February fly-past by Tundra Swans

Photo by Denny Mott

Jane Busby, who lives on a farm north of Kinghorn, emailed me on the weekend to report that she and her daughter, Lynn, were watching a small herd of deer, browsing near the old barn, when Lynn spotted a pair of Tundra Swans flying over the house.   Jane was surprised, needless to say, and commented that she doesn't usually see swans until March.   Ah, but this is an unusual year.   Down in Lambton County, hundreds of Tundra Swans are showing up at least six weeks earlier than usual.   According to the Sarnia Observer newspaper, Alf Rider, a local well-known local birder, said he's never seen the swans this early in his 42 years of living near Kettle Point, at the south end on Lake Huron.   Thedford Bog, near Pinery Provincial Park, is a popular stopover for migrating Tundras and can attract 20,000 of the huge birds in March and April - but never in the first week of February...well, hardly ever.
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BtheB

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Lots of Snowy Owls elsewhere

Photo by Sandy Milliken

In the previous blogspot, I posted a rather pathetic picture I had taken of a Snowy Owl in the Holland Marsh.   No sooner had I done that, than I came across the remarkable photo above.   It was taken by Sandy Milliken, of Post Falls, Idaho, when she was visiting Boundary Bay's driftwood beaches, south-west of Vancouver, British Columbia.   There are actually eleven Snowy Owls in this picture and it illustrates powerfully what is being called by birding experts an 'unbelievable' irruption of Snowies this winter, in southern Canada and the northern American states.   Thousands of these grand-looking birds are being seen from coast-to-coast.   One writer has called the irruption an 'owlapalooza'.   Reports say that recent previous irruptions occurred in 2005, 2006 and 2007, in different parts of the continent, but they were nothing compared to what is happening in 2012.   The question I find myself asking is this 'big year' a fluke and future irruptions will return to normal levels and patterns, or is this the 'new normal' as global warming changes our climate.   The irruptions are caused by failed lemming populations ( the owls favourite food) in the far north which force the  Snowies to head south in the winter.   Below are two more  recent pictures of Snowy Owls.   The upper one was taken in the American mid-west and the lower one was taken in Michigan. 

Photo by Reuters/US Fish and Wildlife Service

Photo by John Dykstra

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BtheB

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Elusive Snowy Owls

Photos by BarrytheBirder

Try as I may, I just can't seem to get close to the one or two Snowy Owls that are calling the Holland Marsh home for the winter.   The Snowy Owl in the picture above was about 150 metres away and although I waited, it would not turn around.   Nearby,  a Red-tailed Hawk (below) was similarly reluctant to allow me a close-up photo.  Ah well, any day seeing owls and hawks is a good day.

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BtheB 

Ps.   If you live in the vicinity of King City or King Township,

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Red-bellied Woodpecker's red belly

Photo from juliezickefoose.blogspot.com

I mentioned in a blog a couple of days ago that David and Ann Love have a Red-bellied Woodpecker visiting their feeders regularly this winter, up on the King Ridge.   I also referred to the fact that this woodpecker's red belly was usually difficult to see.   Today, I came across this photo of a Red-bellied Woodpecker in Julie Zickefoose's most recent blog, which she pens in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio.   Her blog is one of the most highly regarded bird blogs in the USA.   The photo shows quite well how non-obvious that red belly is.   Fortunately, this bird's other visual characteristics make it almost impossible not to recognize.

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BtheB  

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Winter's half over ~ what winter?

Photo by BarrytheBirder

It's February 2nd, 2012.   Winter has reached the halfway mark.   Here in Southern Ontario, just north of Toronto, a traditional snowy and blustery winter has been almost non-existent.   Snowfall, or the lack thereof, and high temperatures are the talk of the town. Records are being set.   I have pictured hundreds of crows and starlings, in earlier blogs this winter.   These birds seem to have chosen to stay around and tough it out.   But it hasn't been that tough so far, and there are only 46 days to go before we reach spring.   God forbid I should sound like I'm complaining!   Plus, two of those three famous groundhogs did not not see their shadows today, so we will not be having six more weeks of winter, as legend predicts.   For the record, Canada's gophers, Wiarton Willie and Shubenacadie Sam did not see their shadows, while the Yankee groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, did see his shadow.   Maybe that means winter will be shorter here in Ontario and down in Nova Scotia, but 2 weeks longer in Pennsylvania.   
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BtheB

