Sunday, July 27, 2014

Achievement Unlocked: 200 Species

This weekend I am proud to announce that I hit 200 species on my life list. A serendipidous Bay-breasted Warbler showed up while I was walking the scrubby, swampy back fields of the family farm yesterday, near Perth, ON. I didn't go out there looking specifically for a new bird, but there it was nonetheless, hanging out with a pair of Eastern Towhees and a beautiful male Magnolia Warbler.

It's always a little bittersweet, making that visit to the farm, since there is always that the chance that each visit will be the last (chances are good the property will be sold in the not-too-distant future). But I suppose if this one does end up being my farewell tour, at least it was suitably momentous.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Baby boom

It is that wonderful time of year when the young birds start coming around to the feeders.  A noisy family of grackles showed up a few weeks ago, with parent being harassed by three hungry kids. It's always a treat seeing the big grackles trying to balance themselves on the little tiny feeder perches long enough to get some seed out. Not quite as, erm, "graceful" as the Blue Jays, but still entertaining.

The last couple of days we've had a juvenile Downy Woodpecker hanging around the peanut feeder. We don't get many woodpeckers in our neighbourhood, so every time one comes around it's an event. And a learning experience, in this case: this little guy led me to reading about differences in head pattern, trying to determine whether one could tell apart individual birds on that basis, which is what made me realize he was a juvenile in the first place.

Adult Downy Woodpecker photo downy1_zps1f505fde.jpg
Here's last winter's male Downy with his sharp black and white colouring and the discrete red spot on the back of his head.

Juvenile Downy Woodpecker photo downy2_zps34a92429.jpg
And here's the juvie from this week. Scruffier, greyer on his belly, and with a spread-out red wash over the entire crown. Also tiny, oh my goodness, he's so small, it's adorable.

The other locals - the Cardinals, Chipping Sparrows, and Chickadees - haven't starting coming by with their kids yet, nor have the inevitable Cowbirds shown up to mooch. But I've been hearing some baby Chickadees out back lately, trying very, very hard to sing like mom and dad, so it's only a matter of time.