A week with birds

Last week was a great week for photos. It started with the sighting of our first Great Blue Heron in the salt marsh. 

Such a welcome sight! I didn’t walk much that day, watching the bird instead as it stealthily captured tiny fish in the stream. 

Later, from the bridge nearby, the bird added lots of interest to a familiar scene.

As I proceeded along the boardwalk, I looked back to the stream and the same bird was along the shoreline of Bedeque Bay. 

Welcome back, Great Blues!

Another fascinating experience this past week involved Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. Early last week, I heard tapping as I passed an area of woods along the boardwalk which I had never explored. I followed a path towards the tapping and discovered this male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker drilling a huge hole in a tree. 

The next day, a female Sapsucker worked on the same hole. 

I suspected they were drilling a cavity for a nest.

On the third day, the male was back and worked diligently, often its top half disappeared into the tree as below.

Since then, I haven’t seen the birds though I check every day. 

The stream through the salt marsh has male Mallards these days, as the females tend nests this time of year. This Mallard looks pleased with himself as he called out to someone.

One fine day last week, the sky was full of jets, many looking to have followed great circles across the Atlantic. I cannot determine if this is an Air Canada jet or one from another carrier.

Magnolia began to bloom last week in Summerside. One place we like to visit is the local homemade ice cream shop which has a lovely garden with Magnolia trees. One was in bloom and we enjoyed their ice cream and the tree while we sat in the garden.

There is another tree about to bloom there this week…

Saturday we packed a picnic and headed to Cavendish to see if the Bald Eagles were feeding on the fish migrating upstream to spawn. Clarkes Pond is one place in the National Park where one can see the Eagles resting among the trees after they’ve had their fill of fish from the pond.

We weren’t disappointed as this adult Eagle was resting in an old snag

and nearby, a younger Eagle with immature feathering, sat with its head on a swivel looking backwards as I photographed it. 

Great Blue Herons and Osprey flew overhead as well while along the sand on the far side of the pond, Double-crested Cormorants looked like they were satiated too.  

I also saw a Gray Catbird in Cavendish that day.  This is not a common bird on Prince Edward Island and it was the first time I saw one. It entertained me for several minutes with its beautiful song.

Our last stop on Saturday was at an Osprey nest we chanced upon another day we were out and about last week. This one is in the countryside, on a pole along a red dirt road, surrounded by fields. 

This nest is huge and well maintained compared to the smaller Osprey nest at Cavendish.

Finally on Sunday, we smiled at the sight of this Elbows Up sign placed on this birdhouse along the boardwalk. 

Birds, including migrants, are urged to be watchful during these uncertain times! 

Have a great week!

Among the birches

It is a short section of trail though a pretty one. It runs for eleven kilometres or so from Kinkora to Borden Carlton. Back in the days when the railway ran this route, Borden had a ferry across to New Brunswick in the location where the Confederation Bridge is today. This section of track would have been busy transporting people and goods to and from the ferry.

This route has an area lined with coniferous trees. There are some different birds in such an area from the usual ones I see on the Trail, like this Yellow-rumped Warbler. 

I was thrilled to see it and stopped to watch for a few minutes. My husband and I enjoyed riding into and out of the shadows on this section of trail.

Further along, this male Mallard was on his own swimming around in what wasn’t much more than a mud puddle.

Two small horses were interested in the senior stopped to take their photo. Smile! And I did.

The trail is beginning to bloom with dandelions now, some sections further along in the bloom than others. 

We rode to the end of the Confederation Trail, an area where the highway was busy with transport trucks coming from and going to the bridge. We turned back rather than cross the busy highway to a local trail.

Along the way, we watched for an ideal picnic place. There were several picnic areas but one was nestled among a stand of birches. It was a perfect spot away from the wind and the trees enveloped us. We sat on the end of the bench in the sun and had lunch.

Recently, for lunch we’ve taken a fancy to quinoa with roasted vegetables, dried fruit, nuts and seeds and olives for my husband. We make a dressing with mayo, Dijon and a flavoured balsamic vinegar. A few cold packs keep everything safe. Apples and tea round out the menu.

While we ate, it sounded like a lumberjack was working nearby. A woodpecker was busy in the trees and the sound carried through the budding trees. Of course I had to look for it after lunch. It took several minutes but eventually I discovered the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker busy around a hole it had carved out of a tree. 

Periodically the bird dipped into the hole to retrieve sap or insects stuck there. 

I couldn’t see the front of the bird. Could this have been a juvenile, without the red markings? You can see it has another hole ready. The holes must be deep according to how far the bird disappears into one.

On the way back, we could see St. Malachy’s Roman Catholic Church across the fields in the distance, its spire towering over the countryside. It is a testament to the importance of faith to the people of the land and sea.

The birches in this area will bring us back to this section of trail time and again. 

Notes:

Some people commented about fieldstone. The rock on Prince Edward Island is chiefly sandstone which isn’t hard and breaks easily. Revetments and breakwaters are made of rock imported from the other Maritime provinces. The fieldstone in the train station at Alberton may have been imported as well, unless the fields had such stone a century ago. 

An old barn we watched deteriorate over the last few years was demolished last autumn. The owners dug the area for a garden and raked the rocks, five or six small rocks scraped from the rich red soil. It is the same everywhere we’ve been.

Someone was curious about the toilet facilities along the Confederation Trail. We have seen two such facilities. Also, the trail goes through communities where services exist. However, with so few people using the trail, it is never a problem to do what one has to do.

Finally, Piping Plovers are nesting on the island this time of year. The At Risk Species nests in the sand along beaches in areas of the national park. People can’t bring dogs on the beaches where areas are condoned off for the plovers. We have see signs about the plovers at Savage Harbour along the northeast coast of the island as well. We have never seen these rare birds.