Black-throated Sparrow

Ultra-rare Sparrow Arrives in Province

Black-throated Sparrow

On Monday evening, April 25, Nicole MacDonald discovered a strange-looking sparrow at the Beaubassin Research Station, near Aulac, NB.  She identified it as a BLACK-THROATED SPARROW (Amphispiza bilineata) and reported it to the birding community.  Wow!  This is an ultra-rare sighting.  Many of us have successfully seen it since.  This sparrow normally inhabits the south-western part of North America.  It is a bird of deserts and scrub land.

Black-throated Sparrow

The Black-throated Sparrow is an Amphispiza sparrow.  We do not have any sparrows of that genus in our geographical area.  Our sparrows are Spizella (Tree, Field, Clay-colored, Chipping),  Passerculus (Savannah),  Pooecetes (Vesper), Ammodramus (Grasshopper, Nelson's),  Passerella (Fox), and Melospiza (Song, Lincoln's, Swamp),  Zonotrichia (White-crowned, White-throated) Sparrows.  That makes our visitor even more rare.  Given that it is a different genus, it still looks much like the White-throated Sparrow in shape and size.  But this sparrow is very different in that it is gray in colour.  On first look, one sees a very light gray sparrow.  Only on closer look can one see a bit of brown on its lower back.

Black-throated Sparrow

This bird was hiding in a spruce thicket, coming out frequently to feed on seeds that had been sprinkled among the grass and undoubtedly natural seeds scattered there by Mother Nature.  It was associating with a flock of native sparrows, Song, White-throated and Chipping.  Unfortunately we did not hear it sing.  

Black-throated Sparrow

The Black-throated Sparrow is a bird of southern Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico where it breeds and is found year-round.  Some birds fly north to breed in Nevada, Utah and southern Oregon.  It is common in arid desert scrub and areas of sparse vegetation.  It often feeds in the open on the ground and will sit on exposed vegetation. 

Black-throated Sparrow

I think this is the most beautiful sparrow I have ever seen.  Its appearance is striking with the light gray on its upper body, the large black throat patch and bib and the strong white superciliary eye line.  The white submoustachial line sets off the face nicely.  The tail is dark gray brown with white edges.

Black-throated Sparrow

This Black-throated Sparrow feeds on seeds, insects, grass and herbs.  Its song is two clear notes followed by a buzzing sound.  It is likely this bird will find plenty to eat here.

Black-throated Sparrow

It is interesting to speculate on how this bird got here.  To have a bird normally inhabiting Arizona and perhaps flying to Nevada or southern Oregon suddenly show up in New Brunswick is indeed unusual.  It appears to be a healthy bird so whatever route it took was well within its capabilities.  We have had some severe winds in the last two weeks.  Perhaps they contributed to its arrival.  And, sometimes some birds seem to get their internal compasses mixed up and they fly in unexpected directions.  This bird was off in its direction and way over-shot its target.  We do not know if this is the end of its summer journey or if it will continue on.  In the meantime, we wish it well and hopefully the kind people at the research station will continue to scatter seed for it.  Thank you, Nicole!

Short-eared Owl

Rare Owls Near Fredericton

Short-eared Owl

 Although bird books list the Short-eared Owl as possibly breeding in New Brunswick, it is rare to see one, especially in the Fredericton area.  When the vole population is high it is possible to see this species on the Tantramar Marsh.  But in the Fredericton area, it is a rare finding.  We found 3 individuals in the Jemseg area yesterday, so that is really unusual.

This species when present is fairly easy to see because of its habit of hunting early and late in the day.  It flies over fields and marshy areas looking for rodents.  In our sighting, that is what these birds were doing.  In some ways they look like giant butterflies because their flight is erratic especially as they were flying over bushes and tall grass.  You can see in the photo below that the owl was successful.

Short-eared Owl

The Short-eared Owl is a medium-sized owl and looks slender when sitting on the ground.  It often sits with its body at an angle to the ground rather than vertical.  It is dark-brown streaked on its back with pale buffy colour on its underneath.  Its breast is heavily streaked.  Its eyes are a striking bright yellow with dark 'eye shadow' around them, which is visible at a distance.  It has two tiny 'ears' which it raises only when on the alert, making them rarely visible.  It often is seen sharing the same habitat with the Northern Harrier, which was true last night when it was seen with 2 harriers.  They are sometimes mistaken for harriers because of the similar habitat and their way of flying low over the terrain early and late in the day.  The flight of the owl is, however, floppier and more erratic.

Short-eared Owl

The Short-eared Owl is a holarctic species.  It breeds in the northern regions of the Northern Hemisphere.  I have also seen this owl in Iceland and it is found in Northern Europe and Asia.  It occurs on every continent except Australia and Antarctica.  The female is larger than the male and generally darker in colour.  It breeds on tundra, prairie, marsh and coastal grasslands.  Its nest is on the ground and hidden in tall grass.  It also roosts mainly on the ground, making it often hard to see.  It is not particularly vocal but in breeding season the male utters a monosyllabic, deep hoo-hoo 13-16 times.  The female sometimes responds with a hoarse cheeaw.  Even though its range is extensive, its population numbers are a concern mainly due to loss of habitat.

