Wow, it’s been a really quiet season here up until just recently. I had my feeders put away in late spring, after FeederWatch season ended and for about half of the summer due to worries of Avian Flu. I put one or two feeders out in late July and have 3 hanging feeders out now plus the platform. I also have 3 hummingbird feeders out around the yard. Birds have been quite slow in returning to the yard but activity is picking up a bit. I now have Purple Finches, Goldfinches, Song Sparrows, Chipping Sparrows (EVERYwhere!), Downy Woodpeckers, White Throated Sparrows, Chickadees, Red Breasted Nuthatches, Crows and Pine Siskins coming around regularly with sporadic visits from Grackles, Red Winged Blackbirds & Starlings here and there.

Since there isn’t much to talk about right now, this post will be mostly a photo essay. Hope you enjoy!

Starting earlier in spring, I had a good number of Tree Swallows coming around to check out the bird house. Unfortunately, they decided NOT to nest in my yard this year. Very disappointing.

Tree Swallows

In June, I had this stunning pair of Eastern Bluebirds visit and hunt in my backyard. I was soooo hopeful that they would pick a birdhouse & nest in the yard but again, no luck. They came through the backyard hunting insects & caterpillars & such but chose to nest somewhere else. Hoping for next year again.

Male Eastern Bluebird

Female Eastern Bluebird

I was very pleased to see a Savannah Sparrow in my backyard this summer. One of my favourite types of Sparrow, I don’t get to see them every year. So pretty!!

Savannah Sparrow

We usually get a pair of Sharp-Shinned Hawks and a pair of Merlins hunting the backyard all summer long. The Merlins were around in spring & early summer but haven’t come to the yard since nesting season began. This Sharp-Shinned hawk visited only this one time that I know of, in late June.

Sharp-Shinned Hawk

If you were watching the webcam in late winter, I’m sure you remember the Crows that were on the feeders daily! They hung around the yard & area in numbers of about 15 to 20 until well into the summer. They were another reason why I put my feeders away and stopped putting seed out. I like Crows but they were taking over and their noise was insane. Now that it’s late August, many have moved on but the resident family is still coming around once in a while.

Crow

Hummingbird season has been quite entertaining this year. It started out quiet but once nesting season was over, they took over the backyard! Juvenile males are battling it out almost constantly for either the feeders or the flowers. I’ve had to duck from them a few times! Good thing they are as tiny as they are!

Female Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Juvenile male Ruby Throated Hummingbird

Purple Finches are back at the feeders in pretty good numbers right now, about 20 in the yard at a time. Juveniles are constantly begging out there at this time.

Male Purple Finch

Goldfinches have been around since spring and they are the latest ‘nesters’ in this area that I know of. I believe they just have nestlings now.

Female Goldfinch

Black Capped Chickadees have been around all year long, of course. No day in the backyard is complete without hearing the Chickadees calling. I’m happy that I have a pair of Red Breasted Nuthatches back again too.

Black Capped Chickadee

It’s baby bird season now and the backyard has been a veritable Birdie Nursery this past month. Here are some immature birds I’ve been watching in the backyard lately.

Juvenile Ruby Crowned Kinglet … too cute for words!

Another juvenile Ruby Crowned Kinglet, a little further along in development.

Juvenile Chipping Sparrow … they have been all over the backyard for weeks now.

Juvenile Blackburnian Warbler (correct me if I’m wrong!)

Juvenile Blue Headed Vireo

Juvenile Philadelphia Vireo

And this, I think, is my favourite photo of the whole summer: a juvenile Red Eyed Vireo about to grab breakfast! After some research, it turned out that ‘breakfast’ was a Clearwing Moth caterpillar! I didn’t see the caterpillar when I first took the photo … not until I brought it up on the computer screen. This took place in my Highbush Cranberry Shrub right outside of my livingroom window.

Juvenile Red Eyed Vireo

I was very happy to see a good sized flock of Common Nighthawks this summer, just last week in fact. I would estimate about 200 in the flock and I was able to watch them 3 evenings in a row.

Common Nighthawk

A tiny portion of the Nighthawk flock from my backyard.

I’ll end with a photo of one of my all-time favourite Warblers: the adorable little Wilson’s Warbler. Every time I see one, I keep thinking that if they could speak, they would have a French accent to go along with their little beret! We are just getting into Warbler season in the backyard as fall migration kicks into high gear so hopefully, I’ll have some interesting sightings in the next couple of months.

Wilson’s Warbler

That’s it for this month …. and this summer. Thanks for reading/looking! I hope you are all having an enjoyable season.

Until next time!

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – August 2022 appeared first on Bird Canada.

