The First Day for the Birds

Hi. I live in rural Manitoba, Canada, near the Riding Mountain National Park. I have a bird feeder right beside a large double pane window in the living room. I find it restful just to watch the birds each day. There may be the odd bit of sex when I observe mating behavior and the odd bit of violence when a bird hits the window but mostly this will be a peaceful blog with low ratings on the popularity scale no doubt.

The most common birds this morning are house sparrows. Variations of the house sparrow are seen worldwide. When I was in the Philippines I was amazed to observe on the upstairs patio of our house many birds that looked identical to our Manitoba house sparrows. There they are called maya-maya.
This morning the sparrows are stuffing themselves probably to give them energy to brave the cold. This morning it was minus 26 C with a windchill of minus 41. This must be the coldest day so far but the temperature is to go down further tonight.

Besides sparrows there are red polls. They are a bit smaller than the house sparrows and have a distinctive red poll on top of their head. They seem to be puffed up making them look a little plumper than usual. I am not sure they do this or whether it is just the breeze.

There are a few black capped chickadees that are visiting from time to time. Unlike the sparrows or red polls, they just stop briefly and fetch sunflower seeds and then takeoff. I guess I should take off too. It will soon be lunch time. Sonia is making bihon, narrow noodles with vegetables that are yummy.