Have you seen the cartoon – on Facebook recently – with two crows sitting on a beam in the middle of an expanse of lawn, looking off into the distance, for … something? Being a lover of both birds and words, I laughed like crazy. Not everyone does, apparently. Crows are …
When I lived in New Westminster my sister-in-law, Pat, fed peanuts to the Steller’s Jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) in her urban back yard. At that point I had no interest in birds at all, but I was intrigued by the jays that came by for dinner at Pat’s. So when I …
In addition to being known for their intelligence, members of the Corvid Family – ravens, crows, jays and magpies – are appreciated by birders for their behaviour when confronted with a predator. Their loud, raucous squawks combined with hopping and jabbing motions generally mean they have spotted an owl or hawk …
This second set of boreal bird pictures comes from Janet Plante, who, with her husband Pete is driving up the Alaska Highway. Janet is my niece, and is making me unbelievably jealous with her photos. The first picture she sent was a Yellow-rumped Warbler, taken 260 km northwest of Whitehorse, …
There is a clear order of preference at my bird feeder. These pictures were taken in a two hour period during the storm on Saturday, in this order. Squirrels get first pick, followed by the black-billed magpie, blue jay, mourning doves, red-shafted flicker, house finches, red-breasted nuthatch and a busy …
I am beginning to think my yard is emitting some kind of weird force field, resulting in some very strange bird encounters – daily owl visits, eastern birds, hundreds of waxwings… And that’s just the last few weeks. On one supremely frigid day last week, I noticed one of my …
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 …