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18 NORTH LEEDS UNTERI BIRDS OF A FEATHER by M. Hendrick Winter, with its blustery weather and dearth of birds, presents a challenge to avid birders. They are ingenious when it comes to figuring out ways to keep their hobby interesting under such conditions. For instance, in Toronto some listers try to find at least 100 species of birds between Dec. 1 and the end of February - this within a 30 mile radius circle of the Royal Ontario Museum. Whereas a good birder might easily find 100 species in the area on a single day during spring migration, doing so during a three month period in winter will take dedication and fortitude, qualities that intrepid winter birders seldom lack. Another facet of winter birding enthusiastically indulged in by many, is the Christmas Bird Count (CBC). These 24 hour tallies, which originated in 1900, will take place all over North America within designated 7% mile radius circles. This year, counts must be held on a day between Dec. 18,1986 and Jan. 4,1987. Some people like to participate in several. It costs them $3.00 per count for the privilege of slogging around in the cold and snow! The money helps to pay for publishing the CBC issue of "American Birds", a publication showing the results of each count and the names of the participants. It also contains articles relative to the knowledge gained through their efforts. In 1985/86, 1,504 CBCs were held throughout North America with a total of 38,346 people taking part. They found 632 species of birds and 74,169,620 individual birds. A contribution to the above statistics was made by the 14 volunteers on the local Westport CBC. On Dec. 18, 1985 they tallied 39 species of birds comprising 1937 individuals. This year (1986/87), after a trial run last year, another CBC is being added locally. It's centre is at Rideau Ferry. Some members of the North Leeds Birdwatchers (NLB) are taking part in both counts. As a finale to the present subject this excerpt from "American Birds" may be of interest. "Certainly the newest, most different aspect of the Christmas Bird Count took place on the Pamlico County, North Carolina, count. The compiler and his wife were in attendance shortly after dawn in an area in the Goose Game impoundment called "The Cathedral" as the Reverend Rick Boyd united Kathryn McCray and Dennis Smith in matrimony. The two love birds then started their honeymoon off right: spending the rest of the day counting every bird they saw and/or heard." Bill Cutfield, who lives at Red Horse Lake, has come up with some interesting birds during the last month. Not only has he had Pine Grosbeaks, Cedar Waxwings, Hooded Mergansers and a Great Horned Owl but also Common Ravens and a Bald Eagle! Frank Phelan continues to see ravens at Chaffeys Lock. A flock of 100' Cedar Waxwings and some Pine Grosbeaks have also been seen near Big Rideau Lake by Winona Barker. The NLB found a single Bohemian Waxwing that was feeding on staghorn sumac and buckthorn berries along with 200 Evening Grosbeaks. John and Elsie Goodman have a Common Grackle at their feeder which they have dubbed "Gimpy" because it is lame. Gimpy appears to fly well and there is a good food supply so he/she may last the winter. The Goodmans also had a sharp-shinned Hawk lurking nearby. Be careful Gimpy! The NLB had another bird eater, the Northern Shrike, near Mott's Mills and Mollie and Dick Ussher had a Shrike near their feeding station. Kay Williams was thrilled to watch the antics of a Northern Harrier as it quartered the fields and hovered in search of food near her place. It displayed its prominent white rump patch making it easy to identify. Jacquie Wanless noticed two Ring-necked Ducks swimming in the bay where she often sees Common Mergansers. Her husband Bob, witnessed a large flock of birds (in the thousands) take off from Sand Lake. He thought that they might be mergansers, though the distance was such that he could not be sure. On Nov. 23 Marjorie and Ron Guthrie reported an American Robin. As mentioned in earlier columns, robins can survive the winter here provided there is plenty of fruit available. Mourning Doves have been coming to Marjorie Jackson's feeder. All of Elgin must be waiting for her to produce the Northern Cardinals she had last year! The Smiths Falls bird class had a field trip to Wolfe Island and were rewarded for their duantless efforts on a horrible day. Among other things they discovered Z Tundra Swans sleeping on the ice as well as 6 Snowy Owls hunting the fields. Rene Waterfield watches a large of Snow Buntings as they wheel over the fields near her home. One should always check flocks of "snow birds" for a different bird that resembles a sparrow, for sometimes a Lapland Longspur is a member of the group. On Dec. 9 Joe Langlois rescued an injured Great Blue Heron from the ice. In handling the bird, his wife Glenna narrowly missed being impaled by the long, sharp bill - a good reason for carrying a heron snugly tucked under your arm with the bill pointed towards the back. Arrangements were made to take the heron to the Avian Care and Research Centre in Verona. In next months column there will be a progress report. Joe subsequently saw another late Great Blue Heron which seemed to be in good health. It's time for me to wish you a joyous New Year and to invite those who are interested to join the North Leeds Birdwatchers in 1987. The number to call for information and with your sightings is 359-5187. Until next month GOOD BIRDING! GARDENING LE'I'I'ERS byDoug Green Well now, here we are in January and it’s time for the New