Back from Florida!

We're back! Sorry I didn't post at all.. We were very busy. Just because I didn't post doesn't mean we didn't see any birds.. we saw lots of birds!! Over thirty lifers I think, I need to make all the eBird checklists. A highlight bird was Florida Scrub Jay, a bird that only lives in Florida! We saw manatees, alligators, and lots of incredible birds!
We had a very unChristmasy Christmas. Palm trees and grass isn't what I'm used to.. But back here, there's feet of snow.

So, merry Christmas!! And, soon, happy new year. Tomorrow is our birthday, me and my twin brothers.

I have many photos to show on this blog, it will be a few days until I can put a few up, and it will probably be a few weeks till I can get full posts out.

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

We are driving on the road right now, on our way to Florida. This is an automatic post.

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Can you guess this bird from the fall?

Leave your guess in the comments

Last weeks bird was a White-throated Sparrow, as the Cats and the Birds guessed.


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Leaving to Florida

We are leaving to Florida soon. We were going to leave tomorrow, but to miss a snow storm we scrambled to get ready today.
There probably won't be any Weekly What Bird posts. If I had time I would have made scheduled posts that would automatically post, but I don't have time now. I will try to make Feathers on Friday posts when we are there, with photos that I take there.

Oak Hammock Marsh Short-eared Owls

On November 28th we went to Oak Hammock Marsh with Christian Artuso, as a last birding outing before we left to Florida, as we would miss the Oak Hammock Marsh Christmas bird count, which we have been going to for several years.

We are going to leave to Florida on Wednesday, early in the morning. We are planning to come back on the 30th of December (the day before my birthday). It's a three day drive (stopping for the nights) to Florida.

We will see a lot of new birds, and we have scoped out some more uncommon birds that we would like to see, such as Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Florida Scrub Jay. I will try to give updates, and occasional photos, but it won't be until after we get back that I'll make a full post.

Now for Oak Hammock Marsh...

We were planning to see Short-eared Owls, which are most active around dusk, so we left in the afternoon. That way we had the light for Snowy Owls and when it got darker we could see the Short-eared Owls.

Near the entrance at Oak Hammock Marsh, there was a Snowy Owl on a hay bale, and from the vehicle we could get some nice photos.

Snowy Owl

Snowy Owl

 And at the entrance to Oak Hammock Marsh, another one!

Snowy Owl

 We started seeing Short-eared Owls soon enough. The first one was far away, but we then saw some on fence posts by the road.

Short-eared Owl

 Sunset came quickly, it does on these Winnipeg winter days. Photos are a lot more difficult when it's darker, but luckily the owls a lot of the time were just sitting, but flight shots were very hard.

Short-eared Owl in flight

 It was special to see a Short-eared Owl dive and catch a vole (or something of the sort) and start eating it!

Short-eared Owl in a field with vole

Short-eared Owl with vole

Short-eared Owl

 You can see that this flight shot is very blurry..

Short-eared Owl

 I had to lighten a lot of these photos quite a bit, they were a lot darker before.

Short-eared Owl

On the way home we saw two Great-horned Owls. The total tally of owls: 2 Snowy Owls, 2 Great-horned Owls and 8 Short-eared Owls.

Feathers on Friday

Here is my Feathers on Friday post. I have a whole bunch of beautiful sparrow photos I haven't posted, so I thought I should post some sometime. Here is one of them. A Harris' Sparrow.

I will try to get the Oak Hammock Marsh post with the Short-eared Owls together, so it can auto post when we have gone to Florida.

Harris' Sparrow

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Can you guess this weeks bird?

Leave your guess in the comments

Just as Charlotte, The Cats and the Birds, and JG birds guessed, last week's a Great-horned Owl!


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Winter Update 2015

It's not very wintery here in 'Winterpeg'. It has been very, very mild so far. The snow came late, and now it's melting! It's been up to 4 Degrees Celsius (39 F)!! Now there are large grass spots around the yard.
It is not often at all that you can go biking in December! We can't even go snowmobiling anymore because there isn't enough snow.
Also, every year we set up a skating rink in our backyard, this year, it looks likely that we won't. Not only because it's so warm now, and there is another reason...
We are going to Florida soon! We are going to drive there over Christmas, we're leaving on the 16th, only a bit more than a week. It's going to seem like an extra short winter, because it's warm and because we're going to be away for a few weeks. It's going to be strange for me, because I've never been away for Christmas, and I'm used to -20-30 C days all winter.
We are going to miss the Oak Hammock Marsh Christmas bird count, but going to Florida is worth it. We'll see many lifers I'm sure, I've never been down south before.

Two Saturdays ago, we went to Oak Hammock Marsh with Christian Artuso, to look for owls. We saw 12 owls in total, 3 owl species. We saw 2 Snowy Owls, 8 Short-eared Owls, and 2 Great-horned Owls. The main focus of the trip was Short-eared Owls, which was a lifer. I will try to make a post soon.

