Bird Canada

Here I was, all excited to get to species number one hundred on my yard list. I keep track of the birds actually in the yard, as well as those seen from the yard, as in flying over (F).

This is a rather bizarre list, as we live in the foothills between the boreal forest and the prairie grasslands, and birds come from both ecozones. We live a block from the Bow River, which swans, cranes and other birds use as a road map during migration.

My yard has conifers, deciduous trees, fruiting shrubs, 11 birdfeeders, and 3 birdbaths. Even with all this, there is absolutely no explanation for the hooded warbler, who should have been in Florida for the 3 autumn months he was here in 2004.

I was so sure I was carefully updating the list as birds appeared so that the numbers were correct. I had even written a one-hundredth-bird-in-the-yard blog post in my head.

Sigh. Meet yard bird #102.

Swainson's Thrush

Apparently I wasn’t as meticulous as I thought. It turns out I forgot to add the white-throated and fox sparrows that showed up last year.

Fox Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

And before I could even get this post written, a least flycatcher hopped onto the yard list at #103, and no, I don’t have a picture of it. Trying to capture a tiny flycatcher with a point-and-shoot camera is my definition of insanity…

So here’s the list as it now stands. With this post written, I’m heading onto the back deck to see if I can add to it!

1. American White Pelican (F)
2. Great Blue Heron (F)
3. Trumpeter Swan (F)
4. Canada Goose (F)
5. American Wigeon (F)
6. Mallard (F)
7. Common Goldeneye (F)
8. Osprey (F)
9. Bald Eagle (F)
10. Sharp-shinned Hawk
11. Swainson’s Hawk (F)
12. Red-tailed Hawk (F)
13. American Kestrel
14. Merlin
15. Peregrine Falcon (F)
16. Prairie Falcon (F)
17. Chukar
18. Sandhill Crane (F)
19. Franklin’s Gull (F)
20. Ring-billed Gull (F)
21. California Gull (F)
22. Rock Pigeon
23. Mourning Dove
24. Budgerigar (yes I know, but it was flying around the neighborhood for months)
25. Great Horned Owl
26. Long-eared Owl
27. Boreal Owl
28. Northern Saw-whet Owl
29. Common Nighthawk (F)
30. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
31. Northern Flicker
32. Downy Woodpecker
33. Hairy Woodpecker
34. Pileated Woodpecker
35. Western Wood-Pewee
36. Willow Flycatcher
37. Least Flycatcher
38. Eastern Phoebe
39. Northern Shrike
40. Gray Jay
41. Blue Jay
42. Black-billed Magpie
43. American Crow
44. Common Raven
45. Tree Swallow
46. Bank Swallow (F)
47. Barn Swallow (F)
48. Black-capped Chickadee
49. Mountain Chickadee
50. Red-breasted Nuthatch
51. White-breasted Nuthatch
52. Brown Creeper
53. House Wren
54. Golden-crowned Kinglet
55. Ruby-crowned Kinglet
56. Veery
57. American Robin
58. Hermit Thrush
59. Swainson’s Thrush
60. Gray Catbird
61. European Starling
62. Bohemian Waxwing
63. Cedar Waxwing
64. Tennessee Warbler
65. Orange-crowned Warbler
66. Yellow Warbler
67. Yellow-rumped Warbler
68. Cape May Warber
69. Blackburnian Warbler
70. MacGillivray’s Warbler
71. Hooded Warbler
72. Ovenbird
73. Wilson’s Warbler
74. Western Tanager
75. American Tree Sparrow
76. Chipping Sparrow
77. Clay-colored Sparrow
78. Fox Sparrow
79. Savannah Sparrow
80. White-throated Sparrow
81. Grasshopper Sparrow
82. Song Sparrow
83. Lincoln’s Sparrow
84. Harris’s Sparrow
85. White-crowned Sparrow
86. Golden-crowned Sparrow
87. Dark-eyed Junco
88. Red-winged Blackbird
89. Yellow-headed Blackbird
90. Rusty Blackbird
91. Brewer’s Blackbird
92. Common Grackle
93. Brown-headed Cowbird
94. Baltimore Oriole
95. Pine Grosbeak
96. Cassin’s Finch
97. House Finch
98. Red Crossbill
99. White-winged Crossbill
100. Common Redpoll
101. Pine Siskin
102. American Goldfinch
103. House Sparrow

A few weeks ago, one of my tweeps (Twitter people) posted an absolutely superb photo of a snowy egret in Florida. When I commented on the size of the bird, he told me he got that shot while laying on his stomach on the beach. With the return of my spring sparrows, I thought HEY – I bet I could get some neat shots from ground level.

The back of our yard has a dedicated ground feeder area, ie a mess of sunflower seeds and shells that we’re just allowing to build up. This is food heaven for sparrows, doves and all the other birds in the yard. It also concentrates them nicely for great photo ops.

We’re in the process of  putting in a new garden, and last week the wheelbarrow had been left in the middle of the yard for a few days, so the birds were used to it. On one of our rare warm days, I lay down on my stomach beside the wheelbarrow, effectively blocking myself from the birds’ direct line of sight. Within five minutes, all the birds were back at the seeds. (I must have done a good job of laying still – one of the grackles landed on the wheelbarrow and we scared the crap out of each other).

