Tuesday, October 27, 2015

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.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

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

Sunday, October 18, 2015

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.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Weekly What Bird Thursday

Sorry for missing yesterday. I forgot to post it.

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 these two birds are?
Leave your guess in the comments

Last weeks bird was a Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

Other What Bird Wednesday posts:

Bird Boy

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Whitewater Lake

Sorry for taking so long.. I've been quite busy with school and stuff.


In early September, we went to Whitewater Lake with Christian Artuso. Thank you Christian for taking us!

Whitewater lake is quite a distance away, over a three hour drive. Whitewater Lake is a pretty large lake, for very southern Manitoba. It has dried up several times, but now it is getting deeper, and floods far beyond the range of the actual lake. It floods fields and creates perfect habitat for shorebirding.

Here is Whitewater on google maps:
https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.2386701,-100.2831609,12.88z

Some of the roads on the map are very flooded, and are not adequate for means of transportation by a vehicle that is not meant for off road. Some of the old farm roads just lead through a sea of shallow water.

We stopped at a flooded field, first. There were lots of shorebirds (at least for me, I haven't seen a lot of shorebirds), and a few new kinds. Least Sandpipers, Baird's Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Sandpipers, Semi-palmated Plover, American Avocets, and other types.
Savannah Sparrow

Least Sandpiper

Semi-palmated Plover
A lot of the time I was looking through Christian's spotting scope, trying to identify the different species. I would have never been able to make out the different species without Christian's help.

Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper
 We hiked a kilometer up a farm road, where the van could not go. We saw one or two Black-crowned Night Herons.
Black-crowned Night Heron

Green-winged Teal

American Coot
We continued on to another region of the lake. White-faced Ibis was one of the species on our list we want to see. After a while, we finally saw one!

White-faced Ibis

Lesser Yellowlegs

American Avocet in flight

American Avocet flock
 Here is a flock of avocets, and Long-billed Dowitchers.
American Avocets and Long-billed Dowitchers

Stilt Sandpiper

Least Sandpiper

Sandpiper flock
Avocet flock


Franklin's Gull

Semi-palmated Sandpiper

Semi-palmated Sandpiper
 This is one is a juvenile dowitcher. Almost all of them were fall plumage.
Long-billed Dowitcher

American Avocet

Lesser Yellowlegs
 Then we came to deeper water, where there was coots.... lots.. and lots of coots. Thousands of American Coots. There were also grebes, and other ducks.
Eared Grebe (lifer)

Ruddy Duck (lifer)

Ruddy Duck

Eared Grebe

Canvasback

Western Grebe (lifer)

White-faced Ibis

immature Bald Eagle

Merlin

Bufflehead
 And this kids, is why you need to get your driver's licence. ;)

Great Egret was another bird we wanted to see. And we saw a few, very far away. Then, later, we found a few more, a bit closer, so we could make out something other than a tiny, tiny blotch of white.
Great Egret (lifer)

Red-tailed Hawk
 Another bird on our list was Cattle Egret (we saw a lot herons). We were successful with almost all the birds we wanted to see. We found some Cattle Egrets among the cattle (there was a reason they got their name).
Cattle Egret

Thank you again Christian, for taking us to Whitewater Lake, and helping us with identification! It is really helpful!