It certainly has been a long winter. We still have over 3 feet of snow in the backyard with some banks nearly 10 feet tall around town. It’s JUST starting to melt some the past few days but winter & spring will be battling it out for at least another month yet.

I haven’t done a whole lot of photography this winter, mainly because it’s been a good old fashioned winter, meaning lots of near -40C & tons of snow! On the plus side, my feeders were much busier this winter than the past 2 winters combined. Not huge numbers of birds but steady daily activity with a couple of interesting visitors thrown in.

This beautiful Fox Sparrow visited my yard in November 2021 for a week or two. I don’t get to see Foxies every year so it’s always a huge treat when one shows up during spring or fall migration.

Fox Sparrow (please ignore the stick!)

A female Brown Headed Cowbird also visited the backyard in November. She didn’t stay around for more than a couple of days. Not a bird I see often in my yard or at my feeders.

Female Brown Headed Cowbird

We have Pileated Woodpeckers in this area all year round and they nest in various areas near me. This lovely female graced my backyard for all of about 3 minutes in December!

Female Pileated Woodpecker

As I said, it was a very cold winter up here. This is what Evening & Pine Grosbeaks look like at near -40C. Birds are SO much tougher than we give them credit for!

Female Evening Grosbeaks in January.

Male (red) and female Pine Grosbeaks in bitter cold of January

This Raven came around once I put out a suet cake. He/she would knock it off the platform feeder onto the patio stones below, then peck away at it until it had its fill. I would go out & put the cake back up onto the platform & a while later, the Raven would repeat the process. This went on until the suet cake was finally small enough for the Raven to carry it away! Awesome birds!

Handsome Raven – the biggest bird that (sometimes) visits my feeders

We were lucky enough last fall & early winter to have not just one but *3* Ruffed Grouse coming around. We believe one was the resident adult female & 2 were siblings from last summer. As winter went on, we regularly only saw one Grouse coming at a time but suspected there were 2 in the area. They LOVED the Mountain Ash berries last fall!

Ruffed Grouse – the Rockstar of the Webcam!

Cedar Waxwings (and Pine Grosbeaks among others) also loved the Mountain Ash berries. We had a really good crop last fall but wow, they sure didn’t last long. We have also had Bohemian Waxwings around most of this winter so here are a couple of photos to show the differences. Their calls & whistles are slightly different too.

Cedar Waxwings – mostly brown with yellow underbellies

Bohemian Waxwings – Rusty red on forehead & cheeks and rump … no yellow on underbelly

Very fluffy Bohemian Waxwings eating leftover crabapples in my neighbour’s tree.

After the past 2 winters of having virtually NO Redpolls or Pine Grosbeaks, I have ….. some ……. Redpolls this winter. 5 years ago, I would normally have anywhere from 100 to 200 Redpolls at my feeders all day long, all winter long. This winter, I’ve had nearly 50 at most, usually 25 to 30 at any given time.

Female Common Redpoll

I’ve had a regular flock of Black Capped Chickadees coming around  all winter along with a pair of Red Breasted Nuthatches. There are about 6 Chickadees in total and they are such a joy to see. It absolutely amazes me how these little ones surivive in weeks of -35C. They are incredible.

Black Capped Chickadee

It seems like every winter, I get at least one of what I call a Special Visitor to my feeders. If you’ll recall, last winter was the Western Meadowlark. This winter? It was a Brown Creeper that visited my peanut butter/suet log for about a month! To my knowledge, this is the first Brown Creeper I’ve had in the yard altho’ I can be fairly certain one HAS been here before and I just haven’t seen it. After all: they’re not much bigger than my pinkie finger! This little one actually came to feed every day, multiple times per day for about a month when it was bitterly cold late January into February.

Teeny-tiny Brown Creeper nibbling at suet/peanut butter mix.

And here’s something a little different. I thought I would show you a counted Cross-Stitch picture that I finished stitching in January.

I’m ending this post with a warning for people who feed birds. There is a threat of Avian Influenza coming through with migrant birds this spring. It has been confirmed in the Atlantic & Mississippi flyways with cases on the east coast of Canada. Recommendations are for people to take their feeders down for at least the migration season to help stop possibly infected birds from congregating in large flocks. The illness is highly contagious & deadly. You can Google ‘avian influenza’ to find more information. My feeders will be coming down at the end of this month, sooner if I see migrants showing up. The webcam will be shut down for the season within days of my feeders coming down. Please consider taking the same precautions to help stop the spread.

Thanks so much for reading!

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – March 2022 appeared first on Bird Canada.

