birds

Many, many warblers

Date: May 22, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: birds, Garden

Garden pool birding part 2 … eleven species of warblers to date

A warbler feast today (for Jean) but some consolation when I got in form work. Bay-breasted, Yellow-rumped and Tennesee warblers all happily splashing together. (Pictures a bit grainy due to extreme distance of photographer).

In the last few days, this small feeder pool and waterfall have been visited by Blackburnian, Tennesee, Chestnut-sided, Black and White, Black-throated Green, Blackpoll, Yellow-rumped, Nashville and Bay-breasted Warblers plus American Redstart

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WCSP (finally) and a Nashville

Date: May 20, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: birds, Garden

… and add a White-crowned Sparrow to yesterday’s garden collection.  Probably my last chance to catch one in the garden on their way north for nesting – very, very smart little fellows, this one was skulking in one of the old dogwood bushes.  A good year tick.

White-crowned Sparrow

 

Also,  a Nashville Warbler appeared later in the day – got a photo of that (below) but not of the Chestnut-sided Warbler that preceded him by a couple of minutes:

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Garden birds – why gardens need a pond

Date: May 19, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: birds, canada, Garden, Gardening, sparrows, Uncategorized

Had a busy twenty minutes today in the garden this morning with birds flapping all over the place including Yellow-rumped Warblers (about twenty) and a nice Blackburnian amongst the regulars.

Almost every bird was there because of the presence of the pond and waterfall – worth all the effort of installing because they certainly attract the migrators as well as the residents.

Pictures do the job better than words – click the thumbnails for decent sized images.

 

A good birding morning

Date: May 18, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: arboretum, birds, flowers, photography, Uncategorized

A gorgeous, sunny spring day today made better by a morning walk in the arboretum. Chris (the naturalist there) was leading it and I was along to wave the BPQ flag and carry the heavy spotting scope. Plenty of activity but the leaves are out and we had to spend lots of time listening and then pishing and then hoping to see many of the birds on today’s list. The morning started (for me) with Cliff Swallows around the weather radar dome on the road in and ended with close up views of an active Baltimore Oriole near the car park.

As a side topic and perhaps of interest to birders with scopes – a few years ago I purchased a “poor man’s” Wimberly type head made by Manfrotto for a tripod intending to use it to take photographs but never really made much use of it.  recently I have been mounting my spotting scope on it and it just the best thing since sliced bread for following birds in flight and you never need to lock it on a bird when the bird perches – just take your hands off it and stays where you pointed it. A bit bulkier than the usual tripod head but really good … using this rig to follow flying Bobolinks at 60x magnification was a revelation. Serendipity.

The only bird picture was a Phoebe captured through the scope via my iPhone … not a good picture but I will post it below anyway and accompany it with an image of the sun slanting through the blossom trees … also an iPhone image and surprisingly good (I think) considering.

Early sun beams at Blossom Corner

Early sun beams at Blossom Corner

The birds seen or heard (reported to eBird) were these … Greg (the man with the amazing birding ears) had a few more.

Canada Goose, Great Blue Heron, Turkey Vulture, Red-tailed Hawk,Ring-billed Gull, Mourning Dove, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Eastern Phoebe, Blue-headed Vireo, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue Jay, American Crow, Tree Swallow, Cliff Swallow, Black-capped, Chickadee, White-breasted Nuthatch, House Wren, American Robin, European Starling, Ovenbird, Tennessee Warbler, Nashville Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Cape May Warbler, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Scarlet Tanager, Northern Cardinal, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Bobolink, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch

 

And now the “needs must” photo

Eastern Phoebe "captured" by iPhone through a spotting scope. Not a good or even adequate opicture but when you have no real camera with you then you make do with what's at hand.

Eastern Phoebe “captured” by iPhone through a spotting scope. Not a good or even adequate opicture but when you have no real camera with you then you make do with what’s at hand.

Trilliums and Owls

Date: May 4, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: arboretum, birds, flowers, Garden, Gardening, greenbirding, photography, wildlife

This is a bizarre week – outdoors the sunshine and the temperatures are more like late June than the first week of May and we are already watering less than drought tolerant plants in the garden.  Right on time though, the Devil’s spawn dandelions are springing up all over the lawn and claiming hours of time that should be spent elsewhere – I mean why dod the good lord create dandelions?  What is their purpose?  Did manage to get the waterfall pump installed and running in the pond, however and birds are already bathing in the header pool it creates.

Meanwhile, up in the arboretum the spring forest flowers are showing well in all this sunshine. I recall when gardening in England that trilliums were an expensive rarity that were renowned for their difficulty and general opposition to flowering at all whereas here they just pop out of the ground.  Lovely things.

