[ValleyNature] long - nature notes, Mar. 16-26/09 - eagle nest checks, white geese, gray squirrels, snowy owl, feeder birds, sewage ponds, etc.

[James W. Wolford]

Sorry to send such a long report, but for unknown reasons I've been  
saving up some local goodies, including eagle nest checks, white  
geese, snowy owl, gray squirrels,  feeder birds, sewage ponds, etc.

Cheers from Jim in Wolfville
------------------------------
MAR. 16, 2009 - We still have the black-capped CHICKADEE WITH A  
STRIKINGLY WHITE TAIL at our feeders, and the adult WHITE-CROWNED  
SPARROW also appeared again today.

MAR. 17, 2009 - At Wellington Dyke (ne. of Port Williams) at mid-day  
there were at least 800 CANADA GEESE -- what a great sight and sound,  
as many were calling, most were on the ground (some close to the road  
in corn stubble, most in open fields just east of the road), and many  
small flocks were flying.  Two days ago, Brenda & Bill Thexton saw  
about 400 geese in the same spot.

Just north of Wellington Dyke, with herring gulls, was a single adult  
LESSER BLACK-BACKED GULL.

Today I checked three BALD EAGLE NESTS, and only one of them  
definitely had an apparent incubating adult in/on the nest: the  
occupied one was on the south bank of the mouth of the Canard River  
(se. of Wellington Dyke, on Starr's Point) on the property of Chris  
Cox's pig farm; the rebuilt nest on the north bank of the Cornwallis  
River just west of Willowbank Farm (Starr's Point Loop Road) had no  
attending eagles; and I could not see an adult eagle at the Canard  
nest (at Muskrat Marsh Farm, east of Jawbone Corner.

Also on March 15/09 Pat & I checked the BALD EAGLE NEST on the cliff  
edge at Blomidon (well south of the park), and no adult was visible  
on it; however, the angle and height of the nest leaves open that an  
adult was there but couldn't be seen.  [Since then someone else  
reported an adult eagle on this nest.]

At Chris Cox's farm at Starr's Point, an adult RAVEN was at the  
previously-used NEST built just below the top of the metal grain  
elevator, but I couldn't see any incubating adult in the nest.  The  
RAVEN NEST just north of the Acadia Arena now probably has an  
incubating adult on it, but there doesn't seem to be any place where  
I can view the nest clearly.

Port Williams sewage ponds: only 4 ducks, including a male mallard  
and 3 COMMON GOLDENEYES (2m,1f).

On the old Acadia gymnasium building, a ROCK PIGEON was in INCUBATING  
position on a nest.

MAR. 18, 2009 - WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW still present at our feeders.   
A SHARP-SHINNED HAWK was soaring in the glorious sunshine a bit north  
of our home in Wolfville in late morning.  Temperatures went to at  
least +12 C. today.  And a male CARDINAL showed up at our feeders at  
dusk (for the last few days, our pair of cardinals have not been seen).

MAR. 19, 2009 - Seeming a bit early (or overwintered?) this morning  
at our feeders was a lovely FOX SPARROW, joining the 12+ white- 
throated sparrows, single adult WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW, one AM. TREE  
SPARROW, single overwintered song sparrow, few juncos, single brown- 
plumaged PURPLE FINCH, black-capped chickadees (including the one  
with an all-white tail), 2 CARDINALS (m,f), mourning doves, blue  
jays, crows, pheasants, and 2 red squirrels.  Lots of singing over  
the past few days by white-throated and song sparrows.

Yesterday and today there were quite a few e-mail reports of small  
numbers of GRACKLES and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS at feeders at various  
places in Nova Scotia.   And even earlier there were several reports  
of WOODCOCKS, too, including one that Cindy Day apparently  
photographed on her deck? and then showed on her ATV weather report.

Susan Fuertado (542-0878) phoned to say she photographed EIGHT WHITE  
GEESE with pink bills and legs/feet, on the ice at Lumsden  
Reservoir.  She sent two PHOTOS that are not close enough to tell for  
sure, but look like they could have been SNOW GEESE?  NO -- I went up  
there in late afternoon the next day -- the geese are DOMESTICS,  
quite fat and not streamlined in body, no bands on legs, and possibly  
able to fly (one bird stretched a long-looking wing while I  
watched).  Mark Elderkin also saw them and agrees they are definitely  
domestics.

MAR. 20, 2009 - VERNAL EQUINOX, 8:44 a.m. (per Sherman Williams).

Merritt Gibson, when asked, said he regularly sees TWO GRAY SQUIRRELS  
in his Canning yard, as well as a small BLACK SQUIRREL; when I  
quizzed him about whether the small black one was a RED SQUIRREL?, he  
seemed reluctant to go out on a limb about what species it is.  [But  
later he said it's too big to be a red squirrel.]

