[ValleyNature] Apr. 26 field trip in e. King's County (long)

[James W. Wolford]

APR. 26, 2009 - NSBS/BNS FIELD TRIP, WOLFVILLE AREA BIRDS ETC., led  
by me and attended by 32 people including lots of familiar and  
welcome faces. Very nice warm day, with light to moderate winds and  
alternate bright overcast vs. Sunny skies, temperatures up to 19 C.  
as measured by my car.

At the Wolfville Wharf area, besides the rock pigeons and an Iceland  
or glaucous gull, there were 3 GREATER YELLOWLEGS (and one more was  
seen later in Canning by James Hirtle et al.).

Our first caravan stop was on Starr's Point, at a RED-TAILED HAWK  
NEST in a woodlot adjacent to a house.  There was no hawk on the  
nest, but the house occupant told us it was active again this year.

Then to Van Nostrand's Ponds, also on Starr's Point, where we did the  
usual slow walk around the two ponds, finding lots of stuff of  
interest and not just birds!  In the newer Ducks Unlimited pond,  
there were 2 male RING-NECKED DUCKS.  Other birds were 2 TREE  
SWALLOWS, several male YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS, a PALM WARBLER was  
heard by Pat Chalmers and a SWAMP SPARROW too, an early female RED- 
WINGED BLACKBIRD, and a FEMALE DOWNY WOODPECKER was seen DRUMMING (is  
this normal for downies?).

Mammals seen were a MUSKRAT and a PORCUPINE, the latter sleeping? up  
in a larch tree.

One small pond had a school of probable BANDED KILLIFISH that were  
disturbing the surface in the shallows as they were startled by us.

Herptiles (now known as herpes, courtesy of Don MacNeill), included  
calling LEOPARD FROGS and SPRING PEEPERS, and sightings of either  
GREEN or BULL FROGS (just their heads, and seasonally too early for  
them to be calling).  Also a PAINTED TURTLE was seen basking (and  
later some more were seen in Canning and elsewhere).

PLANTS IN BLOOM included COLTSFOOT, TREMBLING ASPEN, RED MAPLE,  
AMERICAN ELM (an apparently healthy large tree was a rare sight),  
SPECKLED ALDER, and unidentified WILLOW species.  The male willow  
bushes were attracting and humming with oodles of HONEY BEES, which  
were clearly gathering pollen on their hind legs, and a MOURNING  
CLOAK BUTTERFLY that gave the appearance of not only basking with  
open wings but also feeding on the willow flowers -- thus the latter  
must produce nectar in addition to the pollen?  Another butterfly  
seen was a CABBAGE WHITE, which several people were trying  
unsuccessfully to turn into a MUSTARD WHITE.

Next stop was northwest of Wellington Dyke (Canard Valley), at the  
Canard Rd. BALD EAGLE NEST.  I'm pretty sure they have tiny downy  
eaglets now, but we would have had to be very patient with good  
scopes to see them.  We did see both adult eagles, and 1-2 red-tailed  
hawks nearby.

Just east of Jawbone Corner (flashing light on Hwy. 358), we stopped  
at the home of Helen & Fred Archibald for a pit-stop and a bit of  
lunch.  Another pair of DOWNY WOODPECKERS was there, plus a flock of  
HOUSE SPARROWS, etc.

Then to Canard Pond, where we saw relatively very little, perhaps  
because a couple of people were walking along the pond bank when we  
arrived.  There were a male GADWALL, 1 or 2 N. PINTAILS flying over,  
2 female COMMON MERGANSERS, 2 MALLARDS, a few GREEN-WINGED TEALS, a  
bunch of the usual gulls plus an imm. ICELAND GULL, a well-seen SWAMP  
SPARROW.

Along Fred Thomas Road we couldn't spot a LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL in  
a large flock of herring and great black-backed gulls.  But a  
GROUNDHOG/WOODCHUCK was found at a burrow along the road.

Then we drove to Canning, stopping first at the Canning Aboiteau  
(Habitant River) at high tide: 10 CANADA GEESE and about 5 GREEN- 
WINGED TEALS.

Our last formal stop was in Canning at Harris' Pond, just nw. of the  
United Church: 2 AMERICAN WIGEONS (alias BALDPATES), 2 female C.  
MERGANSERS, a small number of SWALLOWS, including at least one each  
of BARN and TREE SWALLOWS, 1 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLER, and a couple of  
PAINTED TURTLES.

And, to finish off this trip, there was a roosting RACCOON that was  
not sleeping, up in a sugar maple?, AND a GRAY SQUIRREL!!  (probably  
one of the three that occasionally visit Merritt Gibson's property  
nearby).  Thus some of us will remember this year's excursion as the  
one with several mammal species seen.

I disbanded the field trip there in mid-afternoon, but then later  
checked a few other spots.

Port Williams sewage ponds: only a m,f pr of RING-NECKED DUCKS.

"Kidston's Pond" (upper Church St.): 6 male RING-NECKED DUCKS and 2  
male GREEN-WINGED TEALS.

New Minas Ducks Unlimited Pond (next to Cornwallis River): on the  
island I could see a single CANADA GOOSE, and this might signal the  
presence of an unseen mate on a NEST?

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville

Jim (James W.) Wolford
91 Wickwire Ave.
Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada
B4P 1W3

phone 902-542-9204
e-mail <jimwolford at eastlink.ca>

"In wildness is the preservation of the world" -- Henry David Thoreau

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