Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
PREDICTING THE BIRDS AT OUR FEEDERS December, 2014/January, 2015 issue Having pursued the study of birds as a hobby for close to 60 years now, it is always fun to reflect on how much we have learned about bird behaviour in that time. A lot, mind you, but we still have much more to learn. The late Toronto Daily Star birding columnist from the 1960s, Hugh Halliday, once wrote that the irregular appearances at our feeders of boreal species of finches that typically nest and stay in the far northern regions of Ontario, “might” be linked to food shortages in their normal breeding range. Food, or the lack of it, he felt, was more of a driving force behind these unexplained movements of northern birds, then any programmed instinct to migrate, just for the sake of migrating. After all, this explanation was already pretty much accepted for snowy owls whose appearance in winter was linked to shortages of lemmings, their favourite food. Made sense that the same might be true for other species. Today, it seems to be generally accepted that food is indeed the directive which determines the comings and goings of our birds. This is especially so with boreal species. What are boreal species? They are species of finches – crossbills, grosbeaks, siskins, redpolls, along with a few others, that typically call the far northern forests of Ontario, and sometimes beyond, their home. They don’t migrate in the general sense of the word, like our warblers do without fail every fall, but only move out of their normal areas when their favourite foods become scarce. While this movement usually is south, until they find something they like, it also can be east or west, wherever the dangling carrot leads them. Birds will go where the food supply takes them, then once they exhaust that supply, they will move on. Some nomads like crossbills don’t really have a permanent home, but just follow a baited highway through the coniferous forests across the continent, nesting as they go. In recent years, friend Ron Pittaway of Minden, has made it a special interest to study the food habits of these northern residents, and make note of each species’ food preferences. From his own observations, and the input from many other knowledgeable contributors, he assesses the successes and failures of these crops throughout the region, then brings it all together in an effort to forecast what species may remain right where they are due to an abundant food crop, and what species will move out seeking greener pastures, and in what direction. Ron began his interest in birds at about the same time that I did. He spent a decade as a Park Naturalist at Algonquin Park and worked for 23 years teaching conservation and resource management at the Leslie M. Frost Natural Resources Centre near Minden where he lives. His involvement in birding though goes far beyond just a keen interest; he is a founding life member of the Ontario Field Ornithologists (OFO), was co-editor of Ontario Birds from 1991 to 2006, and technical editor of OFO News from 1994 to 2007. He has authored over 130 articles on birds. He was a member of the Ontario Bird Records Committee for 12 years between 1984 and 2003, including three years as Chair and one as Secretary. Ten years ago, Ron received the Distinguished Ornithologists Award. After receiving input from numerous sources and from observers in the field, Ron predicts what we might have at our feeders every winter in the way of boreal finches. He summarizes this winter as a “mixed bag” of finch movements. He says some species like purple finches will travel south, and we have already witnessed this flight this past fall. Good cone crops, he says, will keep white-winged crossbills in the northern forests wherever spruces are laden with cones. Ron says to expect a moderate to good flight of redpolls south this winter because their favourite food, birch seeds, is in short supply. Look for them at a feeder near you. Once they arrive this winter, if they do, they will gravitate to niger seed in silo feeders. Among the most unpredictable are the pine siskins. In the Bay of Quinte region, they arrived in October in droves seeking out spruce cone crops. If they find anything worthwhile on these sojourns, they will stay; more times than not, however, they just keep on moving until they all but disappear from the area. Five pine grosbeaks seen in Prince Edward County in late October may be a good omen for this species. This sighting was unexpected since mountain-ash berries, their favourite food, are generally excellent. In theory, pine grosbeaks should stay put. So, the science of predicting isn’t cut and dried; individuals within a species that are not expected to move out of home territory will sometimes drift our way, but not in the numbers that we see other winters when there is an irruption and our area is bombarded with a certain species, like it was one winter when visiting Bohemian waxwings outnumbered cedar waxwings. Speaking of which, Bohemian waxwings (not a finch species, of course) are expected to stay where they are because they are also a mountain-ash specialist, but if a few do appear, they will be attracted to buckthorn berries and crabapples while they are here. Evening grosbeaks that once dominated feeders in the 1970s may move south in small numbers. Their population was high in the 1970s and 1980s due to major outbreaks of spruce budworm, the larvae of which they feed their young. Since we haven’t had a major outbreak of budworm since the 1970s, their numbers never really recovered from the days when feeder operators routinely raked up massive amounts of spent sunflower seed hulls from beneath their feeders. Birds, like other animals, regulate their populations in accordance to the amount of their favourite food that’s readily available. When a particular food is plentiful, numbers will be high, and when a favourite food is in short supply, the overall population will drop. The above predictions just scrape the surface. For a more detailed account, you need to access my website at www.naturestuff.net and click on BIRDING from the Main Menu. Then scroll down the selections until you reach ‘Winter Finch Forecast’. Here, you will find other species listed, including irruptive species like the blue jay and red-breasted nuthatch, and lots of information on the boreal finches and what they may be up to this winter. Included are several links to previous forecasts and some informative facts on finches. If some of these boreal species have not yet arrived as you read this, they may very well trickle in later this winter. For more information on birding and nature, check out the NatureStuff website at www.naturestuff.net . Terry Sprague lives in Prince Edward County and is self-employed as a professional interpretive naturalist.