[WeeWilly]

Hello to you all.

Little more than a birding dilettante - indeed, even this cautious description may claim too much - my wife and I live in Markham, just north of Toronto in Canada, on a large sub-rural property featuring a river traversing it. The river is very slow moving, and in the summer, is a pond rather than a river.

Here the weather is very hot in the summer and cold in winter. For example, for the last some time it has been blistering hot (over 30C daily - and we even reached 35C few days ago). I stayed for a while in Jakarta and in other points-Orient and it never got that hot there! The winter can get into the mid minus-20's and rarely gets over the freezing point. The birds do not in the least seem to mind these extremes, provided they have food.

About the house we have hanging cylindrical bird feeders offering black sunflower seed year-round and thistle seed in the summer. In the winter, hanging caged suet completes the fare. In the spring and summer we also have a couple of hummingbird feeders stocked with sugared water.

Besides the delightful ruby-throated hummingbird, the welcome birds habituating our feeders are chickadees, cardinals, white- and red-brested nuthatches, goldfinches, pine martins, three varieties of woodpeckers, finches, and a host of less common birds. The bullies at our feeders are the Blue Jay and several varieties of blackbird (in the summer), the most welcome of which - if I may so word it - is the pretty Red-Winged Blackbird. Around the feeders, on the ground are the ubiquitous mourning doves, sparrows and juncos. The feeders are very heavily frequented in the winter, and indeed, have to be filled every day.

Occasionally I see rare visitors to the feeders, and once we had three Baltimore Orioles as everyday visitors for a couple of weeks in the summer, but this has never occurred before or since. There are numerous other birds around the property, and occasionally the activity this all represents can combine to create a happenstance that can spur me to the internet to inquire or look something up!

Hence my arrival at this forum, for I noted several blackbirds with their beaks open, and came here on a fishing trip to see why. In Ireland, where I lived my early life, we kept chickens, and I wondered whether the blackbirds' opened beaks might be related to "the gapes" (a deadly condition that affects chicks). But I see that the very hot weather we are currently experiencing is probably the culprit cause!

Anyway, here is much about little, when I only dropped in here to say hello.

[delia todd]

Hi WeeWilly and a warm welcome to you on behalf of the Staff and Moderators.

I'm sure you will enjoy it here and I'll look forward to reading about what you see when out and about.

D

[KCFoggin]

Hi WeeWilly and a warm welcome to you from Myrtle Beach.

The open beaks are definitely a way of them coping with the heat. The last two days here we've had temps 107 and 110 and believe me, you wouldn't believe the amount of birds hanging out by the water, all with their beaks open.

[Brian2]

Hi

[Kits]

Welcome to BirdForum! I am sure you will find lots to interest you here, and I hope you enjoy your visits.

[Lisa W]

Hello and welcome to the forum. Nice to have you with us.

[robinm]

Hi and welcome to BirdForum

[WeeWilly]

Thank you all for the welcome.

[Canadian Lady]

Greetings from Mississauga and Welcome to the forum!

[Pops1]

Welcome to the Forum WeeWilly