A New Place

The past few weeks have been full of activity and change, good and bad. We visited Ottawa last week and enjoyed breath-taking Canadian autumnal beauty. The entire five hour trip was along “streets of gold” but the view from the Gatineau hills in the province of Quebec across the Ottawa River valley was beyond description. 

We took our dog, Raven, for her first long road trip. She has outgrown her car-sick ways and adapted well to staying in our daughter’s new home. She is only a year and a half old but has grown very accustomed to our house and daily routines. Raven watched us closely day and night the first couple of days in Ottawa, never sure if we were going to pack up and go somewhere else. But she came to trust that we would not abandon her and we were able to leave her and visit The Canadian War Museum one afternoon. 

Today was my last vacation day and I got up early to visit Ruthven Park for fall bird banding. I arrived as the sun rose and was fortunate to see a Saw-whet Owl caught in the first net run of the morning. It was a fine fall day to walk the trails along the river, woods and meadows at the park. There have been record numbers of birds moving through the area over the weekend as shorter distance migrants are making the push south. It must be terrifying for the birds to be caught in nets not knowing they will be handled benevolently and then released.

Like Raven or birds in the mist net, we may find ourselves in a new place where we are not in control. Fear of abandonment and an unknown future bring anxiety and we may not recognize that someone is caring and watching out for us all the time.  

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? 

Yet not one of them will fall to the ground

apart from the will of your Father. 

Matthew 10:29

Motherhood

Sandhill Cranes with a very young colt

My Mothers' Day treat was spending the morning at Ruthven Park at the bird banding station. Spring migration is in full swing and I have had little time for birding in the past few weeks.  I saw many inspiring mothers.

Tree Swallow 

Female Bluebird feeding her newly fledged offspring

Kildeer sitting on her nest

Ruthven Park has a couple of graveyards. I sat on a bench by one of them to eat my lunch and noticed this tombstone erected in honour of a mother who was born the same day as me, but 129 years earlier. Her first name is similar to mine as well and she died on my mother's birthday, 55 years before Mom's birth. Almost 2 centuries after Eliza J. Rogers' started her journey on earth, we are reminded of the respect and affection her children had for their mother.

I had an unspoken wish for today, and that was to see a Scarlet Tanager for the first time. I left home before 5 AM and when I arrived at the park shortly after 6 AM, it was the first bird I spotted with my binoculars. When we did the first round of the mist nets, two beautiful males were caught together and I got to hold both of them!

Happy Mothers' Day to me, to my mother and mothers everywhere!

Photo by Rick Ludkin

55 Species seen today, 1 life bird and 28 FOY birds.


Tennessee Warbler, Myrtle Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Gray-blue Gnatcatcher, Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Palm Warbler, American Redstart, Nashville Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kinglet


White-throated Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow


Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Baltimore Oriole, Orchard Oriole, Common Grackle, Gray Catbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Northern Cardinal, Blue Jay, Cedar Waxwing, Veery, Swainson's Thrush, Red-winged Blackbird, Indigo Bunting, American Goldfinch, House Wren, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Flicker, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-bellied Woodpecker, American Robin, American Goldfinch, Bobolink


Tree Swallow, Purple Martin, Rough-winged Swallow, Spotted Sandpiper, Belted Kingfisher, Caspian Tern, Herring Gull, Kildeer, Canada Goose, Mallard Duck, Great Blue Heron


Wild Turkey, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk, Sandhill Crane

Murdoch Mysteries and Ruthven Park

Ruthven Mansion picture taken by me when I was looking at Bluebirds and Orioles

Early last year my friend Lesley introduced me to the Detective Murdoch Mysteries by Maureen Jennings. Set in Toronto, Ontario at the end of the 19th century, they feature Detective William Murdoch, a forward thinking man with an interest in new forensic methods. She also told me about the TV series and her 85 year old mother raved meeting the handsome star of the show at a reception. I did not really take note of the details as I am not one to watch much television.

Set for Murdoch Mysteries at Ruthven Park (Riversong*)

Fast forward to May of this year. I was at Ruthven Park for bird banding and I noticed that the house and grounds had been used for filming an episode in season four of the Murdoch mysteries. I took more interest and found that our local library had seasons one and two available on DVD. My friend's mother was right. Yannick Bisson is very good looking and well suited for his role as Detective Murdoch. I recognized many places in various episodes including Webster's Falls near Hamilton ON and areas of Cambridge ON in our region.

Bird Banding station at Ruthven Park

I love a good detective story and these are fast paced with a thread of historical interest. Season Four premieres on Tuesday June 7, 2011 on City TV. I see that the DVDs are well received on Amazon.ca as well as Amazon.com. I started to watch the pilot movies but found them plodding and dark. Here's hoping the new season is a snappy as the first two which we watched over the past couple of weeks.

