Tag Archives: autumn

Late Sunday in Bird World

3 October 2011

Hi Everyone,

I cannot describe what a beautiful fall day it was out in the forest. The wind was only blowing at 2kmh. Leaves – the most gorgeous yellow, red, and orange were falling gently. Seven Black-capped chickadees, a few American Goldfinches, a sole White-breasted Nuthatch, and that lovely Red Squirrel kept me company at the hide. Oh, they must be so happy it is not raining and it is not too hot or cold – just right at 21 degrees C. It could not have been more perfect for humans or wildlife.

It seems that everyone was after the peanuts. They are so good at getting them out of the shells!

This beautiful White-breasted Nuthatch spent about 10 minutes at the feeders before flying off.

The little squirrel was enjoying all of the nuts on the forest floor. These squirrels are very lucky. There are Oak trees and acorns everywhere!

There were more geese on the ponds today than when I went to view them at dusk. There were only a few up in the grassy areas resting on a warm day.

The colours are changing. Autumn is my favourite time of year…it would just be nice if it would last longer! You can sit on the bench, close your eyes, and open your senses up to the smell of the leaves and the geese honking in the distance. Magical. Just try to be grumpy after sitting there for a half hour!!!!!

This Mallard was having a great time splashing about. What a bath.

And then…there was no mistaking the ‘Little Duck’. It remains the tiniest duck in the entire pond BUT — look, all of the back feathers are now in place. This duck cannot be more than 45 cm (8-9 inches) from the tip of its tail to the end of its beak. It looks larger in the photo but, it isn’t – and that is how I knew it was the wee one. (I did come home to compare with the former images just to make certain that the head line and beak were the same before I made a complete idiot out of myself). This tiny gaffer is a Blue winged Teal. It is positively adorable. I sure hope it gets a good wind to carry it south with those itsy-bitsy wings.

Besides finding the little duck, one of the great moments of this afternoon was seeing ten Cormorants in a tree sunning themselves on a beautiful day. Sometimes the Bald Eagle couple are up there in that tree. It is on a peninsula jutting out and there is no way for humans to disturb them. What a beautiful site. When I was standing admiring them, a couple walked up and told me that twenty years ago you would not have seen a Cormorant here. I felt blessed.

Whenever I am outside and getting tired, it is simply nice to remember that I am so lucky to be able to walk in the woods and be outside with nature. I know that many of you cannot – so I am taking it all in for you, too.

In the Mailbox:

So many of you have written to ask me if I think that any more eggs will hatch at either the Collins Street scrape in Melbourne or Xavier and Diamond’s scrape in Orange.

I do not expect the fourth egg at Melbourne to hatch. Falcons and hatch practice delayed incubation. This means that they will not incubate the eggs 24/7 until most of them are laid. This is so the chicks will hatch close together and not have issues of siblicide and food competition like exists in eagles and ospreys.

If a second egg is to hatch at Orange, I would really expect this to happen today or tomorrow. That said, I am not completely hopeful of another hatch there. Xavier and Diamond tend to have one hatch per 3 eggs.

I just received 3 letters with questions about siblicide. I presume that this subject has been brought up on chat or FB somewhere today.

The answer to your questions depends on the species and the circumstances. There are species of eagles where siblicide is almost always 100% (Black, Golden, Imperial). The eldest hatch always kills the youngest. Always. No wishing or hoping. Always. Siblicide is rare in hawks and falcons with most studies showing less than 1%. The stats come from watched nests. The average siblicide from studies at the University of Oklahoma is 3.8-4% in Bald Eagles. It is presumed to be the same or nearly the same in Ospreys. Some nests are more prone to siblicide than others. A good example of a nest where siblicide regularly occurred until last year is the Port Lincoln Ospreys. There is a history below the streaming cam that you can examine. The % at this nest would be much higher.

