First snow at the feeders this winter

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Five Starlings (above) showed up at the feeders today and the White-throated Sparrow (below) that arrived yesterday, was back again today.   This brings the latest winter feeder count up to 19 species.

The record for Mourning Doves at the small square feeders, seen above and below, is six birds at one time.   Even the small juncos, redpolls, goldfinches and Tree Sparrows limit themselves to four or five at a time.  All of those four smaller birds are showing up in large numbers early in this winter season.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

The Blue Jay

                                                                           Photo by BarrytheBirder

The Blue Jay

by Emily Dickinson

No brigadier throughout the year

                                So civic as the jay.

                                A neighbour and a warrior too,

                                With shrill felicity

                                

                                Pursuing winds that censure us

                                A February day,

                                The brother of the universe

                                Was never blown away.

                                The snow and he are intimate;

                                I've often seen them play

                                When heaven looked upon us all

                                With such severity,

                                I felt apology was due

                                To an insulted sky,

                                Whose pompous frown was nutriment

                                To their temerity.

                                The pillow of this daring head

                                Is pungent evergreens;

                                His larder - terse and militant -

                                Unknown, refreshing things;

                                His character a tonic,

                                His future a dispute;

                                Unfair an immortality

                                That leaves this neighbour out.

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BtheB

White-throated Sparrow on Christmas Day

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Zonotrichia albicollis

This morning, Christmas morning, there among the juncos and sparrows and redpolls was a solitary White-throated Sparrow.   A shy bird at the best times, this little bird was very wary about the dozens of other birds jostling at the feeders and on the ground below.   The south sides of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie are the the usual northern limit for these lovely little birds in winter.   I don't know if this one is a late migrant or was sent here, just for today, as a special harbinger of Christmas.

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BtheB

Trumpeter Swans at Glenville

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The southernmost pond at Glenville, south of Hwy. 9, on Dufferin Street, is partially frozen over, but these four Trumpeter Swans, two adults and two juvenile birds, were quite busy dunking their heads and feeding on the bottom of the pond.   The two cygnets are grey in appearance and will be completely white after their first year.   The two in the lower photo are nearing maturity as their grey colouring is limited now to the neck and some flight feathers.   Trumpeters are the largest extant waterfowl species on earth.   The largest known Trumpeter was 183 cm (72") long, with a wingspan of 3.1 m (10 ft) and weighed 17.2 kg (38 lbs).   The birds above are tagged and undoubtedly part an introducing breeding program that is meeting with some success in eastern Canada and the United States.
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BtheB

A.K.A. abbr. also known as

HOUSE FINCH  ~  COMMON REDPOLL  ~  DARK-EYED JUNCO

Pictured above are three of the many species of small birds at the backyard feeders today, a day which turned cold and very windy, compared to the past several days.   As I watched these birds feeding, I was recalling all their common names.   For whatever reason, I started to wonder what my grandfather, who emigrated from England to Canada in 1911, might have called these same birds back then.    Back in 1911 of course, he would have heard some new names, no doubt...names that were purely north-american and most of which probably had their origin in the United States.   I did some quick research and discovered the following obsolete English names for the birds pictured above plus a couple of others.   They are in no particular order.

Dark-eyed Junco: a.k.a. Baird's Junco / Carolina Junco / Grey-headed Junco / Guadalupe Junco  /  Laguna Hanson Junco  /  Montana Junco  /  Nevada Junco  /  Oregon Junco  /  Pink-sided Junco  /  Point Pinos Junco  /  Red-backed Junco  /  Ridgeway's Junco  /  Shufeldt's Junco  /  Slate-coloured Junco  /  Thurber's Junco  /  Townsend's Junco  /  White-winged Junco  /  Snowbird.

  

Common Redpoll: a.k.a. Redpoll Linnet  /  Greater Redpoll /  Holboell's Redpoll  /  Labrador Redpoll  /  Lesser Repoll.

House Finch: a.k.a. Crimson-fronted Finch  /  Rose-breasted Finch  /  San Clemente Finch  /  San Lucas Finch  /  California Linnet  /  Guadalupe Linnet  /  McGregor Linnet  /  Burrion.