*Riversong -Newsletter of the Lower Grand River Land Trust December 2010

Happy Birthday Grandma, Happy Mothers’ Day and a Northern Parula

Grandma Devins was born on this day 115 years ago. It sounds unlikely (to me) that I could have spent 35 years of my life with someone who was born in 1896. I wrote a post on May 10, 2007 about Grandma’s 48th birthday birding party in 1944. She and her friends counted birds at the family farm near Aurora Ontario and her list was quite impressive. I have seen most of the birds she recorded that day, but the Northern Parula has eluded me as not many sightings are reported around here. I was at Ruthven Park this past weekend and Peter Thoem, who doing the census on the grounds that day, took a picture of a Northern Parula near the banks of the Grand River. He gave me directions and I headed off along a creek in search of Grandma’s bird. And I was not disappointed, although my photographs were the worst bird pictures of the year. I watched the bird flit and sing in the canopy for a good ten minutes. (Thanks Peter for allowing me to post your photo)

Happy Northern Parula Birthday Grandma!

My blurry but very meaningful picture of the singing N. Parula

My eldest brother has some of Grandma’s books and this week he sent me a copy of a letter found in one of them. Grandma treated a sick baby and 52 years later the mother sent this thank you note.

May 1986

Dear Dr. Devins,

Just a short note with your card. I often think of you from a long time back and as 

I saw your birthday was coming up and I do want to say “Happy Birthday” to you...
It is fifty two years ago this summer you were so good to us when our baby was so sick. 

I still remember how patient you were with me and he was so sick 

but you knew exactly what to do for him. 

He still has red hair...and has four children. One boy is married with two little girls...
We wish you all the best of health and happiness and thanks again for your kindness in 1934.

Sincerely W. and W. G.

Happy Birthday Grandma! After 115 years you really do live on. We can live on through the deeds we do and the people we love and care for in our life time.

Mothers’ Day is always May 10th in Mexico so I will wish my mom Happy Mothers’ Day again. She continues to invest in the lives of others around her and is enjoying improving health and strength. It was a year ago she had two surgeries for cancer and a course of chemotherapy afterward.

Spring Beauties

This is my most wonderful time of the year. The leaves are opening here and apple trees are beginning to bloom. The world is young and beautiful again and I am out and about as much as possible enjoying the season.

Winter Bird Banding- Part Three

Impressive talons

Nancy lives a short distance from the Snow Bunting banding field. Her husband is also a bird bander and while she was busy in the van, her son called to say they had captured a Rough-legged Hawk. Rick encouraged us to leave the Buntings to him and we raced over to see the big bird.

Rough-legged Hawks are yet another species which breed in the Arctic Tundra and are found here only in the winter months. I have seen many from a distance and find them to be a striking, easy to identify raptor, especially in flight.

The bird was very calm and allowed Mike, who is an experienced handler,  to inspect it closely as he measured the wings and determined its age and sex. (male, greater than 2 years old).

After a final round of photographs, the hawk was released and soared to a nearby tree where it rearranged its feathers before it took off again. It was certainly an unexpected bonus for the day!

I posted this video on YouTube with some of the stills and a movie clip I shot at the Snow Bunting field. The Rough-legged Hawk is not included in this less-than-two-minute presentation. I wish I could have anticipated and filmed the Merlin attacks but some things just have to be seen and remembered.

Winter Bird Banding- Part Two

A Merlin fantasy- two superimposed images

The cold weather and recent heavy snowfalls have made it difficult for raptors to hunt for prey. I have seen more hawks around feeders than usual lately and they are working very hard for each meal. A trap of captured birds in a field is going to attract some attention. The Ruthven banders have reported a good number of unwanted visitors as they band the small birds. When I arrived, a Merlin and an American Kestrel were watching the proceedings with great interest. The Merlin flew off its perch in quick pursuit many times after a bird was released from the van window. The Snow Buntings always avoided capture and the aerial chases were quite exciting. The banders were not trying to put the birds at risk and kept a close eye on the predators. I was able to get very close to the Merlin who was not at all interested in me and eyed me with some disdain.

Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs were also attracted to the ground traps. The larks were very cautious and were rarely captured even though good numbers of them were around. Lapland Longspurs were a new life bird for me and it is doubtful I would have spotted them in a flock of buntings without assistance. I had to opportunity to release one of them.

Lapland Longspur

I wish I had taken an picture of the extended rear claw for which it is named. This is another bird of the Arctic tundra but it is seen less commonly in our area in the winter even though it is not a species at risk. The picture below shows at least two Lapland Longspurs in a flock of Snow Buntings and it was not until after I downloaded the picture that I noticed them.

The picture below shows a Horned Lark between two buntings. They are much easier to pick out in a crowd. All the birds were quite vocal and their chirping and calling made pleasant listening.

