The resident Coyotes have become emboldened by the recent freeze and snowfall. The result of that is their presence very close to the house in pursuit of anything edible, sunflower seeds seem to hit the spot. They are beautiful creatures, always alert and able to scavenge a good living throughout the prairies in all conditions.
We also now have a Stellers Jay as a regular, I'm not sure if he's filling up as part of a migration or if he is local but only recently found us, either way he is a sight to see in the yard. There's a new squirrel now who is a daily visitor, it will come as no surprise to regular readers that he has a dodgy leg, it seems to be the way of it with our little furry friends. It must be a very hard existence out there. This week a huge flock of Bohemian Waxwings have been zooming in and around as they gather up feed for their migration, and finally a Pine Grosbeak arrived today and skated around on the frozen bird bath for a while. Our garden is a real joy to observe throughout the year, ever changing and ever engaging, it remains a fascination and source of wonder for us both.
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This week we had another reminder that winter is just around the corner, again it is expected to clear away before further snowfall compounds the issue. As I sat in the house watching the snow fly I couldn't help but grab a shot of 'Peg Leg' sitting with his back to the wind with his huge tail acting as an umbrella.
I also shot one of our other regular visitors, the Common Redpoll. I just liked the way he sat with the autumnal colours behind him and the snow floating around his ruffled feathers. There are also a few shots of 2 new visitors from the past week, a chipmunk and a coyote. The Merlin is still dropping by as are the regulars. The Merlin is a species of falcon found throughout the northern hemisphere and, happily for us, is also found in our back yard of late. This beautiful bird is incredibly acrobatic and rivals the Peregrine in both speed and agility.
We've seen him kill a few birds in the past couple of weeks and it is always incredibly impressive. He usually dives in from above but on occasion will loiter on the fence, and just once he came to rest on the feeder close to the house. Thankfully I was ready with the camera and fired off dozens of shots of a bird rarely seen so close. Below is just a small sample of the shots made. Our garden is a hive of activity at this time of year, autumn always sees an increase in visitors as the locals scavenge for food sources to last them through the harsh Canadian winter.
Recently we have seen several new squirrels, a new small warbler, a whole flock of robins, several waxwings and an incredibly acrobatic Merlin. I managed to get some good shots of the Merlin and will post them separately shortly. Autumn really is a riot of colour around here, not just among the plants but the wildlife too. According to the calendar autumn begins around here on September 23rd, unfortunately nature pays little attention to our timescales and has determined that this year it will begin early. I confess it's really disappointing to see the trees turning and the birds and squirrels going crazy for food in the garden so early in the year.
Don't get me wrong, we love to see wildlife in the garden but autumn brings thoughts of winter and it's just too early for that....isn't it. Anyway, I'm still waiting for storms to clear before I can make any decent hikes so thought I'd shoot a few garden critters and a few riverside shots from this afternoon. 'The flock' are back in the yard every day now and that's a sure sign of autumn. There are about 30-40 birds in 'The flock', mainly sparrows and pine siskin who seem happy in each others company. The main shot below shows 24 of them on the feeders and the rest are in the trees waiting their turn. There's no trickery here, this is one image with 24 birds. We have had two siskin hit the window and knock themselves wonky for a short time, but we've picked them up and nursed them for a few minutes and they've returned to the flock seemingly no worse for wear. The neighbours tell us a black bear has been seen behind the house but we've only see the usual suspects. The gallery below has captions on images from the garden and a short wander by the river today. Hopefully I'll get out one day this week, but if the storms continue the weather is clearing early next week and I'll be out in the mountains then. I recently built a bird bath in the garden and we added 6 new trees too. Together they have generated more interest from some new birds and some new squirrels.
