Better than an alarm clock

We awoke to the calls of a great-horned owl around 6 a.m. We were unable to see it, but it was out there calling it's little heart out.

Flicker!

We had a great birding day on Saturday- sunny and clear out and we spent most of the day outside. Even enjoying a visit with some friends out on the deck, we had a cooper's hawk fly directly overhead, peeping away. Turkey vultures were flying off in the distance as well.
Dave, Lola and I were out front gardening (okay, Dave was digging and Lola and I were moral support) and the cowbirds, blackbirds and chickadees weren't bothered at all by our presence and continued to feed away. They were all singing their little hearts out. I'm always cheered by the song of a red-winged blackbird. Here's a pic of one snacking with St. Francis.


A female and two male cowbirds feeding on seed.



On Sunday, Dave was looking outside and trying to identify a sparrow, when he spotted a Northern Flicker. This is our first sighting of the year and we got some nice pictures of it. The day prior, Dave mentioned he thought he might have heard a flicker, so it must have been in the area and we happened to see it on Sunday. Last year, we only saw the flicker maybe three or four times, so while he's around, he's a rare treat to sight. The flicker is a woodpecker, but I didn't count him in my earlier mention of the three we see regularly here. They migrate as well, so we don't see them in the winter the way we see the other woodpeckers year round. Unfortunately the flicker population is on a decline in general. I'm not too sure why other than the usual culprits of people and development, but hopefully we can see a turn around for them. They really are beautiful and quite unique looking. I love their colouring, movements and curved beak. We usually see the flicker on the ground, but this time we saw him in and around the tree. Another interesting note is that one name for a group of flickers is a "menorah". I love all the different names that exist for a flock of birds!



The mass of blackbirds (grackles, cowbirds and red-winged blackbirds) are back in full force as well- probably 50 or more are out on the lawn today. Here's a grackle checking out buddha.

And as I write this, Dave just called down to say there's a Cooper's Hawk in the front yard again right now.

hmmmm

So I have to confess that Dave and I are lie tellers. Yes, lie tellers. We took the snow goose pics to the experts (and not so experts, but opinionated none the less) at whatbird.com for verification. There was some discussion and it turns out that would-be snow goose is a giant faker and is actually more likely a domestic hybrid goose. What does this mean? Who could ever know? Actually...I guess it means that this particular goose has hooked up with a flock and is now living free and it or it's parent was once someone's bird.


Here's the link to the discussion:
http://www.whatbird.com/forums/forums/thread/82555.aspx

There's always interesting discussions going on there and some great pictures from all over N. Am. If you check it out, look for the thread called "Lunch"- that one is my current favourite.



So what's new around here?


Last Saturday we had a field sparrow show up for the first time this year. We also saw a song sparrow for the second time this season and we counted up to three at a time (which is the same high number we saw at any given time last year). These guys are pretty cute and have a lovely little face.



And on Wednesday morning, we were outside with the dogs and a great blue heron flew directly overhead (over Dave's head, while I watched and took a little too long to point it out to Dave, who only caught it as it flew away). This is the first sighting of it this year. We last saw it late December- which seemed really late for it still to be around. We see it fly from the pond behind our place over towards the 16 mile creek and it seems to follow generally the same flight path. I saw it again Thursday morning again around 9:30 a.m. Such a great majestic bird to watch in flight.

Dave is going to get the nesting boxes up this weekend. He put up a new pole to add another box. Hopefully we have equal success to last year, if not even more. The meal worms are coming along so we'll have another food source on hand too. We also have a bag of nest building materials ready too, so we just need the birds to show up!

Updated Lists of Birds we want to see

Here are our updated lists. After the bird count, Dave thought we should expand our list to about 100 each (I think that's where it's at). I made most of my additions Ontario-based birds so that I would have a competitive edge over Dave.


Jenn's list
Scarlet Tanager
Gunnison Sage Grouse
Greater Sage Grouse
Puffin
Blue-footed Booby
Other hummingbirds (any other than the ruby-throated we get here)
Green Heron
Black-Crowned Night Heron
White-faced Ibis
Cuckoo
Roadrunner
Roseate Spoonbill
Hook-billed kite
Harris Hawk
Gyrfalcon
Crested Caracara
Green Kingfisher
Barn Owl
Long-Eared Owl
Great-grey Owl
Snowy Owl
Barred Owl
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
Lewis WP
Red-headed WP
Sapsuckers
Red-Shouldered Hawk
California Condor
Vermillion Flycatcher
Fork and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
Stellars Jay
Green Jay
Violet-Green Swallow
Mountain Bluebird
Curve-billed Thrasher
Bohemian Waxwing
Northern Parula
Any other grosbeaks - Pine Grosbeaks seen in Algonquin in March 2009
Any other buntings
Any other jays- I saw the gray jay at Algonquin on March 7th and even got to hand feed it!