Birds seen in the immediate vicinity of the banding operation:- 9 species of note

Snow Bunting, Lapland Longspur, Horned Lark, Merlin, American Kestrel, Coopers Hawk, Northern Mockingbird, Wild Turkey, Northern Shrike, plus the usual rural birds like doves, pigeons, etc.

Winter Bird Banding- Part One

 

I wrote a few posts about my visits to the bird banding station at Ruthven Park last fall. For the second winter, hard-working volunteers are trapping and banding Snow Buntings near Caledonia, Ontario. I follow the Ruthven nature blog and admire their persistence in the face of bitterly cold winter temperatures as they work in the field while parked in a van for hours at a time. 

A flock of Snow Buntings approaching the ground traps

 My visit was on a beautiful winter day with comfortable temperatures around -5C and no wind to speak of.  Snow Buntings breed in the high arctic, far above the tree line but migrate south in the winter. Large flocks are seen in area farm fields in the winter where they forage for fallen grain.

Banding started this day before sunrise, a little after 7AM. I had a 75 minute drive to get there and left about the time they started, pulling in on the lightly travelled secondary road around 9AM. Notice the lack of washroom facilities (even bushes) out here so my thermos of hot tea remained untouched. 

Nancy and Rick set out ground traps baited with cracked corn. In this picture they are removing birds from the traps and putting them in cloth drawstring bags. 

A portable banding lab was set up in a van and all necessary tools were between the two front seats. I sat in the back and watched as each bird was taken from its bag, measured, sexed, aged, its fat stores and muscle analyzed and weight taken. 

I saw first hand the difference between male and female plumage. First year male birds are somewhere inbetween and it takes special skill and experience to determine the sex of younger birds. They are very pretty sparrows in my opinion.

Parts two and three to follow....

More Banded Birds

Male Rusty Blackbird

My daughters sometimes laugh at my enthusiastic accounts of bird encounters. I was telling one of them that I held a Rusty Blackbird and she asked facetiously,

"Would you get tentanus if you were bitten by a Rusty Blackbird?"

Well I guess I will find out. 

A variety of sparrows, finches and black birds were captured and tagged on October 30th. There were seven different sparrows caught, not counting Juncos. Sometimes there was a moment of uncertainty about the species, especially with juveniles, but the banders had reference books available. Here are six different birds. How many can you identify?

pɹıqʞɔɐןq ʎʇsnɹ ǝןɐɯǝɟ ˙6
ɥɔuıɟ ǝןdɹnd ˙5
ʍoɹɹɐds pǝuʍoɹɔ-ǝʇıɥʍ ǝןıuǝʌnɾ ˙4
ʍoɹɹɐds pןǝıɟ ˙3
ʍoɹɹɐds dɯɐʍs ˙2
(ʍoɹɹɐds ƃuos snuoq) ʍoɹɹɐds xoɟ ˙1

sɹǝʍsuɐ

My First Eastern Tufted Titmouse

The past week has been extremely busy and included a quickly planned business trip to Canada by my father and brother. We enjoyed their visit and they returned to Mexico at the end of the week. I took a couple of days off work and chauffered them around but the weather was less than ideal and like much of the continent, we experienced high winds and rain.

I have had little time to wander about outdoors so I decided to spend this morning at the bird banding station at Ruthven Park. Fall banding is almost done and will continue only until the second week of November. Dawn is arriving later now with sunrise today at 7:50 AM, so I did not have to get up much earlier than usual to get to the park, which is a 75 minute drive south of our home. Many birds are making the final push to migrate and the banding station is busier than when I visited at the end of September.

One bird I have wanted to see for a long time is the Tufted Titmouse. According to the bird guide, "they barely range into southeastern Canada in the Great Lakes region." I have never heard of any sightings in our city but they are seen occasionally in the Niagara area and the north shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

The banding station was busy and I scribed for two banders. Other people were taking the birds out of the nets and placing them in bags to be inspected and tagged. Those of us in the station did not know what was in each bag and it was like opening a gift (which sometimes pooped) each time a bird was extracted. And just for me, there was one Eastern Tufted Titmouse. I asked for a time-out from scribing to take pictures of the spunky bird. It is related to the Black-capped Chickadee but has far more attitude and a much louder voice. It reminds me of a Blue Jay in a small package. I took my pictures quickly because this bird was an aggressive little nipper unlike most of the birds I have held after banding.

Ouch!...but very worth the pinch!

Here is the link to today's banding report on the Ruthven Park Nature Blog.

Name that Bird!

Female Black Poll Warbler, Young Red-eyed Vireo
Young Wood Peewee, Blue headed Vireo

It is often difficult to identify a bird seen briefly in a leafy bush or treetop. This is especially true in the fall when many adult birds are molting and juveniles are seen in greater numbers. The set of pictures above shows four birds with similar colouring, but when seen up close, their differences are apparent. I am not skilled enough to differentiate many fall birds and I can name these only because I took notes at the banding station.

