Arctic Front Hits Birds

On Oct. 6 an Arctic front pushed down over western Canada. There were gusty winds to 90kph with snow which accumulated to about 2cm where I live. To say the least, this was nasty, nasty weather.

I have done several posts lately on bird migration and began thinking about how such unseasonally inclement weather affects birds. Fortunately, at this time of year most of the song bird migration is over. A few laggards may be found. A few of the hardier sparrow species are still here. I recently wrote about the dark eyed juncos cavorting through my shrubbery. Juncos tend to show up to feeders in dirty weather. In the worst of the weather I would still hear crows in the early morning. In fact, on Oct. 6 I saw crows putting on awesome flying displays as they flew into the raw wind and caught air currents which form over escarpments.

On Oct. 10 I traveled out of town. Some ponds were frozen, but larger bodies of water still had open water. Larger lakes and rivers were ice free. So the water fowl still had open water for their activities. Fields still provided excellent food for ducks and geese . I saw numerous flocks of geese feeding in the stubble.

I find that my feeder birds tend to disappear when storms like this occur. When the weather calms down birds return to the feeder. I'm never sure if my birds have been blown out of the neighborhood and I have somebody else's birds? Today I had many birds back at the feeder paticularly, red breasted nuthatches. Undoubtedly, some birds perish when the weather changes so rapidly. However, most birds survive and carry on for another day for their own enjoyment.

Joyful Juncos

This week there have been about 20 dark eyed juncos around my yard. They are exuberant and joyful as the feed and fly through the shrubbery.

Juncos are migrating through this area but are in no great hurry. Juncos can be observed quite late into fall and early winter. They are sometimes counted in the Christmas bird count here. For now they find an abundance of food. They eat seeds and insects found on the ground. They scratch with both feet at the same time so this is a very energetic action. These days they seem to fly at each other and chase through the bushes. The chase is usually brief. Juncos have two or three outer tail feathers which are white so when they fly there is brilliant flash of white. At most times of the year the junco is a very quiet, hard to notice bird. You often hear them rather than see them. If you stand still, they may come right up to you as one did to me when it fed less than a meter from my foot.

Juncos belong to the same family as our native sparrows. At one time they were identified as two separate species...the slate colored and the Oregon. Now they are considered as one species with some variation in color. Juncos are dark gray on top and have a white or off white belly. There is a very definite line across the breast which separates the gray breast and white belly. Some have a definite brown tinge in the gray. The females are a lighter gray and the young are streaked so you will find a certain amount of variation in the same flock of birds. See Sibley's for detailed descriptions of juncos.

Juncos have a habit of appearing at or feeders in very inclement weather. Our weather has been much cooler and windy this week. Therefore , I have been entertained by some energetic, joyful migrating juncos

Visible Minority

      A few days ago I became a visible minority on a friend's face book page. More about that later.


     In the 60's I taught in aboriginal and Inuit settlements. In some locations students were 100% aboriginal or Inuit and other places up to 75% aboriginal. Standing in front of a class it never really sunk in that I was the minority as I was in the position of power. One day an incident occurred and it sunk in . That experience was life altering.


     I was in a small aboriginal settlement and went to house to look for someone. When I knocked on the door I heard someone inside say , "It's a white man!" That really hit me. I was labelled.

After that experience I had a lesson for the rest of my life. I learned to look at other people as individuals rather than a group and attach labels to the whole group. It made a huge difference in the way I lived the remainder of my life . No matter who it is I had to look at them as an individual who has unique characteristics. We are all made up of a wide range of good and bad characteristics. This combination makes us an individual. We have to be able to recognize the individual by his or her traits.


     Recently someone who I know quite, well asked me to join his face book page. When I looked at his list of friends I was the only one who was different. I have always looked at visible minority situations for myself as a learning opportunity which will broaden my understanding of people. Many times I have felt supported and welcomed when I found myself in a minority situation.

Frost on the Pumpkin

Now I'm not really sure if the saying in my title is accurate. I also wonder what it really means. Where did it come from? Maybe some of my readers can comment on frost on the pumpkin.

What it means to me is that we've had the first killing frost of the season. Two nights ago the temperature went to minus8 C or between 10 to 15 F. For gardeners, like myself, this means a major shift in gardening activities. Up to now we have been nursing some things along to gain some more blooms or larger yield of fruit. Some early maturing plants we have cleaned up.

Now we have to get serious with fall gardening work. It's over for another year. Now we begin to remove plants that have been killed by frost. We carefully remove all plant material so that any insects or diseases are removed from the area. The compost bin is built up so that the plant refuse decomposes and can be returned to the soil. Garden soil has to be turned . I found this year that the soil is extremely hard and I'm adding peat moss and shavings that I get from a friend who does lathe work. Flower and perennial beds must be worked up and reconditioned.

Last all the tools and equipment must be cleaned repaired and stored away before we are finished.

I didn't know gardening was so much work until I wrote this list? However, I enjoy every bit of it through out the season.

Thanks Reg

I have written many times about people in my life from my teaching experience. My fellow students were also important to me. Last week I lost one of my classmates.

