What Birds Are In Canadian Gardens Right Now? (1 Viewer)

snowyowl said:

I forgot to add the Mourning Doves. Some of us were talking the other evening and one birder mentioned that a dozen years ago a Mourning Dove sighting would have been something to chase down. Now they're extremely common here. I think that the next invasion will probably be the Turkey Vulture.

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I still don't see many doves here... maybe 3 or 4 in a summer, that's it. As for turkey vultures, for the first time, I saw that many last summer! My husband actually saw one in a ditch on a moose carcass when we were traveling.
Lots of doves in southern Ontario.... they're everywhere down there! But not too many up here, that I've seen.

What a beautiful day! Just below zero, snowing gently so that everything is blanketed with about 2" of fresh powder, no wind. This is what winter should always be like!
Not a lot of bird activity though. B-c. Chickadees, Blue Jays, Crows and A. Tree Sparrows are all that I've seen today so far.

Same old regulars here the past few days. I did post a few shots here this morning that I took a couple days ago.
Doug
Our Home page
http://www.douglloydphotography.com/4436.html

Doug Lloyd said:

Same old regulars here the past few days. I did post a few shots here this morning that I took a couple days ago.
Doug
Our Home page
http://www.douglloydphotography.com/4436.html

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Doug, I just checked out your website and all I can say is...... WOW!!! Those are some stunning photos! I've only looked through the bird file so far but have saved the site to look through again later. It's a beautifully done site you have. I tried to sign your guestbook but it wouldn't open for me, tho'. It's wonderful photography you and your wife do!

Doug, I enjoyed taking a look at your website. Excellent photos!

Tammie said:

Doug, I just checked out your website and all I can say is...... WOW!!! Those are some stunning photos! I've only looked through the bird file so far but have saved the site to look through again later. It's a beautifully done site you have. I tried to sign your guestbook but it wouldn't open for me, tho'. It's wonderful photography you and your wife do!

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I just visited your web site, Doug. Marvellous pictures. I had no difficulty with the guest book.

Hello birders..!

Here's a quick list of some of the regular visitors to our yard in
Virginia Beach - Mid Atlantic States.

I'm hoping to get my new coolpix 4500 out in the next few days and
see what photos I can come up with. I'm still plodding thru the manual.

Black Capped Chickadee (possibly Carolina Chickadee)
Tufted Tit Mouse
Nuthatch
Robin
Eastern Towhee
Starling
American Crow
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Pileated Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Sparrow
Carolina Wren
House Finch (red breasted)
Gold Finch
Cardinal
Brown Thrasher
Northern Flicker
Mourning Dove

Canadian Geese - eating the "critter mix" put out for the squirrels

Great Horned Owl (pair) (we had a baby one here a couple of years ago;
and most likely still in the area)

In the back of the house along the lake....

Great Blue Heron
Egret
Black headed gull
Wood Duck
Mallard

Nothing new in my part of the great north except the Common Redpolls have increased. Must be 150 at the feeders off and on each day.
Doug
http://www.douglloydphotography.com/4436.html

We're having another storm today. Some roads closed, schools closed for the 14 th day this winter. When we got home from arun to town, I found that
the Juncos and A. Tree Sparrows were the main species at the feeders, or I should say under the feeders as they go on them very much. I counted 10 Juncos but they were 6 A. Tree Sparrows but they were coming and going so much that there could easily have been double those numbers. Probably about 20 Blue jays, a couple of Starlings, a Hairy Woodpecker and 5 Crows. The Redpolls are way down, only two or three visible.

snowyowl said:

We're having another storm today. Some roads closed, schools closed for the 14 th day this winter. When we got home from arun to town, I found that
the Juncos and A. Tree Sparrows were the main species at the feeders, or I should say under the feeders as they go on them very much. I counted 10 Juncos but they were 6 A. Tree Sparrows but they were coming and going so much that there could easily have been double those numbers. Probably about 20 Blue jays, a couple of Starlings, a Hairy Woodpecker and 5 Crows. The Redpolls are way down, only two or three visible.

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Redpolls and pine grosbeaks are the main birds at my feeders these days. I haven't seen any evening grosbeaks in a few days now. Don't know where they went. I don't even hear them. The woodpeckers are all actually getting along great which seems to be a small miracle. Hairys and downies all feeding together with nuthatches and chickadees! And no bickering!
I'd really appreciate it tho' if you sent some of those juncos and sparrows this way!

Hi all,

Since I haven't seen any posts on this thread from Alberta, here's my recent backyard sightings:

1 Merlin
5 Gray Partridges
4 Black-billed Magpies
8 Black-capped Chickadees
6 Red-breasted Nuthatches
1 Varied Thrush (overwintering since Jan 21st)
50 Bohemian Waxwings
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
20 Common Redpolls
50 Pine Piskins
8 House Sparrows

Unfortunately, no Woodpeckers or Shrikes since the fall, but I'm hoping they'll return soon.

Shauneen

Hey Shauneen welcome To BF.

Hey Steve - perhaps I should go introduce myself!