‘H’ wrote about the torrential rain and high winds blowing along the NE of the US because of Hurricane Ian. She has sent an image of a bird that has landed on the nest. It is banded. I believe it to be a juvenile Peregrine Falcon but I could be wrong. It is ahrd to identify birds when they are wet. So I am posting it here if anyone has any other ideas. This is the shores of Delaware at Mispillion Harbour. Birds are being blown off course. This one has two fresh new bands. Does anyone recognize them? If so, please send me a comment.

Nest News:

So it is time to check and see what is going on in Australia- when we left everyone yesterday afternoon, the Port Lincoln kiddos all had crops, the three at 367 Collins Street had been fed, the Sea Eagles were looking magnificent with SE29 basking in being up on the parent branch, and Xavier and Diamond had one beautiful eyas. Has anything changed today?

Diamond and Xavier have already fed their wee eyas twice this morning (it is 16:44 on the Canadian Prairies). The first was around 0533 and the second

The three eyases at 367 Collins Street have also had a good morning feed. I think that we can all relax and enjoy this new family learning how to parent in Melbourne. The male has brooded, shaded the chicks, fed them, and is bringing prey for Mum and them. It is time simply to sit back and watch these marvelous falcons grow! In less than 40 days they will be full grow and flying! So hold on – it is a fast ride!

The osplets at Port Lincoln were waiting on a breakfast fish to be delivered.

The two eaglets on the Sydney Sea Eagle nest are still home this morning! They are also waiting for breakfast!

Thank you so much for joining me today. Please take care. See you soon!

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams where I took my screen captures: Port Lincoln Ospreys, Mispillion Harbour Osprey Cam duPont Centre and Delaware DNR, 367 Collins Street by Mirvac, Charles Sturt Falcon Cam, Port Lincoln Ospreys, and Sea Eagles@Birdlife Australia Discovery Centre Sydney Olympic Park.

Gorgeous fall day at Oak Hammock Marsh

If the weather is good, I really encourage you to go to your local nature centre to check out their programmes, look at the displays, sit and watch the birds, or walk on the trails.

As I walked through the Interpretative Centre, one of the staff was asking anyone if they wanted to watch a feeding. There were lots of pre-school children yelling ‘yes’ or ‘me, me’ and running ahead of their parents and grandparents. I thought they were going to feed the ducks. Silly me. It was salamanders. There are, however, many activities at the nature centres for all ages. In the fall, both of ours have birdseed sales with good discounts for members and much better seed. Then there are pumpkin carving adventures as well as astronomy evenings.

The grasses lining the ponds of Oak Hammock Marsh are quickly changing colour. Last week they were much more green and there was a lot more water. The staff are draining the water from the wetlands as it would happen naturally during a time of drought.

Closer to the Interpretative Centre is a series of board walks talking you out into the marsh.

Along the way there are pavilions. It is here that some of the walking tours stop to listen to information. They are also good places just to sit and catch your breath in the heat.

Whenever I look at these pavilions I am reminded of the gardens of the Chinese literati (learned individual, well educated, often writers and poets) who created gardens with ponds and pavilions like these for admiring nature, to find inspiration, or to sit and write or paint.

There were definitely not as many waterfowl at the marsh today as there was last week.

This is a good view of one of the pavilions and the adjacent ponds and marshlands.

It was really hot out on the trails around the marsh. Even the ducks were paddling so fast that they were often a blur.

These two Canada Geese were paddling quite slowly along the shore. They were not in a rush!

The dabbling ducks were looking for food.

Sometimes you had to look very closely to see them up against the reeds.

The reflection of the reeds with the blue sky was quite beautiful.

One of the things that I did today was purchase a book. It is The Crossley ID Guide to Waterfowl.

My interest has always been raptors. I can easily identify them although a Cooper will sometimes confuse me with a Sharp-shinned. I do not know my ducks and I am just now getting a handle on sparrows. We have two big rivers, two large lakes, Hudson’s Bay and a host of other smaller lakes and water features in a growing number of new housing estates. These are the birds in the parks near me or in my garden. It would help for me to recognize them. It would also help the e-Bird consultant for our area because then I would not be bugging him all the tim! Wish me luck.

