May, the month when you go out into the woods full of optimism and looking forward to seeing all the summer visitors, then you leave having met a wide range of biting insects and looking like you’ve had an attack of acne, again. Then there’s the ticks, you don’t even have to go in the grass to pick them up, no, they lurk in high branches and somehow leap with great accuracy onto your clothing. I suggest appending ‘Little Bastard’ to every current tick name to accurately describe their status- few would argue, perhaps Guineafowl might but we can safely ignore them, they can’t vote.
My May warbler efforts have been a bit limited by both species availability and the cold and windy easterly winds we all enjoyed during the peak mid-May bird movement. I’m still missing a few, but I’ll see them all at some point, I just have to be patient.
Ever since Rick found the Swainson’s Hawk and having seen it the next day but backlit, I’ve been wanting to try for better photos, so Sandra and I have tried a few times before we got lucky. Initially, it was on its favourite utility pole but soon got up and did some flying about. As it drifted away, we headed quite quickly towards the big red barn on Chebogue Road and managed to get right under it for the shots. Here are a few.
For Fish Sake!
The discovery of a mega-rarity is something that not everyone gets to experience, so when a finder of such a delight writes their find up well on their eBird checklist, and does it in such a way as to convey the excitement of the moment, it’s one of the vicarious enjoyment events that make birding so compelling. Just such an event took place on 16th May when Kathleen found a Fish Crow on Cape Forchu. The bird called diagnostically and was sound recorded well. Naturally we scrambled to try to see it too, but it went who knows where? Although it may well show up somewhere again
In Ian’s book, he mentions three records of a species that isn’t that far south of us, and that is expanding into Canada, mostly in Ontario and Quebec. You can’t identify Fish Crow from seeing a lone individual and you can’t identify Fish Crow from seeing one stood next to the occasionally larger American Crow unless it makes the appropriate noises. Personally, I would treat Kathleen’s record as the first adequately documented record for Nova Scotia, because all who are interested in such things can now go to eBird and hear it. I think Fish Crow is one of a few species that cannot be accepted without audio and-or diagnostic photos. Thankfully, as they are generally vocal and everyone has Merlin, any future Nova Scotia claims should be able to fulfil this requirement. To help you, below are silent images of both Fish and American Crow.
I’m currently wading through my notebooks that cover our time living and birding in Québec. It’s all part of plucking morsels for my next birding memoir, ‘Je me souviens’. It will take a while to do, not least because I have to dig out old images and make sure my numeration as each species is added to a Canada, Québec or life list is correct. I’m not in any hurry, having not long published the latest in the Nova Scotia birder mystery series. I’ve had no feedback about it, I suspect that it was a bit dark and possibly confusing for some, but that is the point of it being a mystery, to confuse and then enlighten. I ended it with what is obviously a dream, the ramifications of which will wash into the next one, ‘The Chaser’.
All of my many books in various genre are available at Amazon wherever you are. eBooks are best value, paper books cost more to make. Thank you if you’ve read one or all of them, give one a go if you haven’t. I hope you won’t be disappointed.
Going back to the renaming of bird species for a moment, you’ll remember that I was discussing it last post, there are perhaps a couple of less obvious candidates we need to tackle so, if you’re expunging the unacceptable through misdeed, what are we going to do with Bushtit? True, it was not named after moron junior, but some might think so and, as a caring society, we need to take their views into consideration. Another poser would be what to do with Trumpeter Swan, for obvious reasons.
I thought to stick this shot (below) in just to illustrate the value of taking even crap photos. I was at Baccaro and seeing alcids going past. Some looked less black than the others, so I made sure to grab a few doc-shot where I could. This one confirms that the brown birds were indeed Common Murres in with the majority Razorbills. It won’t win awards, but does show how you can use digital photography to grab something recognisable and that supports your reporting of a species less common to rare, if only from your reporting location.
The Global Big Day was better supported this year, or so it seems. The current final standing is below, if you want to think of it in those terms. Congratulations to everyone who got out, or stayed in but submitted a checklist. I had intended to further analyse how we did in Shelburne, but then decided against it and to just enjoy the overall effort and not fuss over what we missed. I would like to see the Nova Scotia Bird Society give the global big days a bit more airtime via their Facebook group. I’m sure many more people would submit a checklist, but didn’t know about it, what with not slavishly on eBird daily and therefore missing those beloved pop-ups they kept giving us. In real life, normal people despise web site pop-ups, so I don’t know why Cornell think birders might be delighted to embrace them. I’m certainly not. Thanks to eBird for the use of the graphic.
My personal big day took place on Cape Island where I didn’t find anything very rare, but I did add the Painted Bunting to my Global Big Day master list. Don’t tell me you didn’t think I’d have one! To date, my accumulation of species seen on both the spring and fall big days is 155. I’m sure that the competitive amongst you can beat that, or maybe not? Here’s a few shots from the day.
As May will soon leave us behind, the early signs are that we will have a drought, so buy in water while you can, La Ninâ is also coming quickly and with it potentially hair-ruffling winds. I see that Wayne and Natalie are already going all out to beat their own, and presumably the Nova Scotia, year list record. I wish them good luck and lots of enjoyable bird experiences along the way, and I’m sure Cape Island will figure in there again at some point. With the potential for a lively hurricane season, this year is the one to go for it, which means seeing whatever birds show up now. Unfortunately, we’ve got something else planned for later in the year, so my shot at 300 in Nova Scotia will have to wait and I expect to just amble along as in previous years.
In my next post I’ll talk about all the great birds found in June, one of the ‘start the car’ months for rarities. Who knows? I might even get to see a few myself.
Cape Sable Birding 