My poor birds! While I can sit here snug inside a heated house, my feathered friends are struggling through a Canadian winter. January is always a cold month, although this year it’s been warmer than normal. I’m not sure the birds think the same. I took these pictures at the …
Attention all you birders who love a challenge! One of my blog readers in Edmonton, Alberta sent me this bird picture he took last August, and asked for some help with the identification of this species. While yes, at first glance it does look like a blue-winged teal, a closer …
For the second year in a row, we have mouring doves overwintering in our Alberta yard. And because we have doves, I go out of my way to see that they have enough food. OK – more than enough food – it’s cold out there. As they are ground feeders, …
Birding the prairies in winter can be a tricky thing. You have to wait until the weather conditions are right – no ice on the roads, no blowing snow, no minus 30C temperatures – and you have to head out in the dark. The chance of a snowy owl sighting …
Black-billed magpies survive because they are clever, and quick to take advantage of any food source. Driving down the highway the other day, I burst out laughing when I saw this bird chowing down on an enormous pile of feed grain. Prairie farmers often leave piles of grain like this …
At one time, the Burrowing Owl was common in the four western provinces. Now, it is one of the most endangered birds in Canada. The population decline began in the 1980s and accelerated during the 1990s to an average rate of 22% a year. In 1977, more than 2,000 breeding …