I knew Reg before I went to school with him . He would work for my Dad on the farm when Dad would hire him and some other kids to pick stones off the fields. Dad always wanted Reg because he was a good worker.

I spent my high school years in Reg's class. If you remember from a previous post it was a one room high school. The teacher would give a brief lesson and tell us what he wanted done. Then, we were on our own. Many times we needed help. Reg was our "go to guy". Reg was always the top of the class and was able to understand the material from the teacher's explanation and textbook information. Since Reg was the leader, he set the bar and the rest of the class were moved to do better.

Reg was a quiet kid, but you always wanted him on your side for baseball or football.

After high school we both left the area. The last time I saw him he was doing his engineering assignment in a taxi he was driving so that he could make money to pay for his university fees and living. I never met him after that.

I did contact him by email when it was our 50th year after finishing high school. His reply was warm and supportive. We contacted each other yearly after that.

So even though we did not share a close life, it was still sad to hear that we lost him. People influence us for the better during our whole life even though we do not have contact.

Thanks Reg, for the challenge and support you gave my life.

Fall Bird Migration

In my last post I covered the antics of robins in Central Alberta as they migrate south. I should have first written about bird migration in general.


Migrating birds can be divided into large groups . There are water birds, boreal birds and grassland birds. In each group there are a large number of species and a wide variety of migration habits. To complicate matters many birds, particularly the males, look different than their spring plumage. In the fall I keep the Sibley's bird book nearby as the spring and fall plumage are covered as well as juveniles. Identifying birds in the fall is challenging as you see a bird hat looks familiar, but you can't quite place them. This is because the fall plumage is different.

Some of these birds leave us by the end of August. Others spend more time here as there is abundant food. Much has to be learned about migration, but birds seem to move in a narrow time line each year no matter what the conditions are . I keep a yard bird list . Each year the birds return at about the same time .

Boreal birds, such as warblers , busily work their way south by feeding in trees, brush and plants. They feed in the daytime and fly at night . Many times they crash into tall buildings and are found the next day at the bottom of the building. While they are in our yards they are interesting to watch. In my yard the most common warbler is the yellow rump. They feed on aphids on the back of leaves.

Water bird migrations are spectacular as we see the flocks of geese in their familiar vee formation. Ducks are in loose flocks and tend to fly rapidly. These birds feed for weeks in central Alberta grain fields.

Once again these birds are consuming huge amounts of high energy foods . They are also conditioning themselves for major flight. As a result the birds are energetic and we see all kinds of antics which attract our attention.

My childhood was spent in central Saskatchewan where there are main flyways for ducks and geese. When the wetlands were full of water it was perfect habitat for these birds. Sad to say many of these wetlands have been cleared and plowed for farmland.

A migration that most people try to ignore is the flight of crows. All through September we have massive numbers of crows which fly out to fields each day to feed on seeds and insects. In the evening they fly back to a common roosting area.

Several places on the edge of the Rocky Mountains provide perfect places to watch the migration of eagles . If you sit in the one spot you can count many eagles in one day.

So folks get out and enjoy the fall migration. These birds will soon leave us and we will be left with the few hardy species of winter birds.

Where have All the Robins Come From?

Somebody has just asked Hiawatha House about the abundance of robins wheeling around their yard . I can tell you about your robins and many other things about robins that you haven't been thinking about.

Every year at this time in Red Deer , Alberta, Canada people ask me about all the crazy robins zooming around their yards . What is going on with these crazy birds? They don't act crazy at other times of the year.

To answer these questions you have to back up a bit . I like to back pack above he tree line in the Rocky Mountains. What's the most common bird you see? You guessed it . The robin. For three years I lived on the Mackenzie Delta, which is above the arctic circle. Robins nested there. Now with global warming, robins nest at Sachs Harbor on Banks Island which is 450km further north than the Mackenzie Delta. We are used to thinking of the robin as a garden variety urban bird, which it is, but it is also very widely distributed. We usually think of it nesting in trees ,but they very readily nest on the ground. I have found robins' nests on the ground in Red Deer where there are many trees.

So two things happen at this time of year. First, robins are migrating south. Second, the population is greatly expanded by all the young produced during the summer. These birds usually nest twice in the summer so there is a tremendous population of birds of the year. They are feeding on ripe fruit which has a high sugar content so they are full of energy. Robins are also quiet feisty and aggressive so they chase each other around . This is when they crash into your windows and is commonly why people ask about the dizzy robins.

The birds from the north and the mountains gather here because of an abundant food supply. They slowly work there way south . Some go far south for the winter and some not so far south if they can find a good food supply . Some robins stay at Red Deer all winter. Most years we have robins included in our winter bird count. I have seen robins in early Feb. when it's minus 30C .They feed on Saskatoons and rose hips. They seem to be big birds as their feathers are fluffed up to keep them warm.

At this time of year there are many other smaller birds in the trees and bushes and they are overlooked because of the antics of the robins. They are warblers and sparrows and will soon leave the area . More about them later. Let's just keep this one to robins.