Short-eared Owl

The Short-eared Owl is noted for its aerial courtship display.  The male circles and ascends to 200-400 metres.  He sometimes then rises and falls with exaggerated wingbeats.  Finally he descends in a spectacular display, diving steeply clapping his wings underneath him at the same time.  This makes an impressive sound.  He then repeats this performance several times before landing near the female and puffing himself up, swaying back and forth for her attention.  I haven't had the privilege of seeing this.

Skunk Cabbage

Very Rare New Brunswick Plant

One of our first spring blooms is a unique, very rare (S2) plant, Skunk Cabbage, Symplocarpus foetidus.

Skunk Cabbage (N Poirier Photo)

A member of the Araceae family, Skunk Cabbage grows in the wet, soft soil of swamps and alder thickets.  It is found only in a few sites in the southern part of New Brunswick.  Its range includes northern US and southern Canada.  The Araceae family also includes Jack-in-the-Pulpit and the Calla Lily.  

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk Cabbage blooms even before the snow has melted.  What we see is a purplish-brownish and sometimes greenish triangular shoot sticking out of the snow or clump of dead grass.  Sometimes we don't even see them before we unfortunately step on them.  As you can see in the first photo above, the plant is often sticking literally out of the snow.  That is because skunk cabbage is one of the rare thermogenic plants.  It creates its own heat, so the snow melts around it.  Apparently the heat is created by the female plants only and they do it through the cellular respiration system.  The mitochondria in the cells create enough heat to melt the snow.  This heat also vaporizes the oils that create the strong smell of the plant, thus attracting pollinating insects.  The literature tells us that the heat generated by the plant can raise the air temperature around the plant by 15º to 35ºC.  The bad smell produced by the plant also attracts carrion-feeding insects.

Skunk Cabbage

The anatomy of the plant is unusual.  The purplish cup in which the flower develops is called the spathe; the roundish flower-head, the spadix.  We noted that the spadices (plural of spadix) were of two types, indicating distinctive male and female flowers.  In the photo above, notice the spadix inside the purplish spathe.  The greenish spathe shown there is more developed.  In the photos below, note the male and female flowers indicated by the different spadices.

Male Spadix

Female Spadix

The skunk cabbage has another interesting physiological characteristic, contractile roots!  After the roots grow, they contract, pulling the plant deeper into the soil.  This makes the root deeper and deeper making it very difficult to dig up.  We dug into the soil around a plant and found a very large root with a complicated system appearing to run in many directions.  See the photo below showing the size of the root.  The skunk cabbage grows its leaves after fertilization of the flowers.  The leaves are very large, up to a metre tall.  They are a bluish green colour and are heart-shaped.

Skunk Cabbage Showing Large Root

False Skunk cabbage is often mistaken for true Skunk Cabbage.  This plant is a medium yellow-green in colour and is really False Hellebore, Veratrum virile.

Skunk cabbage is a toxic plant (and so is False Skunk Cabbage).  The plant produces needlelike crystals of calcium oxalate which, if taken into the mouth, become embedded in the mucous membranes and cause intense irritation and a burning sensation.  This can be a particular problem for livestock if pasturage is poor and skunk cabbage is present.

Mrs. William Starr Dana wrote some interesting historical notes about Skunk Cabbage in her book, 'How to Know the Wild Flowers' written in 1893.   She said (and we can certainly agree) that it is unfortunate that our earliest spring flower was endowed with such an unpleasant odour that it earned the name, 'skunk cabbage'.  She tells us that the plant was once given the name, 'bear-weed',  by early Swedish settlers in Pennsylvania.  They thought the bears relished this plant in the spring (notwithstanding that it is toxic)  and that it "must have been a hot morsel, as the juice is acrid, and is said to possess some narcotic power, while that of the root, when chewed, causes the eyesight to grow dim".

King Eider

Rare King Eider at Point Lepreau

King Eider - Female

During most spring migrations we might see one King Eider pass by Point Lepreau.  So you can see why having one rest off the point for over a week is exciting.  This one is a female and makes it interesting for us to be able to study her identifying features and compare her to our more common, female Common Eider.

The King Eider winters off the rocky coasts of the North Atlantic from the NE United States north to Ungava.  And, also along the northern coast of Norway and the Faroe Islands.  Their migration is spectacular, sending them far north to the uppermost Arctic islands of Canada and Greenland to breed.  This species is more common much north of New Brunswick but rare here.  

King Eider - Female

The King Eider is a little smaller than our abundant (in this area) Common Eider.  The female is buffier in colour, compared to the more reddish brown Common Eider female.  The female King Eider has chevrons on her flanks contrasting to the vertical barring on the sides of the female Common Eider.  The head is shaped differently, too.  The King Eider has a rounder head and shorter bill.  The head of the Common Eider is much more wedge-shaped and the horny part of the bill goes almost to the eye.  In the King Eider, the horny part stops about half way to the eye.  The bill of the female King Eider is a solid dark gray colour.

King Eider - Female

Below is the female Common Eider.  Notice the wedge-shaped head and the horny bill projection going almost to the eye.  The vertical barring on the sides is also visible.  

Common Eider - Female

Photographing sea birds is often challenging.  Conditions yesterday were difficult with heavy winds, very cold conditions and the long distance to the birds.  The Nikon P900 performed remarkably well considering what I was attempting to do with it.