Tuesday 19 February 2013

GBBC Results

Female red wing blackbird.
I have officially completed my first ever "Great Backyard Bird Count!"

I was a little disappointed that some of my regular birds didn't show up. Both my ruffed grouse and red-breasted nuthatch didn't come by at all during the count...but of course today I saw them both! Buggers!

I did have one new visitor, a female red wing black bird. She visited throughout the day on Monday. It's a bit early to spot a female RWBB, so I hope she has fared out out since she left.

I spent most of my time counting the birds in our yard, but on Saturday I did go for a nice long walk and counted some non-seed feeding birds as well. My total count is as follows:

Mourning Dove: 30
Downy Woodpecker: 5
Hairy Woodpecker: 8
Bluejay: 35
American Crow: 66
Black-capped Chickadee: 82
Dark-eyed Junco: 41
Red-wing blackbird: 1
Common Redpoll:  21
Hoary Redpoll: 2
American Goldfinch: 6
Bald Eagle: 16
Herring Gull: 15
Black Back Gull: 2
Common Raven: 1
European Starling: 315
American Tree Sparrow: 2

I really enjoyed participating. It was really good practice for identifying birds in the field. It was also great exercise! I normally hate going outside in the winter time, but going out to find birds was really enjoyable!



Friday 15 February 2013

The Great Backyard Bird Count

So it's been a few days since I updated, but I do feel that I must take a few moments to write about an exciting event that is happening over the next 3 days!

From Feb 15 - 18 participants from North America and around the world will report their bird sightings to create an enormous snapshot of bird activity :)

I'm participating for the first time this year, and I am using the Bird Log app for my Android, which is currently on sale for $.99!

It's not too late to participate! Go check out eBird or The Great Backyard Bird Count to get started!
Friday 8 February 2013

Blizzard Warning!

Looks like we have another nasty winter storm on the way!

Last night was the coldest night we've had so far, I believe! Somewhere around -21C before the windchill. It's miserable!!

The temperature will come up a bit, but that's only to make way for the ginormous snow storm that's coming our way. It's actually two storms combining. It's so large that it's currently effecting Ontario, and will eventually come our way.

The forecast predicts that our snowfall will begin over night tonight and winds will pick up to gusts of 100km/h. All that snow + the wind = BLIZZARD!

Saturday will be very messy. They predict we may get upwards of 40cm once it's all over.

It's hard to say if the birds will be out in that mess, not to mention the power is very likely to go out. So if the cam is down, you'll know why!

The birds will probably be very hungry once the storm is done!
Thursday 7 February 2013

Scramble is a Star :)

That's right folks, that pesky little squirrel of mine was on television this morning (CTV Morning Live to be exact)!

Unfortunately I didn't get to see it, but my mother called me just as I was walking out the door for work, frantically telling me that a photo of Scram was on a local news program and that they were talking about my webcam!

I had sumbitted my photo to Cindy Day, meterologist at CTV, and I guess the staff liked it, because they chose to share it this morning.

I'm so bummed that I missed it!

Ah well, I'm just glad that more people had the chance to see the cam, and that pesky little squirrel!
Tuesday 5 February 2013

Night time snacker

Northern Flying Squirrel :)
I don't usually view the cam at night. Typically the only time I see the cam after dark is when I run outside quickly to refill the seed.

Last night, my husband wanted me to go downstairs to help him with his mountain bike. The cam and feeder are by the window in that room.

I happened to glance up at the feeder and saw a squirrel.
"What on earth is Scramble doing at the feeder this time of night??" I questioned.

I got closer to the window to investigate. It didn't really look like a red squirrel. It looked more grey and softer.

"Wait a second," I told my husband, "what is this thing?"

We could only see it's back side, but from that, my husband said, "That's a flying squirrel!"

He pointed out the squirrels little winged arms which we could catch a glimpse of when he turned sideways to get more seeds.

Suddenly it all made sense! Flying Squirrels are nocturnal and only come out at night. They can glide from tree to tree.

I really wish I could have got a picture of his face, but it was really hard to get any type of picture through glass, at night, so alas, I only got a picture of his back.

I wonder how long he's been visiting? I hope he continues to visit our feeder.

Maybe at some point I will be able to get a night-vision cam so he can be viewed in the evenings. Now that would be awesome! I guess I need to start saving some $$$$!