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Friday night, with Suzanne Borkowski's help, I surveyed my Nocturnal Owl route on the Tangier to Mooseland / Moose River Gold Mines Road, on the Eastern Shore. We had been watching the weather and Good Friday looked like the only possible chance for this weekend. We saw very few birds on the drive down in the afternoon, either on land or on the water. We had hoped to see our first Great Blue Heron or Osprey of the year, but didn't find either. However we didn't have the time to do much searching so probably overlooked some. When we got to Tangier we were pleased to see a lot of birds in Pope's Harbour; a flock of about 10 Horned Grebes, in patchy breeding plumage, was a treat. There was a lively group of about 20 Red-breasted Mergansers chasing one another around, and a pair of Surf Scoters. Red-winged Blackbirds and Grackles were calling nearby. The route goes inland through largely coniferous forests with lots of rocky lakes and black spruce/tamarack bogs. Northern Fibre's woodchip plant is in Sheet Harbour, and there is a lot of active forestry here, including biomass harvesting. Every year we notice new clearcuts. After scouting out our route we had supper in Sheet Harbour and returned to Tangier to begin the survey half an hour after sunset. The winds had dropped to less than 10k, as predicted, and it was clear and dry. American Woodcock were peenting and winnowing overhead at our first stop, and panicky Robins were calling. A little while later the moon rose full. Late in the evening, when it was absolutely still, we heard a pair of Loons duetting from Bear Lake. Nonetheless I was struck by how quiet it was for most of our stops; most of the ditches were dry and there was no sound of running water. Perhaps because it was drier than usual, or perhaps it was just a bit too cool (+2/+3), no Spring Peepers or Wood Frogs were calling. I have yet to hear either this year. However some owls were certainly announcing their presence. At the first stop we heard two Northern Saw-whets calling as soon as we got out of the car, and we found seven more in the course of the evening. There was at least one NSWO at eight of the ten stops, for nine in all. We also heard two Great Horned Owls. Most unusually, we did not hear a single Barred Owl. This is the tenth year that Suzanne and I have run this route, and during that time we have had a low of three owls, and a high of 16. Our ten-year average is 8.6, so this year's 11 was on the high side. This is the third year in a row that we have had a large number of Northern Saw-whets, in fact more of them than any other owl. I can see that in some ways, clear-cutting produces habitat more favourable to them than to the larger owls. Comments, anyone? Patricia L. Chalmers Halifax
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