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World's smallest bird ~ Bee Hummingbird

Photo by Jonatas Cunha

mBEE HUMMINGBIRDm

Mellisuga helenae

It's the first day of February and I need to distract myself from the Canadian winter.   The world's smallest bird is the Bee Hummingbird.   It is found in Cuba.   I'd never seen a good photo of a Bee Hummingbird until today when I came across this one above.   This bird is 2" or 5 cm. long.  The Bumblebee Hummingbird from Mexico, at left, is 2 3/4" or 7 cm. long.   In Cuba, the Bee Hummingbird is known as "Zunzun".   It weighs as much as a Canadian copper penny.   My neighbour, Frank, visits Cuba a couple times each year and has seen this bird.   Vagrants occasionally show up in the southern Bahamas.   There...I feel much better about this dreary February day having shared this little bird story.
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BtheB

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Dove loses tail feathers to hawk

                                                                                                 Photo by BarrytheBirder

Anyone familiar with Mourning Doves will notice that the dove pictured above has no tail feathers. That's because its tail feathers are scattered beneath one of the backyard feeders, after a 'close encounter of the Sharp-shinned kind'.   Or maybe it was a Cooper's Hawk that almost got this very lucky dove.   Whether it was Cooper's Hawk or a large Sharp-shinned Hawk (both kinds are around and about the backyard feeders) the dove was extremely lucky, as the hawks almost never miss such easy pickings.   The tail feathers were scattered on the ground below the feeders and the dove has rejoined its mates and is tempting the fates once more.

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BtheB

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Stupidity Street

                                                                                                   Photo by Michael Wolf

I used Michael Wolf's Painted Bunting photo above in a blog, on January 5th, about the trafficking of wild birds for the caged-bird trade.   I commented how 6,000 of these birds are taken each year in places like Mexico and Cuba.   My wife, Linda, read the blog and a few days later emailed me the poem below.   I had read this poem by Ralph Hodgson before, as have many birders and non-birders, but thought I would reproduce it here.
   

I saw with open eyes

Singing birds sweet

Sold in the shops

For the people to eat, 

Sold in the shops of

Stupidity Street.

I saw in vision

The worm in the wheat,

And in the shops nothing

For people to eat;

Nothing for sale in

Stupidity Street. 

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BtheB

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Cowbird makes a rare winter visit

Photo by BarrytheBirder

A male Brown-headed Cowbird made a rare appearance at our backyard bird-feeders on January 29th.  I can't remember ever having a cowbird in January before.   But King City is just within the northern boundary of the cowbird's traditional winter range, plus we have had a very open winter so far.   It is seen above between a Mourning Dove and a European Starling.   This is also the first winter, in a very long time, that we have had starlings staying over the winter in our backyard.

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BtheB

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Red-bellied Woodpecker

Photo by  Mike Segar/Reuters

Ann Love reports that a Red-bellied Woodpecker has been visiting the feeders at her  King Township 7th Concession home this winter.   The photo above was taken at a suet feeder in the village of Nyack, just north of New York City on the western shore of the Hudson River.   The attractive Red-bellied normally ranges from the southern Great Lakes and southern New England states to the Gulf of Mexico.   King Township is likely at the northern limit of this bird's usual range.   Red-bellied Woodpeckers in the north usually move south in the winter, but a few remain in our area.   The red belly for which the bird is named is almost a misnomer as its underparts are mainly whitish, except for a faint reddish wash on its lower belly, which is usually difficult to see.
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BtheB  

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Leucistic Redpoll

This photo of a leucistic Redpoll appears in the January 24th blog of North Shore Nature.   Google it at North Shore Nature for other photos and Michael's other great blogs about nature in northern Ontario.

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BtheB

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John James Audubon

IN MEMORIUM

                                                    

                                                 Photo/New World Encyclopedia
John James Audubon
April 26, 1785  ~  January 27, 1851


John James Audubon died on this day, 161 years ago in New York City, at the age of 65.   Following is the entry for Audubon from the Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia...

