In 2005/06, Canada experienced its warmest winter since modern record-keeping began, with average temperatures 3.9 degrees Celsius above normal. And, more Ontario birdwatchers than ever before were treated to sightings of two southern specialists, the Red-bellied Woodpecker and the Northern Cardinal last winter.

Kerrie Wilcox, national coordinator of Project FeederWatch, a North American-wide survey of birds coming to backyard feeders, noted that the percentage of feeders visited by Red-bellied Woodpeckers

in Ontario reached an all-time high last winter, occurring at nearly 15 per cent of feeders. The Red-bellied Woodpecker's range has been creeping northward from its core in the mid- Atlantic and southeastern states over the last decade. This species rarely visited more than five per cent of sites just five years ago.

Northern Cardinals were reported at a whopping 72% of feeders in Ontario this past winter. While many people in southern Ontario are now accustomed to seeing cardinals at their feeders,

this southern species was almost unheard of in the province 100 years ago.

Range expansions in southern species such as these could be a signal that changes in climate are making northern regions more hospitable. Likewise, it would be expected that birds located at the southern edge of their range would retract with warmer climatic conditions. One feeder species that may be showing this trend is the Gray Jay.

The percentage of feeders visited by Gray Jays has decreased to 7% since a peak of 14.1% of Ontario

feeders in 1999. Climate change may be altering the Gray Jay's habitat in the southern end of its range. While other birds fly south to warm places for the winter, the Gray Jay stays put, surviving on tiny bits of food it has stored in an estimated 100,000 locations, usually under scales of bark on spruce trunks and branches.

Dan Strickland has been studying Gray Jays in Algonquin Provincial Park, located in Central Ontario, for the last 40 years. His study showed that the Gray Jay population is not declining because the birds are moving elsewhere, but because too few birds are being hatched to replace those that die. The problem may be that most of the food they store is perishable, and climate change may be delaying the onset of sub-zero temperatures. As a result, their stored food could be spoiling. Strickland suggested that the food caches might even become poisonous, and birds sickened by tainted dinners might delay nesting and lay fewer eggs.

According to Mr.Wilcox, Project FeederWatch is always on the lookout for new participants. Participants enjoy watching birds at their backyard feeders once every two weeks from November through March. They count the kinds and numbers of birds they see, and record the information on FeederWatch data forms or by using interactive web pages. Project Feeder- Watch is a joint project of Bird Studies Canada, Nature Canada, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the National Audubon Society. Each year, there are more than 15,000 FeederWatchers across the continent.

Participants in Project FeederWatch are asked to become members of Bird Studies Canada (BSC), a national, non-profit research institute studying birds and their habitats for conservation. For an annual $35 membership fee, participants receive the FeederWatch instruction booklet, resource manual, data forms, a calendar, a poster of common feeder birds, and BSC's quarterly publication, BirdWatch Canada. Members can also participate in other BSC programs. To register, fill out the online form at www.bsc-eoc.org/national/ pfwsign.html .