Wildlife -Winter 2008

[Diane Whitehead]

We get two species of hummingbirds here.  The rufous migrates, but
Anna's is resident.  I think this may be fairly recent, as the only flowers
in bloom in midwinter are in gardens - fuchsias, mahonias, grevilleas,
Arbutus unedo.

Bushtits (Psaltriparus) are related to chickadees.  They sometimes
travel with chickadees and warblers in big flocks. They make nests of moss
and lichen held together with spider web, which look like a workman's
gray wool sock hanging from a branch.

[mark smyth]

53 waxwings were trilling/chirping in a neighbours garden. I ran for the camera but as I got close a guy with a red jumper came running past and they flew away. I havent seen any hawking yet but they always seem to be a bit clumsy when taking off to fly

[maggiepie]

Diane, thanks for the information.
The nests of the bushtits sound interesting, I don't suppose you have a pic of one.

[mark smyth]

Look out for waxwings with rings on their legs http://www.birdguides.com/webzine/article.asp?a=1522

Over 100 birds have been caught, in Aberdeen, and colured split rings put on their legs. Since then birds have turned up as far south as East Anglia

[Diane Whitehead]

No - Several times a day I walked by a nest at face-level
in a rhododendron right next to a path in my yard,  but
never thought of taking a picture.

Here's someone else's photo and comments from Seattle.
Bushtits live from here all the way south to Guatemala,
but I don't know whether they also live on the east coast.

http://hope-for-pandora.blogspot.com/2008/03/prized-nest.html

[maggiepie]

Thanks for the link, the nest is remarkable.
My first thought was that the chicks would be goners out in the open like that, but I guess those little branches the nest is hanging from wouldn't support the weight of predators.
Crows would be a worry though, we have huge amounts of crows here, don't think there are any of the bushtits here.

[mark smyth]

when I saw the nest I thought your bushtit was related to our penduline tit but they arent

[Maggi Young]

Just had to change the name of this thread.... somehow managed to get it wrong when I split it off from the Autmn one! 

[Anthony Darby]

I am absolutely awestruck that a tiny hummingbird can survive a Canadian winter. Where do they go at night, and do they drop their body temperature to survive?

[Diane Whitehead]

The hummingbirds sit on little branches and fluff up their feathers so they
look like feather balls. They can lower their temperature to about half
what it is when they are active in the daytime.

They eat little insects and spiders also, so they are not dependent on flowers
being in bloom.

We don't have a true "Canadian winter" here.  Our usual winter temperature
falls between 4 and 10.  (C)  We get frosts overnight but it is rarely below
freezing in the daytime.

Sometimes, though, there is low pressure along the Pacific coast, and that
pulls arctic air south (from the Arctic) or west (from the interior of the
continent).  It happened in '96, in '89, in '65?, and so on.  It's been happening
now for a couple of weeks.  A few days have gone as low as -8.

When this happened, dahlias, hydrangeas and fuchsias were still flowering.
The fuchsias may still be in flower under the 40 cm of snow, but the hydrangeas
have brown leaves.

[John Forrest]

Merry Christmas everyone.

Saw this huge flock of Pink Footed Geese landing on a stubble field next to the sea at Pilling near Blackpool a little while ago. Over 2 thousand came down ( I divided up the larger pictures I took and counted a screen area then multiplied up)

[Maggi Young]

JoF,  Merry Christmas!  I see you are keeping yourself creatively occupied..... super "shots" (pardon the expression) of so many geese......

[mark smyth]

Hello John long time no 'see'

[johnw]

I am absolutely awestruck that a tiny hummingbird can survive a Canadian winter. Where do they go at night, and do they drop their body temperature to survive?

Anthony  - I have seen a few ruby throated hummingbirds in Nova Scotia as early as late March.  I was amazed and cannot figure out how they were surviving with virtually nothing in bloom aside from minor bulbs, witchhazels, Cornus mas and February daphnes, the latter three not being plentiful.

johnw

[Paul T]

Great shots John F.  Thanks.