Odds and Ends

 At home

02 July, 2022

     A Sharp-lined Yellow (Sicya macularia) decided to pay us a visit, and we were happy to welcome it to the backyard.

     

04 July, 2022

     No less welcome was a Large Yellow Underwing (Noctua pronuba) in the porch when we opened the front door. 

     It appears headless in the picture, but I can assure you it was not!

09 July, 2022

     The patch of Butterfly Milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) we planted a few years ago, has bloomed in profusion each year and presents a very striking image at the side of our driveway. 

     A Monarch (Danaus plexippus) was seen nectaring on it, flitting from flower to flower.

     Many is the time I have seen a dozen or more Western Honey Bees (Apis mellifera) exploiting its sweetness.

12 August, 2022

     Miriam was working in the garden under the bay window at the front of the house and noticed this Northern Dog-day Cicada (Neotibicen canicularis), an impressive insect to say the least.

18 June, 2022

Hillside Park, Waterloo, ON

     We joined Jonah and Kayla to meet little Shai, the newest member of their family, but sleeping in the stroller was more to his liking than chatting about birds!

     There were many Ebony Jewelwings (Calopteryx maculata) going about the business of their short lives.

     The following fly has me totally baffled. It is perhaps a type of Snipe Fly, but I am far from sure of that.

     It is undeniably attractive.

08 July, 2022

SpruceHaven, St. Agatha

     Kayla had long expressed an interest in a visit to SpruceHaven, which was made even more interesting by the accompaniment of Jonah's parents, Jack and Yaffa, who were visiting from Ottawa, a delightful couple if ever I met one.

     Who can fail to be enchanted by baby Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica)?

     An American Cliff Swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) (see below) was busy at its nest.

     Shai finally agreed to put it an appearance, photo-bombed by Grandpa Jack in the right hand corner.

23 July, 2022

RIM Park, Waterloo, ON

     There was great excitement in the local birding community when a Black-bellied Whistling Duck (Dendrocygna autumnalis), far outside its normal range, decided to pay us a visit.

     I saw Mallards (Anas platyrynchos).....

     ..... and a preening Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus).....

     ..... and Canada Geese (Branta canadensis).....

     ..... and finally the star of the show!

     It had no idea what a celebrity it had become.

31 July, 2022

SpruceHaven, St. Agatha, ON

     The barn at SpruceHaven contains around seventy-five Barn Swallow nests in an active colony that has been present there for decades. The farm has been in the Westfall family for almost fifty years with continuous occupancy since their arrival. In fact, it was the idyllic scene of swallows dipping over the pond and feeding above it that sufficiently enchanted Dave's parents to buy the property.

      Thirty to thirty-five nests are in use each year, or at least have been during the six years we have monitored them.

     In July 2020, a pair of American Cliff Swallows built a nest in the barn and successfully raised young. It seemed quite remarkable to me at the time, never having experienced a mixed colony of Barn Swallows and Cliff Swallows.  What is even more noteworthy now, is that we have five Cliff Swallow nests, some of which are Barn Swallow structures usurped and modified by the Cliff Swallows.

     The fourth picture from the top is the first Cliff Swallow nest built in the barn, a structure entirely typical of the species. The others, originally Barn Swallow nests, have been modified in odd ways, yet some were used successfully this year.

     A Cliff Swallow colony inside a barn is highly unusual and my experience with this species has always been of colonies under bridges, culverts and on buildings. I have never found nests in a building and there is scant reference to it in the literature. Angela Turner comments that occasionally Cliff Swallows will nest inside buildings, but there is no indication they do so in the presence of other species. I should add that I never observed any inter-specific conflict, nor intra-specific conflict for that matter, although Cliff Swallows are notoriously aggressive in large colonies of their own species.

     A Green Heron (Butorides virens) approached very close while we were concealed by the hide at the edge of the pond.

     We have a very poor picture of a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis).

     This species is quite rare in this area, in fact nowhere common. It is extremely wary and difficult to approach, hence its common name "dasher". The one thing in our favour was that it tends to return to the same perch and by the exercise of dogged patience Miriam was able to obtain this image, overcoming the combined obstacles of it not being particularly close and shooting into the sun.

     There are more odds and ends, but I'll save those for another time.

American Cliff Swallows (Hirondelles à front blanc) Feeding Young

     It has been exciting to have a pair of American Cliff Swallows ( Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) nesting for the first time at SpruceHaven and I have watched these birds closely since the early stages of nest construction.

     Recently we confirmed that they now have young, and as far as I can tell there are at least three nestlings, all hungry, all constantly begging for food.

     I have seen more than one head at the entrance to the nest, but have not been able to get a picture.

     A clutch of young birds places great demands on the parents and they have to maintain a constant food delivery, in addition to securing enough sustenance for themselves to remain in condition to provision their nestlings. 

     I thought it would be instructive to watch the nest for an hour and here is what I recorded.

14:09 Food delivery

14:11 Food delivery

14:14 Food delivery. Retrieval of faecal sac.

14:17 Food delivery

14:22 Food delivery

14:23 Food delivery

14:28 Food delivery

14:30 Food delivery

14:36 Food delivery

14:37 Food delivery

14:39 Food delivery

14:40 Food delivery

14:41 Food delivery

14:43 Food delivery. Retrieval of faecal sac.