Ornithologist and bird artist, born in Les Cayes, Haiti.   He was sent to the USA in 1804 to look after his father's property near Philadelphia, and married Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of an English settler.   He spent several years seeking out every species of bird in America in order to catalogue them.   In 1826 he took his work to Europe, where he cultivated a rugged backwoodsman image that went down well with fashionable society.   In 1827 he published the first of the 87 portfolios in his massive Birds of America (1827-1838).   Between 1840 and 1844 he produced a 'miniature' edition in 7 volumes, which became a best-seller.   The National Audubon Society, dedicated to the conservation of birds in the USA, was founded in his honour in 1866.

ROSEATE SPOONBILL

Copyright 2011 Audubon Prints www.audubonprints.com

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BtheB

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Useless hunting dog

It's a chilly, slippery and overcast day and I'm having trouble convincing myself to go out birding when I'm probably only going to see the usual suspects.   Birding in southern Ontario, in January, requires inspiration and determination.   I'll check my email first.   There's an email from my old buddy "Doc" Gordon.   It's called 'Useless Hunting Dog'.   This video is 3 1/2 minutes long and it has transported me for those few minutes to a blissful place, far from the cold January landscape outside my window.   Give it a whirl.   Hope you enjoy...

http://www.dogwork.com/ddsff4/

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BtheB

50 Sandhills shot in first Kentucky hunt

Photo by Bruce Moorman

Kentucky's first-ever, official, Sandhill Crane hunting season has just ended and the total birds killed were far less than the expected, and planned-for, tally.   Pre-hunt plans allowed for a total of 400 birds to be taken from mid December to mid-January but only 50 birds were shot to death.   Official state government reports have not been produced yet but the Courier-Journal newspaper in Louisville says: "Perhaps Kentuckians just don't have much of an appetite for Sandhill Cranes".   The 50-bird tally was far short of the 400-bird limit that the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources had set, but predictably, promoters of the hunt, including state fish and wildlife officials called the inaugural season a success, while opponents argued the hunt was an unnecessary threat to a species that once before was pushed to near extinction.   "It was worth the controversy"  said one state fish and wildlife commissioner.   With just 50 birds shot, one has to wonder was it worth the expense to mount the state-wide program.   One can only hope this paltry project will be deemed a non-event and that another hunt is not worth the effort and expense by the state of Kentucky.   Long live the Sandhills.

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BtheB           

Giving new meaning to 'paper cuts'

These remarkable paper sculptures are the work of Canadian artist, Calvin Nichols.

While the bird pictures above are outstanding, for me there is something extra special and endearing about the paper porcupine portrait pictured below.   Google Calvin Nichols Paper Artist to discover more of this talented man's wonderful creations.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

Ps.   If you live in my vicinity of King City or King Township, 

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Hairy Woodpecker visits daily for real suet

Photos by BarrytheBirder

A male Hairy Woodpecker is now joining the male and female Downy Woodpeckers, on a daily basis, and enjoying the real suet to which I recently switched.   They also all still peck at the block of reconstituted suet that has been mixed with seeds, which proves that beggars can't be choosers, in the chilly dead of winter.   The few Starlings that have chosen to hang around past the middle of January are also quite partial to the suet (see photo below).

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BtheB

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The real suet is a big hit

Photos by BarrytheBirder

The Downy Woodpeckers love the real suet I have switched to, instead of the reconstituted suet blocks that I have put out for many years.   I don't know why I didn't switch sooner, especially since my butcher gave me the suet free!   Those other blocks aren't cheap.   The female (left) and male (right) pictured above are now a constant presence throughout the day, whereas before they were irregular visitors.   I am disappointed that the Hairy Woodpecker hasn't joined them yet.   A male Hairy showed up twice in the late fall but I haven't seen him since.   This extremely mild and variable winter weather that we've had so far seems to be confounding assumptions and predictions about feeding behaviours for a lot of species, but I am content to see what I shall see.

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BtheB

Ps.    If you live in the vicinity of  King City or King Township

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Trumpeter Swans at Glenville

Photo by BarrytheBirder

Two first-year Trumpeter Swans are accompanied by mature birds at Glenville Pond in north-eastern King Township.   Despite the fact that it is the third week of January and there have been a few very cold days and nights, moderate temperatures prevail and streams and ponds are not completely frozen over.   This no doubt suits these tagged swans which are catered to by the protective  benefactor and land-owner.