American Goldfinch: a.k.a. Wild Canary  /  Yellow-bird  /  California Goldfinch  /  Eastern Goldfinch  /  North-western Goldfinch  /  Pale Goldfinch  /  Western Goldfinch  /  Willow Goldfinch  /  Yellow Goldfinch  /  Thistle-bird.

American Tree Sparrow: a.k.a. Mountain Sparrow.

The obsolete names listed above are from a list created,  by Richard C. Banks of the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Centre, National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Canada Geese at Seneca

Photos by Barry Wallace

On Thursday it was a thousand Canada Geese at the Beasley Farm on the 8th Concession of King and Friday it was approximately 500 Canada Geese on Lake Jonda, at Seneca College's Eaton Hall Campus.   Slowly but surely, our township's lakes and farm ponds are freezing over, leaving the geese and ducks and gulls to reconsider their options about where to go next to find open water.   Decisions, decisions.

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BtheB 

Canada Geese like the Beasley Farm

Photos by Barry Wallace

The two ponds, near the barns, at the front of the Beasley Farm, on King Township's 8th Concession may not be big, but they are apparently perfect for the almost 1,000 Canada Geese that have been hanging out here for many days now.   In fact, there may be more than a  thousand, as I was not able to guesstimate the many more geese over a hill and farther afield.   Apparently, there is some special combination of security, water and good gleaning to be had on the Beasley Farm.
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BtheB

Dave Kemp photos at Boundary Bay

SNOWY OWL

SHORT-EARED OWL

Photos by Dave Kemp

Dave Kemp from Richmond, British Columbia, sent me these two photos, which he took on Dec. 7, down in the Boundary Bay area, south of Vancouver.   I don't know exactly what it is about owls, but one does not just take pictures of owls - one is compelled to take owl pictures.   Is it their aerodynamic perfection, the silent flight, or is it their eyes?   I believe it's the eyes...that the look in the eyes must be captured.   Really nice shots, Dave.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB  

Mpho cheers summer

My friend Mpho Phiri, from Mahikeng, South Africa, has just posted his first blog in almost six weeks.   The past winter has been especially hard in and around Mahikeng, including the Modimola Dam where Mpho does a great deal of his birding.

Here's what he wrote back in October: "The recent dry weather conditions and lack of rain in and around Mahikeng had a devastating impact on the Modimola Dam...We hope sooner or later the rains will come as the dam is gradually shrinking".   Now in early December, Mpho has resumed his birding and blogging.   There is a hopeful tone in his latest blog as his prose borders on 'prose idyll' or 'prose poetry'  with its wording and imagery: "We had two days of silent showers as a welcome relief to the drought-stricken areas around Mahikeng.   With the first rays of sunshine, this afternoon, I went out birding.   One could hear the sounds of birds again amidst the fresh rain-soaked ground around the trees.   I was first greeted by the Red-backed Shrike (see photo above), the common summer visitor, perching conspicuously on a branch.   Hooray!!!   Summer is here."   So winter is settling in, here in King City, Ontario, Canada, but is saying goodbye in South Africa.   Good birding, Mpho.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Redpoll's mate shows up

                                                                                                 Photo by BarrytheBirder

Yesterday's first, female, Common Redpoll of this fall, was joined today by a male redpoll, at the feeders.   In the photo above the male is seen top-left and the female is top-right.   Sharing this particular feeder with the redpolls is a American Goldfinch, bottom-left, and a House Finch, bottom-right.   Below is a list of 17 birds which I refer to as winter birds, and which are currently showing up regularly at the feeders.

Northern Cardinal                 Red-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee      White-breasted Nuthatch

Mourning Dove                     Common Redpoll

House Finch                         American Tree Sparrow

American Goldfinch              House Sparrow

Cooper's Hawk                     European Starling

Sharp-shinned Hawk            Downy Woodpecker

Blue Jay                               Hairy Woodpecker

Dark-eyed Junco                  ( more to come, hopefully )

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Dec. 4 - first Common Redpoll of season

It was a balmy 14C and raining, not the kind of day one would expect to see the first redpoll of the season.   But there it was, ensconced at the Niger Seed feeders with the American Goldfinches.   My Peterson field guide says: "...resembles an American Goldfinch or a Pine Siskin".   Apart from overall size, I'm not so sure about that comparison, but I suppose the term 'resembles' allows for a liberality of interpretation.   Whatever, this dear little bird is always welcome.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Owl sounds likes a cat?

