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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 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 …
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. 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 …
A couple of days ago we posted a note about the CBC tradition and today we took part (again) in the CBC centred on Hudson just west of Montreal. It snowed all day and the visibility gradually got less and less – that together with a highish wind made the task of finding birds pretty hard … some other censusers we met on the weay all had the same complaint – plenty of Chickadees but everything else well down and hiding from the weather. Nevertheless, we did get some nice birds. These included three Common Ravens - a pair and a singleton. The first time we saw the pair they were playing in the air, as Ravens do, wheeling and slip-sliding sideways and calling their harsh but distinctive call to each other … Twenty minutes later we saw them again (could have been an other pair, but we doubt it as they were not far from the first sighting) being harrassed by a dozen or so American Crows who were not at all happy to have them around. We also saw two flocks of Snow Buntings – the first flock were about 60 birds in all that flew up and over the car then dipped into the field behind us doing their coordinated aerobatics – such lovely birds. The second flock were smaller and making the best of a small roadside grain spill which occupied them enough to permit us to get close up and take some photographs (see below). In this small flock were about four or five Horned Larks but they evaded the camera. The route we do on this CBC always includes a large area of flat-lands very similar in nature to the English fenlands we left behind a dozen years ago – cold, bleak and atmospheric. if you know the fens have a look at the pictures that follow and try to envisage where we were today – remembering that the temperature was -8degC with a windchill of about -20degC. The Snow Buntings make ot worth-while. Not a bad start to the year.  Common Raven (no, it's not a crow ... at another angle you could see the curved tail profile typical of these birds, though, of course, in this shot it is not obvious ... I do have a picture showing the "correct" tail profile but it's not as nice as this one. Anyway it was shouting its head off in raven-croak language, pretty characteristic I think).  Now this is an American Crow for comparison - checking out the frozen dog droppings in a snow-bank  Snow Buntings  More Snow Buntings  Even more Snow Buntings - can't have enough of them  St-Lawrence valley birding conditions ... not the fens  Reduced visibility  Level-crossing ... this train was a kilometre or more in length and travelling slowly  Real winter  Real "old" winter as our forebears knew it Then once we were home again, one of the reasons for the lack of Mourning Doves in the garden this winter put in an appearance … a Sharp-shinned Hawk  Sharp-shinned Hawk … or not ArBYing to be honest … lots of snow today and I rather suspect that the only arboretum birds likely to be showing themselves will be the Chickadees – not a hard tick any day of the year so they can wait. Tomorrow is the all-day Christmas Bird Count centered on Hudson and I shall probably reserve my energies for that instead.
I looked back over the past ten years Hudson CBC results just now and it is pretty clear that the numbers of birds are showing a general pattern of decline. Are there less birds out there or are we being less efficient at counting them? Who knows, though I rather suspect the former.
New Year’s Day in the garden …
That’s another one gone – it had its good points and some fine birds but on the whole it will not be missed. Forward into 2010 with the prospect of a challenging ArBY ahead (Arboretum Big Year). A happy new year to all my readers and friends. A surfeit of roast duck and all the associated trucklements together with the realisation that 2009 has been a satisfying birding year but not an outstanding one turned my thoughts to 2010 and the question `what to do`. With the inevitably extensive time that I shall be spending in there next year I have decided that I shall attempt a Big Year devoted to the birds of the arboretum … that is to say I shall endeavour to see as many of the 180+ species on the arboretum checklist as I possibly can during 2010. Should be fun – at the very least I need to try to beat my lifetime arboretum list which stands at 106 species – that could be hard as some of these birds are not exactly regularl inhabitants. I have added a list of these at the bottom of today’s post >>
Personal Arboretum Life-list (106 of a possible 180-ish)
The important things are done, the duck awaits it fate tomorrow, the garden was visited by my old friend, a House Sparrows (not seen here for several months so his timing was spot on) and the traditional oompah bad is back on top of the cake tooting away as they have every Christmas for forty or more years, probbaly a lot more. Alls right with the world Merry Christmas everyone
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