These are Green-winged Teals preening themselves.

There is a look out point near the end of the trail. There you could see the ducks and geese arriving. It was 16:00.

Common on the Canadian Prairies are rose hips. The roses appear in the spring while the rose hips, the fruit of the rose, is in the fall. They generally grow after the petals have bloomed and have fallen off. They are rich in nutrients including vitamin C. People collect them and make tea or rose hip syrup or jelly. It is delicious.

The Dark-eyed Juncos have even appeared at Oak Hammock Marsh. You can hardly go anywhere without seeing several.

This is a Thirteen-lined Prairie Dog. They are diurnal and are most active during the day where they can be seen looking for food and going in and out of their tunnels.

There were a couple of these sparrows that were in my garden so I know this one’s ID. It is a juvenile Harris’s Sparrow. So cute. Eventually its entire crown will be black.

As we were leaving the Canada Geese were flying in to feed on the recently harvested farmer’s fields. Here they come in a beautiful ‘V’ formation.

While I did not see very many birds, it was simply a gorgeous day to be outside. The trails are so much nicer to walk on than the concrete of the city. There is such joy just closing your eyes in the sun and listening to the geese. It is the sound of fall. I am also very grateful to the individuals who have established this beautiful nature centre and have purchased the marsh and are being good stewards. There is absolutely no hunting permitted on any of the land – and the area is huge. Bravo! These ducks will not be fattened up, tagged, and then wind up in a count as to whether they were shot in state or out of state like some nature centres do. Rosalie Edge, the individual who purchased Hawk Mountain and lobbied against killing raptors, has certainly rubbed off on me!

All of the other nests were doing just fine when I checked on them. Meals had arrived at both 367 Collins Street and the Port Lincoln Barge. In fact, Dad brought in a really nice fish that still had its head. It was flapping and I am so glad that Mum out it out of its misery before it went flying over the edge or knocked one of the chicks off. Hatch watch will begin for the falcons at Charles Sturt University in a couple of days and the big fall e-Bird count is 9 October. More details to follow in a couple of days.

Take care all. I hope you had a wonderful day, too.

Yesterday at the Nature Centre

The people in our local weather office are saying that our temperatures are back to their seasonal norm today. It is 14 degrees C, not 31 C! The sky is grey, it feels damp but no rain is forecast.

It seems that yesterday was the perfect day for a walk at the Fort Whyte Nature Centre. There are Canada Geese and Cackling Geese all over the grounds – on the paths, in the water, even peering into the Interpretative Centre.

The trees are bursting with fall colours.

It was simply a glorious day. You could ‘smell’ autumn.

The nest boxes are all empty waiting for spring to arrive next year.

This little female Mallard was hiding along the shore in the trees away from all the ones that were dabbling on the other side of the pond.

There was certainly a lot of dabbling going on.

I love how this one uses the orange paddles to turn them around in the water. It was amazing to watch.

As late afternoon approached, there were six American White Pelicans that flew in along with a myriad of geese. By evening all of the ponds and fields will be covered.

Despite the fact that a beautiful fall day is a reminder of winter to come, it remains my favourite season. The colours of the leaves are just stunning.

Incoming.

The geese will continue to arrive until the third week in October when most will have migrated south for the winter. Today, Blackbirds are filling in the ponds of the City (or so I am told and from pictures I have seen). There are meeting or marshalling points where the birds wait for the others to arrive before migrating in mass.

With the change in weather, there will be more birds moving through our City on the way to warmer climates. Migration is a huge challenge – finding safe places to stop, water, a good food source – it is not easy for the birds to take on these thousands and thousands of kilometres. We hope that each arrives safely at their destination.

Thank you for joining me. Have a wonderful Friday.