Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow - Widely Distributed

Barn Swallow

The Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) used to be one of our most common swallows.  Along with the Tree Swallow we saw them every day in summer flying over fields and other agricultural land.  Recently there has been a huge decline in insectivorous birds including swallows.  We have to search now to see Barn Swallows.  

Barn Swallows are our most widely distributed swallow species.  They are found in summer over most of North America from the tree line southward to Mexico.  They spend their winters in South America with their winter range extending as far south as central Chile and northern Argentina.  Barn Swallows are tremendous fliers and some migrants actually take trans-oceanic routes.  

Barn Swallow - Male and Female

Barn Swallows prefer fields and open areas near water.  They nest in man-made structures like barns and sheds but also bridges.  Areas near water are preferred so that there is an abundance of aerial insects.  I am sure we can all remember the sounds of nesting Barn Swallows as we entered a barn years ago.  It is sad that that is no longer true.  Not all agricultural structures now have nesting Barn Swallows.   For many years we had our regular nesting pairs in our barn which had a pond nearby.  We would often have 3 or 4 nesting pairs.  Upon entry into the barn one would hear the familiar chittering and ‘cheezie’ sound greeting us.  The Barn Swallow nest is made of mud mixed with their saliva and minimal grass fibre and it is usually placed on a beam or ledge high in the barn.  It was common to see the adults gathering mud from a puddle in the barnyard during nest building.  It has been shown that the male and female together make about 1000 trips to collect enough mud for the nest.  In the cup-shaped nest are laid 3-7 white eggs with brown spots which are incubated 13 to 17 days by both adults.  

Almost all modern Barn Swallows nest in man-made structures.  In former times they nested in caves and cliff faces.  I have seen an active Barn Swallow nest on a rocky ledge on the southern shore of Lake Ontario.  That was certainly an uncommon find.

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallows are beautiful and distinctive.  The males are a dark iridescent blue on the crown, back, rump and tail.  The face and throat are a deep rufous brown and the breast is a light orange.  The tail is deeply forked and there are white spots at the base of the tail.  The female is similar but lighter in colour and her tail is shorter and not as deeply forked.  The wings of both are very pointed making them capable of a distinctive low zigzag flight as they hawk for insects.     

Studies of Barn Swallow behaviour have shown that for mates females prefer males with the longest symmetrical tails.  This has undoubtedly led to the beautiful swallow tails we see.  The Barn Swallow has also been important in history.  In times past they were killed in huge numbers for their feathers.  The movement to stop this led to the founding of the Audubon Society and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.  

The recent decline in their population is very troublesome.  The declines have been 90% in the last 40 years!  That is about as bad as one could imagine.  The causes are the steep decline in agriculture.  This has led to far fewer barns and the modern barns are not amenable to avian inhabitants.  They have no or fewer eaves and surfaces for nesting and usually do not allow avian entry.  Modern barns often do not have the mixture of animals in them that in past times was conducive to swallow habitat.  The crops grown now also affect the swallow populations.  Barn Swallows are aerial feeders and some of our modern crops do not have large populations of aerial insects over them.  And we can add to these bad situations the increased use of insecticides both here and in their wintering grounds and we have a very bleak situation for the Barn Swallow.  

I remember in the 2 or 3 years prior to the demise of the Barn Swallow population in our barn that I would find nestlings on the barn floor.  These were young birds that were not yet ready to fledge.  If we replaced them back into the nest (with great difficulty at such a height) they would be back on the floor the next day.  I believe these young birds either jumped out of the nest themselves or were pushed out because the nestlings were starving.  There were not enough insects to adequately feed the birds in the nest.  After 2 or 3 years of this behaviour, the Barn Swallows left our barn completely.  We no longer had them in our barn.  That was sad.  Our barn was over 100 years old and probably had Barn Swallows nesting in it for most of those years.  Now there were none.  Something was really wrong.  I suspect that story has been repeated over much of North America.  And so, we have a very serious decline in the population of this beautiful avian species.  We have lost one of our best controls of our insect populations around our homes and barnyards.  

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Male

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a member of the woodpecker family, Picidae.  It shares the common behaviours of most woodpeckers: it climbs tree trunks with its stiff tail as a brace,  its feet have two toes forward and two backward all with long claws enabling it to cling to tree bark, it uses its chisel-like bill to puncture and peel bark looking for insects and larvae,  it flies with an undulating flight, and it nests and roosts in holes in trees.  

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is about 22 cm long (8 inches), an average-sized woodpecker for New Brunswick.  It is migratory and arrives in April and leaves in September and October.  It is always a welcome sight to see and hear our first spring arrivals.  The male of this species if striking in appearance.  He has a bright cherry red on his chin and forehead.  These red patches are outlined in black.  The back and flanks are mottled black and white, there is a white bold upper wing and a white stripe from the bill to the belly.  Add to that a smearing of a yellowish colour on the breast and back and you have a beautiful bird!  The adult female is much the same except she lacks the red patch on the chin.  Her chin and throat are white.

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a summer resident and breeds here.  Its normal range includes most of southern Canada including Newfoundland and some of Labrador.  The only place where you won't find them is in central and southern British Columbia.  They winter in the south-eastern and central US, Mexico and Central America.  

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Female

This species feeds on sap, insects, fruits,  and berries.  They feed both by chiselling out insects and larvae from trees and also by creating sap wells in tree bark which collect sweet sap and attract insects.  They will return to their rows of sap wells periodically to feed on the trapped insects.  Note the sap wells in the photo above.  Sometimes they will catch insects in mid-air.  

They are a vocal species.  They make a nasal cat-like sound.  Their alarm call is a 'cheer-er'.  They also  communicate by beating out a specific rhythm on a hollow tree.  Their preferred habitat is mixed deciduous forest.  