It’s been quite a long time since I posted from here (since March ’21!) … sorry about that. I wasn’t feeding the birds much this past summer because of bears in the area. Then, in late summer, my yard was hit with a Trichomoniasis outbreak for the first time ever and I had to put all feeders and birdbaths away for nearly a month. I just put the feeders back out about a week or so ago and the birdbath just went back out a couple of days ago. I will be watching closely for sick birds again as freeze-up nears.

This post will be a sort of catch-up for the summer & fall with photos.

We’ll start with this little cutie. This Groundhog visited my backyard for a few weeks over mid summer. It had a feast in my neighbour’s garden (!!!) and took a major liking to the petunias & nasturtiums I had growing in pots around the yard. I didn’t mind having it around one bit but my neighbours weren’t thrilled.

I nicknamed this cute Groundhog ‘Clover’ as it enjoyed nibbling the plant in my lawn.

It was a very good season for nesting birds near my yard. Lots of youngsters later in the summer!

Immature Yellow Rumped Warbler

Immature White Throated Sparrow

Immature Ruby Crowned Kinglet

Immature American Goldfinch

Immature Crow

Immature Chipping Sparrow

Young Tree Swallows

Adult Evening Grosbeak feeding its female young

I had lots of Hummingbird activity in the yard the whole summer.

Female Ruby Throated Hummingbird at Monarda blossoms

A Sandhill Crane family wandered all over town in mid to late summer, adopting our old high school track field to feed every day for a few weeks.

Adult female (right) & immature Sandhill Cranes. The adult male was there too but kept his distance & remained watchful.

I had a very good number of Goldfinches around the yard for much of the summer. Not much sounds cuter than the call of a Goldfinch!

Male Goldfinch

I was so excited one day when not just one but TWO Black Throated Green Warblers discovered the fruit in my Mountain Ash tree this summer! I’ve never had this species in my yard before, that I know of.

Black Throated Green Warbler in late summer.

I hardly saw any Woodpeckers this summer at all since I had to keep my peanut feeder put away most of the time. This one returned last week, shortly after the peanut tube went back out.

Male Hairy Woodpecker

Some very exciting visits to my yard this summer were Vireos …… a TRIFECTA of Vireos, actually! Vireos are most certainly some of THE prettiest birds in the region. It’s an exceptional year when I see a few Red Eyed Vireos. It’s truly amazing when all 3 of these Vireos show up in my yard AT THE SAME TIME!

Adult (top) & young Red Eyed Vireos

Blue Headed Vireo

Philadelphia Vireo!

And now that we are well into fall, the White Crowned Sparrows have moved into the yard with many Dark Eyed Juncos.

Adult White Crowned Sparrow

Once again, it’s a good season when I get to see American Pipits. I only ever see them during fall migration but I don’t get to see them every year. Last week, a flock of about 20 moved through my neighbourhood and lawn.

American Pipit

Another migrant I seldom get to see is the Harris’s Sparrow. This handsome young fella has been in & out of my yard for a few days now. He is certainly one of the more striking Sparrows!

Immature Harris’s Sparrow

I’ll end this month with a report that Cornell’s webcam in my backyard will be coming back online soon to stream worldwide for the upcoming Project FeederWatch season, running from mid November ’21 to the end of next April.  Watch on social media for announcements when we go live in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks so much for reading and viewing. Until next time ……

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – October 2021 appeared first on Bird Canada.

Evening Grosbeak (male). Common in Calgary sixty years ago, but rarely seen there now.

Of course this is private property with restricted access, but there is a YouTube Channel which has a daily live stream from three cameras set up on the property. You can watch the birds live, and participate in the chat about what is being seen. There are also many archived past live streams, and clips of highlights on the site. Here is the YouTube page: Foothills Birds. They also have a web page with more information and a link to the YouTube site: foothillsbirds.com Below is one of the clips from YouTube, featuring some brave Blue Jays.

During the recent fall migration as many as twenty-six species were seen in a day, including migrating hummingbirds and warblers. Late migrants continue to pass through. On October 1st, twenty-one species were seen, including the first report of a Golden-crowned Sparrow in the Calgary area this fall.

Golden-crowned Sparrow. A mainly Pacific-coast bird, it does have a breeding population along the nearby eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Archived streams feature birds like Northern Goshawks, Northern Saw-whet Owls, Ruffed Grouse, and Mammals like Red Squirrels, Northern Flying Squirrels, and Bats. It is very entertaining and educational to watch! Below is a nighttime video of a Northern Flying Squirrel (in the left-hand feeder) being chased by a Northern Saw-whet Owl.