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BtheB

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Young Red-tail poor substitute for a Snowy

I went looking for Snowy Owls again today in the Holland Marsh, but was not successful.   I had to settle for this immature Red-tailed Hawk.   The photos above may lead one to think these were two different birds, but lighting and shooting angles can produce many results.   This was a small bird for a Red-tailed Hawk...probably no bigger than a large Cooper's Hawk...and its hunting skills left much to be desired.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB  


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Starlings ~ How cold does it have to get?

Photos by BarrytheBirder

European Starlings ~ Winter Plumage

These extravagantly speckled European Starlings has been around the feeders for about  week, eating seeds and suet but never staying very long.   One wonders if they are slipping away from their regular flock, for a snack, then quickly returning unnoticed to the group.   I have pondered a couple times recently, in this space, about the flocks of crows and starlings that seem to be staying around the area this winter, as opposed to heading slightly south to the other side of Lake Erie or the Windsor area or the mid-American states.   It was -14C Friday morning when I took the pictures above.   One wonders, and will be observing, to see if and how long the starling flocks hang around.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

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Holiday Amaryllis

                                                                                                                                                                                   Photo by BarrytheBirder

My wife Linda brought home this beautiful, minature, pink and white Amaryllis for our Christmas and New Year's centrepiece.   It spent most of the time on the kitchen windowsill however, which meant we saw a lot more of it, as the kitchen is a busy place during the holidays, and most other times too.

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BtheB

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Pileated Woodpecker ~ Looking for love?

                                                                                                                                  Photo by Joanne McKinnon

Every once in a while the gods look down upon us and bestow a gift.   Surely this was the case  when Joanne, wife of my old friend, Glenn MacKinnon, shot this photo in their backyard, in Bracebridge, Ontario.   What a remarkable and delightful photograph of a real Pileated Woodpecker, juxtaposed with a handmade, wooden look-alike that Glenn and Joanne picked up at the Cranberry Festival in Bala, Ontario.   The wooden woodpecker is the work of a craftsman from the Wahta Mohawk Territory in Muskoka, Ontario.   Perhaps is was simply a chance encounter or maybe a moment of outdoorsy predestination, but Joanne will have an image to treasure and enjoy for a long time to come.   I've seen some of Joanne's other photos and she has a talent with a camera.   You go, girl!
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BtheB

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It's always fun feeding ducks

                                                                                                                                                                             Photos by BarrytheBirder

My wife and I stopped off at Sunset Beach, on Lake Wilcox, in Oak Ridges, to feed the ducks on Sunday past.   For those who disapprove of feeding  ducks bread (particularly white bread) I have to say, in our defense, that we took along the good stuff.   That is to say, organic 100% whole grain sprouted  wheat, organic flax seed, non-flour vegan high-fibre bread.   The slices were the end crusts, however, not that the ducks seemed to mind.

The Sunset Beach gang of ducks number almost 200 individuals and it appears a certain amount of inbreeding has occurred.   One example is pictured above.   Its size and shape and markings are definitely Mallard, but the colours are all wrong.   Nevertheless, it appeared quite healthy, as did the others of questionable lineage.

One benefactor, alone, could not hope to nourish this crowd, and so it is that there is an endless parade of folks, with bags of scraps and goodies to satisfy the hungry horde, that are lined-up throughout the day with their offerings.   If you think that it is a noisy process, you are correct.

After the feeding of the ducks, we visited nearby Lake St. George which Linda was seeing for the first time.   She is standing at the spot where water from Lake St. George becomes the East Humber River.   This historic stream heads east and south through Oak Ridges, Eversley, King City, Kinghorn, Laskay, King Creek and Kleinburg before merging with the main Humber River, north of Woodbridge.   From there it oxbows through the western parts of Toronto, before broadly meandering into Lake Ontario, between High Park on the east and Humber Bay Park West on the west.
Please comment if you wish.
BtheB

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Visiting the Leslie St. Spit

Toronto skyline from the Leslie Street Spit

A few of the Leslie Street Spit's 55,000 Ring-billed Gulls (6% of the world's population)

It's not just birds that fly low over the Leslie Street Spit - Porter Airlines planes lands nearby

Far from the Spit, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk when I was almost home in King City!

