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In late June I visited the Annapolis Valley, where I ran my
Breeding Bird Survey, the North Kingston route. The survey begins in
Grafton and goes due west for 2/3 of the stops, before heading up
Stronach Mountain and over towards the Fundy Shore. The first part,
along the valley floor, is through agricultural land at the base of
the North Mountain. Mainly I find grassland and open-country species
in the fields close to the road, vireos and warblers in the orchards,
and I strain to hear flycatchers, thrushes and warblers that are
further back, in the woodlots behind the farms. With luck I see a
few raptors. A few ponds support Common Yellowthroats, Red-winged
Blackbirds and the like. As soon as the road heads uphill, the
habitat changes (coniferous trees; dirt roads through rich deciduous
woodland) and the range of birds changes dramatically - boreal forest
birds, a greater variety of warblers, etc. Then back on paved roads,
and a highlight is stop 43, the Margaretsville Ducks Unlimited
Marsh. From there the route heads along the Delusion Road to the
outskirts of Port George.
I ran my route on the 27th of June this year. Miserable
wet unpredictable weather was as usual the reason for doing it later
than I would really like, but I was glad to avoid the first heat-wave
of the 24th-25th..
The previous afternoon, I scouted out the route as well as
some adjacent areas, which I know from atlassing. My first
impressions were that lots of birds were still singing, and some
birds were really busy gathering food or tending
fledglings. Chipping Sparrow families were particularly common. I
noticed some hayfields not yet cut where I would have expected it; no
doubt due to the wet weather. It was a pleasure to hear and see
Bobolinks, three males displaying and a female skulking, in an uncut
field. At one point I was driving along and thought - what was that
up on the power line that I just passed? No, it wasn't a Robin, not
a Starling, though it had hunched shoulders like one .... so I
stopped and turned around. Yes. An Eastern Bluebird! A lovely
male, flying down from the wire to pick up a bug on the road, then
back up on a fence rail, then - wait a minute - there's a female
too! WOW! That made my day. I haven't seen a pair of bluebirds in years.
Thursday the 27th was overcast, more windy than I would have
liked, and cool. It seems odd to think now, in this sweltering heat,
that ten days ago I was wishing that I was more warmly dressed. It
never went above 14 C. all morning. The day started auspiciously,
with a Barred Owl hooting right on cue at 4:58 a.m. Other
noteworthy birds followed : an Eastern Phoebe, my first in the ten
years I have done this route: a singing Rose-breasted Grosbeak in a
thicket of cherries; and a Veery in among the Robins on the front
lawn of a small house near Mosher's Corner. I found a house where I
saw three swallow species: Barn, Cliff, and Tree. (I checked the
outbuildings later but couldn't see any sign of nesting by Cliff
Swallows.) Up on the North Mountain, driving between stops, a large
bird appeared between the trees in the opening overhead, so I pulled
over briefly and confirmed it was a Turkey Vulture. Sure enough,
when I made my next stop, I glimpsed it again during the observation
period. I saw the first TUVU ever recorded on a Nova Scotian BBS
route in 2010, and I think this is only the 2nd.
I have just reviewed my data and was interested to find that
despite the weather and the somewhat late date, I found 55 species,
which is on the high side of average, and 828 individuals, which is
my 2nd highest count. Crunching the numbers often contradicts first
impressions. During the day I felt that warblers were less
abundant, but in fact I detected about 25% more individuals than
usual, mostly by song; I saw very few. (However a few warbler
species were missing entirely.) On the other hand, as Donna
Crossland observed, the prolonged wet weather seems to have been hard
on some ground-nesting species. Savannah Sparrows and Ring-necked
Pheasants were both present in lower numbers than average. Bobolinks
were much the same as in recent years, which is to say low. The
timing of the first cut of hay affects them the most.
I always find myself wishing that my schedule, and the
weather, allowed me to run the route more than once in a season. Not
that all the results would be eligible for submission to the
database, but it would be interesting to see what the differences are.
Cheers,
Patricia L. Chalmers
Halifax
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</x-tab>In late June I
visited the Annapolis Valley, where I ran my Breeding Bird Survey, the
North Kingston route. The survey begins in Grafton and goes due west for
2/3 of the stops, before heading up Stronach Mountain and over towards
the Fundy Shore. The first part, along the valley floor, is through
agricultural land at the base of the North Mountain. Mainly I find
grassland and open-country species in the fields close to the road,
vireos and warblers in the orchards, and I strain to hear flycatchers,
thrushes and warblers that are further back, in the woodlots behind the
farms. With luck I see a few raptors. A few ponds support
Common Yellowthroats, Red-winged Blackbirds and the like. As soon
as the road heads uphill, the habitat changes (coniferous trees; dirt
roads through rich deciduous woodland) and the range of birds changes
dramatically - boreal forest birds, a greater variety of warblers,
etc. Then back on paved roads, and a highlight is stop 43, the
Margaretsville Ducks Unlimited Marsh. From there the route heads
along the Delusion Road to the outskirts of Port George.<br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>I ran my
route on the 27th of June this year. Miserable wet
unpredictable weather was as usual the reason for doing it later than I
would really like, but I was glad to avoid the first heat-wave of the
24th-25th.. <br><br>
<x-tab> </x-tab>The
previous afternoon, I scouted out the route as well as some adjacent
areas, which I know from atlassing. My first impressions were that
lots of birds were still singing, and some birds were really busy
gathering food or tending fledglings. Chipping Sparrow families
were particularly common. I noticed some hayfields not yet cut where I
would have expected it; no dou