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Mar. 24, 2008 - This morning a SONG SPARROW appeared at our Wolfville feeders. This is our first winter (out of five) during which we had no song sparrow at all. For the last three days, we have had a male FLICKER DRUMMING on the metal parts associated with the top of our house chimney. This also happened last year. At Lower Canard, Nancy Burbidge reports 2 RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS (today or very recently). Mar. 26, 2008 - Both ³good sparrows² are still present at our feeders, along with the single SONG SPARROW, m/f CARDINALS, etc. And our CLAY-COLOURED and immature WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW continue to be present. A flock of 75+ UNIDENTIFIED WAXWINGS flew through our yard, too. I saw a CROW CARRYING A LONG STICK (nest-building behaviour) near our back yard. Mar. 28, 2008 - Lovely Spring day, relatively windless and Sunny, with temperatures from -1 to +7 C. here in ³The Valley². The weather ³forced² me to drive around a bit, to monitor known eagle nests and look for early spring migrants, etc. On the dykeland between Greenwich and Port Williams, there was a light-phase ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK -- not seen well enough to get the plumage and sex, but a definite identification. At Willowbank Farm east of Port Williams, no sign of any new nest for the bald eagles who lost their nest on the Cornwallis River bank this winter. At the Cox farm on Starrıs Point, the BALD EAGLE NEST on the bank of the Canard River mouth had an adult eagle on it. At the same Cox farm, on the metal grain elevator is a large and occupied RAVEN NEST; they have nested there in other years, too. (There is no raven nest just se. of Jawbone Corner this year; the tall willows are still there, but the nest is gone. Likewise there is no active raven nest along Main St. in Canning; there is a very small but unoccupied nest where there has been one for several years. And I have not seen any raven nests this year in Wolfville.) Another very probable and occupied RAVEN NEST is south and west from the Hortonville overpass at Highway 101. No early grackles nor red-winged blackbirds at Van Nostrandıs Ponds in the cattails, nor anywhere else that I drove today from Wolfville to Blomidon and New Minas. At Muskrat Farm Marsh, the new BALD EAGLE NEST has an adult eagle in it, apparently incubating; this is along Canard Road about a kilometre or less east of Jawbone Corner (Hwy. 358); the easiest and closest spot for scoping the nest now is from the Muskrat Farm Marsh sign. There were about 200+ CANADA GEESE in the Habitant River at the Canning Aboiteau. And there were lots more geese in the river east of Canning. Also in the river in the riverside park at Canning were a m/f pair of MALLARDS and 11 COMMON MERGANSERS (7 males, 4 females), with the males clearly feeling their Spring hormones! (and probably driving the poor females nuts?). Also along the river in Canning were about 20 WAXWINGS, a mixed flock of mostly BOHEMIANS but also at least 3 CEDARS. Add a singing SONG SPARROW. At Blomidon, north of Canning about 11.8 km. along the road to Blomidon Park, the BALD EAGLE NEST is occupied again with an apparently incubating adult eagle. Look on your right at the cliff edge as you are driving north, and it is about 1.3 km. north of Mill Creek. Just north of there, at Glooscap Lane, there were about 20 newly-arrived AM. ROBINS. The only other ROBINS seen today were about 10+ in the orchards of Sheffield Farm, just west of Saxon Street Pond. At Saxon St. Pond, along the west bank of now-drained and iced pond, is a NEW LARGE STICK NEST, which seems to have a HAWK? (RED-TAILED?) sitting in it, to be confirmed later on a less Sunny day. However, whatever was sitting in the nest seemed to be quite big when moving about, although the head was not white. A pair of RED-TAILED HAWKS were soaring together over the woodlot just east of the red Fuller barn south of Pereau (where the bald eagles etc. are fed in the winter). I also saw a few more individual red-tailed hawks while driving today, and several soaring eagles. Speaking of RED-TAILED HAWKS, a few days ago I was scoping a large stick nest northwest of the Windsor Causeway, and I believe it had a red-tailed hawk sitting on it -- again this needs to be confirmed at a later date with better viewing conditions. Cheers :-) from Jim in Wolfville, 542-9204 --------------------- Jim (James W.) Wolford 91 Wickwire Avenue Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B4P 1W3 phone (902)542-9204 (home) fax (902)585-1059 (Acadia Univ. Biology Dept.) e-mail <jimwolford@eastlink.ca> ---------------------- ³In wildness is the preservation of the world.² -- Henry David Thoreau ----------------------
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