|
|
March 7, 2010, at 10:13 am
Going off the birds and gardens themes a bit today. We read in the press this morning that the US right is getting itself into a lather about the supposed falling weight of the President … apparently a non-weighty president is incapable of dealing with weighty matters. The ultimate comment came from that profound thinker and potential leader of the free world, Sarah Palin who said on a television comment programme … quote:
“President Obama is weighing the nation down with his weightlessness-ness. I’m not going to use big words or fancy words. I’m just going to say what hockey moms and soccer moms around this great nation are wondering and that’s how can we trust a leader who might weigh less than a Victoria’s Secret model?
Leadership is about weight. It’s about weighty issues. Issues involving weight and heavy things and people who have weight to them. Leaders who are men like Churchill or Roosevelt or what’s his name there, that U.N. fellow from way back, Dag Hammarskjold. Meat on their bones.
It’s American to have weight. Get up on a scale, move the little thing there at the top. Hockey moms do it. Soccer moms do it. But jeez. About the only people who don’t do it are the French. And they’re Socialists. So you do the math”.
You’ve gotta love these Republicans. They almost make our Harper look like a good choice. For more on this theme see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/opinion/07kenney.html?scp=1&sq=palin%20weight&st=cse
March 4, 2010, at 6:25 pm
Almost three weeks earlier than last year, the first snowdrops have shown today as the snow slowly starts to retreat.
Climate change is a bad, bad thing but snowdrops are very welcome.
February 28, 2010, at 12:33 pm
The low snowfall and the slightly above freezing temperatures during the day recent;y have resulted in patches of grass appearing in the garden – something quite unheard of before at this time of the year. last year we were at minus 15degC overnight which was a bit cold for the date but more typical, nevertheless.
However, this turns a birders head in the direction of the garden (and the birds that visit it) and remionds us that we have a lengthy talk to prepare on the subject of bird gardening – we are scheduled to give it to BPQ in three weeks and to the Arbo in early May. Not to be missed, full of good things.
February 26, 2010, at 5:39 pm
I was quietly eating my breakfast yesterday morning about dawn when there was a thump on the window. Another confused Chickadee I assumed and almost didn’t bother going out to look, but being a worrying sort of a chap I decided I’d better go and see if some resuscitation was required … what I found was this. The Sharpie had clearly made a pass at the Woodpecker who had been snacking on one of our feeders, spooked the bird and caused it to try to escape via our dining room and then taken advantage of the packed meal so pleasantly offered.
A shame about the Woodpecker, but even a hawk’s got to make a living.
February 21, 2010, at 1:54 pm
Despite the beautiful weather this Sunday, a late morning census-walk along the Black (snowshoe) Trail was rather quiet. Birds this winter have been low in numbers almost everywhere and even really experienced birders have been failing to find the birds they have expected. Why is this? Hard to tell but it has been a quite mild winter and there is plenty of food in the wild meaning that birds have not been so compelled to frequent feeders - that and the fact that this year almost none of the winter finches came to the region from the north as there was food up there. Why wates energy travelling when you don’t need to.
Anyway … Chickadees (of course), White-breated Nuthatches, Crows, a single Blue Jay – last winter they were everywhere in the forest, this year hard to find – a couple of Downy Woodpeckers plus a single Pileated (heard, not seen), a tiny flockette of Goldfinch and that was about it.
Well – that was almost about it … in Dale Field at the end of the trail we happened on a new species of Owl for the Arboretum checklist:
February 18, 2010, at 1:21 pm
Good question – mostly birding of course but while the birding has been quite enjoyable there have not been a whole lot of startling revelations recently so I have been saving the Mbytes. As you know we are doing the ArBY this year and have also committed to giving an at least weekly bird census to eBird for the Arboretum … that and last weekend was the GBBC and you can see we have been busy …. But not much to talk about. As the spring approaches things will improve dramatically.
Meanwhile – we are leading the annual Migration bird Walk at the Arboretum on May 23 if anyone is interested din joining the fun – last year was spectacular with colourful warblers hanging from the trees everywhere. It’s limited to 20 people and anything on two legs younger than 12 years old is banned – sign in at the office, prebooking is essential.
On another front, it is now two weeks since I added an Apple MacBook to the armory s an adjunct to the collection of windows machines we have around the house … I was expecting great things but it’s better than that. I am now a sad convert and can only look down sadly on those still to make the leap. The big windows desktop will still run the websites and do the heavy lifting for the Photoshop jobs but for everything else the mac is just splendid – not sure why or how but everything seems easier and is certainly faster. Boot time on the desktop windows machine is about 5 minutes, on the mac notebook its maybe 30 seconds. Works for me.