I’d like to urge you to go to YouTube and subscribe to this channel. It’s as simple as clicking on the “Subscribe” button if you are a regular YouTube user. If not, to get your free subscription,

1. Go to: https://www.youtube.com/foothillsbirds

2. Log into your Google Account, if you aren’t already logged in, top right corner.

3. Click on the red SUBSCRIBE button on the right side.

4. It should change from red to gray and say UNSUBSCRIBE.

Being subscribed to a channel is not obtrusive. For you, it just means that the site appears in your feed as a suggestion from time to time when you are already on the YouTube site. Any new clips that they add will appear in your suggestions. It will also be easy for you to re-find the site since there will be a link to it under your subscriptions. But it is very important for Foothills Birds to get more subscribers! Even if you do not plan to visit the site much, please subscribe so that it will be suggested to more and more YouTube users and seen by more people. There are currently about 515 subscribers, and if they get to 1000, it will allow them to get more advanced features from YouTube and allow them to do more to support the birds. Some photos of birds seen at the feeders, from the web site:

A male Varied Thrush.

Male Pileated Woodpecker.

The best time to view the birds is when they are hungry early in the morning. The camera is usually on from from dawn to dusk. This location is now an eBird HotSpot, so you can go on eBird and see what has been reported there every day. There have been 109 species observed at the location this year, and 141 species all-time! If you are on Twitter, follow them @FoothillsBirds. They regularly post photos of birds that are at the feeders and in the area, as well as lists of species seen at the feeders. You can also follow Foothills Birds on Facebook and Instagram. So visit the site, watch some clips and live streams, and subscribe. Check the site from time to time, and follow it throughout the spring migration in 2022. Let’s help them reach their goal of 1000 subscribers!

The post Live Bird Cams from the Alberta Foothills appeared first on Bird Canada.

First off on a good note, the Western Meadowlark is still here, still visiting my yard almost daily & looks perfectly healthy. Such a beautiful bird!

Western Meadowlark sitting in the sun on a cold day, on the stump of my crabapple tree.

Sitting on the edge of my platform feeder after having a good breakfast.

Poking around on the ground under the platform feeder.

BUT!! I recently found out that this beautiful bird has a dark side: one day last week, it killed a Common Redpoll in my yard! I never expected that from a bird that is a seed & insect eater but research after the fact showed that these things do indeed happen. I have photos of the whole scenario … they are a bit distant but those that are squeamish may wish to scroll past.

In this first shot, the Redpoll is in front of the Meadowlark, approaching it as they are feeding on the ground.

Shot #2, the Redpoll is much closer now (the Meadowlark has not moved) ……

In shot #3, the Meadowlark shot out with its feet, grabbed the Redpoll & proceeded to peck into its head multiple times! The Meadowlark then ate portions of the Redpoll for 3 minutes before turning away & resuming seed eating. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why the Redpoll got so close to a much larger bird in the first place! I suspect the Redpoll was ill & not taking the precautions that it normally would.

Once the Meadowlark flew back into the trees a few minutes later, a Crow came down & grabbed the Redpoll carcass & took it away. Nothing wasted. The only evidence that remained of the whole scene was a couple small drops of blood in the snow. Nature can be HARSH!

So, in all of that excitement, did anyone even notice the Starling that was on the platform feeder in those photos?!

First Starling of the season on my platform feeder, a lovely female. I know a lot of people don’t like Starlings because they are not native and …. let’s face it …. they are feeder & food hogs! …. but they really are quite stunning!

A male (left) & female Starling on my platform feeder yesterday. Do you know how to tell male from female in this species? Look at the base of their bills: the male has blue, the female has pink. Cool, huh?

And now, another black bird, this time the majestic Raven. I love when they visit my feeders. This one had its work cut out for him/her. I had a suet cake on the platform feeder (went through 4 of them this season) and the Canada Jays loved it. So did the Chickadees ….. but so did the Raven. He would try to pick up the cake to fly away with it but the cake was much too heavy when full size. Twice, the Raven picked it up only to immediately drop it on the ground below the platform. Twice I picked it up & put it back so the smalled birds could eat a bit more. The third time the Raven dropped it, he put a big crack in it. I knew it wouldn’t be there much longer. Sure enough, the next day, the Raven returned, wedged his top beak into the crack & picked up the suet cake!

Such a handsome bird! Love this pose, showing the shape of his tail. Beautiful profile.

Getting ready to attempt stealing the suet cake for the first time.

Third time was the charm! He couldn’t fly far with it but went just a little ways, then dropped it & broke it into smaller pieces. The Crows helped that last time!

So here are some photos of other recent visitors to my yard & feeders.

Blue Jay

Canada Jay. I’ve stopped seeing them as they are nesting now.

An Evening Grosbeak! I’ve been seeing a small flock of them around all winter but they just have not been coming to my feeders.

A female Pine Grosbeak! I’ve had a few Pines come the feeders once in a while this winter but very sporadically.

