BIRDS

[rusticretreater]

Cardinals, Blue Jays, Pileated Woodpeckers and other woodpeckers are back in my 8 acre timber stand.

[trapper]

sandhill cranes are back

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 

 

 
The yardbirds are getting pretty sizeable around here. I looked out the window and spotted one this size in the pasture and some others back by the woodshed then noticed this one had landed in and gotten trapped in the back yard and was running around trying to figure how to get out.

This one and his sibling (?) have been coming around about this time of year for the last 3 years. Their beards are dragging the ground. They have 4-5 young gobblers with them from time to time. They feed across the road then they jump up and fly a few strokes then land in the pasture or if a little short in the yard. This is the first one I have seen in the fenced yard. I let Sampson out and he finally spotted this one and took off after him. When he got close the turkey jumped up and flew over the front fence then over the lot and circled around and landed by the barn and up the pasture from there to to join the other 4-6 waiting for him in the woods. 

In my mis-spent youth this turkey might have fared considerably worse than just getting chased off by a dog half his size.

[Walnut Beast]

Definitely a nice beard 

[WV Sawmiller]

  His partner has a match to it. There are 2-3 with 6-8 inch beards and a couple of jakes with 3-4 inch beards with them most of the time.

[SwampDonkey]

I saw Canada geese here on Friday in the creek. I knew I heard geese the other night, thought I was crazy. No bare ground around here.

[WhitePineJunky]

Grouse in a birch for context. ;)




Robin when still lots of snow. I guarantee no worms are in that snow. ;D

Had a few robins around all winter here. Seen a "suicidal" grouse on side of road yesterday wasn't worried about cars driving by 3-4 foot away from it, but if you come within 20 foot of them in brush they will scare the jeebers out of ya. 

[Chuck White]

Saw a pair of Killdeers in the side yard yesterday.

Lots of Robins and Red Wing Blackbirds.

[WhitePineJunky]

Grackles made their spring arrival last week

[SwampDonkey]

Saw a couple crackles last week, none since. No sign of any other summer birds except geese and ducks in the creeks. Still several inches of snow in the fields, more on the way mid week. Only got to 30F here today and a hard north wind.

[KEC]

Today I tallied these birds around the house: 7 Mourning Doves, 1 Blue Jay, 2 American Crows, 1 Hairy Woodpecker, 1 Northern Flicker, 2 Black-capped Chickadees, 1 Tufted Titmouse, 1 White-breasted Nuthatch, 1 European Starling, 2 House Sparrows, 4 House Finches, 2 White-throated Sparrows, 2 American Tree Sparrows, 5 Song Sparrows, 1 Fox Sparrow, 3 Dark-eyed Juncos, 10 Red-winged Blackbirds, 5 Common Grackles, 1 Brown-headed Cowbird and 3 Northern Cardinals. A testament to how broke I'm going buying sunflower seed.

[SwampDonkey]

Lots of robins around today, but no bare ground except people's plowed yards. ;D

[woodroe]

Had a large flock maybe 2 doz. Red Winged Blackbirds show up under the 
birdfeeder Monday. 
And seeing the Bears will be coming out of hibernation anytime the birds are on their own for food now. Nice bird tally KEC !

[Ianab]

It's interesting how folks are noting birds returning for Spring. We are in Autumn and expecting some of the local native birds to show up soon. 

The Tui do "migrate", about 10 miles down the hill. To where it's a bit warmer and there are still flowering trees in town gardens.  They are a honey eater, and will be here until late Spring, squabbling over the Banksia and Camellia trees. They are one of the native birds that have adapted to humans, and can handle the introduced predators. 

There are other birds that leave for Winter and fly to Alaska or Siberia.  Then back again 6 months later. I guess they REALLY dislike Winter.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

A lot of our migratory song birds and most crows (not all migrate) around here don't really go that far. But swallows go a continent away and Arctic terns go from pole to pole. I've watched them catch fish from the Meziadin in NW British Columbia.

Saw my first turkey vulture this year on Tuesday flying over the creek by himself.

[thecfarm]

I have been seeing flocks of robins.
Sometimes 20 robins, then see 50.

[KEC]

Did you guys know that Blue Jays are migratory. On the Southeast corner of Lake Ontario is a place called Derby Hill Bird Observatory, best known as a place to see migrating raptors. You can sit in your lawn chair and watch as the birds go by, sometimes in big numbers. I have been there and over the ~3 hours there, there was a steady stream of Blue Jays going by like leaves blown by a leaf blower. Any time now, Broad-winged Hawks will be coming through and sometimes thousands in a day. Good flights depend on favorable winds to help them along.

[SwampDonkey]

Blue jays are here year around at my place here in NB, in the land of snow. Put up a bird feeder and you have 30 move in like sharks. Now crows on the other hand, they will migrate out of here, but a few still stay behind as do the ravens. I feed 4 crows here all winter, a couple ravens will come by, but they like to stay a long way away down in the field. Down in Fredericton there is a murder of crows that go from the university woodlot to roost to down town, depending on season, they stay all winter. Been in the news 2 or 3 times about them moving roosting spots.

I'm seeing northern harriers now. The kestrels have been around a couple weeks, I saw the crows chase one out of here. Killdeer are here also.

Up where I live there is still a lot of snow, that is less as you go south or out to the river.

There is a fellow on FB group 'Birding Atlantic Canada' who has been following a pure white black capped chickadee, not albinism, but a condition called leucism.

[KEC]

It's tough to know if the Blue Jays we see in winter are the ones that were around in the warm months or ones that summered farther North. Sometimes, when they are migrating, you might notice a lot of them moving in one direction, North or South, and you realize that you are seeing the migration.  SD, you are far enough North that the number of birds migrating may be thin. Reminds me, from my observations, I rarely see Bay-breasted Warblers during migration. Makes it easy to think there aren't many of them. There is a sizeable river in Quebec that flows to the Southeast into the St. Lawrence river, creating a bird migration funnel. A few years ago, a couple of people from Cornell U. Lab of Ornithology went there and recorded somewhere around 2,000 in one day.

[SwampDonkey]

That is probably the Saguenay River that comes out of Lac St. Jean near Alma. Even the forest is different there in the valley than surrounding hills out of the valley. Mixedwood in the valley and softwoods outside. Goes up into a large agricultural area flat as the kitchen floor, identical to the land along the St Lawrence flood plain.





Saguenay R at Chicoutimi



Alma   Fields of harvested canola.

[SwampDonkey]

I've never seen any groups of blue jays move in and out of here. I see it every year with robins, grackles, red winged black birds and so on though. But robins only go toward the coast, they are in southern NB all winter.

We now have Canada geese that nest here in NB because our premier brought goslings here 30 years ago and now they and their kin come back here to nest. Completely upset the apple cart. :D

[SwampDonkey]

According to Cornell blue jays move around in migration, but their map shows them here year around to. So like the crows, some go, some stay I guess. Never heard about that all the years I've been here because we see them every day all year.

[SwampDonkey]

Saw two toms display yesterday among a bunch of hens and I hear a gobbler this morning under the hill behind the back yard. First time for me to see and here with all this snow around. No bare fields yet, but they will show this week with the forecast warmth coming. The turkeys must be better at weather guessing. ;D

[JonathanPace]

Out here in NZ, we've got heaps of magpies. Magpies can memorise human faces. According to a study, magpies can recall faces up to four years prior. 

[KEC]

Same with American Crows, if someones harms any of them, the rest remember that individual human for a long time. When Alfred Hitchcock made the movie "The Birds", they used trained tame crows. For some reason the crows took a serious disliking to one of the film crew and gave him a real bad time.