February 7, 2010, at 2:11 pm
We are adding to the ArBY endeavour by also having registered as site recorders for the arboretum with the good people at eBird Canada. Today we added to our ArBY a Pileated Woodpecker and both Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings which was most gratifying indeed … a few record images follow:
 Pileated Woodpecker  Red squirrel (1)  Red squirrel (2)  Bohemian Waxwing (1)  Bohemian Waxwing (2)  Cedar Waxwing  American Robin  White-breasted Nuthatch
January 23, 2010, at 2:32 pm
Continuing the theme of our Arboretum Big Year (ArBY) we have found the number of species thus far since January one to be fewer than anticipated but we have certainly had some star performers. A noted here a week or so ago we began the year with a Barred Owl (absent today but not for lack of numerous long-lensed photographers combing the forest) and today we added – to our great surprise and delight – a Red-bellied Woodpecker,
This fine fellow appeared in a tree immediately to the west of Chalet Pruche where he played hide-and-seek behind the trunk for a few minutes before flying off in the direction of the quarry. That’s two winters in succession that these birds have been in the arboretum. Last winter we know we had a pair and possibly a third – very much a rarity one wonders if the milder weather is allowing them to stay and push their area northwards.
On the way out we paused to admire a Red-tailed Hawk who gave us a fine aerial display and allowed some photographs to be taken. This is one of the two birds I wrote about a few days ago whom I pass on the way to work each morning – a fine way to start any working day.
So all in all, while the ArBY is off to a slowish start it is filled with quality so far. Retirement in three years and when I can really get the numbers up.
 Red-bellied Woodpecker  Red-bellied Woodpecker  Red-bellied Woodpecker taking off for the quarry and showing - for once - the "disitinctive" red belly that gives him his name.  Red-tailed Hawk  Red-tailed Hawk  Red-tailed Hawk Followed by a couple of dead common birds that we just happen to like …
January 16, 2010, at 5:07 pm
On my way to work every morning I drive through a complicated intersection with flyovers lined by tall lighting poles and most days there is a Red-tailed Hawk sitting on one of them looking for a packed lunch to scuttle over the flat wasteland below netween the roads. Recently there have been two of these fine birds perched up there and I make a point of wishing them a good day as I pass.
A couple of days ago as I was leaving work which is close to this intersection, I heard the distinctive cry of a Red-tail and looked up as one does to see where it was. I couldn’t see anything at first despite repeated calls being heard but then a big hawk flew over the roof of the lab building and proceded to circle the car park about 20 or so feet up, it looked almost close enough to touch though it clearly wasn’t, and then, calling all the while, it headed off towards the intersection and its regular hunting perch.
Not a bad end to a day labouring at the slide-face.
January 10, 2010, at 2:40 pm
We rounded off the first week of our ArBY (Arboretum Big Year) with a close up and personal view of the Barred Owl that a friend had reported a few days ago. It was sitting in a tree overlooking the field between the Sugar Shack and Chalet Pruche which seems to have been the same general area, give or take a few hundred metres, in which it has been seen over the Christmas period. No idea if this is the same owl we were seeing further south and west of here in the arboretum during 2009 or if it is a new arrival setting up its own territory … either way it seems quite unfazed by people looking at it.
As we were enjoying its presence a couple of snowshoers passed by and wondered what we were looking at – on having the owl pointed out we got the full jaw-dropping “shock and awe” response that one expects in the presence of an owl and which is so gratifying … sadly, as we wandered off, one of the two tyros was clicking his fingers and trying to attract the attention of the bird although it seems not to have had any effect. I very much hope the mousing photographers are not tempted to make its acquaintance.
 Barred Owl (1)  Barred Owl (2)  Barred Owl impressing the natives Certainly the highlight of the walk and it is also really nice to have got that bird ticked off so soon in the year on my ArBY list … no need to worry about it and I can spend my time looking for other rarities from now on.
Just a few pictures now of the arboretum in winter …
|
The Way of the Sparrow This journal and the accompanying website (www.sparroworks.ca) is managed by people who feel an affinity for small, brown birds.
To know more of THE WAY OF THE SPARROW follow the link in the navigation bar at the top of the page or the one just below.
|