Photo by Dave Kemp

Several days ago, my photographer friend, Dave Kemp, of Richmond, British Columbia, sent me this Short-eared Owl photo, which he took.   I shared it with readers of this blog.   Now, Dave has sent me a video of the same raptor.   Dave shared this video with several of his online friends and one of them said this owl sounded like a cat.   It's true, it does.   While most of our 12 owl species in Canada make a hooting sound, a few do not.   The Short-eared Owl is one that does not, except during the mating season when the male gives a hoo-hoo-hoo.   According to my Royal Ontario Museum Field Guide to Birds of Ontario, both male and female give an emphatic, barking keee-ow sound.   Click on the link below to hear Dave Kemp's owl.   You will need to click on a second version of the link after you make your first link.     

http://youtu.be/5PDl0fq6Bz0

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Trumpeter Swan eyes Mute Swans

Photo by BarrytheBirder

I took this photo on November 27 on the King/Caledon Townline, south of Highway 9.   The swan on the left, with a yellow tag on its left wing is a Trumpeter Swan, while the object of its attention is a pair of Mute Swans.   The Trumpeter is probably a migrant while the Mute Swans are likely residents of this pond.   I've rarely seen swans of different types associating with each other, but this trio seemed rather chummy and lent a pleasant vista to a cold, late November day.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB 

Geese make way for gulls

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Most area ponds in King Township, in late November, are restricted to Canada Geese, more or less.   But this one, north of Kettleby and west of Keele Street has a flock of very well-fed-looking Ring-billed Gulls.   No doubt these skilled scavengers will hang around as long a local farmers are ploughing their land and turning up worms and June Bug larvae.
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BtheB   

B.C. Short-eared Owl

Photo by Dave Kemp

Three blogs ago, on Nov. 23, I presented several raptor photos by Dave Kemp taken on Canada's west coast.   Here's another recent photo taken by Dave.   It's a rather compelling picture of a Short-eared Owl (look into those eyes).   Let me share Dave's email that accompanied this photo, as it has a trace of B.C.'s west coast sensibility, and I get a hint of what it might be like to be there, at the moment this great image was captured.
" Today we ventured down to 72nd and Boundary Bay, Ladner, and we came across this owl that just sat there and let everyone take pictures of it... sometimes you just have to be there at the right time.   A few Snowy Owls but I think it's early and more should be arriving within the next month... plenty of harriers but mostly people on a sunny Sunday afternoon...week days are much better".
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BtheB

Dave Kemp's west coast raptors

SNOWY OWL

SHORT-EARED OWL  and  NORTHERN HARRIER

My friend Dave Kemp  from Vancouver, British Columbia, sent me the photos above.   I think these are all wonderful photographs and I am especially knocked out by the second picture from the top, of the Snowy Owl in full wingspread, from the rear.   I don't recall ever having seen such a spectacular shot, from this angle.   I also found the owl and the harrier challenging each other over hunting territory quite mesmerising.   See more of Dave's great photos by going to www.pictureperfect.nu/photogallery/ or Googling Dave Kemp's Picture Perfect Photo Gallery.

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BtheB

Facing its first winter

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Red-tailed Hawk

BBButeo jamaicensisBB

I photographed this immature Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a post on Hwy. 27, in Schomberg.   It was a small bird, probably at the lower end of the species size range of 19 - 25" (48 - 63 cm.)   There was nothing special about this hawk as it surveyed the field below keeping an eye on anything that moved.   I couldn't help but wonder if this first-year bird had any idea of what lay ahead as the warm mid-November day was close to ushering in December and winter snow and ice.   And when it does find itself in the depths of our frigid winter, will it have any comprehension, at all, that the winter will eventually end and the world will warm again, or will it think that the season of snow is a permanent environment.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB  

