Counting birds....in your yard!

This weekend, February 17-20, 2017 is the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend. If you feed birds, it is an opportunity to share your findings in another one of the citizen science projects that are being promoted by the likes of Audubon, Cornell University and Bird Studies Canada. The results will give an overall view of the status of winter birds in different parts of the country, and contribute to the overall status of wintering birds over time.

Feeders are great places to enjoy in the winter, especially if there is enough snow to attract the birds. With that condition, however, when the snow is gone and spring-like temperatures are here, the birds are more spread out and not as likely to visit feeders as much. But there are always some.

Full information on how to get involved with this GBBC may be found at this link.

Aside from the pleasure of watching birds and their behaviour interacting with each other, it is a perfect opportunity to get some appealing photos. The photos that follow were all taken at, or in the immediate vicinity of, a feeder, but not my own. (Full disclosure: we fed birds every year for more than 30 years, but since we now live in the winter crow capital of Canada, I got tired of feeding primarily crows and squirrels, so I go elsewhere to enjoy and support bird feeder action :-(.

Some of the more common species to be found are:

American Goldfinch

American Tree Sparrow

Black-capped Chickadee

Dark-eyed Junco

Downy Woodpecker

Northern Cardinal

Red-bellied Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Pine Siskin

Some species, like Pine Siskin, are very erratic in their arrival to southern Ontario, and this winter they have been noticeable by their absence for the most part.

If you are a little more fortunate, you may find:

American Robin

Tufted Titmouse

Eastern Towhee

Pine Warbler

And if you are really fortunate, maybe one of these will enjoy your feeder!

White-winged Dove

Happy Winter Bird Counting!

Short-eared Owl, Wilson's Snipe and other winter birds

Up until the last few days, bird feeders were pretty quiet. Warmer temperatures than normal resulting in no snow cover so there is lots of habitat to search for food, makes it unnecessary for birds to come to feeders.

Of course all that changed in the last few days. Temperatures plummeted (relatively speaking) and we have snow! At least for awhile. So with that, feeders became busier, and it was with that in mind that I headed for Rondeau this week to check on the action at the Visitor Centre feeders. The VC staff are all away right now, but other park staff are checking the feeders, so kudos for them to make sure the birds are being looked after.

As expected, there was a flurry of bird activity, and for the hour or so that I was there with camera in hand, there were no raptors charging through, so the birds were undisturbed. About half of the images that follow were taken on this day, although I delved into my stockpile of images for others.

Some of the most common species were:

American Tree Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

 There were a couple of White-breasted Nuthatches.....

....and a steady stream of Black-capped Chickadees.

Northern Cardinal are kind of skittish, but both male and female were in the area.

A couple of Downy Woodpeckers were pretty steady customers checking out the peanut feeders among other things, as was a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

  American Goldfinches, in their relatively drab winter colours, were around in small numbers.

A couple of species that were less expected were Red-winged Blackbird, with four there briefly, and a pair of Purple Finches.

Only the female Purple Finch stuck around for any length of time...the male was there briefly and was camera shy.

Speaking of camera shy birds, the big, noisy and often aggressive Blue Jay shows its true colours by being very reluctant to cooperate for the camera. This shot was from a different visit.

I was hoping that since birds are more likely to spend time at feeders to get their sustenance, something a little more unusual would appear, such as an Eastern Towhee, one of which has been at the park's feeders for both of the last two years. I didn't see one, but perhaps one will still show up.

Eastern Towhee of 2014/15

Or maybe get a real bonus with something as unusual as this White-winged Dove, which showed up for a few days in late January/early February of 2013.

Just as I was leaving the park, I got a text from Garry Sadler indicating that a couple of Short-eared Owls were on some posts along Stefina Line. I have seen Short-ears there before, but never in the early afternoon when there is decent light. Since I was heading that way to see if the Wilson's Snipe that Steve Charbonneau had seen a few days ago was still around, it was an easy decision to go there sooner rather than later.

The snipe location was just before where the owls were, so I made a brief stop there. I didn't see it at first, so I got out of the car carefully to see if it was tucked in closer to the bridge where I couldn't see it. As soon as I stepped out, the bird flushed and headed downstream just out of sight. It had been tucked in behind a clump of grasses at the edge when I first looked......I couldn't see it, but it could see me! This next image is from early February of 2011, when a snipe was hanging around this open ditch off and on for several weeks.

The owls were just a little farther along...at least I hoped they were. Seeing Steve's car there gave me hope, and even before we got talking, I could see one of the Short-ears on a post. They were quite cooperative, and both of these photos were taken from the car. One bird is slightly paler than the other.

After getting quite a few shots, I was anxious to get home and see how they turned out. In all the years I have been photographing birds, these two birds in broad daylight were the most cooperative Short-ears that I have encountered. Thanks, Garry, for the heads-up!


