House Sparrows clean out feeder

The house sparrows have rediscovered the feeder and are feeding with a vengeance. Perhaps with this very cold weather they are having some trouble finding food since there have not been that many around so far. I will have to venture out into the cold and refill the feeder. Actually there is not that much wind so it is not too bad out. There are still redpolls and chickadees feeding as well.

More cold and more ravens..

We drove to Brandon and back yesterday. We saw one flock of birds that were probably snow buntings but otherwise there were only a few ravens in twos or threes. The wind chill was in the minus forties. We did not get out of the car to observe the birds more closely!

Very very cold and windy..

We went shopping to the next town today. It was more than minus 40C windchill. The only birds we saw were half a dozen ravens. At the feeder there are only red polls and chickadees and only a few of them.

More chickadees

There are quite a few chickadees visiting these days probably the most frequent of all visitors. I have seen a few more red polls and the occasional sparrow as well. The squirrel refuses to admit winter is well under way and is still active every day even though there is now a significant amount of snow on the ground.

Ravens and pigeons

A few days ago we drove to Brandon and back. There were few birds to be seen. At one point we did encounter a rather large flock of pigeons along the side of the road. I assume they were getting gravel for their crops. The only other birds we saw were ravens, one single raven and two groups of two.

First redpolls.

I was surprised to look out at the feeder and see two redpolls this morning. They are the first new birds to be seen in quite a while.

A downy woodpecker again

Not many species are visiting these days but yesterday I saw another downy woodpecker in the spruce trees. There are also a few house sparrows but most common are the black-capped chickadees.