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April 21, 2005  Mothy Nature It has been a long time since I took, what was once an almost daily stroll down Bridge Creek to the Old Sewer Lagoon. Imagining the south-facing slopes along this walk warming in the sun and possibly attracting an early Hummingbird or a Flycatcher I set out a few mornings ago to enjoy this hike. I lingered and listened in the slope areas that encircle the north side of the Centennial Park parking lot. The first thing I spotted was a large housecat watching me balefully from a lounging spot on a fallen limb. I often refer to the slopes further down as ‘cat alley’ but after walking here regularly, one realizes there is no area without its share of cats. This feline presence may have been the reason that little stirred in the dense understory of the park. There were a few Juncos trilling and ‘chipping’ in their hidden places and other than a few ruby-crowned Kinglets in the poplar trees, all was rather quiet. I continued my walk, zigzagging across the open areas to check the pond where a few years ago I put up a duck box. The pond was still locked in ice. I circled around the outdoor toilets hoping to catch the sound of Winter Wren in the deep mossy cover on the opposite side of the creek, but there was no sound of the little lurker. I kept glancing downstream for Waterfowl in the creek where in past I’ve flushed Hooded Mergansers or Goldeneyes, but they too were a no show. At the beginning of the stretch just below the tennis courts is the slope area I call cat alley, and true to its name a black cat hurried into the cover of the dense rose bushes. I lingered slowly at the foot of the slope knowing that at this time, in previous years, I have come upon a Spotted Towhee, a Western Kingbird and once a house Wren, a bird not common to our area. All was silent this day. Further and further downstream I went, still seeing no waterfowl or any interesting smaller bird life. Finally I came to a fence, the boundary to the old sewer lagoon property. A Song Sparrow sang me a welcome as I stepped over the locked gate. A dike surrounds this area and the walking is easy, but before I started out into the open flat fields I paused to inspect a curious hummock near the creek. It was here a few years ago that I found a surprising number of large moth cocoons. I took some of them home that year and kept them outside in a small cage until they emerged as moths. I was able to enjoy watching them hatch and unfold into the giant flying night creatures with wingspans of four inches. I tried to identify the moth species and the closest I could come was to put them in the giant silk moth category, likely Polyphemus. I was not disappointed in my search of the hummock area this year. Here again the large silk cocoons were attached to soapberry, willow and rosebushes. The more I looked the more I found. I have never understood what it is about this spot that attracts so many of these large caterpillars to congregate here to cocoon. Perhaps the moths lay their eggs somewhere nearby and the caterpillars spend about two summer months growing to mature size, but how do they all end up within feet of each other after months of wandering and eating? Maybe the creek prevents them from going further and they pool in this area until old enough to pupate. I somehow don’t think that explains the scenario. Perhaps it’s a Polyphemus sanctuary that has yet to be designated. I couldn’t resist taking two of the cocoons, the plan again to keep them outdoors until they hatched and this year photograph them with my new and very capable camera. Not wanting to crush the cocoons I pinned them to the front of my jacket. There they swung for the rest of the walk. Out on the barrens of the Old Sewer Lagoons very little stirred. A hidden Western meadowlark sang beautifully from a field to the north and now, ahead of me, the occasional duck took flight. A pair of Mallards and a pair of Common Goldeneyes flew downstream, the Goldeneyes circled back to settle on the same corner of the creek, perhaps a sign that the female had fixated on a cavity nest nearby. Inland from that spot about 100 feet away from the creek I earlier spotted several old Pileated Woodpecker nest cavities. Perhaps that was what she had in mind. As I walked the outer dike I kept a watchful eye for any ripple in the creek. In this area, in past years, ever watchful Wood Ducks would go skittering off leaving hardly a ripple in their wake. There were no Wood Ducks today. There were no Bank Swallows around the extensive creekside mud cliff where, when they deigned to return, a hundred would dart about ‘brrt, brrt brrt-ing’. There were no White-crowned Sparrows at the junction of Little Bridge Creek and Bridge Creek. They too had not begun to migrate in. A handful of Song Sparrows appeared in front of me, aggressively sang, then pursued each other finally ending up in the short dead cattails of the sewer lagoon. From a short distance ahead I heard the ‘creah, creah, creah’ of the spring’s first Sapsucker. I walked toward the sound and found a male, resplendent in splashes of red, hanging on a small sapling. Some male Red-winged Blackbirds in the same stand of Pines, noting my pause, called down their spring song from overhead. I returned the way I’d come and again scared up the female Goldeneye. This year I’ve taken time to look at each female Goldeneye, whether Barrow’s or Common to see if the beak colouring differs and is thus a useful identity clue. It does and it is. Common females have a dark base to the bill with a pinkish tip. Female Barrow’s have all orange or yellow-orange bills. The females that I’ve studied have all been in the company of a male of the species thereby giving me definite proof of the type. Trying to sort out Common and Barrow’s females by head shape proved to be too challenging for me. I completed my walk, arriving back at the parking lot without sighting a Hummingbird or a Flycatcher but I knew they were long shots when I started out. They would come in due course and until then I’d find ample entertainment in the 85 species of birds now in the area. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
