FWG blog

What was happening at the FWG in January 2007

January 3 - Notes and photos from Christine Hanrahan
There weren't as many birds at the FWG today as last week, but nonetheless, the garden was pretty active with the sounds of chickadees, red squirrels, and crows everywhere. Birds noted today were:

crow - 7

black-capped chickadee - 15

starling - 2

cardinal - 2 (male and female)

red-tailed hawk - 1

white-breasted nuthatch - 1

house finch - 6

house sparrow - 7

Last week, in addition to the above (but excluding the red-tailed hawk which I didn't see then) I could add cedar waxwing, golden-crowned kinglet, american robin, blue jay, common raven, mallard, dark-eyed junco, american goldfinch, mourning dove and downy woodpecker.

Red-tailed Hawk, photographed at the FWG by Wilson Hum
Montage of photos by Wilson Hum showing the maneuvers of the hawk to avoid a harassing crow

Red squirrels, my favourite FWG animal by far, were very much in evidence. I have written a page (or more like 4!!) on Red Squirrels at the FWG for the FWG website and Sandy has posted it complete with a number of photos. I saw 8 today, in their usual locations. Several new tunnels were noticeable, and judging from the cone bracts on top of the earth, these were probably some of the their underground food storage sites (photo, above right).

I also checked various nest boxes to see if they were being put to winter use by anyone. Since I'd checked and cleaned all of them in August, I knew that any nest material now present would have been added since then. Some of the boxes I also checked in mid-December because I noticed signs of activity around them. These ones I also checked again today. Some of them were being used, and others had clearly been used in the past but problems as noted below have probably caused the animals to go elsewhere.

One box was half full of milkweed coma or fluff (photo, below left). A really attractive and no doubt very warm nest, but it appeared to be unused both today and when I checked it a few weeks ago. I am guessing, although I don't know for sure, deer mouse.

Another box, also checked a few weeks ago, did indeed have a mouse in it, probably deer mouse although I only saw a back leg as the animal burrowed deeper into the nest! This nest had originally held a tree swallow nest which I didn't clean out because a red squirrel seemed to have taken up temporary quarters in it (photo, above right). The mouse had moved in a quantity of thistle fluff which it had pushed down into the original swallow nest, creating a very snug and well insulated nest. When I checked the box a few weeks ago, the top of the nest was covered with a "dome" of long strands of grass. That wasn't there today and had probably been pulled and pushed further into the nest structure.

A third box had a layer of dried leaves which was probably put there by a red squirrel preparatory to making a winter nest, but then abandoned.

The fourth box had a thick layer of leaves and grass on top of which was an equally thick layer of thistle and DSV fluff. Unfortunately, the bottom layer had become so wet that it had frozen and I could lift out the entire nest in a solid icy block (photo, below left).

The fifth box was much like the above in terms of nest contents and it too was quite damp although not frozen solid. I was a bit surprised by this because when I cleaned the nest boxes in August the nests were dry and no signs of dampness were found.

There was no sign of recent usage of either of these latter two boxes, but I suspect red squirrels had initially used them. I'm going to have re-think the location of these two before the swallows start nesting this spring.

One box had a nice grassy nest inside (photo, above right) and it looked like a house sparrow had been busy, but whether it was still using the nest for winter warmth I don't know.

Another box, 1-03, in the old field had had its top taken off and thrown down nearby (WHY?). This box was put in the middle of what was once a wide track into the old field, in the hopes of preventing vehicles driving down it (as had happened in the year before we put the box there). Unfortunately, a lot of people still walk along that track and I think that accounts for the lack of usage in 2006. I'm going to move the post to a quieter spot. The box I have already taken down and put in the centre for repair.

There is much evidence of rabbits feeding on young sumac. In some places you can see where red squirrels have also chewed along the branches of sumacs but well above ground level. And in one spot I noticed quite a job had been done on an a crabapple tree by voles.