Fox Sparrows still coming through

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Fox Sparrows are normally late migrators, usually passing through these parts in early November.   This year, after the summer that seemed to never end, did end, it got rather chilly quickly.   Fox Sparrows started to show up in the backyard in the second week of October.   Then there were more during the third and fourth weeks.   There was a break of a few days and now they have shown up again.   Birder and noted author Kenn Kaufman describes this bird as a "big chunky sparrow".   Not only are they big and chunky, but they have that rich foxy red colour.   This is my favourite sparrow, although I am very partial to White-throats (see photo below) and White-crowns also.   They can all hang around for as long as they like, as far as I'm concerned.

  The colour of House Finches is most welcome also.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Snow Buntings arrive at Schomberg

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Before you jump to the conclusion that the ground in King Township, just north of Toronto, is covered in snow, let me say that I took these pictures of Snow Buntings a couple of years ago near Schomberg.  This past Friday, I spotted a small flock of about 25 Snow Buntings at the habitat wetlands that have replaced the Schomberg sewage lagoons.   The lagoons were decommissioned about a year and a half ago.   A large pond and island have replaced the main lagoons and they have been taken over by Canada Geese, gulls, shorebirds in migration, and now by beautiful buntings like the ones you see here.   I could not get close enough to photograph this year's buntings because the site is a huge sea of mud and unapproachable.   Of all the winter birds hereabouts, the Snow Buntings are my favourite -- because of their appealing colouration and markings and their synchronous flight.   They help hugely to make winter bearable, I think.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Trumpeters at Marylake

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Many of King Township's ponds and lakes, of a certain size, are visited by migrating Trumpeter Swans at this time of year.   This family of six were settled in on Marylake, just north of King City this past weekend.   The four young birds still have their juvenile buff colouring.   I would have loved to get closer to these magnificent birds but they had chosen to station themselves at the most remote corner of the lake.   You would think they had done it deliberately.   Trumpeters are the 'come-back' swans in Ontario after having been extirpated during the 1880s.   Efforts to re-introduce them in the 1980s continue to appear successful.   According to Wikipedia, the Trumpeter Swan is the heaviest bird native to North America and is, on average, the largest extant waterfowl species on earth.
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BtheB

Deeper into autumn

          That time of year thou mayst in me behold
          When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
          Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
          Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.

 William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73

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BtheB

Juncos take over

Photo by BarrytheBirder

My brother Bob, who lives just north of Parry Sound, Ontario, told me today that all his migrant sparrows had left and the Juncos had taken over at the feeders.   Parry Sound is about 150 km north of King City, but my situation is similar.   The last of the White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows left in the past few days and their places have been taken over by two dozen  Dark-eyed Juncos.   Below is a photo I came across of a leucistic Dark-eyed Junco taken by Bob McElroy, of Point Alexander, on the Ottawa River, near Deep River.   Bob and his wife Diana have a website about the goings-on in the upper Ottawa Valley and nearby Algonquin Park and it's certainly worth a look.   Google them at Bob and Diana McElroy.

Photo by Bob McElroy

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BtheB

Hurricane Sandy

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Hurricane Sandy brought a few days of rain and one night of high winds to King Township, north of Toronto.   On Tuesday morning, the Holland Marsh in northern King Township saw thousands and thousands of Ring-billed Gulls, Canada Geese and Mallard Ducks that had been brought to ground.   Many places in the marsh had large areas of standing water, but it was inconsequential compared to the devastation of Hurricane Hazel in 1954. 

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BtheB

Hardy bird

Photo by BarrytheBirder

This Great Blue Heron, preening itself, is one of many I saw today along the banks of the Holland Marsh canals, in northern King Township today.   The herons usually hang around until freeze-up before heading south.   In fact, if there are open patches of water to fish, the herons can sometimes be seen walking elsewhere on the water that has frozen over.   Such is their hardiness that some Great Blues often remain through cold north winters, as long as there is some access to open water and food.
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BtheB

Richmond Hill Millpond Park

Mute Swans

Double-crested Cormorant and Canada Goose

A muse

                                                                                                                                 Photos by BarrytheBirder

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB