SNOW on the roof, and yodeling from on high

 Readers will note that Snowy Owls have not been very plentiful so far this winter season. That hasn't changed a lot, but a bit. We didn't get any on our St. Clair NWA Christmas Bird Count, quite a change from our record of 23 last year. But I keep going out into their usual territory, hoping to at least see one. And quite unexpectedly, just a few days ago I saw 4! The first two were on the roof of a house.

Clearly one or more had been there off and on for a few days.

Just 100 metres away was this third one, in a fenced off area around some gas line pipes...

...and a fourth was along a laneway just a short distance away. All four were within sight of each other, I am sure.

They were a little unpredictable, as I know of others who had gone out looking in all of these spots, and not seen a single owl. But just a couple of days later I went out hoping that the blue skies would present a better background. I didn't see any with the sky as a background, but I did see two owls, both on the ground. This first one was near the gas fence....

...and this one was on a laneway access right adjacent to the road. I took this one while standing just a few metres from my vehicle, and the image is hardly cropped at all.

Sticking with a bit of a snow theme, I stopped at St. Clair NWA and saw a dozen or so Snow Geese. They weren't very close to the access berm, so the photos are heavily cropped. This first one shows three white phase birds.....

...while this one shows 4 blue phase, along with 2 whites and 3 Canadas.

I've also been out to Rondeau a couple of times, looking for whatever I could find and photograph. Along the Black Oak Trail, I came across a few typical winter birds. This Black-capped Chickadee was quite close to the trail, but constantly on the move.

This Downy Woodpecker was less active and so stayed in one position for more than a millisecond.

A bit later I went to the north end of the park. As I got out of the vehicle, I heard the distinct yodeling of Sandhill Cranes. They can typically be heard from a long distance, so I started scanning the sky, and then noticed not one, not two, but a whole bunch of them almost directly overhead, but way up high. At first they seemed to be in a loosely organized group...

...and spent a bit of time circling, but gradually drifting off to the southwest.

After a few minutes, they seemed to get more organized...

...and eventually got into a more typical migratory formation and continued southwest, rising above the clouds and disappearing. There were 49 birds in this group.

After that bit of excitement, I continued over to the campground, looking around for whatever was around. It was fairly quiet, but a large black bird with white wing patches appeared in the distance and landed on an oak tree. It was intent on digging out something, and allowed me to get fairly close, although it was fairly high up and not at the best angle. At least it was mostly in the sun. It was a male Pileated Woodpecker.

I expect it had been to this tree before, as it seemed to be busily digging into a familiar cavity, and attempting to extract some little creatures.

This final photo is a cropped version of the previous one, showing its tongue in action.

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