Male Magnolia Warbler, Gray Cheeked Thrush
Nashville Warbler, Female Magnolia Warbler (I think!!)

Other birds were more distinctive but are not commonly seen due to their secretive nature. Once again, these birds were new to me but they are appearing regularly at Ruthven Park during fall migration. They are also hiding in my region which is just an hour or so to the north.


It was nice to hold an unmistakeably familiar bird in my hand and this Slate-coloured Junco was calm and poised as I took its picture. They are just starting to arrive for their winter stay and will be at our feeders until spring.


I saw a fairly small snapping turtle near the river. Ruthven Park also had a hibernaculum which is a large pit, 3 metres deep, which extends below the frost line. It is filled with discarded construction concrete and is designed to attract snakes during the winter. I actually tiptoed up to the edge of it sincerely hoping there were no snakes lolling around.

Much as I enjoy my job, I would prefer to spend September and October volunteering at this banding station. Fall really is my favourite time of year and spending each morning outdoors would be very appealing, especially when there is so much to see and learn.

New birds seen on September 24 and 27:

Gray-cheeked Thrush, Magnolia Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler

A total of 33 different species were banded.

Banding at Ruthven Park

Ruthven Park is situated along the Grand River near Cayuga, Ontario. It was a 19th century estate developed in 1840 by David Thompson and tours of the mansion and outbuildings are available. There are marked trails in various habitats including riverside, meadow and woodland areas. The perennial gardens around the house and scattered feeding stations attract birds as well.

Birds are collected in mist nets or in ground cages. I believe there were about ten nets around the park and two sets of cages near the house. The trapped birds are removed, placed in individual cloth bags and are carried to the banding station. Each bird is inspected carefully, banded and the released as quickly as possible. The sex, age, weight, wing length, fat storage and muscle development details are recorded as well as information about the time, date, and location of the banding.


Rick Ludkin is the master bander and his skill in handling birds and quickly assessing them is admirable. He also keeps an excellent blog detailing daily happenings which you can follow here. I met Nancy and Liz who help out on a regular basis at the station. Nancy is able to operate the station on her own and is very knowledgeable as well. I visited for a second time today, recorded data on a spreadsheet and helped take down the nets when it started raining. I was dismally uncoordinated with the nets and was challenged with removing the dried leaves which had blown in. I am definitely not ready to take down captured birds. Both days I was able to handle and release a number of birds which was a real pleasure.

Students are introduced to a Northern Flicker

A busload of elementary school children arrived and there were enough birds caught that each child could hold and release one bird. I do love children of this age group and they were most interested in the variety of birds and the banding process. Rick is a natural educator and was very patient with the groups. The morning went by very quickly. In the end, 84 birds were banded and 21 birds were re-trapped with a total of 105 birds handled. Rick has a list of the species captured today here.

I am organizing the bird pictures I did take and will post more this week. I have some of my better pictures in this album on Flickr.

Wind and Wings

+Myrtle Warbler in net

The closest bird banding station is 90 minutes south of us and the nets go up in predawn darkness. In April and May, it means arriving very early but during fall migration, dawn arrives around 7 AM rather than 5:30 AM. If the weather is very rainy or windy, banding is off, so setting a date in advance for a visit can be tricky. I have been checking the long term weather forecasts, which seem to be about 50% accurate three or four days ahead of time, and made a decision to visit the station yesterday.

Part of the "net route"

It was muggy and hot, close to 30C, which is not typical late September weather. The winds were relatively calm early on but a cold front approached by mid-morning bringing strong, gusty winds. The nets had a few interesting birds the first couple of times we checked them, but by the third and fourth round, they contained more leaves than birds. This was good for me because the master bander, Rick Ludkin, had time to explain things and I had more time to look at the birds which were captured, examined and released. On a busy day he told me there is no time for chit-chat.

Rick checks the nets for birds but finds many leaves instead

Highway 54 is a scenic route which follows the Grand River’s banks closely and as I travelled north in the afternoon, I came across a recovery operation at the scene of the crash of a small plane in the river. I felt sick as I watched the rafts in the river and saw the underside of the submerged airplane in the water. The plane had crashed shortly after take off when one of the strong wind gusts caused a down draft. It seemed a sad ending to my perfect morning.

Submerged aircraft

But...listening to the news a few hours later, I learned that the pilot and his passenger were rescued unharmed in the river and the recovery operation I witnessed was to locate pieces of the airplane.

Winds can buffet and hinder, or they can be favourable and push in the right direction. Winds hindered airborne operations today for birds and planes but all was not lost. I will share some pictures from the bird banding station in the next few days.