14:47 Food delivery

14:49 Food delivery. Both parents arrived at the same time. One entered the nest completely.

14:52 Food delivery

14:58 Food delivery

14:59 Food delivery. Retrieval of faecal sac.

15:00 Food delivery 

15:03 Food delivery. Both parents arrived at the same time.

15:07 Food delivery

     This means that food was brought to the nest, on average, every 2.7 minutes. A prodigious task indeed.

     For those not familiar with faecal sacs, many young birds excrete little packages, neatly wrapped up,  which are conveniently removed by their parents to maintain nest sanitation. The "poop packages" are dropped away from the nest so as not to leave clues for would-be predators. I caught the removal of three of them yesterday, but I may have missed a couple also.

     I had to position myself far enough away from the nest so that the birds would not be deterred from delivering food to the waiting mouths, and I am the first to admit the pictures are not the greatest, but they do illustrate the activity. Usually the birds were at the nest for mere seconds, just time enough to deposit food into gaping maws.

     One could not help but be impressed with the diligence of the two adults tirelessly going back and forth to feed their young.

     The primary inhabitants of the barn are Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) and they too have many nests with young. For a brief moment I thought one of the Barn Swallows was going to stuff food into the waiting mouth of a Cliff Swallow nestling, no doubt emitting begging cries, but at the last minute the Barn Swallow "came to its senses" and veered away.

     It was a fascinating way to spend an hour and I learned a lot. I headed for home to have a cup of tea with Miriam; the hard-working Cliff Swallows still had this to deal with.

       I wish them well. May they grace us with their presence again next year.   

     

Highlights from Recent Walks and Updates on Swallows and Ospreys

    Immediately parental duties are dispensed with Baltimore Orioles (Icterus galbula) begin their pre-basic moult, which is complete, in preparation for their long migration south. This individual shows evidence of moult.

   
       
     I suspect that the blue-grey bill of this species is a seldom noted feature, and many birders might be hard-pressed to correctly identify it, having besotted themselves with the black and orange splendour of this much-loved bird.

     The picture above shows the bill in excellent detail - from New World Blackbirds, Jaramillo and Burke (1999) - ".........with the lower mandible, and the cutting edge of the upper mandible, entirely blue-grey."

     Thanks, Miriam, for capturing this feature so well.

     A Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) is a bird that invites anthropomorphism. The males seem to sing for the sheer pleasure of doing so!

     Birds are not the only creatures to capture our attention. I think I first saw this foal when it was mere days old and the passage of time has only added to its allure.

     It never strays far from mama, who furnishes security and food in one reliable package.

     There is another horse and foal in the same paddock, and both foals have the white badge on the forehead, perhaps indicating common fatherhood.
     American Robins (Turdus migratorius), both adult and young are seemingly everywhere!

     This Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) remained high in the trees, perhaps a little more secure there from birds anxious to make lunch of it.

     Better beware, however, an Eastern Kingbird (Tyrannus tyrannus) was perched uncharacteristically in the uppermost foliage, and would make short work of a juicy butterfly given the chance.

     We have settled on Hillside Park, with an entry from Forwell Park, as our default after-dinner walk, providing a round-trip of about four kilometres, with a host of wildlife to occupy our curious minds.

     There appears to be a robust population of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) with several nests. They have provided us with a good deal of pleasure. The eastern race is yellow-shafted, as the picture below illustrates, with the wing looking like a saucer or a piece of wood cut from a branch!

     The individual below is in a more conventional pose.

     Until recently we had not seen Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) this year. Our most reliable spot to find this species is The Mill Race Trail, which has been closed since the beginning of the pandemic. You will understand our delight when we located three together in Hillside Park.

     A female Brown-headed Cowbird probably poses little threat to potential host species by late July, most of which have completed egg laying for the year.

     As humans, as you all know, we can at times display an incredible degree of stupidity. We deliberately introduced the Gypsy Moth (Lymantria dispar) to defoliate our deciduous forests and woodlands, to follow up in short order with the Japanese Beetle (Papila japonica) to decimate leaf tissue and ripening fruit. 

     Don't hold your breath that we have finished with such folly.
     The Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) at SpruceHaven are into second broods, and seem to be thriving in the hot weather that causes so many of us to wilt.

     The pioneering pair of American Cliff Swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) in the meantime are busily adding to their nest. 

     It will be with a sense of triumph if I am able to report soon that nest construction has been completed and the female is incubating eggs. My fingers and toes are crossed I hope yours are too!
     The Western Ospreys (Pandion haliaeetus) at River Song continue to delight us, and we check on them several times a week. Parental dedication is the hallmark of this pair.

     We also a monitor another active osprey nest in Waterloo but it is both farther away and higher, so we are not given the intimate views we have with the River Song pair, but the degree of dedication to the welfare of the young seems less admirable. I have never, for example, seen the Waterloo pair shield the nestlings from the hot summer sun. Perhaps this is a young pair breeding for the first time, with much to learn.
     Covid-19 has impacted all of us in different ways, but perhaps for the person whose life is woven around the ever-changing, ever-fascinating, ever-satisfying world of nature, the effects have often been barely noticeable.