This fantastic wetland site is located north of Southport town centre and has some of the best wildlife in the region. Winter is a great time to watch birds flocking together, sometimes in spectacular numbers. Their survival skills are tested when food becomes hard to find. If you walk around a woodland in the winter you may be forgiven for wondering where all the birds have gone.
In fact, there are likely to be plenty of birds about, but instead of being evenly spread throughout the area, several species group together in a loose, mixed feeding flock. Flocking together in winter improves the chances of locating food and huddling together during the critical night-time period helps conserve body heat.
By sticking together, they improve their chance of survival, because together they are far more likely to spot a predator, like a sparrowhawk, before it's too late. You may be lucky, and suddenly find yourself surrounded by blue, great and coal tits, goldcrests and chaffinches, twittering and feeding hungrily in one small area.
Treecreepers, long-tailed tits and wrens also regularly do this. More than 50 wrens were once counted bedding down in a nestbox during cold weather - a snug fit indeed. Avoiding becoming someone else's dinner becomes even more challenging at night. Visit the countryside or city centre on a winter's evening and you are likely to come across a massive flock of starlings, wheeling and turning in the darkening sky, heading for a sheltered spot —an empty building, leafless tree, or a bed of swaying, yellow reeds.
When the birds decide it is safe to, they shoot down in a dark tornado of whirring wings. Other species can be seen moving to their night-time roosts—you may have noticed the steady evening migrations of gulls, commuting from their daytime feast on a rubbish tip to a reservoir or lagoon, where they will spend the night on the water, alongside ducks and geese.
Rooks and jackdaws gather in their hundreds in farmland woods. Pied wagtails sometimes roost in their thousands in the warmth of power station cooling towers. For an individual bird, getting the timing right can determine whether you live or die. If you leave your feeding ground too early, you may struggle to find enough food, but if you leave it too late and miss the flock, you risk being picked off alone by a bird of prey.
It is the failing light that triggers many birds to head to their night roosts. In poor weather, starlings may be seen heading off to bed far earlier than normal.
The opposite can also be true, and on bright, moonlit nights, geese may still be seen feeding, out on the frost-silvered fields. Close menu. Log in Create account. Now and then, wild birds will stupefy their fans. For example, how do birds stay warm in the winter? What miraculous adaptations allow them to survive the freezing temperatures, bitter winds, and long nights? Certain species, such as hummingbirds, even undergo periods of torpor.
So there you have it: some of the main adaption techniques birds have developed to endure some of the most rigorous Quebec winters! The presence of different bird species varies according to the amount of food available. While last winter was rather awful, notably due to the absence of a number of species of finches, this winter is shaping up to be a particular exciting one! Indeed, a number of redpolls, pine siskins, pine grosbeaks, crossbills, and even grosbeaks have already been spotted at a number of feeding stations across the province.
Stay Tuned! Get our newsletters now Exclusive offers Events and contests Advice and blog. Thank you, your email has been successfully added to our newsletter list. One simple way to help birds when the weather outside is frightful is to hang feeders. To attract a diversity of birds, select different feeder designs and a variety of foods.
A tube feeder filled with black oil sunflower or mixed seeds, for example, will attract chickadees and finches. Woodpeckers devour suet feeders. And a safflower or sunflower-filled hopper feeder entices the usual visitors plus larger birds like cardinals and red-winged blackbirds.
The birds benefit from the backyard buffet, and you'll have a front-row seat to numerous species flocking to your plants and feeders. Membership benefits include one year of Audubon magazine and the latest on birds and their habitats. Your support helps secure a future for birds at risk. Our email newsletter shares the latest programs and initiatives.
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