Winter Update 2016

Winter came very late this year in Winnipeg, it wasn't until into December that we got a snowstorm and a foot of snow.
A week go the Great-horned Owl finally showed up. The owl has been returning every year in the winter to our property, for many, many years.

This year seems very, very slow for winter birds. I saw my first winter finch yesterday, a redpoll at the feeder. Since then I had only been seen chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers at the feeder.

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

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.

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

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

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.

Birdathon - Part 2 (Assiniboine Park)

This is, Birdathon Part Two! The afternoon and evening birding.

After we got home from Oak Hammock Marsh at around 1:30 we ate lunch and took a bit of a break. We went biking for a bit, saw Swainson's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Western Kingbird, and a Merlin. Christian met us on the road. He was coming to look at the Long-eared Owlets.
We went back to the house to check them out.

Long-eared Owls

Long-eared Owls

Long-eared Owlet

After a photographing session, and discovering the (we are quite sure) Cooper's Hawk nest, we headed back to the house. On the way we saw a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher! Another lifer! It's possible I could have seen one before, but not been able to identify it. Thanks to Christian for this one!

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Lifer! Will took this photo

We had some supper while we started to tally up some birds, and discuss what we would do next. Christian said he would come with us for more birding.
We decided on Assiniboine Park first, and Birds Hill Park later.

On the way we saw a Peregrine Falcon on the Investors Group Building (where they are nesting). Two of them in one day!

We went to a trail where the Great-horned Owl fledglings were hanging about. We found one pretty quickly, they are big! It was just a fantastic experience to see an owl so large so close.

Great-horned Owl fledgling

Great-horned Owl fledgling *wink*

Great-horned Owl - Close up

The other birds we were looking for was the Indigo Buntings that are nesting there. Christian played it's song on a sound player and it sang back. We waited until we spotted it, and it came closer. It flew onto a branch right above us.

And I just realized that I spelled Indigo wrong on the photos! Haha! Whoops.

Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting

Indigo Bunting

We found another Great-horned Owl fledgling, there are three in the area.

Great-horned Owl fledgling

Great-horned Owl fledgling

Great-horned Owl fledgling

On the way home Christian called to stop the car. There was something in the field. Black-bellied Plovers. We crossed a muddy ditch to get a better look. There were seven or eight of them if I remember correctly, and an American Golden Plover as well! The Black-bellied was a lifer, but we saw Golden Plovers in Churchill.

Black-bellied Plover

After we got home we went to Birds Hill Park and saw a few birds, not too many though.

So that's my first Birdathon! 95 species, 9 lifers. I think very successful! The lifers were: Gadwall, American Bittern, Peregrine Falcon, Sora, Dunlin, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Forster's Tern, Indigo Bunting and last but not least, Black-bellied Plover!!

The full species list is as follows:

1. Canada Goose                                              
2. Wood Duck
3.  Gadwall
4.  Mallard
5.  Blue-winged Teal
6.  Northern Shoveler
7.  Green-winged Teal
8.  Canvasback
9.  Redhead
10.  Ring-necked Duck
11.  Lesser Scaup
12.  Common Goldeneye
13.  Pied-billed Grebe
14.  Double-crested Cormorant
15.  American White Pelican
16.  American Bittern
17.  Great Blue Heron
18.  Turkey Vulture
19.  Northern Harrier
20.  Cooper's Hawk
21.  Bald Eagle
22.  Swainson's Hawk
23.  Red-tailed Hawk
24.  Sora
25.  American Coot
26.  Black-bellied Plover
27.  American Golden-Plover
28.  Killdeer
29.  Spotted Sandpiper
30.  Lesser Yellowlegs
31.  Hudsonian Godwit
32.  Dunlin
33.  Baird's Sandpiper
34.  Wilson's Phalarope
35.  Franklin's Gull
36.  Ring-billed Gull
37.  Herring Gull
38.  Black Tern
39.  Forster's Tern
40.  Rock Pigeon
41.  Mourning Dove
42.  Great Horned Owl
43.  Long-eared Owl
44.  Ruby-throated Hummingbird
45.  Downy Woodpecker
46.  Hairy Woodpecker
47.  American Kestrel
48.  Merlin
49.  Peregrine Falcon
50.  Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
51.  Least Flycatcher
52.  Eastern Phoebe
53.  Great Crested Flycatcher
54.  Western Kingbird
55.  Eastern Kingbird
56.  Blue-headed Vireo
57.  Red-eyed Vireo
58.  Blue Jay
59.  Black-billed Magpie
60.  American Crow
61.  Common Raven
62.  Purple Martin
63.  Tree Swallow
64.  Bank Swallow
65.  Barn Swallow
66. Cliff Swallow
67. Black-capped Chickadee
68. White-breasted Nuthatch
69. Eastern Bluebird
70. Gray-cheeked Thrush
71. Swainson's Thrush
72. American Robin
73. Gray Catbird
74. European Starling
75. Northern Waterthrush
76. Tennessee Warbler
77. American Redstart
78. Yellow Warbler
79. Chipping Sparrow
80. Clay-colored Sparrow
81. Savannah Sparrow
82. Song Sparrow
83. White-throated Sparrow
84. Indigo Bunting
85. Bobolink
86. Red-winged Blackbird
87. Western Meadowlark
88. Yellow-headed Blackbird
89. Brewer's Blackbird
90. Common Grackle
91. Brown-headed Cowbird
92. Purple Finch
93. Pine Siskin
94. American Goldfinch
95. House Sparrow

Thank you Christian for making it such a success!

There's still time to donate! The Great Canadian Birdathon is a fundraiser for bird conservation and research.
If you would like to donate you can go to my page here.

Thank you to everyone who has donated!

Birdathon/Feathers on Friday/Long-eared Owl chicks

Today I did my birdathon... which was looking grim... It seemed it was going to be a disaster, last night I had a bad cold, and the weather was foul.

I slept in till 8, thinking I might need the sleep for my cold. The weather was still really bad, we started out to Oak Hammock Marsh, hoping the banding would be going on. We got there, it was terrible windy, they didn't have the banding because of that.
We still set out around the marsh, and started racking up the species, and lifers!

And... I'll skip all the details until I'll make the full post. But, in the end we ended up with 90 species, and 9 lifers!!! For the weather, and having a cold, I think I did pretty good! Christian Artuso helped us in the afternoon too, after he visited to look at the Long-eared Owl chicks that are in our back forest.

I forget to mention that, we found the Long-eared Owl nest! And three chicks!

For my first Birdathon, I think I did pretty absobalutly fantastic! I wasn't planning at all to do a hardcore style birdathon, and was thinking if my sickness got worse I might have had to cancel it! Good thing I didn't, I saw some pretty nice birds!!!!

So... this is a Feathers on Friday post. Here's the feathers! We saw some Great-horned Owl young around Assiniboine Park, they make some nice photographing subjects! Let us get fairly close.

Yawwwwn! Okay, it's a bit late here, I am not doing a 12-12 birdathon. So, time for me to go to bed. But, stay tuned!!!!! I have so many pictures I want to show you. I will hopefully maybe get the pictures done tomorrow if I work hard (like that ever happens). So, stay tuned for a post tomorrow, but you probably don't trust me anymore when I say stuff like that, because I say it all the time, and I always never do it..

But, goodbye for now....

Other FoF posts:

Bird Boy
Prairie Birder
The Cats and the Birds

Spring Birding (Part 2 - St. Vital Park Birding)

Hello again! This is the post you've all been waiting for! Spring Birding #2! (applaud) I will be making these Spring Bird posts all spring, to document the birds that we see in Winnipeg during the spring time, for you're enjoyment (and mine, I like doing these). So if you ever wanted to know what spring birding is like here, read these! I will hopefully post them at least weekly, probably more frequently. So stay an active reader! And enjoy!

