A Nesting Season in Nova Scotia 



By Harold F. Tufts 



MPELLED, I think, by something akin to that instinct which 

 guides the birds so surely northward each recurring spring, to 

 the land of their birth, I find myself with almost equal regu- 

 larity returning with them to the fields and forests of the north- 

 land country — mine as well as theirs. And what a delightful spring-time 

 and summer-land in which to sojourn — those northern wildernesses ! 



Arriving early in May at the little backwoods village — Caledonia, in the 

 Province of Nova Scotia — I soon found in the varied nature of the surround- 

 ing country an ideal field for the operations of an ornithologist. 



Within a few miles of Caledonia, two large streams — the Liverpool and 

 Port Medway Rivers — find their sources in the lakes and swamps that here 

 abound. In this elevated, gently undulating region, are large areas of al- 

 most virgin forests and treeless " barrens," varied with reaches of wild 

 meadow and bushy swamp or open bog. Underlaid with " whin " rock, 

 much of it outcropping on the surface and with boulders strewn about, the 

 land offers little inducement to the agriculturist, and except for the opera- 

 tions of lumbermen and destructive fires, is much as nature intended it — 

 the home of wild creatures. 



Here in early May were yet traces of winter — scattered patches of snow 

 and ice in the sheltered nooks of the forest. But the days were warm in the 

 sunshine and already the Snipe were calling from the alder fringed meadows, 

 and day and night could be heard " winnowing " high up in air. Foraging 

 Canada Jays were abroad with their broods already full-grown and capable. 

 Chickadees, Nuthatches, Woodpeckers, Kinglets, Winter Wrens, Sparrows, 

 Juncoes, Finches and Thrushes were all in evidence and with song and active 

 forms enlivened the gradually freshening landscape. 



Each day now brought new arrivals from the South. Myrtle and Yellow- 

 Palm Warblers were here in full numbers by the 8th of the month — Black- 

 throated, Green and Magnolias showed up on the 12th, with Least Fly- 

 catchers and Solitary Vireos. Then through the ensuing weeks came the 

 great bulk of the summer Warblers, and last to arrive — about the 20th to 

 23rd — the Flycatchers, Olive-sided, Yellow-bellied and Trail's, and on the 

 25th, the Nighthawk. 



My daily wanderings afield during these davs were full of interest. 

 Pushing my way through the dense stunted spruces fringing the bogs and 

 forested hills, I frequently discovered the now empty nest of the Canada Jay. 

 Never more than ten or twelve feet from the ground, the bulky nest is*easily 



