Maybe I brought ’em with me? I flew in from St. John’s, after spending 2 weeks at sea doing a seabird count, on Tuesday night. That’s when it began to snow and the temperature to drop. By the morning there was a good (for this time of year anyway) covering of snow on the ground – 4 centimetres at least; enough to completely cover all the surrounding fields. Yesterday Nancy Furber, checking out the fields in rural Haldimand County, came upon a flock of ~150 Snow Buntings with a few Horned Larks mixed in with them and gave me a call. I whipped out to set out some cut corn with the hope that the flock would find it. This was in the morning; by the late afternoon Nancy reported that they were on the corn.

And they were back this morning so I grabbed some traps and the banding kit from Ruthven and headed out to the site. We set out more corn and 4 traps. I find that the initial contact at the beginning of the Winter is pretty frustrating. The flocks come in reasonably well fed and there is still some “wild” food in the fields (although, with the proliferation of Round-up Ready crops, wild food isn’t nearly as prevalent as it used to be). So the birds will feed enthusiastically as long as there’s no impediments…like a trap to figure out. When there is they seem skittish: they’ll fly in; check out all around the traps; eat any seed/corn that is outside it; and then fly up and away for awhile before returning. They are very much like shorebirds in this regard – quick to take flight at the slightest scare. Figuring out traps takes time and when they’re flighty like this they usually don’t figuree them out.

But today, finally, after 3 hours of watching them fly in and then away and then in again….over and over…two went into a trap and became our first catches of this Winter. They were two young females – in fact, most of the flock appeared to be females. This fits with other years whereby a large percentage of the Snow Buntings we caught were females. Males tend to Winter further north (or further east along the St. Lawrence River).

After seeing Snow Buntings making the crossing from Greenland to Baffin Island in September (see blog entry for September 22nd) I can’t be but awed by the very fact that they’re here. Amazing birds! I wonder what the rest of the Winter will bring and I say “Winter” because, for me, the return of the Snow Buntings marks the first day.

Rick