Hummingbirds

April 19 to May 3rd ... I was looking at last years bird notes and noticed that my first recording of a hummingbird was April 23...a male Rufous, and the next days a female. As I'm writing this the date is May 2nd and the Hummingbirds are virtually absent. I am quite sure that I heard one at my feeder on the 28th and saw one whip past my usual morning coffee haunt in town - both very unsubstantiated sightings.

Yesterday in the park I know I heard the tail end of the 'buzz-bomb dance' courtship flight of the Rufous Hummingbird. But to this date I have yet to see one sitting casually anywhere. After last years unseasonably cold, damp period during spring and early summer, I had a feeling the weather might exact a harsh toll on mature Hummers as well as the nestlings. I recall someone phoning me to ask if there was any way to get an idea about the effect this might be having on the Hummingbird population and all I could say was "We'll see when they return next spring." Well it's next spring and although this is not an exceptionally brutal spring I would say the Hummingbirds are later than usual and fewer in number. Perhaps I'm jumping the gun on the hummingbirds return date. In 1994 I recorded the first hummingird on April 22. It will be interesting to see if this spring's Hummingbird returns are only late or in a year of decline.

Migration

For birds that must migrate life can be brutal. Bad weather, predators, changes in migration route habitat, lights at night, and many other factors contribute to bird deaths. Every day (and night) migrating birds find themselves in strange and unfamiliar surroundings as hunger and exhaustion drive them to the ground. Often small songbirds migrate at night. At dawn they must seek food wherever they find themselves. It is a daunting task but one that is essential because without food they can't journey on, and their fat reserves are depleted by the long hours spent in flight. If they can eat and sleep a little they will take to the skies again at nightfall. During the day they must contend with whatever predators happen to be in the area in which they have landed.

Bird Feathers

This time of year it is quite common to come upon piles of feathers that indicate a bird has fallen prey to a predator. Last week, next to Bridge creek, I came upon a veritable expanse of cerulean blue feathers. They were obviously the breast feathers of a Mountain Bluebird. Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks which also migrate into the area are constantly harassing the flocks of songbirds, hoping to augment their own energy levels in order to continue their journey.

Sometimes it is easy to picture that predators have the upper hand in these ongoing dramas but I recently saw a most unusual pile of remains and feathers that indicate another aspect to this scenario.

As I walked along Bridge Creek, just down from the waterfall in the park, a Raven jumped up from the stream bank. I went over to investigate what had attracted it to the ground and saw a circle of what can only be described as bird bits. Oddly there were several types of bird parts visible and the variety of species was confounding. Everything is confounding when you have not yet dreamed up a plausible theory. I have since dreamed one up. But first, a description of the bird pile.

Without any effort I identified a Mallard Duck foot and upper leg and enough feathers to indicate that it was a male. There was the 'cap' of a Robin. I call the cap the upper mandible and and top of the head, which seems to be a common portion left after a predator bird has taken smaller bird as prey. Then came some very interesting wings...one belonging to a small Owl, most likely a Northern Pygmy and the wing of a Sharp-shinned Hawk plus a single tail feather from a Sharp-shinned Hawk. This is what was left of the pile, no doubt Ravens or Crows would have taken anything remotely edible.

At first I was totally baffled. What would be capable of catching something as big as a mallard, as well as a robin and two other birds of prey? It would need to be stong and an agile predator. At first I was thinking along the lines of a mammal since the parts were next to the creek. But then I recalled an incident last fall, not 100 feet from where I was now standing. At that time I discovered a Great Horned Owl sitting on the lawn near the creek in midday being harassed by Ravens and Crows. He refused to fly as I approached and a group of us netted him since he was obviously in some sort of distress. When we moved him we found that he was sitting on top of a male mallard that he had obviously killed. We took the owl to a raptor rehab centre in Williams Lake which fattened it up and returned it to the same park. Great Horned Owl prey, if you can believe the bird books, can be anything from insects to skunks and Great Blue Herons. I believe this was the left-overs of a Great Horned Owl dining table, which was bringing its prey to a Spruce tree and eating it, the bits that I had found on the ground were falling to the creekbank from above.

Noteworthy bird sightings of the past week:

April 26, 2000