Finally had a Chickadee slow down long enough for a photo!

Twice this winter, we had exceptional scenes of hoar (or rime?) frost. The Redpoll fits right in.

I thought this photo was adorable! This male Common Redpoll was watching others that were in the tree above him.

I have a resident pair of Red Breasted Nuthatches. They’ve been coming around for about 5 years now & bring babies every summer. Lately, a third one has been around & all hell breaks loose in the yard when he/she shows up.

For those wondering, I have not seen the White Throated Sparrow now in about 10 days. He lived under my back deck all winter long, well protected from the weather & had tons of food. Last time I saw him, he looked perfectly healthy so chances are, he just moved on when the weather improved. I’ll never know for sure. 

I’m happy to say that we still have a pair of Red Foxes coming around. Their denning time is quickly approaching so I doubt we’ll be seeing both of them much longer but in the meantime, I finally caught a couple of snapshots of BOTH of them with the webcam recently.

One fox under the feeder & one pair of floating eyes as the other came over our back fence.

One of the few times we’ve seen the foxes together under the feeders.

One of the pair (I’m assuming the male) tends to snooze on the very top of a mountain of snow in my next door neighbour’s yard, just over my back fence. I took this photo from my office window. It was nap time!

So that’s it for now. You can still view my feeders over the webcam as Project FeederWatch has been extended (possibly permanently?) to the end of April so the cam will stream until then.  https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/

Happy Spring!

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – March 2021 appeared first on Bird Canada.

I’m hoping the series of photos I’m going to post here can help bring you some smiles during these difficult times of pandemic, lockdowns and mid winter blues.

I certainly don’t have large numbers of individual birds coming to my yard but I do have a fairly good assortment coming around, including two winter/seasonal rarities for me: a Western Meadowlark and a White Throated Sparrow. The sparrow isn’t TOO far out of the norm here ….. it’s always possible to see sparrows of some kind here in winter ….. but the Meadowlark is a WHOLE other story. I’ve never seen one even in spring or summer, let alone all winter!

Western Meadowlark

Earlier in the fall, the Meadowlark wasn’t getting along with or tolerating ANYone out there, especially the Blue Jays. But, as winter moved in & got a solid grip on the region, the battles outside mostly stopped. Feeding had to take priority.

I was happy to see the Meadowlark come back up to the platform feeder today, after feeding solely on the ground the past couple of weeks.

Now, here is where things get really odd. The Meadowlark and the White Throated Sparrow appear to have befriended each other! I have nicknamed them the Odd Couple! They feed together on the ground every day. I’m not sure if it’s my imagination or not but it seems to me that the Sparrow purposefully seeks out the Meadowlark. I see them feeding like this a few times per day! The Sparrow is still living under my back deck where he is very well protected and able to stay out of the weather. I’m not absolutely sure but I think the Meadowlark may now be going under there too. How smart is that!

The fluffed up White Throated Sparrow on my deck steps.

In other backyard news, it’s been another exceptionally quiet season for the webcam. Virtually NO Grosbeaks, whether Pines or Evenings. I hear them in the neighbourhood sometimes or I’ll see them way up in the tree tops but they are seldom coming to feeders. Today, I finally had 2 beautiful male Pine Grosbeaks come down to the platform feeder. They look almost neon in the early morning light.

The past week or so, I’ve also finally had some Redpolls coming to the yard! They still have not discovered the nyjer feeder yet though. I’m not really sure they will this season. They will feed on the ground & sometimes, the platform feeder but boy, they don’t stay long. After 2 or 3 minutes, they usually fly off.

I’m happy to have a regular flock of Blue Jays that come to the yard every day. I’ve never been able to figure out where they go in summer but I never see them from May to October, then I get anywhere from 6 to 10 of them all winter long.

My beloved Canada Jays come around daily now too, usually two of them but on rare occasions, a third one will show up. It causes a ruckus out there because the regular two are a mated pair. The third one could very well be there offspring from last season for all I know.

I like this next photo. There are actually two Canada Jays here: one having a drink from the birdbath, the other on the platform feeder behind.

The only photo I’ve managed to get so far this winter, of all three Canada Jays together! The Pair Plus One!

I’m finding that Woodpecker visits are down this winter too. I normally have both Downy & Hairy woodpeckers here almost daily all winter but this year, I go weeks at a time without seeing any of them. I sometimes hear them calling or hammering from the woods behind my backyard though.

Female Hairy Woodpecker

Ruffed Grouse visits have been few & far between, as well. I may see it 3 days in a row on the platform feeder, then go two weeks without seeing it at all. Being the Rock Star of the webcam, though, it sure causes excitement when it does come around!

