until
January 5th.
We have only the stats from the Moncton
Christmas Bird Count to share at the moment, which of course, are preliminary
as a few reports are still to come in.
The day was seasonally cold but sunny, and
travel on trails could hardly be better.
Birds that have been seen less than 5 times in
the history of the Moncton count are always special, and several met that
distinction. They were Barred Owl (now at 4), Carolina Wren (now at 5), Ruby-crowned
Kinglet (now at 4), Hermit Thrush (now at 3), Orange-crowned Warbler (now at 4),
Lincoln’s Sparrow (now at 3), and Eastern Towhee (now at 5).
Other species that had already reached 5 but were
still special were the Northern Mockingbird, Ruffed Grouse, Lesser Black-backed
Gull, Glaucous Gull, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk,
Merlin, Red-tailed Hawk, Pileated Woodpecker, Brown creeper, and American Robin.
As of tally up, the count was 59 species, with
that number reached only once before, in 2020.
The very significant numbers of Brown Creeper,
White-breasted Nuthatch, and Northern Cardinal observed were notable.
It looks like we are finally reaching a point
in Moncton where Northern Cardinals at our bird feeding yards are no longer a
rarity. Barbara Smith in Riverview has even got to the point of releasing
facsimiles of this species from her kitchen baking sheets when human Christmas
visitors arrive!
Brian Stone shares some photos taken during the Saturday Christmas Bird Count outing. Some of the many birds seen managed to get photographed, and they include Brown Creepers, White-breasted Nuthatches, Hairy Woodpeckers, and Golden-crowned Kinglets.
(Editor’s note: please note these are
preliminary records with the possibility of more special observations coming
in.)
**Georges Brun captured a few photos
in the early morning on Saturday that set the tone for the day with sunrise
over Dieppe, Canada Geese moving upriver ahead of the Tidal Bore,
and a Bald Eagle making an early day sweep of the Riverview Marsh.
**In yesterday’s edition, there were
comments about the fidelity of birds repeatedly returning to the same sites
year after year with Richard Blacquiere’s report of the travels of banded
Ring-billed gulls.
Jim Wilson shares an incident with an American Tree Sparrow too good not to share. Quoting Jim:
“Many years ago, an American Tree
Sparrow got into some sticky material on our bird feeder late one cold
midwinter afternoon. Its wings and tail were quite a mess, and I was able to
catch and bathe it clean. Not wanting to release a wet bird that late in the
day, Jean and I decided we'd keep it overnight and let it go the next morning.
The next morning was a Saturday, and
just before letting it go, I decided on an impulse to place a couple of loose
wraps of red plastic-coated wire around one of its legs so we could see if it
survived its adventure. Off it went, but we didn't see it again.
I forgot all about the Tree Sparrow
until late the next fall when I walked out of our house one morning on my way
to work and found a dead Tree Sparrow lying on our walkway, still warm. It had
struck our window, and when I picked it up, lo and behold, it had a couple of
loose wraps of red plastic-coated wire around one of its legs!
It was another example similar to
Richard Blacquiere's banded gulls returning to the same spot, described in your
posting of December 14th. I have the dates somewhere in my bird notes but
haven't taken the time to look them up.”
Nelson Poirier
Nature Moncton
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