A Hawk, A Moth, November Garden Flowers
Flowers were still flowering in the garden on 1 November – Plus: Planting suburban trees for future generations to sit under, a poem, and a polluted river.
Once again, the 1001 Species Journal offers a selection of observations and thoughts on the seasonal creatures and plants we see (well, on a good day when the gods are smiling) when out and about in the neighbourhood. The flowers mentioned below, you will have to scramble for, the bird should not be too hard, the moth is probably quite a bit more chancy, but you never know. The game is all about looking around you.
Here is a word that should be in everyone’s vocabulary … SMEUSE, which refers to a gap in the base of a hedge where a small mammal such as a hare has been passing back and forth.
Winter Flower Census
When we lived in England, we used to do a count of flowers still blooming in the garden around the Winter Solstice through to New Year. Not much point in that here in Quebec when any plants are more than likely under a couple of feet of snow at that date. However, we have found that flowers are there to be seen on 1 November in Montreal when the temperatures are broadly comparable to an English mid-winter … so J went on a plant safari and found the following species in our garden, bravely waving their flowers at her.
Remember that we have no lawn, just mown paths between beds of mostly, but not entirely, native plants. Right now they are looking brown and dried with lots of birds coming and going to take seeds but for all that, there were scattered flowers of 29 species - nothing like in high summer , of course, but nice for all that:
False Sunflower (Helianthus), Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Fleabane, Golden Rod, Aster, Cosmos, Nasturtium, Zinnia, Cuphea, Bidens, Geranium (perennial), Phlox, Autumn crocus, Marigold, Tagetes, Smooth Oxeye, Tournesol, Mountain Mint, Monkshood. Sedum, Obedient Plant, Smartweed, Pearly Everlasting, Lavender, Mallow, Heart-leaved Aster, Wild Carrot, Feverfew, Dames Rocket, Dandelion
The Winter Moth
Maintaining the 1001 Species theme I thought readers might be interested in being introduced to the Bruce Spanworm Moth (Operophtera bruceata) … also known as the Native Winter Moth it is unusual in that the adult, free flying, stage only appears at this time - just as things start getting really wintery. The specimen in the photograph was seen on 26 November last year.
The moths overwinter as eggs which hatch fairly early in spring when the caterpillars can feed on buds and unfurling leaves of sugar maple and American beech in particular. They are less frequently seen on a few other species - willow for example. They feed and grow for several weeks until the final instars fall to the ground and build a cocoon in the soil where they pupate until the late fall or early winter and finally emerge as adults. This is a successful strategy, if only because the number of potential predators is much reduced.
Should you see moths flying as December approaches, then it’s not something wrong with your eyes - they really are around.
Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Now the leaves are falling from the trees and there is frost at night, it is again time for us to see and enjoy Hawks cruising the neighbourhood seeking snacks at the garden bird feeders. This fine juvenile Cooper’s Hawk sat in a maple tree for many minutes eyeing a band of assorted small birds on the other side of the garden, all shouting in alarm. In the end, he decided it wasn’t worth the effort to chase as he had been spotted and so was likely to fail in his mission. Quite unperturbed by my wandering onto the deck with a camera to point at him. Lovely creature.
Cooper’s Hawks are widespread and even if you don’t live in Canada, you more than probably have a local equivalent occupying the same ecological niche. They are superbly adapted as woodland raptors with a diet of birds and small mammals. They hunt by stealth, approaching their prey through dense cover and then ambushing with a rapid, powerful flight. Not only that, but they are superb at twisting and turning through dense forest growth as they approach to make the kill. In flight, they have short, rounded wings and long tails and a soaring flight with strong and deliberate flaps of the wings. Telling them from the quite similar Sharp-shinned Hawk can be difficult, even for those very familiar with the species.
** Then a few days later he (she?) came back to the same spot and sat watching the feeders for over a half hour. He left, he came back after twenty minutes to a different tree and again sat while six feet over his head were several unconcerned House Finches. He's young, still learning his trade - he looks very well fed and healthy, but didn’t make a kill while we watched.
The Generations’ Forest
Planting suburban trees for the future
Last weekend, along with some friends and neighbours, I was planting trees in a nearby town park.
Earlier in the summer, the volunteers at the Garden at Fritz (I keep mentioning that project and really will write about it before too long) had the opportunity to find homes for some 20 or so oak and maple saplings donated by a nearby campus student project of McGill University. We knew just where to plant them on the other side of the wall of trees backing the garden. With the help of guerrilla tactics and a supportive town Mayor they were placed in what we loosely named the “Generations Forest”. Not that 20 trees is much of a forest, but these are species that will be here a couple of hundred years after we are all gone and will support birds and insects and, let’s face it, anything is better growing than mown park grasses which is what was here before.
Now, I doubt it was our work that planted the seed of thought, but whatever happened, the town decided to plant about 100 similar native trees in the same park and asked residents to come and help. As before, I’m never going to see any of these in their full glory, but I do expect to last long enough to enjoy shade from them and to admire the glorious fall colour they will display. All that and more places to watch birds too. With all the things in the world that are not going well just now, it’s good to know that local projects like this still have sponsors and support.
A town social media page received complaints from a few locals concerned that all these trees would “interfere with their views of the river”, to say nothing of stealing grassland from their dogs to throw frisbees on. Thankfully, those people are a minority and did not prevail.
This is sad - all the more so because this stretch of river was only a few miles from where I grew up, I know it well and visited it with friends regularly over the years. This pollution is truly not acceptable, but I have few hopes that the present UK government will care or do anything about it.
“Five years ago, when Mark Barrow started his project to film along the 65-mile River Wharfe in Yorkshire, he captured footage of majestic shoals of grayling, the fish known as “the Lady of the Stream”, some 200 or 300 strong. Recently, Barrow returned to the same spot … to reshoot some video … what he found shocked him. The water was cloudy with pollution and the numbers of grayling, with their distinctive red fins and pewter scales, were reduced to pockets of no more than 30 or 40.”
Useful information for beginner birders
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/binoculars-and-beyond-nine-tips-for-beginning-bird-watchers
Have you, or your children, come across the fine book by Robert Macfarlane entitled “The Lost Words”. It is a broad protest at the loss of the natural world around us, as well as a celebration of the creatures and plants with which we share our lives, in all their wonderful, characterful glory. Quote: “'Not since Ted Hughes has there been a collection of such fine and important nature poems for children. And these have the advantage of being rather more accessible to young people, without any less measure of deep awareness, sensitivity, resonance or sonority….” Wonderfully illustrated too.
https://www.johnmuirtrust.org/john-muir-award/ideas-and-resources/literacy-and-nature/the-lost-words
Here’s a sample, but you need to see the pictures too:
Kingfisher
Kingfisher: the colour-giver, fire-bringer, flame-flicker, river’s quiver.
Ink-black bill, orange throat, and a quick blue back-gleaming feather-stream.
Neat and still it sits on the snag of a stick, until with . . . Gold-flare, wing-fan, whipcrack the kingfisher –
zingfisher, singfisher! –
Flashes down too fast to follow, quick and quicker
carves its hollow
In the water, slings its arrow superswift to swallow
Stickleback or shrimp or minnow.
Halcyon is its other name – also ripple-calmer, water-nester,
Evening angler, weather-teller, rainbringer and
Rainbow bird – that sets the stream alight with burn and glitter!
Like it or not, birds continue to die from colliding with buildings from small cottage to huge city skyscraper. The FLAP group are trying to gather data to support their campaign to raise awareness of and to mitigate this problem. Data is essential to their activity.