I have some photographs of these below as well as some pictures of a Great Horned Owl sitting on her nest.  In a few days she will be almost impossible to see as the leaves unfurl around here but today she was showing well.  Once her young are ready to leave the nest it may be necessary to close the forest trail she rather foolishly decided to place her nest adjacent to because the young will end up on the ground and thereby become of interest to uncontrolled dogs who will in turn to of interest to the mother owl … and she has a formidable armoury.  The dogs would lose but not necessarily before doing some damage. The flowers are a lot easier to photograph though the Trout Lilies and the Red Trilliums (though not the whites) have a propensity to turn their heads to the ground making it a knee-damaging task to get good pictures.

Anyway – some pictures.  As usual click on the thumbnails for a quality view.

 

My “Wildlife Circle”

Date: April 23, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: Bigby, birds, wildlife

Wish I could think of a better term for this concept – but it will do for now.

Following my expedition at the weekend (see last post) to the Ile-Perrot windmill seeking birds I decided to expand my “Wildlife Circle” from 7 to 7.5km diameter to make sure it is included.  This circle is the area in which I will do my Bigby in 2014 and in which I have some other plans for assorted species spotting and general naturalising all over the place (There’s another book in this?). In making this small change I also noticed that I have managed inadvertently but serendipitously to include a nice bay just off the Montreal island that is a favourite of shore birds in the fall … that will be worth cycling out to check on.

I will create a separate page on the site shortly to explain more about Wildlife Circles but for now, this should explain enough for most people.

This is the area … my official green birding mega-patch

 

wildlife-circle-web

Windmills and birds

Date: April 21, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: birds, Landscape, trees

In search of gainful occupation on this sunny, cool morning and having set the week’s bread to rise, my thoughts turned to birds and landscapes.

When we first arrived in Montreal we used to regularly visit the Parc-du-moulin in the tip of Ile-Perrot.  This was where I saw my first close-up flock of Cedar Waxwings in Canada and was bowled over by their beauty as they swooped through the trees lining the path – they were almost within touch … but then, as is the way of these things the nearby golf courses felt that surrounding trees had to go and some excellent bird habitat went with them (vandals). About the same time the government who own the park decided that as it is a “Parc historique” rather than a nature park – it’s because of the windmill (a rare fortified windmill used by beaver pelt smugglers I have read – milling grain was very much a side-line) – they would close the gates, charge entry and fill the place in summer with costumed animateurs playing at early settlers to entertain the groundlings.  All very educational, I am sure, but inimical to good birding and so we gradually stopped visiting. Plenty of other places to go and so we inadvertently denied ourselves one of the best water-fowl spotting spots around here. When we were regulars, I recall we went up there at midnight on 31 December 1999 to see the  new year and the millennium in and stood at the point near the windmill in knee-deep snow at minus something painful to watch the fireworks 20km away downriver over Montreal – and we were not at all the only ones.  That was a magical night, very clear with stars overhead and a great way to celebrate without crowds and noise.

The park actually attracts a lot of fine birds.  It is surrounded by water and well tree-ed (is that a word?) and as it sticks out into the river across which many migrating birds have to cross on their way north it is a good place for them to pause and take stock.  I checked it out on the web and found, to my delight, that they don’t start charging entry until May and so, as it is within my 7km “wildlife circle” decided to head over there and check it out.  Next year when I am doing my green big year (Bigby) I shall have to make a day of it and go by cycle but today it was greenhouse gas emissions all the way I regret to say.  I didn’t really expect to see many birds – though I did see some elderly birders with expensive scopes – but at least knew it would be a good place for getting better acquainted with my new camera.

But the birds were rather good as it turns out – not many individuals, it was mid-morning before I got there, but some nice new ticks for the year including Lesser Scaup, Cormorant, Eastern Wood Phoebe, Belted Kingfisher and huge numbers of Swallows.  Tree Swallows I had expected but there were many, many Barn Swallows as well and I eventually worked out that they were setting up home under the roof of the windmill so that will be worth another visit.  Not far from the windmill, on the edge of the river, was a tree overhanging the water in which the swallows were gathering – noisily.  Why this tree and why that branch rather than one of the others nearby I don’t know but it seemed to have just what they desired.  Naturally the sky was bright and sun was almost behind this bird-laden branch but judicious fiddling with the camera finally produced some reasonable record shots … more than I can say for the Kingfisher that I later tracked along the waterside.  He kept flying ahead, chattering manically, but never settling long enough to get more than a really blurry shot that I won’t trouble you with – nice to see him though, first of the year.  The Phoebe landed on a tree at head height just a few feet away and glared at me briefly before deciding it needed to be elsewhere.