Additions to Jenn's list
Screech Owl
Short-eared Owl
Burrowing Owl
Black and White Warbler
Pacific Loon
Red-neck Grebe
Least Bittern
Tri-colored Heron
Green Heron
Cattle Egret
Glossy Ibis
Black Vulture
King Eider
Hooded Merganser- Seen Sunday, March 15/09 at Bronte Marsh
Ruddy Duck
Osprey
Red Crossbill
Mississippi Kite
Northern Goshawk
Golden Eagle
Yellow-headed Blackbird
King Rail
Sora
Lark Bunting
Smith's Longspur
Common Moorhen
Sandhill Crane
Dickcissel
Am-Golden Plover
Bay-Breasted Warbler
Am Redstart
Am Avocet
Hudsonian Godwit
Common Yellowthroat
Am Woodcock
Red Phalarope
Black Guillemot
Black-billed Cuckoo
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Summer Tanager
Saw-whet Owl
Boreal Owl
Eastern Towhee
Common Nighthawk
Black-backed Woodpecker
Great-Crested Flycatcher
Western Kingbird
White-eyed Vireo
Philadelphia Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Black-billed magpie
Tufted Titmouse
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
Northern Wheatear
Townsends' Solitaire
Veery
Wood Thrush
Varied Thrush


Dave's list (updated to ~100 species)
Snow Goose
Tundra Swan - Seen in January 2009 near the Burlington lift bridge.
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Northern Shoveler
Harlequin Duck
Plain Chachalaca
Greater Sage-Grouse
Brown Pelican
American White Pelican
Great Egret
Little Blue Heron
American Bittern
White Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Black Vulture
California Condor
Osprey
Sharp-Shinned Hawk - Seen during 2009 Bird Count weekend in our front yard!
Golden Eagle
Common Black-Hawk
American Kestrel - Seen a couple of different times in the area. Sooooo beautiful.
Gyrfalcon
Crested Caracara
Virginia Rail
American Coot
Sandhill Crane
American Woodcock
Ross's Gull
Black Skimmer
Atlantic Puffin
Horned Puffin
Greater Roadrunner
Barn Owl
Eastern Screech-Owl
Barred Owl
Great Gray Owl
Snowy Owl
Whip-poor-will
Other hummingbirds
Green Kingfisher
Red-headed Woodpecker
Lewis's Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Vermilion Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Northern Shrike
Stellar's Jay
Green Jay
Gray Jay - Hand-fed in Algonquin in March 2009!
Black-billed Magpie
Cave Swallow
Northern Rough-winged Swallow
Bank Swallow
Violet-green Swallow
Purple Martin
Boreal Chickadee
Tufted Titmouse
Verdin
Pygmy Nuthatch
Canyon Wren
Cactus Wren
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
Western Bluebird
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
Varied Thrush
Hermit Thrush
Wrentit
Bohemian Waxwing
Phainopepla
Northern Parula
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Prothonotary Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Ovenbird
Painted Redstart
Scarlet Tanager
Western Tanager
Summer Tanager
Hepatic Tanager
Eastern Towhee
Spotted Towhee
Snow Bunting
Pyrrhuloxia
Black-headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Blue Grosbeak
Varied Bunting
Painted Bunting
Dickcissel
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Eastern Meadowlark
Hooded Oriole
Audubon's Oriole
Altamira Oriole
Pine Grosbeak - seen in Algonquin March 2009
Red Crossbill
Hoary Redpoll
Evening Grosbeak

Weekend Update

So this Saturday, we were over at my parents house and the white-winged crossbills made another appearance (about 7:30ish or so). We were able to get some great pictures this time where you can distinctly make out the their crossed beaks. They are usually at the very tops of the trees eating the cones, but we did see a few of them on the ground pecking at fallen cones too. I told my parents they should post about these birds and set up a coffee stand for birders. I'm sure my dad is plotting away as I write this....


Saturday afternoon we took my mom and the dogs for a hike around the Royal Botannical Gardens in Hamilton. We saw alot of geese, including a snow goose which was a first for us and one from Dave's life list (he's totally beating me at that right now). The snow goose is a bit larger than the Canada Goose and was definitely more agressive and was chasing the others away. Despite the "do not feed the birds" signs, it seems pretty obvious most of the geese are accustomed to people and were hanging out near the parking lot.



