Author: Peter T

February 16 2013.  Burlington ON.  I’ve shaken off the remnants of any longing to be in the sub-tropics where, if nothing else, bird action is unceasing, lively and productive. Reinvigorated and resigned to the monochromatics of winter birds I set out to see what waterfowl could be found around a nearby marina.

My wandering was memorable as much for sounds of the pans of ice grunting, sighing and rattling, as it was for the birds. This is a reliable gathering place for dozens of Mute and Trumpeter Swans, hundreds of Mallards and countless American Black Ducks, Coots and Scaup.  They are drawn, I believe, by the regular provision of feed corn brought in daily by swan enthusiasts. Who wouldn’t be? A little way offshore Common Goldeneye, Common and Red-breasted Mergansers and White-winged Scoters cruise around.

Flotillas of White-winged Scoters were diving for plentiful food discovered close to the shore, but rather than hang around and feed, they tended to stay offshore,  paddle purposefully in, dive and feed and then hurry back out again; there was a steady parade of comings and goings.  Watching them closely I thought how menacing the males look with their dark eyes underlined in white and their wide bill flattened like a prizefighter’s nose.

Every now and then an oddity shows up at the marina, last winter it was a young Common Eider, this year it’s a fine looking male Wood Duck who is every bit as determined to share in the offerings of food as the larger and jostling Mallards.  I watched a corps of heavy-lens photographers crouching and waiting for the perfect shot, and wondered if birds feel any sense of unease at the cold, dispassionate lenses eyeing them; they very well may, many times I’ve had a bird fly away apparently spooked by the pointing camera, even when I think I’m standing unthreateningly still.  I grabbed a few pictures of the Wood Duck, none of them a money shot but this one captures a bit of its feisty stick-up-for-itself nature.

As I was about to leave I watched a couple of Trumpeter Swans walking across the thin ice sheet, apparently it was too thin because a sudden collapse left one floating in a very small opening and struggling to climb out. Its companion showed little concern and left it to its own devices.

February 13 2013. This morning’s sky was overcast with some threads of sunshine trying to find an opening.  As I walked into the YMCA I heard the first real cardinal spring song coming from a garden a short distance away.  It’s amazing what a few notes of “Tewww-tewww-tewww’ can do to a mid-winter morning.

This was a male Northern Cardinal responding to something telling him spring courtship is on the agenda and he had better stake out his home turf before someone else gets in ahead of him. Probably the cue was daylight length, we get nearly 12 hours of daylight now (ten and a half hours between sunrise and sunset). Time to get organized; and besides, tomorrow is St. Valentines’ Day, a sweetheart would be in order.

When we get a bright sunshiny day there will be more males vying for territories and while their clear songs may be heartwarming for us, for them it’s the start of a serious and often combative breeding season.

 

February 9 2013.  My mind has not been on winter birding lately, but yesterday we received about a foot of snow and that got me thinking of Snow Buntings.  To cut a long story short, this morning I ended up sitting in a cold minivan at the side of a windswept country road helping with a spot of banding.

Snow Buntings were the target species, so in a sense they were Bird of The Day.  But the cuteness competition was fierce, Snow Buntings flock together with Lapland Longspurs and Horned Larks, and this morning two Common Redpolls picking at the dried seed-heads of some goldenrod added charm to the morning.

There’s a small group of dedicated academics and citizen scientists who study Snow Buntings; they’re trying to establish the links between various breeding populations and where they spend the winter.  We know Snow Buntings breed above the Arctic Circle in North America, Greenland and Eurasia, and we also know they spend the winter further south in our latitudes.  But who goes where is the question. With almost no-one to observe and study them on their breeding grounds, precious few to check on them in the winter months and vast distances between winter and summer grounds, not a lot is known about them.  Where do ‘our’ winter Snow Buntings breed; and how do they get there?

I am no authority on this, but it appears that Snow Buntings who breed on islands in Hudson Bay, head towards Canada’s prairie provinces for the winter. Further, there’s some evidence that, in April our winter populations make their way to Greenland via the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and then north through Labrador.  Such evidence comes in little pieces and maybe one of today’s birds will add to our knowledge in a couple of months.

 

I have posted a summary of my Oaxaca birding highlights on a separate page.  Lots of photographs and a bit of detail about people and places too.  Click here.

My companion/guide Eric Martinez sent me some more photographs and comments. Here, courtesy of Eric are: beautiful male and female Rosita’s Buntings, Gray-fronted Woodpecker and the Lesser Ground Cuckoo.

Also, to quote Eric, “…the wrens you saw at my Village ( Teotitlan del Valle) are not Spot-Breasted, you saw one of the most wanted species of endemics and that are easily seen in my village, Boucard´s Wren!!

28 January 2013. We’ve returned to the steamy Pacific coast to wrap up this very enriching holiday. Getting from the City of Oaxaca to La Crucecita (the non-resort settlement part of Huatulco) was an epic event, 6 hours on a small bus, climbing and circling mountainsides, twisting and lurching as we went. It’s hard to get a good look at birds on a bus trip and I soon gave up trying.
But back here, on the coast where the daytime temperatures are the stuff of all-inclusive gated resorts, there’s plenty to see. I left our hotel room early, just as it was getting light, and headed away from the main streets.
The hillsides adjacent to La Crucecita are forested, dry, scrubby and tangled habitat. A happy place for many birds with plenty of cover and food. From a quiet roadside I stood and watched for a couple of hours as all shapes and sizes of birds came and went. Among the most notable were several White-throated Magpie Jays floating from treetops to streetlamps and back. I can only think they were finding scorched and ready to eat moths that had been drawn to the light. Whatever the reason they seemed to spend a lot of energy exploring for something. Magpie Jays are a compelling and entertaining parody of all that’s best in Blue Jays and Magpies, they command wherever they chose to alight, they fly with a floating lightness and in flight they call to each other with something between a screech and a growl. I managed to get several pictures including one of a tree-full of them.

Orchard Orioles in flocks wandered around in waves. it took me quite a while to realize what I was looking at, they moved so quickly, and a few Bullock’s Orioles joined them just to confuse the issue.
I puzzled over a small brightly coloured bird skulking low through some scrub, I took a couple of photos to help me identify it later and made a detailed mental note of its plumage and mannerisms. After breakfast I was able to conclude that it was a female Orange-breasted Bunting; quite beautiful. I’d seen one a week or so ago near Tehuantepc, but then only fleetingly, so todays was a bonus.

There were many more interesting sightings including a pair or White-fronted Parrots, several chattering Banded Wrens and some Golden-fronted Woodpeckers. But the Birds of the Day was a pair of breathtaking Pale-billed Woodpeckers. Looking much like our familiar Pileated Woodpecker, large and business-like, these two spent just a few moments bashing at a dead tree right in front of me.

We spent the hot afternoon lazing at friends’ hotel, avoiding the searing sun. A couple of Tropical Kingbirds visited us to drink from the pool, while Magnificent Frigatebirds, Brown Pelicans and Black Vultures wheeled overhead. I suppose I could have just spent two weeks lying by a pool and still have a bird list; a dozen or so nice species anyway.