In this photo, the Grouse is illuminated by Christmas lights from a nearby shrub.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen ‘my’ Flying Squirrels in over a month now but there is a reason why: we have two Red Foxes coming around most nights …. and some days! They have cleaned up all the mice that were coming in at night under the snow to feed under the feeders. I watched on the webcam twice as they successfully caught two on two different nights. They also will eat peanuts & sunflower seeds left over from the day.

One morning a couple of weeks ago, I opened my front blinds to see these two playing & frolicking in the snow, chasing each other around my neighbour’s shrub across the street, chasing each other up and over the snowbanks. I’m thinking now that they are a mated pair courting for the upcoming breeding season.

They can be so playful!

I have an interesting story for you, to end with this month. A few weeks ago, my husband and I took a drive out to our camp an hour into the woods from here, to clean the driveway after a big snowstorm. We came around a corner on the road in the middle of the trip and interrupted a hunt: a WOLF had almost caught a FOX! The photo is horribly blurry as we were still moving when I snapped it. We accidentally distracted the wolf … just enough for the fox to turn & bound away over the snowbank! The wolf, missing out on its lunch, then proceeded to run up the road ahead of us for a good 5 miles. We weren’t chasing it, and I felt so bad that it missed its lunch even though I was happy for the fox! … it just wouldn’t get off the road until then, no matter how slow we were going behind it. I’ve never seen anything like this and it never once occurred to me before that a wolf would hunt a fox but I know coyotes will so why not a wolf, right?

I’m always watching for owls on the trip to camp and back and that day, I got lucky. We came across a Northern Hawk Owl sitting on the very tip of a dead tree. The lighting was horrible so please forgive the graininess but it sure was awesome to see. It’s probably been a good 5 years since I’ve seen a Hawk Owl.

That’s it (and enough, I think!) for this month. I sincerely hope everyone is doing well & staying safe. Until next time!

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – January 2021 appeared first on Bird Canada.

Wow, it has been a good long while since I’ve posted here but this has been an UNREAL year for me, as I’m sure it has been for many of you. After my last post in February, my best friend got very ill in late March (not Covid). She was in the hospital battling a severe illness for 2 weeks before she lost the fight. This was a nearly-40 year long extremely close friendship. To say I was devastated just doesn’t cover it. I lost my drive, my enjoyment in life … I avoided so many things I used to love for so long … birds, photography, writing. When fall came around, I finally had the urge to pick up the camera again. What I’m going to show you in this post is mostly just one photo from each month, of a bird or birds that visited my yard. Let’s go back to the beginning of the year, shall we?

January 2020

The super handsome Canada Jay. Sometimes there is only one, sometimes there can be 2 or 3. The sweetest birds EVER!

February 2020

The Ruffed Grouse – also known as the Rock Star of Cornell’s Ontario Webcam

March 2020

The Crow – at one point in early spring, I had 22 Crows in my backyard. Not sure what my neighbours thought of that.

April 2020

At the end of last winter, my backyard was taken over by my favourite Blackbird: the Rusty. I had likely over 200 of them a day, at one point. A single Mourning Dove showed up in April too.

Male & female Rusty Blackbirds … a tiny portion of the flock that was here.

May 2020

I was thrilled to see a pair of Mallard Ducks fly into my backyard one day in May! It was a long cold spring & luckily, I had some cracked corn left from winter feeding to put out for them. They came around almost daily for a few weeks.

June 2020

One morning, I looked out my livingroom window and saw this adorable little Eastern Bluebird sitting on my retaining wall post. It was a chilly morning, hence it being so fluffed up. They nest around here in summer but have yet to win the battle over my birdhouse with the Tree Swallows.

July 2020

Considering how long & cold spring was, summer was beautiful here. I grew lots of marigolds & nasturtiums from seed. Combined with everything else blooming in the yard, it was a haven for Ruby Throated Hummingbirds like the young male in the photo. They were the best distraction for me over the season.

August 2020

I’ve never had so many Purple Finches (like the male in this photo) in my yard (50+ at a time!) as I did all last winter & spring. In summer, many of them moved off for nesting time. I never saw that many again the rest of the year and this winter now, I haven’t seen a single one. Odd seasons!

September 2020

Watching Sparrows in the fall is always a joy. This year, I had a bumper crop of White Crowned Sparrows. As in this photo, I had entire families of them for late August, September and October.

October 2020

I didn’t see the normal number of different Sparrow species in my yard this fall as I normally do. This lovely Fox Sparrow (plus one other) was a treat to have around for a few weeks. I would hear them when I stepped outside but only saw them when I came back in the house. They are our largest Sparrow.

