Outdoor Nova Scotia: "The Best Way to be Informed."

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by Dave Caulfield

Bird-loving bluenosers have been looking at backyard feeders in vain this
winter. Lately, feeders and houses have seemed uncharacteristically empty of the usual diners and tenants and many birders are chirping about for answers.

Blake Maybank, who runs the Nova Scotia Bird Society's information line,
insists there's no reason to panic. He has a few  straightforward theories:
namely, the weather.

"It's been an extremely mild winter," Maybank says, adding that natural
food is abundant.

Feeders make up a very minor part of the diets of birds who generally
frequent feeders (nuthatches, chickadees, jays), Maybank says. "If you go
in the woods, there are lots of birds there. They don't need to go to feeders."

Though he thinks the mild weather explains the situation, Mark Elderkin, a
wildlife biologist at the Department of Natural Resources, offers another
idea. He thinks there's a possibility last year's winter might have
something to do with the high feeder vacancy rate, a theory he recently
bounced off ornithological guru Tony Erskine, of the Canadian Wildlife
Service.

Elderkin hypothesizes that particularly rough winters directly affect the
subsequent year's populations of many non-migratory birds in Nova Scotia, especially chickadees.

"What we had last year," Elderkin says, "was a relatively low amount of
snow fall, followed by rain, followed by freezing temperatures, which made
life difficult for all wildlife, especially these birds."

Elderkin says for most species, a lot of snow isn't such a bad thing, since
many birds hunker down and insulate themselves with the snow. Last year's conditions made this next to impossible and as a result, the resident bird population may have dropped significantly.

Related websites:

Nova Scotia Bird Society - Bird Information Line
http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/NS-BirdSoc/nsbsphon.html
A regularly-updated and extensive list of bird sightings around the
province, not to mention sheer ecstasy for ornithologists with on-line
access.

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