First Goldfinch of the season.

This is the first American goldfinch I have seen this year. It is sharing the feeder with a large male house sparrow.

Warmer weather but no more birds!

We drove close to six hundred kilometers to Winnipeg and back. We saw only an occasional raven but absolutely nothing else. Maybe we were not attentive enough!

The feeder continues to be visited but only occasionally. For days I have not even seen one house sparrow but this morning I saw one lone male (pic). The chickadees are the most frequent visitors but there are also some red-breasted nuthatches in the spruce trees that occasionally take some seeds.

The sex life of house sparrows.

This was another bone chilling day. The wind chill was close to minus forty at times if not more than that. I did not even get dressed. I watched the bird feeder for some time while enjoying a cup of coffee by the hot air vents.

There were just two species at the feeder today: house sparrows and chickadees. I think that all the other species must be hibernating because of the cold!

The male house sparrow has a black bib on its throat and chest. Apparently the attractiveness of the male to females is directly proportional to the size of the bib. Even in sparrows it seems there is a size fetish!

There were a male and female sparrow together at the feeder. They seemed to get along well enough. HOwever, the male had one wayward or loose feather. Perhaps he is henpecked.

The chickadees seem not to like each other. They are more disturbed when they happen to land at the same time as each other than at the sparrows who were already on the feeder. Not every species likes its own kind better than others I guess.