A slow start to the New Year

For the first couple of days of the New Year all I saw was one house sparrow and a few red-breasted nuthatches. Today I see a number of black-capped chickadees (photo) are visiting again. However, I have not had to fill the feeder this year as yet!

In the countryside all I have seen are a few lonely ravens. The weather has warmed up quite a bit today. Whether that will encourage more birds to visit the feeder remains to be seen!

First New Year's visitor: Red-breasted nuthatch

The birds must all be sleeping off their New Year's hangovers or sleeping through the cold and nippy breeze. The first bird I saw this morning was a red-breasted nuthatch (photo). In fact I have seen a nuthatch or nuthatches all day coming and going with only one other bird in between, a lonely house sparrow! I thought that at least the chickadees would be busy as usual.

Ice Fog and Mild Temperatures

Traffic has not been that heavy at the birdfeeder. The spruce trees are heavy with snow and ice. We have had a sort of ice fog several mornings in a row that coats all the tree branches and wires. The result is a beautiful ice etching against the blue skies.

This is the time of year when annual bird counts are taken. The list I saw from a Regina group overlaps quite extensively with birds I have seen hereabouts. The one expection is the "sterling". Around here I have only noticed starlings! They also note that they saw rock doves whereas around here they are pigeons!

At the feeder the last few days there have been: chickadees (photo), red-breasted nuthatches, and a few house sparrows. Fortunately the number of sparrows has declined and so all the feed is not tossed on the ground!

In the countryside we saw a few more snow buntings and the occasional raven.

Downy woodpecker back

Yesterday a downy woodpecker visited the feeder a number of times. Actually, it possibly might be a hairy as it seemed to me a bit larger than the last downy I saw some time ago.
There were also a few more redpolls yesterday as well as the usual red-breasted nuthatches and plenty of chickadees. There are some house sparrows but no large flocks. We saw another flock of snow buntings on our travels on Xmas day.

Redpolls at the feeder.

I guess the weather was not very good at many places for the annual bird count. The weather is fine here but I did not go out counting. However, for the first time this fall I have seen redpolls at the feeder. I have seen a few flocks in the countryside but this is the first time they have visited. There is not a flock just a few individual birds. Once in a while a Savannah sparrow still visits and the occasional red-breasted nuthatch. Chickadees are common. However, there is not heavy traffic at the feeder. I have not had to fill the feeder for almost a week now. There seem to be only a few house sparrows and that means the food is not scattered on the ground too much.

On our trips outside the village we see occasional ravens and today we saw two flocks of snow buntings.
Merry Xmas everyone...

First Day of Winter

We have not seen any flocks of snow buntings or redpolls of late but yesterday in Shoal Lake we saw plenty of pigeons. They frequent an older style grain elevator. No doubt it is a good habitat for them. Aside from the pigeons we only saw a few ravens always alone or at most a pair.

The feeder is not as busy as it was. There are fewer sparrows and the ones that do come do not unload all the seed unto the ground. I have seen a number of chickadees but only few red-breasted nuthatches. I have not seen any Savannah sparrows for the last couple of days.

Finally a magpie!

Finally we saw a magpie(photo) on our way to the dump but not at the dump itself. At the dump there were over half a dozen ravens searching through the trash for lunch. Magpies do not seem to be all that common hereabouts for some reason. They appear off and on for a while and then they seem to disappear from the scene.

There are plenty of chickadees these days at the feeder. THe house sparrow invasion has tapered off a bit. There is still a Savannah sparrow visiting regularly and a few red-breasted nuthatches.