[ValleyNature] eagles & nests, 2-6 cardinals, cedar waxwings, squirrel & rose-hips, geese

[James W. Wolford]

FEB. 24, 2010 - In early afternoon I walked in east Wolfville with my  
binoculars for nearly an hour in beautifully sunny & warm conditions  
(6-7 C.), but, except for a single red squirrel and 4 bl.-c.  
chickadees, all other non-human animals must have been napping.

The red squirrel was very approachable and was consuming hips of  
multiflora rose, which is hyper-abundant in Wolfville.

FEB. 28, 2010 - Yesterday I heard a cardinal singing somewhere  
audible from my back yard, and today a song sparrow was singing often.

We haven't seen any flickers now for at least 10 days or 2 weeks, and  
I wonder if they haven't begun moving northward??

Yesterday in our neighborhood a raccoon was very obvious all day,  
curled up in a big ball and well out on a branch of a tall planted  
poplar.

MARCH 1, 2010 - This morning at home there was a flock of about 40  
cedar waxwings, with a few goldfinches.  Our feeder cardinals seem to  
be down to just 2 or 3 (1m,1f seen today); I wonder if our winter  
flock (a family) has now mostly dispersed away from the home  
territory??  And our red-breasted nuthatch is still present.

Brenda & Bill Thexton saw approximately 1000 Canada geese at  
Wellington Dyke in mid-afternoon.

MAR. 3, 2010 - I was wrong about the cardinals two days ago.  This  
morning right after I put out the feeders (Wolfville's raccoons plus  
my arrangement of feeders force me to take them away overnight), I  
was invaded by 6 cardinals (3m,3f) -- thus our "flock" is still  
partly intact.

During the noon hour I checked three different BALD EAGLE NESTS for  
any indications of nesting activities:

(1) no eagles seen at the Noggins Farm site (Greenwich);

(2) the adult female was sitting in the Canard Road nest, but this  
could be just pre-incubation behaviour that precedes the egg-laying  
and actual incubation, according to the Stokes field guide series on  
bird behaviour (3 volumes -- the one with the bald eagle(s) on the  
front cover (vol. 3?);

(3) at the Eye Road site east of Wolfville on route to Grand Pre, the  
two adult eagles  were perched side-by-side adjacent to the nest,  
and, as I watched, the smaller male hopped up on the female's back  
and they copulated for a few seconds, then resumed sitting together.

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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