Anyway...after Arthur marked every single tree, shrub and large grass pile (I swear, he set a new record), we moved onto another area and came across an aviary that is maintained by volunteers. This was a nice little spot with some birds in outdoor pens for public viewing (no dogs allowed though, so we took turns going in). There were some very beautiful birds there, including peacocks and peahens (I have such a soft spot for the peacock thanks to the good old days while working at Bronte Creek Prov. Park with Percival the Peacock...some great stories).



There was also a golden pheasant and another type, but I'm not sure what it is since there was no listing. There were other birds in an indoor building, but that was closed. Definitely something to check out though and I'm sure it's lovely in the spring/summer when all the community garden lots are full of growth. It would be a great picnic spot to spend an afternoon.



After that, we went to a park near in Oakville on the Lakeshore. There we saw a heron and all kinds of ducks. I'm going to need a refresher from Dave on the types of ducks we saw as he seems to have hidden the list from me.

It was a great day out and about. The sun was shining and spring is definitely in the air! This means in a few short weeks we'll have all kinds of migrating birds coming our way. Very exciting!!

Great Backyard Bird Count Reprise

We were looking back at our results from the Great Backyard Bird Count from a few weeks ago. You can have a look too if you want - go to http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/, and click on "Explore the Results".

Here are the combined results from everyone who submitted information in Oakville:

The "Number of Checklists" refers to the number of people who submitted information for that species. We ended up submitting four checklists, one for each day of the count.

Over the four days of the bird count, we ended up with 23 species. In all of Oakville, there were 27 species counted, so there were only four observed in Oakville that we didn't see at our house (Mallard, Red-tailed Hawk, Rock Pigeon, and Common Grackle). There were five species for which we were the only people in Oakville to report sightings for (Red-bellied Woodpecker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, European Starling, American Tree Sparrow, and Brown-headed Cowbird). It's a little surprising that we were the only ones to report the startlings, given how common they are in urban areas such as Oakville - maybe people were just trying to ignore them....

Also, of the 116 Common Redpoll that were reported, 104 were from our house. And of the 52 Pine Siskin reported, 39 were ours. We were happy to have all three woodpecker species that were seen in Oakville, although we're always hoping that a new woodpecker or two will show up sometime (maybe Red-headed, or Pileated?).

Regardless of the results, we really enjoyed the bird count this year, as we did last year also, and we were happy (and a bit surprised) to be an important contributor to the bird count for the Oakville area. Our highlights this year definitely included: seeing a Sharp-shinned Hawk for the first time, seeing robins in the middle of winter on three of the four days, getting some nice pictures (for once) of a Cooper's Hawk, and seeing both red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches coming frequently to the feeders.

-posted by Dave-

To finish up from last weekend

Where does the time go? Anyway, I wanted to post about our sightings on our way home on Sunday as we saw some interesting birds.

We were really scouting the fields for a snowy owl, but with all the melting snow we were tricked often enough by white plastic bags and white plastic bottles. Litterbugs!

As we left Haliburton, we saw 10-12 wild turkeys in a field next to the A&P. They were foraging around out there.


Along the highway, I had Dave pull over so we could look at a hawk. It was a red-tailed, so we started to move along. Then I looked over at the field and thought I saw a snowy owl. We stopped the car (again) and took a closer look. We were pretty far away and then I saw a second bird next to the first, but one was white/grey and the other brownish. Then I wondered if they were just two cats sitting there, but then the whitish bird took off. We got out the binoculars (all this stuff happens so fast, it's hard to get the cameras out quickly when you don't want to miss the sighting itself). The bird flew almost directly over our car and then the second brownish bird took off too. We are pretty sure they were a male and female Northern Harrier. What was especially cool about that is that these birds are usually solitary, but since it's getting to mating season, we were able to see one of each. We have seen one before (in our trip out East), but it was still pretty exciting to see them together (no pics though- too far, too fast). I took this pic from mayo.personcounty.net/.../Northern%20Harrier.jpg



We also managed to see one Pileated Woodpecker before it took off into a woodlot. It was moving pretty quickly. It's barely in the frame of the picture I took. Can you see it?



I think we saw about a million crows on the drive home- or else the same pair was following us everywhere.

And our hawk count for the drive home was approximately nine.

Good times!

We're going for a hike around the Royal Botannical Gardens tomorrow. Dave wants to get some winter ducks added to our lists.