[ValleyNature] Bird Fall Out, Digby Neck

[James W. Wolford]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: James Hirtle <jrhbirder at hotmail.com>
> Date: October 17, 2009 11:44:06 PM ADT
> To: Naturens Naturens <naturens at chebucto.ns.ca>, Rare Alert <ns- 
> rba at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [NatureNS] Bird Fall Out
> Reply-To: naturens at chebucto.ns.ca
>
> Dorothy Poole and I set out to make a day trip to Brier Island.  We  
> reached Digby Neck by 11:10 and by 18:30 had only gotten as far as  
> Mink Cove.  Now for those not familiar with Digby Neck we were not  
> even near the end or close to the ferry at that point.
>
> Before I go into any details of what we discovered, I'll list some  
> other birds of note before Digby Neck.  There were 20 evening  
> grosbeaks at Princedale. There also appeared to be a nice movement  
> of sparrows with 11 song sparrows, a swamp sparrow and a chipping  
> sparrow.  A common yellowthroat was also nice for the first warbler  
> for the day.  Thirteen American Robins were present.  So keep in  
> mind the sparrows and robins for later as both were moving through  
> in numbers.
>
> At Bear River we had a flock of 42 common grackles, which  
> disappeared before we could see if any other blackbirds were with  
> them.   American Robins numbered 57 and we had four hermit thrushes.
>
> Now to Digby Neck where 21 ruby-crowned kinglets were a treat.  My  
> best counts were one group of eight at one time a few feet in front  
> of me.  Another group contained six and the rest were in ones and  
> twos.  American Robins totaled 197.  There were six more hermit  
> thrushes.  For sparrows, we had two juvenile American Tree  
> Sparrows,   143 song sparrows, 211 chipping sparrows (these are  
> just what we saw, and who knows how many more there were.  Keep in  
> mind we did not cover all the way out the neck, nor Long Island.   
> The largest groupings were one of 47 birds and another with 60.    
> At the Sandy Cove Wharf to the left coming from Digby we had two  
> white-crowned sparrows.  We had two clay-colored sparrows, one at  
> Gulliver's Cove GPS 268052 4942670.  The other was at Sandy Cove to  
> the right if coming from Digby.  The only other sparrows were one  
> white-throated sparrow, three swamp sparrows and a savannah  
> sparrow.  Thats 363 sparrows in total.
>
> For warblers we had common yellowthroat, a palm warbler, and  48  
> yellow-rumped warblers.
>
> A female harlequin duck was a surprise at Sandy Cove as was a  
> female blue grosbeak.
>
> I do not know where the wind turbine is going to end up in that  
> area.  We saw signs of protest everywhere.  I just hope and pray  
> that it is not going to be on the ridge that runs out to Gulliver's  
> Cove.  If I were to recommend a mountainous area for a hawk  
> monitoring station in Nova Scotia that would be the spot.  It would  
> be at the point of land that juts out at the end of Gulliver's  
> Cove.  I've seen in the past 300 broad-winged hawks along the  
> ridge, as well as turkey vulures, sharp-shinned hawks, merlins,  
> American kestrels, and northern harriers.  In the fall you hardly  
> ever drive by without seeing at least a few hawks.
>
> Getting to the point at Gulliver's Cove.  We likely missed a lot  
> before arriving, but it was one of the best hawk spectacles, that  
> I've seen in a while.  In all we had 14 red-tailed hawks, nine bald  
> eagles, 23 sharp-shinned hawks, 10 turkey vultures, an osprey, an  
> american kestrel, and six peregrine falcons.  I'm not sure what  
> transpired, but we watched three peregrines meet and greet one  
> another with calls and acrobatics.  They then sailed off together  
> out over the ocean.  There were two males and a female.  The raptor  
> show was basically over by 14:00 and we had only been watching for  
> under an hour.
>
> A group of 50 red-breasted mergansers is worth mentioning and  
> denotes that they are now migrating.  A flock of 16 red-winged  
> blackbirds was also nice to see.  The only other species of note  
> for the time of year was a blue-headed vireo at Sandy Cove.
>
> James R. Hirtle
> Bayport
>
>
>
>
>
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