A few stray magpies

Driving through the countryside the last few days I have seen the odd magpie in the countryside flying over the fields or in to some bush. Usually I see just one and on rare occasions two or more. There do not seem to be large numbers about but they stay all winter. The magpies hereabouts are not very tame. I rarely see one in the village.

House sparrows on the feeder

Here are a couple of house sparrows at the feeder. Often there are much larger groups than this. These two are not that photogenic it would seem. Taking photos through the window does not always work that well. Maybe I need to clean the window one of these days.

A faithful visitor to the Feeder.

Here is a squirrel who faithfully visits the feeder often chasing birds away in the process. He no doubt has hidden plenty of sunflower seeds in places that he will never recall in the depth of winter. So far he is quite active even though since I took this there is some snow on the ground.

Faithful chickadees

Chickadees are among the most faithful visitors these days. There are no new species although there a downy woodpecker has appeared from time to time. The juncos seem to be all gone. It is even a while since I have seen a red breasted nuthatch. Of course there are plenty of house sparrows at the moment. They tend to come in rather large flock of several dozen at a time.

Another downy woodpecker

Yesterday another downy woodpecker visited. It actually landed on the feeder but I was unable to act quickly enough to get a photo. This photo is borrowed from the internet! There are not many different kinds of birds at the feeder these days. The most numerous visitors are the common house sparrows but there are also quite a few black capped chickadees and the odd pine siskin and also red breasted nuthatches but that is all!

Ravens are back..?

This is not my photo needless to say. I don't know of any landscapes like that in the photo around here. This raven seems to have a beard! Ravens drift south to southern Manitoba from the north during the winter while the crows or most of them fly south just like our Canadian human snowbirds.

We saw what appeared to be a raven on our way to go shopping at the next town, Rossburn. I feed the crows all summer. Now when I put our bones and scraps out the local cats clean them up without being pestered by crows. I guess the crows have gone.

A Blue Jay

I was surprised the other morning to see a blue jay. It may have been at the feeder but it flew into a spruce tree as I approached the window. This is the first blue jay I remember seeing in my yard. I saw another one last year in a farm yard. I have not had another sighting since.

We drove to our farmer friend who lives near the east end of Riding Mountain Park. I did not see many birds on the way but there were several ravens and also some gulls standing on ice that had formed in a slough! I also heard one flock of geese going south while at the farm. They have not all left yet. Indeed, last week I saw some American hunters at Shoal Lake and they were in the restaurant where we had lunch and were talking about having located some flocks.