November 2020

As usual, November brought me a few surprises to my yard. A few late migrants visited my yard including a Red Winged Blackbird and this White Throated Sparrow. The biggest surprise this year though, is a Western Meadowlark! (on the right in this photo). These last two are still here, the week before Christmas. The Sparrow is living under my back deck & it comes out to feed a few times per day. The Meadowlark showed up in my yard at the end of November, after a friend had told me it had been under her feeders for a week before that.

December 2020

The White Throated Sparrow seems to be doing quite well. It’s living under my back deck but once in a while, like the other day, I’ll see it sitting in my pine trees or having a snack under my feeders. I can sometimes track it down by following its quiet little cheeps.

This handsome Western Meadowlark is my big surprise of this fall migration season. If I’m going to see something fairly spectacular duing migration, it will likely be in Novenber! I don’t know how it ended up here but I will do my best to help it survive the winter that is knocking on our doorstep. It will sometimes disappear for 3 or 4 days & I’ll think I’ve seen the last of it but then one morning, it will be out there again, under the feeders or right up on the platform feeder, giving my webcam viewers a huge thrill! It has already survived a couple of days of low -20’s C temperatures and there is more of that coming over Christmas next week. Wish him/her luck!

As I’ve mentioned, Cornell’s Project FeederWatch webcam in my backyard is back up and streaming for the winter season. Check it out if you have a moment. It’s not always very busy but you never know who might show up on cam. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas. May we all have peace, happiness & good health in 2021.

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – December 2020 appeared first on Bird Canada.

As always, many of the new arrivals are waterfowl, with greater and greater numbers showing up as the amount of available open/unfrozen water rises. Foremost among the early arrivals are the Common Goldeneyes (although some do over-winter as well), with the drakes intent on impressing any hen they can find with their entertaining backward head flips:

And sometimes they just go on with their routine even when no one else seems to be watching!

American Wigeons are also prevalent:

And at this time of year the males’ fabulous metallic green head plumage really stands out:

Diminutive Buffleheads are well-represented amongst the migrant waterfowl, and like most males ducks this time of year, they can be found racing up and down waterways searching for females:

However, for a keen photographer like myself, what stands out about these little ducks is the dramatic iridescent head plumage that seems to show off every colour of the rainbow when the light hits at the right angle:

And during several sunrise and sunset outings I was able to find some freshly-arrived Ring-necked Ducks:

As well as numerous Mallard drakes, this one performing his early morning preen:

Elegant grebes could be found regularly now and I was taken with this pair of ‘love bird’ Horned Grebes that had taken up residence on a small pond and clearly only had eyes for each other:

My first time witnessing the courtship dance of the Red-necked Grebe was definitely a personal highlight this year. Seeing a pair of these grebes calling to each other from the far side of small lake before paddling closer and closer to each other, calling all the time:

Before coming together:

And then cementing their bond with an impressive, out-of-the-water side-by-side ‘water dance’:

To produce a spring album and leave out the American Robin – locally considered to be the harbingers of this season – would be a serious omission, so here’s a few snaps of some robins I found along the Bow River.

Part of a flock of some 20 birds, these robins were patrolling the smooth-stoned shoreline plucking newly-hatched insects from the river’s surface:

Finally, during what were personally the darkest days of the emerging COVID pandemic, my spirits were uplifted no end by the sight of a couple dozen Mountain Bluebirds foraging at a local park.

The electric blue of their plumage, their soft sweet calls together with the warm sun and fresh air were ‘candy for the soul’ and just what I needed.

And judging by the delighted faces on dog-walkers, children and other park-goers who witnessed these bluebirds, I was not the only one feeling this way :).

The post Birding around Calgary – Spring 2020 Photo Album appeared first on Bird Canada.

He was as skittish as he was handsome and I was only able to get a very few shots that I was happy with, but one is enough!

A day-long road trip though the foothills west of Calgary in late December yielded disappointingly very little wildlife, nevertheless it was pleasing to see a few of the local characters such as several Canada Jays watching some ice fishers in hopes of a morsel coming their way:

And this big, bold Raven still guarding his much-less-visited-in-winter picnic spot and checking out the few visitors that were coming though his area:

As the sun was just about to set, the day trip came to a successful conclusion when I spied a Great Grey Owl perched atop a dead tree perusing the surrounding snow-covered grassland:

This owl seemed content to watch us in the distance as we used our long zoom lenses and extenders and we left it as we found a few minutes later. For me, any owl day is typically a good day and this was no exception!

Closer to home, Calgary’s urban parks continued to offer opportunities to see lots of birds such as this Common Goldeneye:

As well as birds I seldom see in the spring and summer, such as the cryptically camouflaged Brown Creeper:

Which is a lot easier to see in silhouette:

Or during the golden hour before sunset:

Another winter visitor locally is the Pine Grosbeak, albeit in smaller number than some other years (but better than the years when we’ve had almost none!):

For reasons beyond me, I saw only one or two adult crimson-plumaged males – all the rest were females or rusty-coloured young males.

