Spring Update 2017

I'm very sorry for my recent inactivity. I hope to be more active in posting now.

It has been pretty warm for several weeks now. All the snow has melted, and the ground is starting to dry up a little bit. Yesterday the temperature was +18 C. Slowly and steadily the birds are coming back, with new spring arrivals almost every day.

Black-capped Chickadee

I went to the Hawk Watch at St. Adolpe (just south of Winnipeg) several weeks ago to see some early raptor arrivals. Raptors we saw there were Bald Eagles, Red-tailed Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and Northern Harrier.

Bald Eagles (adult and immature)

immature Bald Eagle

Another bird that has arrived is the Cooper's Hawk, which has faithfully been returning to our yard for many years. It landed on our deck rail one morning and my brother Matthew snapped some photos.

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

For a number of weeks already we've had Purple Finches around our feeders and singing jubilantly in the trees.

Purple Finch

We've also had a great abundance of Golden-crowned Kinglets in our yard, which is always a joy. They are such friendly little birds.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Brown Creepers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets have also been present in our yard.

Brown Creeper

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

I've also been to Birds Hill Park at night to listen for owls, which was unsuccessful. We did however hear a handful of American Woodcocks and Wilson's Snipes. 

I also saw my first Yellow-rumped Warbler of the year a few days ago and Fox Sparrows have returned.

I will try to post more regularly now, especially as more and more birds return, so keep an eye out for future posts. 

In May I am going on a family trip to Europe. To Rome, Hungary and the Netherlands. I'm planning to do plenty of birding there, so there will be many posts after we get home from that. 

But for now have a blessed Easter!

What Bird Wednesday

A post at last. Unfortunately I haven't been doing much birding recently, so here is a photo from a while ago. Can you guess what this bird is?

Leave your guess in the comments!

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Other WBW Posts:

Bird Boy

Canadian Birder

Feathers on Friday

I unfortunately have not post many of these lately. Here is a simple photo of  a chickadee from a few weeks ago.

Black-capped Chickadee

Other Feathers on Fridays:

Prairie Birder

Back Yard Bird Blog

Wolf Song Blog

Birds In Your Back Yard

Owls at Hecla Island

On February 4th we head up to Hecla Island with Christian Artuso to see if we could see some winter birds. It is a two hour drive, and is located on Lake Winnipeg.
We took a lot of photos, and I have not gone through them yet, so I am just going to make a quick post with a few photos for now.

The first notable bird was a Northern Hawk owl that we saw as we crossed the causeway to the island, though it was a good distance away and we didn't get a good picture of that one.

Northern Hawk Owl

From then on we saw numerous owls, totaling 4 Northern Hawk Owls and 4 Great Grey Owls. We sat in the car watching the Great Grey Owls for a while, waiting for a good photo opportunity. They would take off and fly every once in a while, which made for some great photos.

Great Grey Owl

Great Grey Owl

By looking for 'scaling', that is bark stripped of trees,and listening for tapping, we were able to find a Three Toed Woodpecker. It was a lifer for us! They are very quite elusive, but quite approachable when found. The one we found was pecking on a tree only one foot of the ground, so it made for great pictures.

 Other birds we saw were grouse, both Ruffed and Sharp-tailed.

Sharp-tailed Grouse

Northern Hawk Owl

As we were sitting watching the owls, I decided I could take some short videos to compile together. Here it is:

I still hope to make another post more fully covering our trip, but it might be a bit before I can process all the photos.

What Bird Wednesday

Here's a photo crop from a while ago. Can you guess what that bird is? Leave your guess in the comments.

Other WBW Posts:

Bird Boy

Canadian Birder

It feels like Spring!

It has been very warm in Winnipeg in the past few days. Today it went up to -2 C, and it felt like Spring was coming. We even went biking, which is very strange to do in January.

Anyway, there were some nice redpolls and Purple Finches at the feeders. I got some nice photos, so I  thought I'd share them.