So – some pictures, you have read enough of my wordiness for now but I will say I am pleased to have reacquainted myself with the windmill and will return again. There is a gallery below starting with the Swallows and then moving on to more artistic landscape images – the Swallows and then the landscapes.  If you click on one of these thumbnails you will be taken into a high quality gallery showing the pictures as they are intended to be seen.

BPQ Arboretum Aerobic Walking Event (with birds)

Date: March 23, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: birds, winter
Comments: Leave a reply

This was some of the hardest birding any of us have done.  A beautiful day, white, white snow, good company and that dead gap between the winter birds having left to go north while the early spring arrivals have not, as it were, arrived. Charming the birds out of the forest was like getting blood from a stone – but at the end of the day we totted up a not too bad (in the circumstances) 19 species, including some real stars.  When we planned this field trip we foolishly assumed it would be like last year with almost no snow, mild temperatures and plenty of mud and early returning birds.  Hah, the birding gods thought otherwise.

No owls seen, but an owl pellet was dissected for the audience by Chris – much to the delight of a young lad who is going to grow up to be a great birder one day if he can keep up the enthusiasm he showed this morning.

We started with a remarkable 39 birders which gradually, as is the way of these things, whittled itself down to 18 by the time we finished our walk around noon. The trails were well walkable for the most part but narrow and looking back at one point seeing the single file troop Wayne commented that it was reminiscent of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow.  The bodies of those who did not stay the course will emerge from the snow in the next couple of weeks.

We started the day well with a Cooper’s Hawk perched in a tree overlooking the conservation centre and patiently waiting for us to depart so it could get on with stalking the Mourning Doves.  This was shortly followed by a high and twittering flock of Redpolls and we thought we were on a roll but that’s when it got tough and every bird seen or heard was a triumph.  Huge thanks to Wayne and Chris in particular for helping to make sure that our large group was kept up with what was being seen at one or other end of the line.

In Pullin’s Pasture some of us saw a small flock of Bohemian Waxwings who got nervous and departed when the rest of the party arrived. Two pairs of these birds were performing pairing actions such as mutual beak-rubbing etc so maybe the next generation is assured.

About 10:45 the party split, with some heading back along the main trail to the car park while the rest set out along the snowshoe trail (sans snowshoes). The first group reportedly had great sightings of a Pileated Woodpecker near the trail ripping huge splinters off a dead tree while the latter group found a couple of Brown Creepers and across the fields at the southern end of the arboretum enjoyed lengthy views of a circling Red-tailed Hawk and a pair of Peregrine Falcons in the air above the Veteran’s Hospital. It was not clear if they were looking for a home on the concrete “cliff” it presents or just checking out the Pigeons for lunch.

The species recorded were American Crow, Common Redpoll, White-breasted Nuthatch, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Black-capped Chickadee, Red-tailed Hawk, Mourning Dove, Peregrine Falcon, Cooper’s Hawk, Northern Cardinal, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Pileated Woodpecker, brown Creeper, Red-winged Blackbird, Bohemian Waxwing, American Goldfinch, Rock Pigeon, Ring-billed Gulls.

Altogether, an excellent morning in the snowy forest.

(Click on the photo thumbnails to see them in all their glory)

 

 

 

Still not spring

Date: February 24, 2013
Author: richard
Categories: arboretum, birds, flowers, spring, winter
Comments: Leave a reply

First two bits of good news -

  1. The new photo gallery is now live and you can visit it at www.sparroworks.zenfolio.com
  2. The Red-bellied Woodpecker visited the garden again this morning as well as the Carolina Wrens, plenty of Redpolls, both varieties of Nuthatch and the rest of the gang.  The RBWO checked the feeders but then spent more productive time hacking the unhealthy Catalpa tree.

Last night was the annual volunteers “do” in Chalet Pruche at the Arboretum.  This necessitates a walk in the dark through the forest to reach it.  Snow was falling and all was nice … except that our friends in the UK are reporting the start of spring, newspapers over there are starting to publish spring gardening articles and we won’t see a tree leaf until the end of April.  Winter is good until mid February – then it’s time for a change I think.

Anyway – picture time:

Red-bellied Woodpecker hacks splinters off the Catalpa tree

Red-bellied Woodpecker hacks splinters off the Catalpa tree

"Flowers at work" - Hah!

“Flowers at work” – Hah!

Chalet Pruche as the day ends

Chalet Pruche as the day ends

Volunteers drinking wine

Volunteers drinking wine