Shore birds

 Canada Geese and the family.

We need a better camera!

Well we have been seeing many interesting birds this past few weeks but the cameras we have just are not up to getting good pictures. I did a net check and the recommendations are way out of our price range so we will need to be innovative!
Hare are a couple of reference sites I found.
Mike Atkinson
Len and Dians Adventure
Canadian Bird Photographer

Here is are a couple of pictures from yesterday.
A baby blackbird

 An American Bittern

Sadly I am finding eggs and baby birds around the yard so the Magpies have been busy.

Nesting in the yard are:
Blackbirds
Goldfinchs
Robins
Several kinds of Sparrows
Tree Swallows in nest boxes
House Wrens
Flickers
Eastern Kingbird
Phoebe
And likely others which I am unaware of.

Short tour at dusk

Found a new group of shore birds and a a pair of American Coots on the ponds on 381.

 Spotted Sandpiper

 Western Sandpiper

 And a 3 in 1 with the American Avocet, Killdeer and the little guys.

We did see a Wilson's Snipe yesterday but it was too shy to get it's picture taken.

Some spring birds.

 Well over the last 2 days we have been trying to capture a picture of some of the waterfowl and shore birds who have come to live in the area. Some we have identified as we can and others we need a closer look. Yesterday, Saturday, was a particularly good day as we saw 4 American Avocets in the morning and then 2 of them again in the afternoon. The day was very grey which was okay but a little more brightness would have been better.

The first Avocet had a little buddy with him which I have not identified as yet.










Then there were 2 Marbled Godwits which I identified by the beaks. They seemed to really enjoy the weather and the eating. Near them was another small shore bird which I think was similar to the one by the Avocet.

Of course there are many ducks about along with the Canada geese.

A Blue Winged Teal

Northern Shoveler











We also have a Ruby Crowned Kinglet who has stopped but don't know if it will stay.
There are of course the usual round of Robins, Blackbirds, Mourning Doves (nesting right by our house), Flickers, and magpies. I am hoping we get more pictures as time goes on.

The bird on the glass

April 19, 2012
First it is our son's 32nd birthday today! A good day!

I just wanted to correct my comment on the window splat. It looks like Flicker is the winner as they are around all the time now.

Finished another Peterson Bluebird house and will get it put out this week. More to come.

Observations down the road

April 14, 2012

No sign of Bluebirds here yet but we now have Yellow Belly Sapsucker, Mourning Doves, lots of Robins and Juncos.
Of course the geese have been around for a few weeks and some of the smaller shore birds (I need to study Peterson's before I will say what they are) including killdeers along the edges of the sloughs.

Here are a couple of pictures.

This mound is in a gravel excavation where a nice pond has formed and we have all manner of ducks some of whom have arrived already like the Mallards and Pintails. The geese seem to really like this place to sun and watch.

 I think this is a "sign" of a Yellow Belly Sapsucker. They and their cousin the Flickers are around and seem to hit our big windows often.

Houses for Bluebirds

March 23, 2012

Well I decided to build a bluebird house in the Peterson style this week.

 I sprayed it with a gray undercoat to give the boards some protection but out it goes as soon as I can find a post to put it on. I thought it would be more difficult with the angles but it worked out well.
You can find the pattern to build it here.

Here are a couple of the bird houses I put up.

About birds

March 2012
This time of year is always interesting as the numbers for bird counts are published. Here are some sites to check out.
http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/
http://birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count
http://www.naturesask.ca/?s=education&p=christmasbirdcounts
http://www.saskbirder.com/

I think the links are somewhat self explanatory.


This new blog is created to replace my Bird page which did not really allow for posts.