William's violin teacher's place has a lot of birds at it. One of them is a Merlin.

Merlin

During migration, we always have quite a lot of birds hit our window. Primarily Redpolls, Purple Finches and Juncos. A few weeks ago we had a horrible amount of redpolls hitting our window. It was after they left that we remembered we had a screen for that window! I was trying to think of some way to stop them from hitting, and the screen would have solved all our problems.

So, here's a female Purple Finch that hit the window. I'm not sure if it died afterwards.

Purple Finch

Okay, now for the Saint Vital Park birding. We went here for our homeschool group, as it is nearby to the place we meet. It has a duck pond and some woods, nice for taking a walk. Actually, next month, Christian Artuso is giving a speech for our homeschool group, then we will go birding at St Vital Park! That's going to be one of my favorite times.

There were mostly Canada Geese at the duck pond, but there were some other birds also. Many of these photos are William's! I didn't feel like trying to figure out which ones were who's, so I just put them all as (c) Josiah ....... He doesn't care a whole lot.

Just warning you, we took a lot of photos! A lot.... Maybe I should have split it into two posts.... Well, I hope you are a persistent reader and won't give up half way through when you realize it never ends. ;)

Canada Goose

Canada Goose

Mallards were one of the other birds we saw there.

Mallard

Dabbling it's beak.

Mallard

Mallard

Canada Goose

Male and female Mallard. The male seems to be have a snack. Yum Yum! Aquatic plants!

Mallard

Ring-billed Gulls were another of the birds that were at the pond.

Ring-billed Gull

This picture isn't to good, but it looks just so funny! So I thought I'd include it anyway.

Canada Goose

I like this photo, I kept the Mallards in color and made everything else black and white. Two male Mallards hangin out together.

Mallard

Mallard pair

They slip into the water from the ice.

Mallards

female Mallard

One of my favorite birds at the pond was, Wood Ducks! They were mostly hiding along the island in the middle under cover of bush, so it was hard to get good pictures. One female came out onto the ice

female Wood Duck

A beautiful portrait shot!

Female Mallard

Another beautiful portrait shot!

Mallard

And another!

Mallard

We decided to go walking through the woods, maybe look for some birds as well. We crossed a marsh (and I just had shoes (and was holding the camera)) on logs and made it safely across. It was actually a flooded out path. We found a feeder, and some friendly chickadees that landed on our hands. After staying by the chickadees a while we started back. Suddenly a Great-horned Owl flew out and landed in plain view for all of us! What a spectacular bird they are!

This one looks rather white, compared to ours that we have come back every winter. After taking a billion photos with the camera, it finally flew off. I actually only have two photos on the blog, which I'm kind of surprised about. I usually put on like ten for a bird like this ;). I think everyone agreed it was really fantastic to see it, even if they weren't into birds like us.

Apparently it was really sleepy, it kept yawning. I would be sleepy to, if someone woke me up in the middle of my sleep, and started taking pictures of me! Actually... that would just be weird! Anyway, in the pictures it looked like he's singing.

"Grumble, groan. Yawwwwn. Why'd ye wake me up so early? YAWWWWWNN!" 

Great-horned Owl
"AAAAAAHH! EEEEEHH AAAAHHH!!" he sings.

Great-horned Owl

We had looped back to the duck pond. Perfect! The wood ducks were out! So we got some good pictures of them.

This photo isn't the greatest, but I love the Mallard squaking at the Wood Duck, and the Wood Duck is swimming away as fast as possible.

Mallard, Wood Duck, Canada Goose
"Get away from here!"
"On my way!"

And the flashy wood duck showing off his beautiful hair. My friend now calls it the 70's duck, with it's funky hair.

Wood Duck
"Look at my nifty hair!"

Wood Duck

Wood Duck

And yet again, Wood Duck! :D

That's all folks! Thanks for reading! It is a long post, but I'm glad you read through it.

Please Comment and share! And stay tuned for the next Spring Birding Post!