The FOX SPARROW is still present at our Wolfville feeders.

MAR. 21, 2009 - At the Port Williams sewage ponds, 8 GOLDENEYES quite  
probably both species) flew away before I could view them well (3  
males), and they left 3 COMMON GOLDENEYES behind in the north pond  
(1m,2f).  Later there were also 11 mallards there.

I checked the small rebuilt BALD EAGLE NEST on the bank of the  
Cornwallis River west of Willowbank Farm, and the only eagle present  
was an immature that was perched about 25 metres from the nest.  The  
nest itself is very unimpressive and perhaps was never finished by  
the adults?

The Canard BALD EAGLE NEST does have an incubating adult eagle in it,  
but she? is very difficult to see, with just the top of her head  
visible from the road with a scope.

[FOR MORE ON BALD EAGLE NESTS, today Harold Forsyth sent me this e- 
mail message:

Jim, I found a NEW EAGLE NEST for your list in Greenwich with some  
direction from Peter Elderkin.  It is south of Stirling's Farm  
Market, across the field and in a pine tree.  It is fairly low in the  
tree and difficult to see.  It has 2 eagles in attendance with one  
sitting on the nest.

Four days ago I also noticed 2 eagles at the nest just before [south  
of] Blomidon Park with one sitting.]

Very few CANADA GEESE were in the area of Wellington Dyke, where  
Richard Stern had a wonderful show of 1000 geese, lots of ducks  
including 8+ N. PINTAILS, and a RED-TAILED HAWK and PEREGRINE FALCON  
interacting over a dead mallard (see his photos and video) yesterday.

Upstream from the Canning Aboiteau there were 300++ CANADA GEESE  
along the Habitant River (and a m,f pr of COMMON GOLDENEYES.

WARNING: the dirt "road" from the Canning riverside park to the  
Legion is impassable because of a partial wash-out that needs to be  
repaired.

MAR. 22, 2009 - I tried to observe the shy flock of GOLDENEYES at  
Port Williams sewage ponds, but they flew again before I could get it  
done.  However, the north pond held two newly-arrived male RING- 
NECKED DUCKS.  Also there was an all-white immature ICELAND GULL  
(first winter?).

Pat and I saw our first male RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD for this spring,  
apparently on territory in a tree at the edge of the newest Van  
Nostrand's Pond, Starr's Point.  And we saw 4 male COMMON GRACKLES in  
our home neighborhood in Wolfville.  We saw a single AM. ROBIN along  
Saxon St. south of Canning.

I also got a call from Robin Whidden about a possible SNOWY OWL that  
weirdly was flushed from under a very small coniferous shrub on the  
edge of her driveway along east Church Street, north of Port  
Williams.  Judy Tufts and Bernard Forsythe confirmed that indeed it  
was a SNOWY OWL.  It could fly a bit, and it flew away toward the  
northwest toward the Canard Valley when last seen.  As far as I know,  
we have had no local sightings of snowy owls since the one that was  
at Starr's Point in mid-December, 2008.  Perhaps this Church St.  
individual was on its way back northward in early Spring?

In early evening, a CARDINAL sang beautifully twice in our Wolfville  
neighborhood.

MAR. 23, 2009 - In our back yard, a cock PHEASANT surprised me this  
morning by puffing out its body feathers, standing vertically up on  
"tiptoes", and CROWING and flapping just like Spring, even though it  
was -4 C. and the pheasant was standing in a bit of new-fallen snow.

Still at our feeders are a FOX SPARROW and an AM. TREE SPARROW, about  
10 new GOLDFINCHES, etc., plus the NORWAY RAT which appears from time  
to time and seems quite unwary now (likely to lead to its demise  
soon, I hope?).

MAR. 24, 2009 - More WINTER WEATHER, with a blizzard plus very strong  
winds from east.  Lots of birds at feeders, including our FOX  
SPARROW, CHICKADEE WITH WHITE TAIL, several JUNCOS with our 10+ white- 
throated sparrows, 1 song sparrow, crows, 1+1 cock pheasants, etc.

MAR. 25, 2009 - Today at our feeders I noticed at least three SONG  
SPARROWS, two more than the single that overwintered there.

MAR. 26, 2009 - Port Williams sewage/sewer ponds, with George  
Forsyth: about 100 AM. ROBINS (obviously new migrants, right on time)  
in a loose flock with many of them feeding on fruits of staghorn  
sumac; 4 mallards and a single male COMMON GOLDENEYE in the north  
pond; and about 250 CANADA GEESE across the highway on the dykeland  
along the river.
--------------------------
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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