By Howard Williams

Over the Christmas holiday period we were talking with old friends who live in New Zealand.  They reminded us that Radio New Zealand still uses identified bird calls just before the news in the mornings – every morning.  Over the 16 years that we were living in New Zealand, these recordings were for us a useful introduction to the variety of birds in that country and the fact that this has been used now for 30 years is an indication of how popular it still is.  One result of this broadcasting is that in New Zealand there is a greater proportion of the population than in Canada that have more than a passing understanding of the birds in that country.  One drawback is that not all birds have attractive and instantly recognisable calls.  Seabirds that make up so much of the bird population there, such as the Royal Albatross, do not have ‘pretty’ calls.  The link is to the list of NZ birds that Radio NZ play, along with the Māori names https://www.rnz.co.nz/collections/birds.  If you go to this site, many of the birds are listed alphabetically by their First Nation (Māori) name  Would it not be appropriate for CBC to introduce this type of introduction to the news as a reconciliation project.  Try it by listening to my favourite, the Bellbird or korimako at: https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=1872915.

I write some of this script on the actual darkest morning of the year, around the date of January 3.  By that time, the evenings have been getting lighter for over two weeks (mid-December), one of the quirks of Earth having an spinning axis that not parallel to its orbital axis around the Sun.   Perhaps we need an astronomical talk as part of our member presentation meetings to explain it better.

I heard my first American Robin singing rather than squeaking on Jan 4, on a particularly mild morning.  I wonder if we were thinking along the same lines, that Spring must be on its way.  The trouble with not having much snow in Windsor during the winter is that most birds (not House Sparrows and European Starlings) find more natural food and do not frequent feeders as much.  I am in a specist frame of mind – how can I discourage House Sparrows and European Starlings yet feed those songbirds that are less aggressive?

The software platform, Merlin, concluded that a passing train beside Jackson Park was a white throated sparrow as I was trying to ID what I thought was the call of an owl but turned out to be the repetitive male mating call of the White-breasted Nuthatch on 17th and 18th January.  I am pleased to report that the nuthatches now regularly sing these repetitive notes around Mercer Street.  At the end of the cold spell at the beginning of February, the nuthatch call was even louder.  Even better, a Red-breasted Nuthatch has taken up residence close to my house and regularly comes to the suet feeder.

The third week of January has been frustrating because, just like last year, starlings have renewed their propensity to mimic Killdeer, which they do very effectively.  For much of the year, Killdeer fly around Jackson Park and take advantage of all the bugs that live in the grassed baseball and cricket fields.  I would like an explanation of why birds pick up and emulate the calls of other birds, or telephone rings.  Birds in New Zealand did this too, in fact I have met a Tui that could ‘talk’, listen to the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij78s460oQM to enjoy Woof-woof as he talks to his keeper.  Sadly, he died at 16 years.   In Australia, the Lyrebird also has a repertoire of songs and calls, see link, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSB71jNq-yQ, including a chainsaw that it uses to serenade David Attenborough.

Also, that third week in January was the start of spring bulbs, I have been noticing them peeking through the ‘soil’ in the laneway behind my property.  The cold weather of late January – early February may kill them off but I am betting the small thickness of snow may be enough to protect them from the extremes.  The South Asian cricketers were out in force mid-February now that the pitch is all-weather – good to see the park being used.  With what little snow we had, now melted, the accumulated litter from poorly-behaved denizens of the park is becoming so obvious I took matters in hand and did a massive clean-up in mid-month.

On Feb 1 Wiarton Willie claimed that spring would be early this year, and the Cardinal in my yard began singing his spring song , perhaps because the White-breasted Nuthatch has been singing his for two weeks now.  We were treated to a Cooper’s Hawk perched high on a neighbour’s tree, looking carefully at both my feeders and wondering why there were no birds to be seen.

On February 11, a House Finch was saluting the rising sun, singing from a tree top in Jackson Park and on Feb 16 I heard my first Red-winged Blackbird in Jackson Park, by the end of the month there was half a dozen competing with each other.

I participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count during the period 17-20 February.  In some ways is was not that special as Feederwatch is something I do each weekend anyway and the usual cast of characters turned up at the feeder, including this Red-breasted Nuthatch that is now a very common visitor.

On 20 February, I heard my first Killdeer, not a starling and on the same day a gaggle of Red-winged Blackbirds were calling along the railway line bordering Jackson Park.

On my trips to the cheese shop just east of Amherstburg it has become apparent that a pair of American Kestrel have taken up sentry duty opposite the landfill on Howard Avenue.  They are quite approachable, I imagine there is plenty of vermin associated with the sanitary landfill.

This past year seems to be full of events caused by Men Behaving Badly, one of the joys of watching birds and plants is the ability of appreciate the balance of Nature, rather than cruel dominance.