Birding Around

A Mystery

darrellj — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:39:51 +0000

Stumbled upon quite a mystery this afternoon!Found an huge amount
of abandoned feeders out in the middle of nowhere !Quite dense in here
and never noticed them in the summer.Wonder who was the person
who was so devoted to feeding birds that they did it in this out of the
way place!The chickadees in the area were very tame and might have
mistaken me for this past benefactor!In the map below is a marker of where I found the feeders.Walked into a few more woodlots along the way and was
rewarded with a nice Great Horned Owl .And shorty after by two Black
-billed Magpies who were mobbing the owl.

View Larger Map

It was about the walk today!

darrellj — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:57:43 +0000

View Larger Map

Fifteen kilometers in fact.Seen or heard many interesting birds but all were left unidentified.
A Harris’s Sparrow flushed off the ground,but only got fleeting glimpses before the bird got lost
in the surroundings.Only got a front view of the bird.A large gray raptor flew away as I walked
down a street and it most likely was a Northern Goshawk!Tried to find it again but had no luck!
A Brown Creeper was seen but a reoccurring theme reared it’s ugly head”only briefly”!Heard a
Bohemian Waxwing at Bruce Park but could not find the caller!And finally my last try for the
Varied Thrush and of course no luck!Only stayed a few minutes,feel very uncomfortable peering
in somebody’s yard with my binoculars, especially with the homeowner outside!Had a laugh
though a car pulled up in front of me to observe the bird but immediately left!I can only
speculate on their birdwatching methods!Since I will not be seeing a Varied Thrush in Manitoba
here’s a photo of one from British Columbia where I hope to see one this year!

Red-bellied Woodpecker

darrellj — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 10:30:38 +0000

Finally a break in the weather so I decided to take advantage and find
birds!Started my NMT list by walking to Kildonan Place and got six
species House Sparrow,White-throated Sparrow,Rock Dove,American
Crow,European Starling and a big surprise a Merlin!As I was waiting
for a bus one flew unto a big sign across the road.Then went to look for
the Red-bellied Woodpecker near Assiniboine Park.Walked through
Bruce Park to house with feeders in the front yard.Here I found
over fifteen House Finches roosting in tree and close by were a few
Pine Siskins feeding in a coniferous tree.After those two nice additions to my year list went to
where the woodpecker has been regularly seen.Nothing there but the usual but did hear lots
of birds down by the river.Went to see what the commotion was about and all the birds
were harassing my second Merlin of the day. I then scanned all the woodpeckers about and
finally seen the RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER after three or four tries!Nice to get this bird because
only one or two show up every year and rarely in Winnipeg.Also among that harassing flock was
a Dark-eyed Junco.My last stop was further down Portage Ave. were a local birder has been
seeing American Goldfinches and Mallards,seen the Mallards thirty-eight of them but no
goldfinches.

Some record shots of birds seen today.

Did the triumvirate survive the snowstorm!

darrellj — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:06:07 +0000

Was worried about how the three species of sparrows were doing
after the snowstorm of the last few days.Arrived at the taxation
center around noon and was surprised to see birdseed not covered
with snow!At the first feeding area did not see any sparrows but did
hear a White-throated Sparrow.

Slowly walked to the other feeding area where I hid behind a tree and watched what came into
view.Five White-throated Sparrows showed up then a Lincolns Sparrow started feeding
on top of the feed pile.And making a brief appearance was a Harris’s Sparrow.

Tried to get decent photographs of all the sparrows but in all that
dense bush focusing was difficult!Was surprised to hear one of the
White-throated Sparrows give off it’s summer call.What I heard
while I was taking photographs.White-throated Sparrow call.
Now hopefully they survive until January .Was so worried about the
birds that I bought some birdseed,needn’t of worried somebody beat

me to it.And the regular people who feed them from the tax center were probably on holidays,
another birder perhaps?Also seen two American Crows and a Blue Jay.

Taxation Center

darrellj — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 04:23:23 +0000

Went through the center in the cold weather today and saw 7 White-throated
Sparrows and 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow.Been traveling out of town a lot lately but did not
see many birds but got glimpses of maybe Snow Buntings and reddish birds
perched on top of conifer trees,crossbills?Did see a few Snowy Owls with in the
last month!

Late Lincoln’s Sparrow

darrellj — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:51:11 +0000

Took a bicycle ride to the taxation center were employees
put birdseed out throughout the year.Every year a few
White-throated Sparrows spend our harsh winter there!
There were lots of White-throated Sparrows around and a
bonus Lincoln’s Sparrow!Usually gone by the beginning of
October according to “Finding Birds in Southern Manitoba”

Lincoln’s Sparrow

Cone Count

darrellj — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 02:37:51 +0000

Checked out over 200 cone bearing trees today.Was hoping
to find a few nice birds but was not successful!Most of the
trees were along Edgewater st. in Winnipeg.Did see one
Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Seen lots of Ring-billed Gulls,a Hooded Merganser and two
Bald Eagles.Most of the ponds were frozen but were there
was open water there was lots of ducks and geese.

A Lesson in Futility

darrellj — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:25:24 +0000

I knew it was not a good idea to read/subscribe to a local
birding group ManitobaBirds.Chased a lot of birds over the
last week including Carolina Wren,Varied Thrush,Red-bellied
Woodpecker and White-winged Crossbills.Never got a whiff
of any of these beauty’s but sure enjoyed myself in the
effort!Last weekend even before I knew about these birds
I found this duck at the pond at Assiniboine Park,

It could be a Black Duck but more likely a hybrid because of
the white on the speculum.Posted a query on Birdforum,a
link is on the second photo.When I dipped on the Varied
Thrush on Thursday did see a long absent bird on my radar
a House Finch and also heard a American Robin.

Sunday,November 15,2009
Two bucks in rut were pretty scary as I came up to them
today at Assiniboine Park!They had no fear and I have heard
many a horror story of people getting hurt by overstimulated
males!Was at the park to see the Red-bellied Woodpecker
but again dipped but heard later that is was in the area.
Did see two American Robins and fleeting glimpse of a
Northern Flicker.Meet a very amiable chap by the name
of Ray Iverson who was also looking for the woodpecker.
Had to be the longest conversation I have ever had with
a local birder!He did mention all the tanagers that have
been about this summer!Did not want to hear that!

16 Ponds!

darrellj — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:23:30 +0000

Such lovely weather sent me out this weekend to do a bit
of birding.Was hoping to hit half my age in retention ponds
but my age caught up with me and I managed to only see
16 ponds.Traveled 16 km.by walking,5 km. by bicycle and
16 km.by Winnipeg Transit.Lost my way,got held up by two
long trains,smelled something awful in one pond and found
bones in another!Must be an irruption of Red-breasted
Nuthatches heard or seen five of them quite uncommon in
the city!Best birds of the weekend were five Snow Buntings
flying overhead and not a whiff of snow to be seen!Below
the photographs is a boring list of the birds I saw over the
weekend.

In and around the ponds,
Canada Goose 953
Ring-billed Gull 78
Mallard 29
Hooded Merganser 10
Northern Shoveler 10
American Crow 6
Snow Bunting 5
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Canvasback 2
Black-billed Magpie 2
Greater Yellowlegs
Wilson’s Snipe
Red-winged Blackbird
Blue Jay
Red-breasted Nuthatch
House Sparrow
Ruddy Duck
Between ponds,
Dark-eyed Junco
White-breasted Nuthatch
Hairy Woodpecker