I haven't been posting too much, except for Weekly What Bird and Feathers on Friday, I've been quite busy with school, and learning a language (Dutch). In November I also did a writing challenge month.

Here is a photo earlier in November, as you can see it was still green, sometimes we have snow then.

Pileated Woodpecker

 For several days in a row, William saw the Great-horned Owl (I'm pretty sure most of you know about it, it has been coming back to our yard every winter for many years) and took some nice photos.

Great-horned Owl

Great-horned Owl

Great-horned Owl

We've had some other special birds around our yards, Grosbeaks! This is the first year we've had Evening Grosbeaks here, and the first year in many that we've had Pine Grosbeaks. In fact,  the last time I saw a Pine Grosbeak was before I was even interested in birds!

Evening Grosbeak

 The first time a Pine Grosbeak has been at our feeder for four years.

Pine Grosbeak

Pine Grosbeak female

 This Pine Grosbeak hit the window. I waited a while, and thought it might be dead, so I went out and checked on it, it wasn't. I went back inside and waited a while longer, after a while I thought it might be dead. When I went out to look at it, it flew away.

Pine Grosbeak

Feathers on Friday

Here is my (William) Feathers on Friday post.

It has been extremely warm lately! It has been 4°C (39.2°F for you Americans) and all the snow is melting!!! I have gone out biking once  (and saw a year bird, Sharp-tailed Grouse) and plan to go again in the future.

The Great-horned Owl has been hanging around a lot, I managed to get some pretty good pictures of him.

Great-horned Owl

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Do you know what this bird is?

Leave your guess in the comments.

Charlotte, Neil and Bird Boy guessed last weeks correct, a female Evening Grosbeak.


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Feathers on Friday

Here is my Feathers on Friday post, sorry for missing a few weeks.
The Great-horned Owl has been around quite a bit recently, as well as some Pine Grosbeaks! We haven't had pine Grosbeaks for years, so it's really nice to have them again.

Pine Grosbeak

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Can you guess what this bird is?

Leave your guess in the comments.

Prairie Birder guessed last week's correct, Common Redpoll.


Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Can you guess this weeks bird?

Leave your guess in the comments

Last weeks was a very difficult one, and no one guessed it... a Swainson's Hawk!
Here's a photo to show you where it was...

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Can you guess this weeks?

Last weeks as Bird Boy and Prairie Birder guessed, was a Winter Wren

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Cats and the Birds

Winter is Coming

It's been a very long fall, and a late winter. Winter birds have been showing up now. We have seen the Great-horned Owl, Evening Grosbeak, Common Redpoll, and even some Pine Grosbeaks. There have also been some Pine Siskins, which aren't strictly winter birds here. The past few years haven't been very good for finches, I haven't seen a Pine Grosbeak in a long time!
Another special bird we saw a few days ago was a Long-eared Owl! We had them nesting here in the summer, but this was most likely a different one, just a late migrant.

Here are a few photos of the redpolls.

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Feathers on Friday

Here is my Feathers on Friday. A White-throated sparrow from a few weeks ago. It is snowing here now.

White-throated Sparrow

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

Here is a photo from this spring. Can you guess the bird in it?

Leave your guess in the comments

Last weeks was a Brown Thrasher
Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy


Last weeks bird was a Brown Thrasher.

Evening Grosbeak and Owl

A few days ago, when I was playing outside, the Great-horned Owl flew out of some trees! How exciting! I call it the Great-horned Owl, because it comes back every winter. For quite a few years, it has come back to our yard for the winter, sometimes we would see it every day, sometimes we'd see it a few times. It came back very early this year.
The day before I heard some jays mobbing something, I didn't pay much attention to it, but now that I think about it, they must have been mobbing the owl.

A little while later I saw two yellow birds in a tree. Evening Grosbeaks! Their calls confirmed it. I had heard the calls earlier in the day, but didn't know what the were, until I saw the birds.

Evening Grosbeak

There was a male and female in the tree, the male's colors are brighter than the female. I ran back and got the camera. When we tried to get a little closer, they flew off. We found them in some other trees, a bit deeper in the woods, so we couldn't get too close to them. We still managed some decent photos though!

Evening Grosbeak

We didn't get any good photos of the female bird. We have heard them a few times since the first time we saw them.

Evening Grosbeak

Evening Grosbeak

I've heard one before, and it's a completely new bird for William.
The temperatures are getting colder now, the feel of winter is in the air.

Weekly What Bird Wednesday

If you would like to join me for my W.W.B.W. leave a guess in the comments below or make your own weekly what bird post.

This is a photo from awhile ago, can you guess what it is?

Leave your guess in the comments

Last weeks Prairie Birder guessed correct, a junco and Harris' Sparrow.

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

The Colors of Autumn

We have had an especially brightly colored fall this year. There are a lot of very red leaves, and yellow leaves.
There aren't many birds around, so I took these still photos instead. Here is a selection of photos I took of the colorful leaves.

And that is the gallery of autumn photos I took.