The Yellow-bellied Sapsucker is a keystone species.  Many other species thrive by using their tree cavities and sap wells.  They certainly must contribute to the succession of forests.  There are two other species of sapsuckers in North America, the Red-naped Sapsucker and the Red-breasted Sapsucker.  Where their ranges overlap, the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker occasionally hybridizes with these species.  

This is a very adaptable species.  It has learned unique ways to feed and communicate with its kin.  It has adapted well to our not-so healthy forests and thrives in our area.

Townsend's Warber

Townsend's Warbler - A Very Rare Visitor

Townsend's Warbler  [Marbeth Wilson Photo]

The Townsend's Warbler (Setophaga townsendi) is an ultra-rare species to see in New Brunswick.  It is a species of warbler with its range being entirely western.  It breeds and summers in British Columbia, southern Yukon and Alaska and it winters in the western US states, northern Mexico and Central America.  It is a permanent resident along the coast of British Columbia southward to southern California.  In the west it is fairly common  preferring coniferous forest habitats especially old growth forests.  

The photo shown above (thanks to Marbeth Wilson) is an individual which showed up at Waterside on 13 May, 2020.  This is only the second report of a Townsend's Warbler from New Brunswick (I believe).  The first individual to appear here I saw at Fundy Park on 5 November, 2005.  It was an immature male.  The bird shown above is an adult male in breeding plumage.  And what a beautiful bird it is!  The identifying features of this bird are the dark auriculars (ear patches) surrounded by yellow, yellow breast, white outer tail feathers and 2 white wing bars.  Note also the black throat patch, the olive green crown and the olive green back streaked with black.  The female is duller with narrower streaks and no black throat patch. 

Townsend's Warbler  [Internet Photo]

The species one might at first mistake this species for is the Black-throated Green Warbler, especially the female and immature Townsend's.  The Black-throated Green Warbler, however, lacks the dark auriculars and the yellow on the throat and breast.  Black-throated Green Warblers are common here in summer.

Vagrants are common in this species with many reports occurring accidentally in the east and as far away as Bermuda and the Bahamas.  

Townsend's Warblers feed on insects and spiders.  They forage by gleaning from clumps of foliage by perching or hovering.  They occasionally catch flying insects in mid-air.  They apparently will come to feeders for fruit, nuts and sugared water.  This species nests high in coniferous trees especially Douglas firs.  The nest is a well-concealed shallow cup and 3 to 5 white eggs with brown spots are incubated for 12 days by the female.  The song of this warbler is high-pitched and drops at the end; zwee zwee zwee zwee sweezit, as described by some.

The Townsend's Warbler will hybridize with the Hermit Warbler where their ranges overlap.  The Townsend's Warbler is very vocal and the male will begin to sing even before he leaves the wintering grounds.  This beautiful species was named after an American ornithologist, John Kirk Townsend.

Painted Turtle

A Common New Brunswick Turtle

Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) is probably the most common turtle species found in New Brunswick.  It is more common in the south of the province in permanent ponds, streams and wet ditches.  It is mostly aquatic because it needs to be in water to eat its diet of aquatic insects, aquatic vegetation, worms, grubs, shellfish, and fish.

Painted Turtle

The Painted Turtle grows to about 10 to 18 cm in length (4 to 7 inches) and lives a long life, up to 40 years in captivity.  One wild individual was found to be 55 years old!  They cannot be reliably aged by counting growth rings as in some species.

The carapace (shell) is smooth on top and is a dark gray green colour and marked with red around the edges.  The underneath of the shell is called the plastron and is yellow.  The head and limbs are dark gray green streaked with yellow and red giving it a pleasing appearance.  The female turtle is larger than the male.  The male has a concave-shaped plastron, a longer tail and long claws on the front.  These adaptations aid the male in mounting the female and holding on in breeding which takes place on the bottom of the pond.  The female digs holes in sandbars where she lays 6 to 12 white eggs.  These may hatch in 2 to 3 months depending on the weather.  Some eggs may actually remain buried and hatch the next year.  Turtle eggs and hatchlings are vulnerable to predation by skunks, raccoons, foxes, rodents, and snakes.  Turtles are slow growing.  It takes 2 to 9 years for a male to reach maturity and 6 to 16 years for the female. Painted turtles spend the winter buried in mud at the bottom of ponds and streams.  They emerge as the sun melts the ice and warms the water in spring.

Painted Turtles Sunning on a Log

Painted turtles are social animals and in warm weather can be seen sunning themselves on a log or floating vegetation.  They are shy and will disappear if they see you approaching.  Painted turtles are found throughout the Maritime provinces.  Their range includes all of southern Canada southward to northern Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean.

Painted Turtle, Male on Right

In the photo above note the turtle on the right has its foreleg withdrawn into the carapace.  Note the length of the claws on the foot.  This is likely a male.  

Turtles are ancient reptiles.  In fact, the ancestors of today's turtles appeared 200 million years ago.  That was before the dinosaurs!  They survived the dinosaur extinction and have remained relatively unchanged for 150 million years.  Turtles have no teeth.  Their mouth is formed like a horny bill enabling them to tear their food to eat.   Today's species of turtles living in North America and in the waters surrounding it are classified into 7 families.  

An interesting fact about this species is that the female stores the sperm she receives during copulation for up to 3 years.  She then uses it for successive egg layings.  The species is known to lay 2 to 5 clutches per season in the more southern parts of its range but here in the north, only one clutch is laid.  Another fact: the species was first described in 1783 by a German naturalist, Johann Gottlob Schneider and was given its official Latin name by John Edward Gray in 1855.