My object that day was white-crowned sparrows – I think it worked.

I was just snapping away, trying to ignore the fact I was loosing circulation in my arms from leaning on my elbows, when something new popped into focus.

I didn’t even realize I had Lincoln’s sparrows in the yard until he hopped in front of my camera.

This was so much fun I decided to do it again the next day, and the day after that. I already have a wealth of ground level bird pictures and videos that should keep me editing for months, and I’m still doing it.

The other advantage of belly-birding is that it doesn’t take very long. I have to give up after about half an hour due to the tingling in my arms and a sore back, but it’s worth it!

At the back of our yard, we have a cluster of four fully mature white spruce trees – my own little boreal forest. These trees are about 50 feet high, and not surprisingly, a favorite perch of many birds.

I know I’ve got a ruby-crowned kinglet in the back yard this week because I can hear it. But take a picture of it? I don’t think so. Not only are kinglets hyperactive little birds, they favour branches near the top of the trees. I’m pretty sure I’ve hit a record number of empty branch shots in my attempts to photograph this tiny bird. Here is the best of the lot.

Yes, it really is a ruby-crowned. If you peer really, really closely you can see the red cap on the head. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure this ruby-crowned butt shot is a clear signal that a new camera is needed…

A friend of mine recently decided she wanted to take up bird watching a little more actively. She can identify the common species, but wants to know what is visiting her yard and campsight. Naturally, I’ve jumped all over this.

Spring migration is well underway, and more returning species are being reported daily. It’s also the season for yard and garden work, but we managed to squeeze in an evening trip to the local bird sanctuary.

The sanctuary has a variety of habitats – a lagoon, mature trees, lots of bushes, some grassland – and is right along the Bow River. There’s generally a large variety of birds, and it’s close to home so that’s where we headed.

You know how some times things just don’t go the way they’re supposed to?

I had planned on starting her off with some nice easy waterfowl, but here’s the first bird we encountered when we got there.

If you’re a beginning birder, warblers are clearly NOT the place to start. I took pity on her and told her it was a yellow-rumped warbler. Let’s move on…

I was expecting the bushes and water to be alive with birds. We walked through the majority of the sanctuary and saw one female golden-eye, many European starlings and lots of crows. She knows starlings and crows.

We made it to the river, and way over on the other bank, just out of camera range, there were a couple of ducks you could identify if you were an experienced birder. Harlequin ducks were at least a life bird for her, even if we could just barely see them. There were more common golden-eyes on the river, but that was it.

Rounding the lagoon on the way back, we saw our first Canada goose of the evening. You have to look closely though – she’s hiding!

What we lacked in bird life, however, was more than made up for by the mammals. Every corner we turned, we saw mule deer.

Every path we took, we felt like we were taking our deer out for an evening walk.

The sanctuary is right along the river, and the deer make their way up and down it on a regular basis, but I’ve never seen this many there. And did they care if we were there? Not a bit. A few years ago when I was volunteering at the sanctuary, I was making my way down the path giving myself warbler neck, and walked right smack into a doe who was standing crosswise on the path. I think she might have raised her head a notch, and then just kept on eating. I was the one who moved off the path.

If you want to get up close and personal with mule deer, this is clearly the place. There are no dogs or bicycles allowed in the sanctuary, so these animals clearly feel safe there.

Lacking any bird life, it was nevertheless heartening to be greeted with this. Look at that face…

Maybe next time we’ll see some actual birds. Or not.

There is a clear order of preference at my bird feeder. These pictures were taken in a two hour period during the storm on Saturday, in this order. Squirrels get first pick, followed by the black-billed magpie, blue jay, mourning doves, red-shafted flicker, house finches, red-breasted nuthatch and a busy little dark-eyed junco feeding down below, out of the crowd.

Who knew?

Thank you to Steve and his wonderful blog at Steve Creek Outdoors for sharing the fact that today is World Sparrow Day. As someone with a more than generous number of sparrows in my yard year round, it’s clearly time to acknowledge the humble house sparrow.

Whooee, do we have Bohemian waxwings! Our mountain ash and all the trees for three yards around are full of them every day.

They like to perch at the top of the poplar trees in the morning sun.

Eat the snow on the neighbors roof…

And they do love the mountain ash berries.

What little snow we have left is covered in red polka dots, and don’t even talk to me about what the truck in the driveway looks like.

Buster was not amused at all the noise and activity…

And is probably glad to see them take flight every day.

Trying to count these birds is like trying to count fish in a school. I did my best for the Great Backyard Bird Count and ended up with a count of 150+ on the Friday. That’s a lot of bird fruit-poop. And a lot of car washes…

These little chickadees are one of the few birds living completely in the boreal forest. Having grown up in the forests northern Alberta, each time I see one of these wonderful little boreal chickadees it’s like a visit from a family member. I heard the sicka-see-see call long before I saw this little guy, and had the camera ready when he popped up. He was wonderfully obliging, and posed for many shots!