Christmas bird count for kids at the Hilliardton Marsh

Saturday January 5th was in the planning for almost a year. last year the temperature was a frosty minus 32  so we cancelled the event because the birdhouse just does not provide enough room  to band  and accommodate 30 plus kids.  It is not  a question of hardiness, Northern kids are renowned for their toughness when it comes to cold. After cancelling our frustration turned to possibility as we  contemplated alternatives to our limited resources. Then it dawned on us that we could use the Hilliard township community hall and a new era for the Christmas bird count for kids at the marsh was born.

     The community hall is only about 3 km from the birdhouse which would mean shuttling kids and families  from the hall to the marsh but considering every challenge is an opportunity we came up with the idea of asking a local farmer Dennis Peddie  about giving the kids a horse and wagon ride. The other big positive of using the hall is now that we are not bound by limited space we were able to include families. in the past parents dropped their kids off and came back a couple of hours later, now we are able to enjoy the day as a family event.

     Everything worked like a charm the horse  drawn wagon ride was amazing and the kids that had been back at the community hall making suet and suet feeders as well as playing some bird games and learning about the history of the Christmas bird count for kids switched with the other group that had been doing a bird count walk and bird banding.

The birding group was taken back by the team of horses and wagon and continued the count as they trundled along the road back to the community hall.

     The highlight of the day for me was keeping families together and seeing the excitement of kids and families enjoying the beauty and marvel of birds. The day  also crystallized for me the need we have at the marsh to have a building that can accommodate the growing need we have to accommodate families right on site. As the interest in the marsh grows so does the need for us to take care of all of our visitors.

The day was just so exciting to see and hear the excitement of everyone and the wagon ride was the cherry on top making the Christmas bird count for kids the best we have ever had. I want to take a moment to thanks first all of the families that brought their young birders out. It is great to see so many parents wanting their kids to come to the marsh and seeing the value in connecting their kids to nature .

 As well I would like to thanks all of the volunteers and directors that helped out at the community hall and the marsh making everything run smoothly. It was also great to have had a bunch of parents help out with the drilling of  the suet logs.

 A big thank you also goes out to the Hilliardton Township recreation committee who made the community hall available.I cannot say enough about how much fun I personally had seeing all the smiles and hearing so much laughter.  Another aspect that I find really gratifying is that a lot of the kids have been coming with their parents either to the bird count or other marsh events and it has been really gratifying seeing these kids reach the age that they are starting to help out or have reached the age that they can now hold birds to safely release them.

The marsh family is growing up together. Needless to say I am already looking forward to the next Christmas bird count for kids but not too fast we want to savour the age of the kids and lets face it we aren't getting any younger ourselves! Hope to see everyone next year.

scooped by Joanne for first snow bunting of the year!!!

It has taken a long time , a very long time to attract snow buntings to corn this year. This year we have also moved to perfect snow bunting country  we are surrounded by with massive fields that grow soy and canola.  Every day I have either been putting out corn or kicking snow off  my corn piles. Joanne never lifted a toe to a pile or wandered out to put golden nuggets of snow bunting magnets on top of the snow, not a kernel!!!  In her defense she has been putting corn out at kerns public  where her and her students who we call the school of flock have been banding buntings for years. Three days ago all of our efforts were rewarded and both sites finally have snow buntings
 feeding on corn so the big question in my mind was who was going to be the first to band a snow bunting this year Me or Joanne?
         Today Joanne was heading to kerns public I had to dash off to the marsh for a few minutes. We live 8 minutes from the marsh so before I left I decided to put down a few traps on the corn knowing I would be back close to the time Joanne would be leaving for Kerns. Joanne left a little earlier than I had anticipated and just as I was leaving the marsh I received this photo.

Before she left for kerns  she watched a small flock of bunting descend around the traps and this  male scooted in a trap and she with a smile on her face gently removed this bird from the trap she banded it and sent me sent me the evidence . I arrived 2 minutes too late she had already left  and it took over an hour for the flock to return giving me the opportunity to band this bird.

Adding to Joanne's delight when she went to check on the corn at kerns she decided to flip her on traps  over  and managed to catch 5 more buntings but the first bird of the new year was this beautiful Lapland longspur!

If there is a lesson in all of this it is that Joanne is the queen of bunting banding, and I am  her banding serf, fit only to feed her birds so that she can band them. A job I am pleased to do with a smile. I am smiling now as I look forward to banding with the school of flock next week as the flock has grown in size affording us the chance to start banding. Allowing us to once again be engaged as part of the cooperative snow bunting banding network. Hopefully some of the birds that the kerns students band will find their way into other banders  traps or even fly as far as Greenland. Such are the thoughts I think of when I pile corn on the snow for Jo. Okay let's be honest, if anything I would be the court jester and perhaps there is yet one last laugh to come in the snow bunting story we are helping write. Stay tuned for the next chapter..... revenge of the jester.

The new year has just begun and my fingers hurt!!!

Well another year is upon us and I thought I would start out with  blog and the hope that I will take the opportunity to blog more often to try and keep people apprised of the movement of bird in our part of the boreal forest.  Now that I am also doing a podcast which is called "bird banter with boreal Bruce my time has been split up a bit but we continue to band at the marsh and the riverhouse site and kerns public so I want to try and keep the flow of information about our banding. You can also find updates on instagram  borealbruce_hilliardtonmarsh as well as the marsh facebook page which joanne faithfully updates often.

Northern Shrike the hook on the top bill warrants careful attention 

So to the birds  this morning I was able to capture a northern shrike that has recently been going after redpolls. It was the first bird banded in 2019 and as they are apt to do, drew a fair bit of blood while I was trying to band it. I recently discovered something that should have been obvious to me but the shrike is the only songbird that is a carnivore. They kill their prey by seizing them with the hook of their top bill and their straight bottom bill and plucking the throat of the unfortunate bird usually ripping their throats open. This move happens quickly and I witnessed this action 4 or 5 times on my exposed fingers this morning.

Erin Oreilly Shelby Hearn and Alex Barkhouse were out for some grosbeak banding  happy day for me. Evening and twp pine grosbeaks pictured here 

    The other bird I am excited about right now is the arrival of snow buntings both at kerns public at in the field right by our river house. We are giving the small flocks some time to dedicate themselves to the feed piles and hopefully we will start banding them when the kids return to school January 7th.
     At the marsh we are catching lots of birds  in the j trap and the other day we were able to band  16 evening grosbeaks 5 pine grosbeaks  and captured over 30 common redpolls. Pine and evening grosbeak numbers are rising  and I am looking forward to a good 2019 with these species this winter
       In closing out this update  we are also looking forward to the Christmas bird count 4 kids happening at the marsh Saturday Jan 5th. the temperature is going to be a dandy -3 so we are looking forward to a great day with the kids and their families

Alex and one of the 16 evening grosbeaks banded today

Until then a very happy new year from me and a big thank you to all of the volunteers and visitors
and supporters that helped make 2018 such a successful year. We accomplished a lot  thanks to the generosity of a lot of people  and  we have even bigger plans  for the coming year. Hope to see you in 2019!!!