The Hairy Woodpecker

I guess I'm just not sitting around at my kitchen table enough during the week. On saturday while having coffee with my hubbie what visitor should fly up and proceed to spend 10 minutes eating suet out of the plug feeder?


The Hairy Woodpecker! I haven't seen him around since...well November I think. So it was a real treat for me! Exciting to see that I have a few birds wintering that aren't European House Sparrows!


The next day the starling came and sat on the feeding station right by the window...another first! He just sat there preening looking speckled and gorgeous...a great way to start the day! This year is going to be great!

I've never going to win a million dollars...

I'm never going to win a million dollars...


Well I thought I'd try it! I just finished complaining about how there's nothing other than house sparrows here when a couple of starlings decided to return and hang out on my Christmas lights to take in the sun.

Then I hear the undeniable call of the magpie and look out back to see him hanging out...not interested in any of the food, but hanging none the less.

I'm finding it more and more difficult to track what birds eat what when. In the fall the magpies and starlings were all over the suet and peanuts...now they won't go anywhere near them...so what do they eat in the winter?

I tried putting out a couple of frozen dinner rolls to see if bread is their calling...if it is I might just buy a few baguettes and see what happens.

ZZZZZZZZZZZ.....

Well there's not much to report in the new year here. We all survived the holiday season intact and it would appear that I'm down to house sparrows with the occasional Starling. I swear one of them had to have stopped by for a bath as the entire back door was cover with frozen water droplets the other day.

The woodpeckers have not been seen and the suet's not going down and the shelled peanuts are all still here so I think I'm done with cool birds until April. I wish I could figure out how to draw in the chickadees that are on the other side of the development but I'm guessing the sparrows have chased them off.

Ah well...the posts shall be few and far between now until the birds come back... :(

Warming for Christmas

Well it's finally going to be looking a lot like Christmas this week. 3 days of snow in the forecast with above seasonal temps should allow some of the birds to come out and play that have been avoiding my yard like crazy.

The occasional starling has made an appearance...and used the bird bath no less...got my windows filthy. I've inadvertently scared off a woodpecker when I went out to fill up the feeders on a different day. So while I haven't seen a bluejay I have had glimpses of something else.

Yesterday in the neighbours tree about 3 houses down I saw a chickadee...they're getting close! I just have to figure out a way for them to come here! I don't think it'll happen in the back feeding area...the house sparrows have taken that area over completely.

Maybe I should put out another feeder somewhere...maybe the front? But then I fear that the sparrows would take over that as well. SIGH. Ah well I shall sit and enjoy some of this Christmas wonderland I woke up to this morning. Hors Frost EVERYWHERE!

I'm contemplating heading out to get some pictures, but really when you have one...

Chickadees and Nuthatchs

Well since the birds in my yard are down to the House Sparrows, I decided to take my camera along to the dog park to catch some of the oh so tame Chickadees and Nuthatches...

I believe I succeeded!

December 14th, -40'C and the Bald Eagle's still here

Well the title of this post pretty much sums it up. It's almost the middle of december and the the temperature's dropped to - 40'C with the windchill and the Bald Eagle is _still_ here. On the drive to the mall I spotted the eagle cruising the fields looking for a snack. It's just crazy how migration's been so delayed this year.

Most of the birds that take off in October were still here up until 3 days ago...that's almost a 2 month delay!! I haven't seen the Starlings, Bluejays or the woodpeckers since the icewave hit...maybe they'll show up once it warms a bit...or maybe they're just done for the year.

Either way it's been a great year for birds...the heated bird bath seems to be confusing them a bit...there were actually sparrows bathing this morning! The dust bathing has continued as there's not much snow to speak of...the quarter down on the patio seems to be the favourite spot...and that's about it!

A flock of starlings

I'm still surprised that there's anything other than House sparrows hanging around as it's already December. The starlings have shown up in vast numbers in the last few days which make me wonder if they're getting ready to take off. There been 12 at any given time in my yard between the feeding stations and the trees.

They seem to have taken great pleasure in the heated bird bath and the suet. The bluejays are still making an occasional appearance as well as the woodpeckers (hairy), so I'm pretty much in a holding pattern.

The other day on my morning walk I noticed that the chickadees were extremely active and busy. It was such a lovely serenade...I stopped to watch them play in the trees (much to my puppy's dismay). I wish they would make their way over to my yard, but my guess is until the trees get bigger that's not going to happen as the house sparrows chase everybody away :(

The seed is running low so the birds are mainly on clean up duty these days...we've just gotten out first dusting of snow yesterday so I'm hoping they'll clean up the yard a bit!