Year's Resolutions. Normally I don't make them really seriously because I always break them but this year... Before dealing with good gardening resolutions, let me tell you about the new 1987 All America Selections which were just announced. I have written about the AAS before but to refresh your memory, this is a non-profit group which trials all new seed introductions in trial gardens all over North America. It's not sponsored by any one seed company so it is not part of the hype of a single company. To win an award, a seed variety has to outperform those plants currently in use in North America. It has to perform very well in all test gardens, not just in one or two. So if you see AAS as part of the advertising for a plant variety, you can safely experiment with this plant. I should mention at this point that I have not grown any of these plants myself, sowhile I will have them in the greenhouse this spring; I cannot say I personally like or dislike them. I will give you my own assessment after the '87 growing season. Just when we thought that the petunia breeders were taking a year or two off to think about their new products, along comes the Petunia "Purple Pirouette". It is a fully double purple petunia with a white edge. It outbloomed all other gradiflora petunias easily and is the first double bicolour. It is noted that this plant is a heavy feeder so serious gardeners should fertilize their beds very well if growing these plants. . Pumpkin "Autumn Gold" 15 similiar to the spookie pumpkin in size and growing habit. It is a small pie pumpkin which features a yellow immature colour turning a gold when ripe. I think you will remember that other immature pumpkins are green. I guess this means that we won't be able to lose this one under the foliage. The seeds are supposed to taste pretty good when roasted. Andrea likes snapdragons, while I am not a tremendous admirer, this new short snap, "Princess White with Purple Eye" sounds intriguing. It apparently performed well in all climatic regions, from Florida to Canada. These bicolour blooms should be interesting to see. Basil "Purple Ruffles" is the first herb to win an AAS award in 25 years. It has dark purple, almost black leaves and can be used as an edible herb as well as an ornamental one: The Experimental farm gardens in Ottawa had some basil this year and it looked pretty in the beds. This might be a good plant to try for foliage and food. The last award this year was given to Sanvitalia "Mandarin Orange". Our customers will be familiar with the Sanvitalia as a creeping plant for baskets, rock gardens, etc. (Creeping Zinnia) Mandarin Orange is supposed to be a gold orange instead" of the common yellow. It is a water conserving plant surviving well in occasional droughts. So those are the new All American Award winners for 1987. Watch for them in the garden centres or try growing them yourself, I know that Iwill be. We will be establishing a formal trial bed system ourselves this year so that we can easily track new flowers and evaluate them against the good plants we already know. We have found that this new bed is needed because we have so many flowers on trial that they get lost unless we keep them all in one place. You are always welcome to visit and see the beds. Speaking of trials, we now are doing some trialing for the biggest Daylily hybridizer in the US. It seems that they want to know how cold their daylilies can be taken to and they asked us if we would help. A dubious distinction, to be seen as growing in one of the coldest zones known to modern gardeners but what can I say when they offer some of the best daylilies I have seen in some time. Speaking of daylilies and trials, watch next July for the announcement of our daylily open house, over 200 varieties on display for our gardens. The Iris open house will be in June, approx. 190 varieties for your inspection. Poinsettias! Read last month's column. In case you missed it, I recommend that unless you have a greenhouse or a passion for Poinsettias do not bother to try to keep it over, enjoy it and when the blooms fade, pitch the plant. However, if you are determined follow these instructions. Leave the plant in full sun, feed it weekly once/month until all danger of frost is Put the slightly bigger past in May or June. plant into a pot, cut it back approximately M: of its height and put outside in full sun for the summer. Water regularly and feed weekly. Before danger of frost take the plant inside, putting it in a full sun window (south). Approximately the 2nd week of September cut the plant back to 56 its current height. From this point on, feed every week, give it full sun and no, repeat pg artificial light. Aâ€"ny artificial light will cause the plant to delay blooming. About 15 seconds/day of light will delay the flowering about 1 day. Some city greenhouses cannot grow poinsettias because of the passing car lights. Do this you too can grow great poinsettia but unless you can follow this regimen, it's easier to pick them up at a local greenhouse. Amaryllis are another matter; they can easily be rebloomed by following a few simple directions. The most important is to feed 1135 bulb. After the plant has finished blooming, cut the dead flowers off and leaving the bulb in a sunny windowsill, feed it every two weeks with a bulb food. A bulb food can be any plant fertilizer that has a low first number on the package followed by 2 higher numbers, eg. 2â€"10â€"10 or 1-15-15. Stay away from higher first number analysis because the nitrogen (the cont'd on page 19 _ W‘h‘ecgâ€"j-w...“ V ' f 1 I fl u c . A-_.A_,___.f .H-