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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;">W</span>
<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;">e sat out on the deck overlooking the Basin for the first outdoor supper of the year last night in Bedford, and both my brother and I commented on the almost complete lack of mosquitoes. In many other years they would have driven us indoors.  My brother also found that black flies hadn't been a problem earlier in the spring at all.</span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;">At home in Halifax, I've been noticing something (probably a caterpillar of sorts) is feeding heavily on maple and ash leaves.   They're covering the lawn chairs with their tiny black frass.  <br/></span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;">Cheers,<br/></span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: book antiqua,palatino; font-size: 12pt;">Patricia<br/></span>
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On June 20, 2016 at 1:42 PM Susann Myers <myerss@eastlink.ca> wrote:
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thanks, Billy.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">That's the sort of thing I've been experiencing, too.  My memories of being in the woods for the breeding bird atlas in mid-June a few years ago are of having swarms of black flies so thick around my head that it was hard to hear the bird songs I was trying to ID.  And this year, after a few on migration count day, May 14, I haven't seen any black flies along the Eastern Shore.  I'm not complaining, by any means, but it does seem unusual.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cheers,</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Susann</span>
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<strong>From:</strong>
bdigout
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<strong>Sent:</strong> Monday, June 20, 2016 12:28 PM
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<strong>To:</strong>
naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
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<strong>Subject:</strong> Re: [NatureNS] Golden-crowned Kinglet family group
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<p>Hi Susann;</p>
<p>  I've been fishing the nearby streams after the rains we had last week, and although I was expecting them, there were absolutely no black flies.  This may have been because it was from daybreak until probably 7:00 A.M. although in the past they were quite bad.</p>
<p>Billy</p>
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<p>BillyOn 20 Jun 2016 07:02, Susann Myers wrote:</p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Pat McKay and I did some woods birding yesterday along the Old Mineville Road, a very quiet rough track that runs between West Porters Lake and Mineville, HRM.  In one area there were a lot of Golden-crowned Kinglet calls, and we saw a group of more than 4 kinglets flitting around in the woods together, feeding and calling.  We couldn't get a good enough look to confirm fledgling plumage, but this appeared to be a family group.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> 
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A little research confirmed that this is the right season for a first brood of fledglings to be out of the nest and moving about with their parents.  </span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tufts gives April 16 for the average start of nesting on Wolfville Ridge, and roughly mid-May for the completion of egg laying.  <em>The Birders' Handbook</em> indicates that incubation takes 14-15 days, and fledging another 14-19; it also indicates that this kinglet typically has 2 broods.</span>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Also notable were a good showing of butterflies and a lack of other flying insects - no black flies, and the only mosquitoes that bothered us were at a salt marsh in the early morning, where we went to hear Sora.  Although the day became windy, there was no wind felt down at ground level in the woods.  Are other birders noting this absence of insecs?</span>
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