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 …
Yes, I do know this is a woodpecker. I’m also pretty sure it’s a juvenile – I took these photos in late October. But what I don’t know if this little bird is a downy or a hairy woodpecker, as I have both in my yard. The bottom three pictures …
These are clearly not the best pictures, but crossbills are are such rare visitors to the prairies that I had to put them up anyway. I’ve never had red crossbills in our Calgary yard, and they sure didn’t stay around very long. The yellow female was more adventurous, checking out …
House finches are a relatively new yard bird in southern Alberta. Their inexorable colonization of the North American continent from both California and New York only brought them here within the last ten years or so. I remember being very excited the first time I heard one of the brightly …
It’s late spring, and across the country baby or fledgling American robins are dropping out of their nests. This seems a strange way to propagate the species, but for generations adult robins have been giving fledglings a boot. They can fly a few feet, but spend most of their time …
Spring is always a busy time for anyone with a yard, and our place is no exception. We took down a no-longer-used greenhouse, and that area is planned to be a hummingbird garden. We’re just at the point of preparing the soil, so there’s a fair amount of work to …