Nonetheless, all attractive birds to me!

And now while most of our lives are being, and will continue to be for some time, changed by the onset of Covid19, I take great comfort from the fact that birding is still an activity that I can continue to take great pleasure from, and we still have all the excitement of the spring arrivals just around the corner!

The post Birding Around Calgary – Winter 2020 Photo Album appeared first on Bird Canada.

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 4 months since I released a blog post. I sincerely apologize for that but I do have a reason. Believe it or not, most of this winter has been absolutely dead quiet in my yard & I’ve really had nothing to talk about. If you’ve watched the webcam here at all, you know what I mean. Until into January, there was virtually nothing to see here. I have NEVER seen a winter like this in all the years I’ve been feeding the birds. I have had a high count of only 5 Pine Grosbeaks and a high count of only a dozen Common Redpolls where I would normally expect 100+. It would appear that there are good numbers of these birds in the woods …. they are just not coming to feeders this season. What I’ve been able to gather is that there is above average amounts of natural food available. Birds will always take natural sources over feeders at every opportunity.

I was so excited to see this one lone male Common Redpoll come into the yard for a few minutes the other day.

Male Common Redpoll

As I said, I have not seen many Pine Grosbeaks (these ones are with a female Purple Finch) around but I did see one that I thought was quite interesting … the one on the right in this photo. I believe that one was a hatch year bird from last year. Notice the colour of the rump. He has not completely developed his adult colouring yet.

Adult & juvenile male Pine Grosbeaks with a female Purple Finch.

I have different birds coming to my feeders now and activity has really (finally!) picked up in the last couple of weeks. Some of these birds, I do not normally have at my feeders in winter, including:

American Goldfinches

Purple Finches. I have between 20 & 40 coming around, more like springtime numbers!

Pine Siskins (here with a female Hairy Woodpecker)

I have barely seen any Evening Grosbeaks all winter until just recently. Now, I have a flock of about 25 that come around most mornings.

Evening Grosbeaks

Male (bottom right) & female Evening Grosbeaks

Male Evening Grosbeak with a small growth on its eye.

I have 3 or 4 woodpeckers coming around daily. There is a pair of Hairies who are JUST beginning to tolerate each other for the season. This male Downy comes around a few times per week and sometimes a female Downy will come around but not too much just yet.

Male Downy Woodpecker

Corvid time. I have an entire family of Crows here daily. There is a regular family of 5 (with 3 young that hatched behind my back fence last year) but there have been up to 8 Crows here at once.

Crow

My beloved Canada Jay. I don’t see them often but there are two that come around. Only once this season have I seen three.

Canada Jays

Something I don’t see often: a calm moment between a Blue & a Canada Jay!

I have at least 5 or 6 Blue Jays coming around. I’ve just begun to hear their rattle call over the webcam in the past week.

The Rock Star of the webcam, the Ruffed Grouse, has not visited much this season until late January. There has only been the one Grouse that I know of and its visits have been very sporadic.

Classic pose of the Ruffed Grouse

In this snowstorm, the Grouse was very on edge when a couple of Crows came around

The Grouse wasn’t really upset with the Crow on the ground but there was one on a branch over the Grouse’s head that had it in full display!

The Grouse didn’t like having the Crows around at ALL!

One day a couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to discover a special pair of visitors at my feeders: White Winged Crossbills! They were here for most of one day and that was all. They are being seen in the woods this winter in excellent numbers so I’m hoping to have return visits in the spring.

Male White Winged Crossbill with a rare (this season) visiting male Pine Grosbeak.

Male White Winged Crossbill

Female White Winged Crossbill

I have another wonderful visitor this winter but this one is at night: a Northern Flying Squirrel! In fact, a couple of times, we’ve had 2 of them come in for a nighttime feed. I have one Flying Squirrel here most nights & it is SO entertaining to watch!

Two show up: let the games begin!

A showdown happens ….

… and one is sent packing!

Aside from the two Flying Squirrels, we’ve also had a rabbit & a red fox visit the feeder zone at night.

Red Fox

Rabbit!

On another note, we’ve had some issues with our server this season but I’m really hoping we are on top of things now & the webcam will be stabilized for the rest of the season. Fingers crossed. If you have not visited the Ontario FeederWatch Webcam in my yard, feel free to check it out!

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/

Guess I had enough to talk about after all. Thanks for viewing & reading …. see you next time.

The post Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – February 2020 appeared first on Bird Canada.