Barn Swallows in our garage.

This is not my photo but we do have a barn swallow nesting in our garage about a plug in outlet. We have to put a piece of plywood on our car to cover the windshield and protect it from poop. There are no young ones as yet. I hope they hatch soon, and grow up and fly away to poop elsewhere. There seem to be less barn swallows every year but there are still quite a few tree swallows and many purple martins since there are quite a few martin houses around.

Tree swallows

At my old property there is a bird house on a clothesline pole. There are a pair of tree swallows who have nested in it. They seem to already have eggs if not young. When I cut the grass with the ride-on mower they seem quite interested. One of the pair uses flies off but the other sits look out of the hole!

No hummingbirds

We have seen no hummingbirds for several days so perhaps they are all or mostly gone south already. I still see a few swallows. However we drove far out in the countryside yesterday and I did not see any red-wing blackbirds. This summer every slough had a few. On the sloughs there were a few ducks and I saw on pair of Canada geese but I was unable to identify the ducks except for some northrn pintails.

A redbreasted nuthatch(photo)is visiting the feeder again. There are so many house sparrows that the seed level goes down considerably every day. When we were away for the day it was virtually empty when we returned. There still many pine siskins, and some savannah sparrows plus a few purple finches. I saw a norther flicker again in they yard yesterday. There are still a few crows about but it will soon be time for ravens from further north to appear for the winter.

More messy visitors

There are large numbers of pine siskins plus a few house sparrows and chipping sparrows along with goldfinches visiting the feeder. I have not seen a purple finch for a couple of days or even a chickadee for that matter. The sparrows and siskins dump plenty of seeds on the ground. Eventually there is so much that my wife gathers up the seeds, sifts them, and deposits them back in the feeder!

I went to Shoal Lake yesterday but did not see anything interesting. There were a few red wing blackbirds and some tree swallows but nothing new. On the way home we saw a couple of mourning doves by the side of the road.

Trip to Napinka

Yesterday we drove to Napinka about 120 miles to the southwest of here. It is in the southwest corner of Manitoba. Along the way I saw plenty of red-winged blackbirds. At Shoal Lake I saw another yellow headed blackbird. There were a few ducks on sloughs but not many. There will be many more in the fall. I also saw a couple of mourning doves at the side of the road. There seem to be more gophers now.

At Napinka there were numerous tree swallows swooping around the yard where we were visiting. I saw at least half a dozen Eastern Kingbirds in one tree making quite a bit of noise. At dusk the eerie calls of the mourning dove could be heard and I saw two sitting on the telephone lines.

Before we left I saw plenty of chipping sparrows, pine siskins and goldfinches at the feeder. When we got back they had knocked a lot of seeds onto the ground!

A new visitor!

There is at least one and perhaps several purple finches at the feeder. I only saw one at any given time. The finch looks as if a female house sparrow had been dipped head first in raspberry juice. It is not really purple but a purplish red at most.
There are house sparrows, goldfinches, and chipping sparrows at the feeder as well. They all seem to co-exist in reasonable harmony.

I walked to the lagoons at the edge of town today but saw very little. There were some ducks but they flew off before I could get a good look at them. There were no wading birds. I did see some tree swallows and a red-wing black bird but that was all.

Goldfinches frequent visitors

There have been many goldfinches visiting the feeder. The finches like canola seed better than sunflowers but at least some of them must be satisfied with the sunflower menu at my feeder. There are quite a few Harris sparrows these days. I do not recall seeing these birds in the past. There are a few chickadees that still visit. Starlings visit also. They are a bit too large in size to perch comfortably but they manage somehow. The juncos are all gone to the north it seems.

I visited the other place. There are still a tree swallow couple in one bird house there. Another swallow invaded the surrounding air space and was chased off by one of the couple.

Many birds are back!

The feeder is not being visited much except by the odd chicadee and red poll. Juncos seem to be gradually disappearing. They venture further north this time of year. However there are a pair of tree swallows already nesting in a bird house on my other property. I also observed many red-winged blackbirds in the sloughs in the counmtryside.

I saw a white throated sparrow on our grounds yesterday. Starlings have been visiting for the last couple of days. The photo is of the white throated sparrow but it does not show its crown very well. The one I saw had a lovely white and black striped crown.