Weekly What Bird

 Can you guess what this common backyard blackbird is?

 Ask me if you want a hint

Ontario - 2013 - Week One

We arrived on Friday the 12th. The ride was enjoyable because we saw a lot of birds.We saw lots and lots and lots of Turkey Vultures. We also saw two moose on the way. We saw lots of ravens on the way too. There was about 7 Osprey nests all close together on  telephone poles. At Opa's in Brampton we saw lots of birds at the feeders, chickadees, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, tonnes of Mourning Doves, nuthatches, grackles, Brown-headed Cowbirds, cardinals, Hairy and Downy Woodpckers and Blue Jays. The Credit River is just a ten minute walk away from here. We go tubing often and see Turkey Vultures, Great-blue Herons, shorebirds, Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds and Cedar Waxwings. we also made a homemade bird bath, we pick up a heated birdbath basin from a thrift store and used a sink pedestal.

 At Opa's

Mourning Dove landing

Mourning Doves

Goldfinch eating upside down

Mourning Dove

Mourning Dove and Blue Jay

Brown-headed Cowbirds

Brown-headed Cowbirds and doves

Northern Cardinal

Mourning Doves on feeder

Turkey Vulture

Black-capped Chickadee

Our bird houses

Our homemade birdbath

Common Grackle

Ravens

On the way

Moose

Some kind of baby bird

Common Raven

Moose

Ravens

Moose

Osprey nest

Osprey nest

House Sparrows move in

House Sparrow flying to feeder

The  Tree Swallows moved out, House Sparrows moved in. I don't know what happened to the baby swallows. They might have flew away or the house sparrows kicked them out. I have seen house sparrows coming to our feeders some.

Barn Swallows

We have some barn swallows nesting near are house. Barn swallows are a threatened species in Manitoba but still quite common. We saw eggs in the nest. Barn Swallows have distinctive forked tails and when they are sitting it looks like two long strings.

Barn Swallow Eggs

Barn Swallow Nest

Barn Swallow

Osprey

I saw an Osprey fly over my house. Osprey live near lakes and water, I don't know why it was near my house. The Osprey was being chased by a crow even though the crow was a 1/3 of the size. Osprey are huge birds of prey that eat fish. They dive into the water feet first to catch fish. They become completely submerged when catching fish.

Baby Swallow Update

I checked the swallow box again. One of the swallow chicks died. It was lying on the entrance. I took it away so the swallows could get in easier. I thought the swallow babies had fledged because there was about six swallows flying around the box, but I checked again later and heard and saw the chicks in the box. I saw the mouths of the chicks sticking out of feathers and other stuff the adults used for nesting material.

Weekly What Bird

Can you guess what bird this is? it has a very long tail that makes it seem like a tropical bird and is really noisy.  

Last weeks Weekly What Bird was Eastern Pheobe, part of the flycatcher family.

Baby Swallows

The Tree Swallows nesting across the road have chicks. They are so cute. There is about six. You can kinda see the chicks in these pictures. I'll try to get some better pics.

Tree Swallow chicks

The swallow chicks

Inside the nesting box. You can see some of the feathers that the swallows
used for nesting material.

Weekly What Bird

Can you guess what bird this is?                                    

Leave a comment with your guess





You might find the answer if you look around the blog


Ask me if you want a hint

Abandoned Nest?

There is a cavity nest in a field across our road. It is a hole nest in a dying tree. The tree is small and still has some leaves, but most of the top is cut off and it is starting to rot. The entrance hole is 3 1/2 cm wide and 4 cm tall leading to a cavity more than 10 cm deep. Their is a small grass nest with four completely white eggs. Each egg is about an inch tall. I have visited the nest site several times, each time seeing no birds in the nest. I see Savannah Sparrows singing very near the nest, but they nest on the ground and don't have white eggs. So I assume it is abandoned, I can't touch the eggs to see if they're warm because they are too deep in the cavity. It might have been a woodpecker nest before but now it looks abandoned.  

Killdeer Family

Killdeer

Near our house there is a family of Killdeer. Killdeer are a type plover. We saw two kids but there might be more.  We got some okay pictures even though they going away from us and we could not get very close. Killdeer have two black stripes on their white chest, brown heads and over parts, large eyes and in flight sometimes look like mini seagulls. The Killdeer were sitting on the "nest" with the baby's. Killdeer don't really have nests, the're mostly like a spot to sit on the ground.
We also went to a nearby field to take pictures of a Red-winged Blackbird.                                                                      

Red-winged Blackbird

Killdeer

Killdeer parent with kids

Our First Mealworm Feeder

Our first mealworm feeder

We bought our first mealworm feeder today. Basically as soon as we put it up a chickadee came to check it out. Strip the Red-breasted Nuthatch has come and eaten all the mealworms in the feeder, we have had to refill it a couple times. We hope it attracts bluebirds and buntings. Live mealworms work the best, apparently dried ones don't really work.

Strip taking mealworm

Common Nighthawk

Since Common Nighthawk are a rare species in Manitoba it was really cool and exiting when we saw one about a week ago. We actually saw it three times flying over and once it landed in a nearby tree. The first time I wasn't sure what it was, though I thought it was a nighthawk or something. When I looked in the bird book I immediately knew that it was a Common Nighthawk. Common Nighthawks have two distinctive white bars under its wing and a nasal peent call.