A few chickadees brave the cold.

No new birds at the feeder these very cold days but there are still a few black capped chickadees visiting regulars. The squirrel is also visiting regularly undeterred by the high windchills apparently. I wonder where he goes of evenings to sleep.

Redpolls and a few chickadees appear.

These are three red polls at the feeder. One is hiding but the other two are out in the open but a bit fuzzy. You can seen the pinkish breast of the one facing the camera. A few chickadees came today as well.

The winter doldrums!

There are few birds at the feeder these days. In fact for the last few days I have seen nothing but house sparrows and few of them. We drove out in the country to the next town to shop and saw not a single bird not even a solitary raven. The birds must be waiting for a warmer spell!

Return of the house sparrows.

There was snow and blowing snow last night. Nothing came to the feeder but I cleaned it off a little this afternoon and a flock of sparrows visited. Here are a few a bit blurry as I had to use the zoom feature and I am none too steady. For some reason the snow in the background looks more like blue sky!

Flocks of snow buntings

This is actually a snow bunting in Norway a bit distant from here but the same bird as the ones we saw yesterday when we drove to Brandon and back. We saw two large flocks, one on the way and one on the way back. These were the only birds we saw. Usually there are quite a few ravens to be seen and often a few pigeons even in the winter.

Faithful chickadees

The black capped chickadees seem to visit faithfully most days during the winter. There are never large numbers often just one or two at a time. They don't seem to like to share the feeder ledge space!

Even during this very frigid weather I see chickadees almost every day visiting. The only other birds lately are some house sparrows and a few red polls.

Squirrel staying up to see winter begin.

Our squirrel still visits the feeder quite regularly. Here he is sitting up opening a sunflower seed oblivious to the fearsome cold and wind chill on the first day of winter.