We've had a pair of starlings that are now regulars (main pic shows the male), and three new pine squirrels who are very small but also very noisy. There's an adult pine squirrel with only one good eye and another seemingly without defect. They are now 'one eye' and 'two eyes'. Having five pine squirrels is a recipe for squirrel fights and we're seeing plenty of them. The larger squirrels tend to stay out of the way and let them go at it. It's great to see them jumping from the trees and bouncing off each other between the plants. It's storm season so we've had some pretty spectacular lightning and a lot of rain which is perfect following the planting of the new trees. We've had a few cedar waxwings in the garden too, a first for us, so the new trees are really making a difference. With my birthday and Canada day fast approaching we'll be heading out to the prairies for a few days this weekend so the next post will be back on the road. Common Redpolls are a beautiful winter finch, they are incredibly restless little birds and flutter to and fro acrobatically almost non stop. I find it remarkable that they spend their winters here in Canada, they nest further north in the arctic so I guess we are somewhat 'south' for them. For such a tiny bird it's strange that they don't come south for heat, they come for food when the arctic has few seeds (or snow covers what few there are)
Their love of seeds means our feeder stuffed with sunflower seeds will always draw that huge fluttering flock. They arrive en masse and scurry around the ground, in the shrubs and on the feeders for a while and then disappear again all at once as if called away. I thought I'd shoot a few images of them today as some were sitting here and there for a moment and the low winter sun was lighting them perfectly. I also shot a little chickadee with a sunflower seed and Titch enjoying a pecan or two even though his nose was so cold it didn't melt the snow upon it. I also saw a bald eagle and a stunning golden eagle over the river today so I can pretend spring is coming even if it is -23 outside. Little Blackfoot has been hanging around the garden for quite a few months now but has proven elusive whenever the camera came out. Fortunately the cold days of winter have forced him to take more time over his feeding so I can capture him on camera at last.
He has watched one of our other squirrels (peg leg) come in through the house window and get peanuts, so now if we sit quietly little blackfoot will sneak in cautiously and grab a peanut before 'escaping' at speed. He is quite timid compared to the others and titch has already bitten a lump off the end of his tail in an effort to drive him out, and it has made him even more cautious. Blackfoot is the second tail tweaking victim of Titch who recently bit a kink into another squirrels tail (echo). Titch has 'little squirrel syndrome'. Anyway, here's to another year of entertainment from our squirrel army and the rest of the garden critters. We wish you all a happy and prosperous new year. You might recognise the image on the left below as the one posted yesterday; on the right is how it looks today following a 'snowmageddon' event. Snow began falling at midnight last night and by mid afternoon our garden had a 31 cm (12.2 inch) accumulation.
Because the trees still have lots of leaves, I had to go out and rattle them with a brush to knock off the snow and prevent the accumulation from snapping branches off. I put a new seed bell out for the critters and Sarah and I watched as they made hundreds of visits to and from the feeder in the heavy snow. Peg Leg squirrel was so busy trying to retrieve the remnants of the old seed bell I had pushed into a crevice in the tree, he fell off and went crashing through the shrubs into a cold bed of snow. There was a pause for some time before he emerged and returned to prise the seed cluster out of the crevice, before climbing to the top of the feeder stump and eating the whole thing in one sitting. I finally managed to capture some of the Dark Eyed Juncos on camera, they have been around all year but are very difficult to catch as they tend to stay on the ground under shrubs. The deep snow has lifted them out of the cover allowing me to catch a few nice shots. You can click the main pic for a larger version and the gallery has captions to identify the locals coming and going from the feeder. Looking out of the window this morning I spotted something on the sunflower that is growing close to the house. I picked up the camera and telephoto lens that I keep in the dining room and fired off a shot.
It was a bee, very wet and very still, it looks like he has spent a cold night out on the seed head. I made an image or two then went outside with the macro lens to make a few close up shots. Back in the house I sat at the window and made a few more shots of the usual suspects to add to the post. I got both of Sarahs current 'pets' a small scar faced squirrel who showed up one day with a huge cut on his cheek and another on his nose, Sarah fed him peanuts and seeds over the next day or two and he soon healed. The next squirrel is a 'full size' grey that came with a really badly injured foot. It was painful just watching as he hovered it above the ground and jumped with pain if it touched down for a second. As he tried to climb down the feeder he fell off into the bushes below so Sarah threw nuts in there for him for the next few days. He would hobble across the lawn and go into the bushes for a while then retreat to the woods again. Just like 'scarface' he has healed quite well, his foot doesn't work as it should and he's still a little unstable on it, but it is clearly much less painful now as he hops around comfortably and climbs up and down the feeder without issue. I've captioned the images in the gallery so you know who's who. UPDATE: The bee dried out, warmed up and flew off in the afternoon sunshine. |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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January 2024
The Shaman, West Texas
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