Since creating our bird table the garden has been a constant hive of activity, much of which focuses on the local squirrel population. Today a big grey wandered in and found the remains of a seed bell that was left in the bushes when I put a new one on the feeder.
He took the whole thing and went to the middle of the lawn where the autumn sun was shining. He then settled down in the warm grass to enjoy his spoils. As we watched from the window a hawk flew out of the woods just a few feet above him and he decided discretion was the better part of valour and scurried home with his find. The sunflower in the gallery below came from a seed buried by the squirrels and we thought we would let it grow along with some wildflowers the squirrels also 'planted'. I've also posted a couple of shots of the mountain blue jays again. The chicks that were brought here by their parents in the springtime for food are far less timid than others. They now return almost daily and hop around the feeder without a care making for some easy shots of these beautiful creatures.
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The new extension to the bird feeder has brought a nice long 'horn' of wood to the left side of the stump and the downy woodpeckers seem to think highly of it.
Sarah and I watched this little guy hop around it as we had dinner tonight. He was so persistent that I decided to grab a few shots for the blog. The mountain blue jays that loiter around the garden brought their chicks for some seeds this morning. The parents were pulling the seeds from the seed bell and passing them on to the offspring. Frustratingly they did this behind the tree and out of sight, but on occasion the chicks would appear with a seed and I just had to make some shots of them.
The little guy in the main image couldn't look more pleased with himself as his juvenile beak is still wide gaping from his nesting days, this will narrow over the next week or so until it is gone so this little 'smile' was nice to capture. It's always great to see the blue jay roaming around the garden and lately he has been almost ever present. It's such a beautiful bird that I had to get the camera out and share a few images of him.
Being of the corvid family means he lacks the beautiful song to go with his plumage, instead he makes an awful squawking noise, but thankfully he is silent most of the time. You know summer is coming when the American Goldfinch returns to Canada. Their winter habitat is around Texas and the southern states of the US, in spring they migrate north through Oklahoma and Nebraska and in breeding season they head as far as southern Canada. Breeding males are an incredibly vivid little bird whilst non breeding males and females are less colourful.
It's great to see these lovely birds back in the garden with the red of the house finches and blues of the Mountain Jay it's a wonderful display throughout the summer. The spring warming continues this week and has brought with it a wonderful splash of colour from the House Finches that enjoy the feeder as they pass through each year. They are always in an erratic group that seems to spend plenty of energy on fighting each other for the best spot on the feeder (even though all 6 holes are exactly the same) The small gallery below represents less than 5 minutes of hectic House Finch activity this afternoon.
The cold winter still persists, leaving me reluctant to get out this week, though there are signs of a slight warming later in the week (fingers crossed). In the meantime here are a few nice shots of a lovely Northern Flicker, a Downy Woodpecker, Red Breasted Nuthatch and a little Chickadee that visited the feeder this afternoon.
With temperatures at -10 and steady light snowfall today, the blue jay that visits the garden was making repeated trips to the feeder trying to steal a few peanuts from the 'squirrel circle'. He is alway a shy bird and flies away at the slightest movement inside the house but I set up a chair beside the window and stayed quite still until he got used to the idea. I put my 400mm lens on the 5DIV and shot a whole bunch of images of this lovely (but noisy) bird.
There were lots of other birds at the feeder too, but the gallery below is reserved for just a few of the images I made of this guy doing his best to raid the peanut circle. The woodpeckers are back now the cold weather is closinging in and it was nice to see this Hairy Woodpecker on the stump this morning. He does look a lot like a male Downy Woodpecker but this one has a much longer beak (and a taste for seed filled fat it seems).
I saw two goldfinches squabbling over the bird feeder today so went to grab the camera, but they had stopped the fight by the time I got back. Luckily, just a few moments later, a lovely red House Finch came and joined the Goldfinch on the feeder and I managed a few shots before he too was shown the door.
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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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