And for those of you who operate bird feeders, please keep them well-stocked especially as this next round of cold weather arrives. Our feathered friends will reward you with lots of entertainment!

A great day to play with a new toy

Today was a relatively nice day to be out. Bright sunshine, winds that were tolerable from the ENE, and temperatures...well they were still well below normal, reaching a high of only -11C, but that is a lot better than most days!

Part of my goal today was to try out a new lens. I had been planning on getting the long-awaited Canon 100-400mm L MK II lens for awhile. I thought I might not get it until the spring, but when I got a whiff of a reasonable sale price a few weeks ago, I jumped at it. Who knows the way the dollar is going what it might increase to in a couple of months. And maybe there will be another earthquake in Japan that will seriously hinder production, and I would have to wait another year. It all sounds like pretty reasonable rationale, doesn't it?

As versatile, practical and amazing as the initial version of this lens has been, and I have enjoyed it for almost 8 years, the design and technology of it goes back to 1993. Needless to say there have been some fabulous increases in technology since that era. This lens had been rumoured to be in the upgrade mill for more than a decade, and that upgrade was often dubbed a unicorn, since it never came to light.

Fast forward to the early fall of 2014, and Canon announced it! And what amazing improvements in the features: better optics, Image Stabilizing good for 4 stops, faster auto-focus, ability to maintain auto-focus with a teleconverter (on my 5D MK III, not the 7D), an even more rugged build and, what was really a major upgrade, a minimum focus distance even at 400mm of only 3.2 feet! That is insane. The first version had excellent minimum focus of 5.9 feet, which was very useful when photographing butterflies and even flowers. But 3.2 feet!!!!!

So this new lens arrived via Canada Post a couple of days ago, and I could hardly wait to put it to the test. My first task was to do some tests and make adjustments via the Auto-Focus Micro Adjustment feature, an absolute necessity for today's photographic equipment. So I got that looked after, and true to form, the lens, when matched with my 7D, needed a bit of tweaking.

Today I decided to do some field tests with it, even if there wasn't anything too exciting to photograph. I mean it wouldn't do to really need it for something exciting and not know how it was going to perform!

I headed to Rondeau since I thought at least the bird feeders would have some action. Besides, I hadn't been to the park for at least two weeks, and I desperately needed my Rondeau fix! On the way, I noticed about 8 Wild Turkeys in a field by a busy road. I find that normally when a vehicle stops along the road, turkeys leave in a hurry. This particular group did not seem to be very concerned, however, and didn't appear to move any more than they had before I stopped the car. The conditions were not great for attempting to photograph them: a black bird, backlit by a bright sun, against a snowy background, so it was a good test for this new lens. In addition, there was enough traffic that I couldn't get out of the car, so I shot the turkeys from inside, which is a no-no.....the temperature difference and the heat escaping out the window can play havoc with the auto-focus. But one of the shots was reasonably acceptable.

I got to Rondeau, and only saw two other hikers. My kind of day.

Kudos to the staff at the Visitor Centre.....the feeders have been well-stocked for the past few weeks, so birds are able to survive this cold, snowy winter. I saw or heard 18 species of birds, just while I was standing there: three Wild Turkeys were skulking just outside the feeder area; I heard a Pileated Woodpecker drumming not far off; there was the usual Red-bellied Woodpecker (1), Downy (2) and Hairy (1) Woodpeckers, American Goldfinch (4), Dark-eyed Junco (6), Black-capped Chickadee (3), Red-winged Blackbird (2), Brown-headed Cowbird (2), House Sparrow (2), White-throated Sparrow (1) and White-crowned Sparrow (1). In addition I got shots of:

American Tree Sparrow (35)

 

Common Redpoll (7)

Northern Cardinal male (1)

Northern Cardinal female (1)

White-breasted Nuthatch (2)

Eastern Towhee (1)

Interestingly there were no Blue Jays or Mourning Doves observed.

There is usually one or two Gray Squirrels around. Hopefully it won't be too long until Eastern Chipmunks emerge from hibernation!

Gray Squirrel

All of these photos were cropped, some quite a bit. The bottom line is that I was quite pleased with the results of my first time with this new lens. It is definitely a keeper, and I can hardly wait to take it with me along the trails, and in the kayak exploring those out-of-the-way places around Rondeau Bay. That latter activity will have to wait awhile....there is at least 2-3 feet of snow-covered ice...but hopefully by late May when lots of shorebirds and gulls are using those out-of-the-way places.

And in case you are wondering, my original Canon 100-400mm L lens will likely be on the market before long. It is still a great lens, and is especially handy for hiking. But with my new one, chances are the original one that has been so faithful since I first purchased it in 2006 will not be needed. I have taken more bird and butterfly shots with it than any other lens, and it is capable of lots more. If you are interested, let me know.