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Fletcher Wildlife Garden | profile | all galleries >> Previous FWG blogs >> 2009 Blogs >> FWG blog: April 2009 | tree view | thumbnails | slideshow |
This blog is a way of sharing some of the things we see and are working on at the Fletcher Wildlife Garden (FWG). Contributions of photos taken at the FWG and information about them are welcome. Please send them to fletcher@ofnc. Be sure to provide the full name of the photographer and permission to use the photo on our blog.
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Fortunately, I got to FWG before the heavy rains came and dampened the bird activity.
And birds were active! A pair of cardinals was engaged in courtship, or at least the male was trying to engage, but the female was having nothing to do with him! On the other hand, a pair of crows were contentedly sitting and doing a bit of bill-rubbing, so things were going along nicely with these two! House finches continue to pair up, robins continue to battle each other :-) , and red-winged blackbirds are busy staking out sites for the imminent arrival of the females.
In addition to the usual birds, I had a brief glimpse of a northern flicker (first I've seen at FWG this spring), and a golden-crowned kinglet, also a first for this spring (for me, anyway). I spent a fruitless 20 minutes hovering around the birch grove and the old field hoping to get a photo of the kinglet which never sat still for more than a nano-second. I did get one shot which is barely OK and is not attached! Most of my other kinglet shots were either of branches where he'd been a second earlier, or of a very blurry bird about to take flight. Oh, well... It appeared that there was only one, or at least, that is all I saw, but it was nice to hear that high-pitched call again.
Juncos and goldfinches were present in greater numbers than they have been for awhile, and the distinctive song of the juncos could be heard all over the FWG. In fact, there was a wonderful melange of bird song. Here is a list of the birds found this morning.
Cardinal 4
In the woods, crows were breaking off twigs for nest building. A couple of male robins were having a real set-to, and a poor little song sparrow made the mistake of landing on a shrub near some cattails where a red-winged blackbird was perched. The blackbird dove at the sparrow and chased him across the pond... I've never seen a song sparrow move so fast! A male house finch chased a female around and around the walnut tree near the pond. All these are signs that breeding is on the minds of many creatures. That is, the territorial displays, the aggression, the chasing....
In addition to the starlings, crows, robins, song sparrows, house finches, red-winged blackbirds, there were a couple of mourning doves, house sparrows, tree sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, cardinals, chickadees, and downy woodpeckers (2 females and one male all together in one tree in the ravine). Down in the Arboretum there was a small group of about 7 pine siskins.
Directly west of the pond I came across a couple of feathers from a mallard. Probably a meal made by a fox during the winter.
Still on squirrels: coming back through the Arboretum, close to FWG, I watched a black one with a great mouthful of oak leaves, disappear into a cavity. This particular hole is one that some of you might remember because it is shaped like a heart and I sent it out on Feb. 14, 2007. It was such an appropriate-shaped hole for that day that I couldn't resist. I had to wait for about 25 minutes to get this shot of the squirrel sticking her nose out of the cavity.
And if you are despairing about spring really coming (because it seems like it is one step forward and four steps back this year), I want to let you know that I was out in one of my favourite wooded areas near Kanata, and I saw a number of insects including a Carabid beetle, moths, two species of millipedes, a minute snail, Muscid flies, and three different species of ants, one group of tiny yellow ones hauling around what looked like cocoons in their strong jaws. Chorus frogs were singing their little hearts out in a largely ice-covered pond, and a garter snake was trying to soak up some sun. So life is bursting forth, you just have to look for it sometimes.
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