Improvements!

 It was a great day with the temp actually getting up to +4C . Time to take the dog out for some exercise.

We took the camera and did about 4 klicks looking for wild life, but found nada.


Not even a bird was to be found,

We wandered along some bush roads for about an hour. It was a great time out. Quiet, Peaceful, and warm



 I have to put out a couple of photos from the front window, just to show that all the birds are not frozen.  


This Hairy Woodpecker had
just finished at the suet container.
 The Pine Grosbeak similarly had pigged out on the sunflower seeds

The little Red Poll was so fat it could hardly move.








This guy enjoyed getting his photo taken. At least it seemed so!

It should be possible to bigify the pictures

Put it Up and They Will Come

My old feeder was slightly banged up, so I scrapped it and put up a new one. It only took one day for the birds to find it.

The Hairy Woodpecker was one of the first. He liked the home grown sunflower heads.

The Evening Grosbeaks were close behind. It doesn't take long for the word to get out.

The Sparrows showed up of course. I'm not sure which type this is. He doesn't match up with my reference books.

There are a lot of Robins still about, even though we had about 8 inches of snow on the ground. They stayed in the Crab apple tree.

Dark Eyed Juncos were also there.

My Favourite clowns, The Bohemian Waxwings put on a good show.

OK, OK, so this Red Tailed Hawk was not at the feeder. I found him down the road a bit. Poetic licence I call it!

October Birds

The Red Tailed Hawks are still hanging around the fields even though the crops are off.

They are vary patient waiting for mice, but also very spooky. At times I could use a longer lens  

Here is a Magpie in the process of putting the run on the Red Tail.

Fly past!

The crows are starting to flock up getting ready to move south. Lucky birds!

the next two photos are of a Hairy Woodpecker that landed on a tree beside the truck.

Bits and Pieces

I have seen awkward ways of dining, but this Hairy Woodpecker beats all! Upside down with care! Sure, I could have rotated the pictures, but this is real life.

 This Whitetail deer was in a field on my most recent outing. He/she looks kind of lost

 There are a lot of fresh cougar tracks in the area that I normally walk the dogs, so I am exploring for a better location.

 When i first saw this, I thought "What in Heavens name is that"?

 It was just this guy munching away.

Feeder Day

It was a crowded day at the feeder with the Hairy Woodpecker showing up again.

 

The larger of two look alikes, the Hairy Woodpecker is a small but powerful bird that forages along trunks and main branches of large trees. It wields a much longer bill than the Downy Woodpecker's almost thornlike bill. Hairy Woodpeckers have a somewhat soldierly look, with their erect, straight-backed posture on tree trunks and their cleanly striped heads. Look for them at backyard suet or sunflower feeders, and listen for them whinnying from woodlots, parks, and forests.

 There were about 50 Red Polls lined up in the tree waiting for me to put the feed out. They are getting to be very tame.

 As energetic as their electric zapping call notes would suggest, Common Redpolls are active foragers that travel in busy flocks. Look for them feeding on catkins in birch trees or visiting feeders in winter. These small finches of the arctic tundra and boreal forest migrate erratically, and they occasionally show up in large numbers as far south as the central U.S. During such irruption years, redpolls often congregate at bird feeders (particularly thistle or nyjer seed), allowing delightfully close looks.

 The Pine Grosbeaks have been around all winter in a flock of about 100.

The pine grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator) is a large member of the true finch family, Fringillidae. It is found in coniferous woods across Alaska, the western mountains of the United States,Canada, and in subarcticFennoscandia and Siberia. The species is a frugivore, especially in winter, favoring small fruits, such as rowans (mountain-ashes in the New World). With fruit-crop abundance varying from year to year, pine grosbeak is one of many subarctic-resident bird species that exhibit irruptive behavior. Inirruption years, individuals can move long distances in search of suitable food supplies, bringing them farther south and/or downslope than is typical of years with large fruit crops. In such years in the New World, they may occur well south of the typical extent of winter distribution, which is the northern Great Lakes region and northern New England in the United States. This species is a very rare vagrant to temperateEurope; in all of Germany for example, not more than 4 individuals and often none at all have been recorded each year since 1980. (From Wikipedia)

Female

Mostly Quiet at the Feeder

A New Guy showed up today, a Hairy Woodpecker. He is very cautious, but with time should tame out.

 I will have to get to suet cage set up. 

 The next are a few shots of a few Bluejays that are hanging around.

 It appears that I have inherited 6 of these guys.

 My neighbour keeps trying to lure them away, but I appear to have a superior (and secret) feed mix!

 Going, going....

 Gone!