Mixture of Birds

The snow storms seemed to concentrate the migrating birds in fields on the Athabasca River. This Kestrel? was watching all the birds, wondering what to have for lunch

There was a mixed bag of Sand Hill Cranes in amongst the geese ducks and Tundra Swans.

A few Blue Wing Teal were also in the field

Best of all were the Tundra Swans. They are a majestic bird.

Of course, what would be a field in spring without a load of Canada Geese?

And of course, more Swans I wanted to get some in-flight pictures, but did not want to disturb them.

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Cold Wednesday

It was a blowing and blustery day, but I decided to go for a walk anyways. In a sheltered area I walked up on a few White Breasted Nuthatches. They were gathering stuff for nesting.

I don't know why, but they spend most of their time on the tree trunks.

A few Blue Winged Teal have arrived!

Then of course, there always a few Magpies around.

For a miserable day, it wasn't a bad walk!

Scarcity of Critters

It was another super hot and smokey day. I took Brooklyn for a swim and long walk. The only critters wandering about were some magpies, a Blue Wing Teal (female), and two sandpipers(?) 

It's hard to get magpies in flight. I may have to bait them with a pile of popcorn, if I can keep myself from eating it all. :-}

 These were only about 10 feet off shore, but it looks a lot farther.

Around the Place

This guy looked good sitting on the fence having a sun bath.

The pond about two blocks from here had some more blue winged teal on it.

Sleuthing Around the Slough

I spent a half hour hanging around an Alberta pot hole. It's amazing the variety of ducks that hang out there. First of all there was a Shovel Bill duck

 Then a Blue winged Teal

 The female shoveler was pretty laid back

 She kind of kept giving me weird looks.

 The Drake was keeping a close eye on her.

 The Blue winged Teal was getting ready to vacate the pond, then changed his mind.

 When I say "kept a close eye on her", I mean CLOSE!

 Then all of  a sudden, he got a little bit shy.