Wednesday, December 30, 2015

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.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

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

Tuesday, December 15, 2015

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.

Sunday, December 13, 2015

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.

Friday, December 11, 2015

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

Wednesday, December 9, 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.

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

Monday, December 7, 2015

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

Friday, December 4, 2015

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

Wednesday, December 2, 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.

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