All photos by BarrytheBirder

It was a mild +9C when I reached the outskirts of Toronto on my way to the Leslie Street Spit, this past Saturday.   Huge, puffy, summer-like, white clouds filled the bright sky on the way down the Don Valley Parkway to Lake Ontario.   By the time I reached Lake Ontario, the temperature  had dropped to +7C, near the water.   Everyone and his brother was there, enjoying the balmy winter day.   I didn't see many birds up close but I certainly appreciated the sense of being in a place that is touted as one of the world's best urban wilderness parks.   The man-made headland juts 5 kilometres out into Lake Ontario and is has essentially been turned over to wild birds and critters.   May it always be so.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB

 Ps. If you live in my vicinity of King City or King Township, 

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-18C / coldest day of the year

                                                                                                                                                                                    Photo by BarrytheBirder

I know, I know, 2012 is only three days old, but -18C is an attention-getter, given the mild winter we have had so far.   As noted previously in this space, some local flocks of crows and starlings appear to be testing their ability to spend winter hereabouts, as opposed to heading down around the Windsor and south Lake Erie shore areas.   The group of crows above was part of a larger group of about 150-200 that were hanging out east of Pottageville.   Although there is snow on the ground, it is only a few centimetres so the crows still seem able to find spilled grain.

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BtheB

What's in a name? Duck Hawk

                                                                                                                                                                                   Photo by BarrytheBirder

The photo above shows the blade of a canoe paddle which was given to me, by my colleagues, upon my retirement 10 years ago from the newspaper business.   The painting of the Peregrine Falcon was done by Geoffrey Duck, the son of one of those publishing colleagues.   Back then I think I was vaguely aware that the Peregrine Falcon was known as the Duck Hawk in North America, a long time ago.   Here's some of what A. Radclyffe Dugmore had to say about the Duck Hawk in his 1900 book Bird Homes: "Few people associate the name of the Duck Hawk with the Peregrine Falcon of history, yet this is the bird that was used when falconry was the fashionable pastime; at that time almost any price was paid for a well-trained tercel, as the male bird was called; now that falconry has almost died out, the name of peregrine will probably go, and the more common name of duck hawk will be the only name by which this bird will be known".   Dugmore's leaning toward the name Duck Hawk did not make him a quack.   Indeed, in America, he was a renowned and prolific artist, photographer and writer on all things environmental, although his take on the relationship between humans and all other animals was somewhat out-of-step with modern sensibilities (more on that another time).   He was wrong, of course, on the winning name and I personally feel that Peregrine Falcon is an all-around grander name for a bird of such impressive credentials and appearance.   The word peregrine has French and Latin origins and is defined as 'having a tendency to wander'.   In the case of peregrine, the bird, that 'wandering' is oft-times done at incredibly fast speeds.   In a dive, it is variously estimated at speeds around the 300km/h or 200 mph!
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BtheB 

You gotta have the right equipment

Photo by BarrytheBirder

 My wife and I gave new binoculars to the families of our two daughters as Christmas gifts.   Pictured above are our two granddaughters checking out the backyard birds on New Year's Day.     I believe you have to start them young at birdwatching.   We started the granddaughters and the grandsons when they were 3 1/2 years old.   

Please comment if you wish and very best wishes for a wonderful 2012.

BtheB

Christmas was green ~ New Year is white

                                                                                                                                                                                 Photos by BarrytheBirder

On the day before New Year's Eve, most of King Township was under a covering of snow, but it was quite mild and fog was the order of the day.   The birds in the backyard were still quite visible however.   Mt wife, Linda, noted a day or so ago that the mild weather, so far this winter, seems to be keeping the goldfinches just a little more yellow than usual (see top photo).   I have to agree, as many of 50 or 60 goldfinches we have are showing a little bit of extra colour.   The bottom photo shows a half dozen of our Mourning Doves taking over a couple of the feeders, while a tree sparrow perches above them waiting its turn.   The pecking order at our feeders has the Blue Jays at the top and one shrieking, charging Blue Jay will send this group of doves, above, fleeing in a frantic flurry of loud whistling wings.

Please comment if you wish.

BtheB