Downy Woodpecker

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Downy Woodpecker

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Common Redpoll

Our dog

My twin brother biking in the snow

What Bird Wednesday

Here's a photo from a while ago, I've cropped it for the purpose of you guessing what it is.

Leave your guess in the comments!

Can you guess what this bird is?

Other What Bird Wednesdays:

Bird Boy

Canadian Birder

2017 Update

Sorry for my inactivity. I haven't been birding or blogging as much as I would like to.
I hope to update my blog a bit and renovate the website. I haven't updated my life list and year lists in a good while, so I should do that.

We're also planning a big family trip this spring, I'll tell you more about it soon.

So keep an eye out for changes. :)

-Josiah

2016 in Review

Happy New Year everybody! I thought I'd share a few photos from the past year, and sum up the year of birding for me. I've also linked posts from each notable birding experience that I blogged about this year, if you're interesting in reading more.

 I shall include a few photos from Florida even though it wasn't technically in 2016.

We went to Florida in December 2015 and came back the day before the new year.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/01/florida.html

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/01/florida-part-two-ponce-inlet.html

Roseate Spoonbill

Ruddy Turnstone 

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/02/florida-part-2-black-point-wildlife-loop.html

Caspian Tern

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/02/florida-part-4.html

Reddish Egret

When we got home we were greeted by some beautiful winter finches that haven't been too common the past few years, like this female Pine Grosbeak.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/02/quick-winter-update.html

female Pine Grosbeak

In March we went on a birding trip to the Boreal forest an hour or two east of us to look for owls and the elusive Black-backed or Three Toed Woodpecker.

It was quite successful, we saw a Northern Hawk Owl, Great Grey Owl, Northern Shrike and a Black-backed Woodpecker (a lifer).

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/03/first-of-all-sorry-for-hardly-posting.html

Great Grey Owl

Black-backed Woodpecker

Bald Eagle

Spring yielded a good amount of sparrows around the feeders.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/05/some-spring-photos.html

Another very exciting thing that happened was the pair Long-eared Owls returned to our property. Last year they nested right in our small woods, and the year before that they were around a lot but we didn't find their nest. This year the owlets were around a lot in June.

Long-eared Owlet

At the end of May I did my second Birdathon! We got 127 species, compared to 90 species from the previous birdathon. Christian Artuso was very generous to help us out and come along.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/06/my-birdathon-part-one.html

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/08/my-birdathon-part-two.html

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/08/birdathon-part-3.html

A few photos from the Birdathon

American Goldfinch

female American Redstart

Golden-winged Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Red-headed Woodpecker (a lifer)

Sandhill Crane

American White Pelicans

Yellow-headed Blackbird

Virginia Rail (a lifer)

In June my brother William (who is also interested in birds) went to Alberta for a friend's graduation. He saw some great birds there, including a Rufous Hummingbird.

Rufous Hummingbird

Mountains in Alberta

When William was in Alberta some of my family and I were canoeing in Kenora (a town a few hours east of Winnipeg).

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/07/kenora-camping.html

Us canoeing in Kenora

In September we went for an outing to Assiniboine Park and got some nice shots of some Hummingbirds.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/09/assiniboine-park.html

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

At the end of September we went birding with Christan Artuso along the Winnipeg beaches and saw some nice birds.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/10/birding-winnipeg-beaches.html

Pectoral Sandpiper

Birders marching along the trail

In November a shocking bird showed up in Pinewa, a small town east of Winnipeg. It was a Painted Redstart, the first ever record of this bird in Manitoba. 

We were lucky enough to see it just before it left from the area.

http://birdsinyourbackyard.blogspot.ca/2016/11/painted-redstart.html

Painted Redstart

And at last, in the middle of December we went to the Oak Hammock Marsh Christmas Bird Count. It was very cold but our team was able to see 10 species. The highlight that we saw was a Rough-legged Hawk, pretty rare at this time of year. 

Rough-legged Hawk

Thanks for reading folks! That is what my year of birding was like. If you haven't seen them yet, I hope you check out the posts I linked to throughout. I hope you enjoyed it!

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