VT said:

Hi all,

Since I haven't seen any posts on this thread from Alberta, here's my recent backyard sightings:

1 Merlin
5 Gray Partridges
4 Black-billed Magpies
8 Black-capped Chickadees
6 Red-breasted Nuthatches
1 Varied Thrush (overwintering since Jan 21st)
50 Bohemian Waxwings
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
20 Common Redpolls
50 Pine Piskins
8 House Sparrows

Unfortunately, no Woodpeckers or Shrikes since the fall, but I'm hoping they'll return soon.
Shauneen

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We're hoping to plan a trip out west sometime within the next 2 years. I'm working on getting my husband to only fly as far as Alberta and drive to BC from there so maybe I can see some of these birds that you mentioned. Gray partridge? Bohemian waxwings? Magpies? Never seen any of them but definitely want to!
That's a pretty impressive list, Shauneen! Welcome to the forum!

Hi Tammie,

Driving from Alberta to BC would be well worth it. The trip through the mountains is pretty spectacular, and Calgary has some great birding areas to start you off.

I don't know what the Partridges are doing in my courtyard - I'm far from any agricultural areas. I don't usually ground feed, but I've been putting out food under a Spruce tree for the Varied Thrush (he's not supposed to be here either!), and it's become a very popular spot.

I must of had 200 birds here yesterday, as we had a few inches of snow. They truly are the silver lining!

Shauneen

VT said:

Hi Tammie,

I must of had 200 birds here yesterday, as we had a few inches of snow. They truly are the silver lining!

Shauneen

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It's like that here too. All winter long, I average anywhere from 150 - 200 birds in the yard all the time. Once spring really hits, it'll slow right down. I've gone through at least 400 lbs of seed this winter, not counting seed bells and suet!!

Here is our Guest List for our 14' x 4' city core balcony, 8 storeys up and as concrete as can be. Our whole list comprises 22 species; the most in one day has been 10; and our average daily is 6.

Glaucous-winged Gull - rarely; we don't feed seagulls
Rock Pigeon - discouraged with netting
Rufous Hummingbird - daily in summer
Northern Flicker - surprising; sporadic, sometimes 2
Northwestern Crow - just stopping to check us out
Violet-green Swallow - brief visit
Black-capped Chickadee - 2+, every day
Bushtit - occasional in flocks of 20+; for suet
Brown Creeper - just once
Winter Wren - just once; lives close by, sings at night
European Starling - a couple; we try to discourage
Spotted Towhee - one; visits rarely but regularly
Song Sparrow - one every day; rarely two
White-throated Sparrow - very rare here; just once
White-crowned Sparrow - common; rarely on balcony
Golden-crowned Sparrow - infrequently on balcony
Dark-eyed Junco - daily on balcony in winter; several
Black-headed Grosbeak - several times a year
Red-winged Blackbird - sporadic when not nesting
House Finch - daily; plentiful; massive die-offs occur
Pine Siskin - daily; big numbers reduced to one or two
House Sparrow - 5 or 10 daily; but not encouraged

The Pine Siskins and House Finches would be our most welcome visitors, but you may have seen my posts elsewhere about their terrible susceptibility to moulds and salmonella from hulled sunflower seed at feeders throughout Vancouver. We're urging people to avoid the hulled seed. A terrible tragedy to see these beautiful birds die; they seem to be the only ones affected.

-- My guess is that MANY THOUSANDS have died, but people feeding them and stores selling seed are extremely sluggish about even replacing hulled seed with in-shell seed, just to see what happens. Since we tried that 2 years ago, we have seen not one single sick bird; but we still get all sorts of quasi-scientific protests and exceptions being expressed, instead of people simply saying, "Okay, I'll check it out for a few months and see."

Once the population of finches is contaminated, the diseases spread simply through the birds' close communal use of feeders and water dishes, but we believe the source is the open sunflower seed, which continues to fuel the fire; and we think the seed is contaminated even before it is sold.

Unfortunately, we lost one of our little female redpolls the other day. My husband found her on the hood of our truck and we couldn't figure out at first what happened to her. Turns out she hit the antenna... it's black and against the tree background, you can't see it. I was outside yesterday throwing some snacks to the whiskey jacks when one of them bounced off it too. It now has bright yellow ribbons tied around it and no one has hit it since!
The birds are feeding quite heavily this morning. Yesterday, we had a forecast of flurries for the afternoon..... we ended up with almost 8" of snow by the time the 'flurries' were finished! All feeders buried this morning so there's one female pine grosbeak trying to pull seeds 'through' the side of a feeder... poor thing. I fed her pretty quickly! Big numbers of pine grosbeaks, chickadees and redpolls today. Nice to see but the temp dropped to -20C again today and I've just about had enough of that!!

Strangely enough, I've had bats go for the little ball on top of the antenna. You're standing there in the dark next to the car, and suddenly "THWONGGG!". scares the crap out of you too. I'm guessing they pick it up on sonar as a bug sized object and intentionally pounce. But I've never seen any hurt from that, they just fly off.

Things were starting to melt here, but then we got snow last night too, with more on the way today.

Well, it's a balmy -1C here today, as a Chinook (warm wind from the west - translation "Snow Eater") is on it's way. Should be in the double digits by Monday.

Sorry to hear of the bird tradgedies. Calgary is a pretty dry climate, and I do have sunflower kernals in my feeders, but I guess this isn't the topic for that. I've only had one serious window strike - a male House Sparrow but that's another topic as well.

On a brighter note, I have to add one more bird! I've had lots of Common Redpolls, but this is my first confirmed Hoary Redpoll. I was so excited that I could hardly take a picture so please excuse the focus.