Hello again!
Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 4 months since I released a blog post. I sincerely apologize for that but I do have a reason. Believe it or not, most of this winter has been absolutely dead quiet in my yard & I’ve really had nothing to talk about. If you’ve watched the webcam here at all, you know what I mean. Until into January, there was virtually nothing to see here. I have NEVER seen a winter like this in all the years I’ve been feeding the birds. I have had a high count of only 5 Pine Grosbeaks and a high count of only a dozen Common Redpolls where I would normally expect 100+. It would appear that there are good numbers of these birds in the woods …. they are just not coming to feeders this season. What I’ve been able to gather is that there is above average amounts of natural food available. Birds will always take natural sources over feeders at every opportunity.
I was so excited to see this one lone male Common Redpoll come into the yard for a few minutes the other day.
Male Common Redpoll
As I said, I have not seen many Pine Grosbeaks (these ones are with a female Purple Finch) around but I did see one that I thought was quite interesting … the one on the right in this photo. I believe that one was a hatch year bird from last year. Notice the colour of the rump. He has not completely developed his adult colouring yet.
Adult & juvenile male Pine Grosbeaks with a female Purple Finch.
I have different birds coming to my feeders now and activity has really (finally!) picked up in the last couple of weeks. Some of these birds, I do not normally have at my feeders in winter, including:
American Goldfinches
Purple Finches. I have between 20 & 40 coming around, more like springtime numbers!
Pine Siskins (here with a female Hairy Woodpecker)
I have barely seen any Evening Grosbeaks all winter until just recently. Now, I have a flock of about 25 that come around most mornings.
Evening Grosbeaks
Male (bottom right) & female Evening Grosbeaks
Male Evening Grosbeak with a small growth on its eye.
I have 3 or 4 woodpeckers coming around daily. There is a pair of Hairies who are JUST beginning to tolerate each other for the season. This male Downy comes around a few times per week and sometimes a female Downy will come around but not too much just yet.
Male Downy Woodpecker
Corvid time. 🙂 I have an entire family of Crows here daily. There is a regular family of 5 (with 3 young that hatched behind my back fence last year) but there have been up to 8 Crows here at once.
Crow
My beloved Canada Jay. I don’t see them often but there are two that come around. Only once this season have I seen three.
Canada Jays
Something I don’t see often: a calm moment between a Blue & a Canada Jay!
I have at least 5 or 6 Blue Jays coming around. I’ve just begun to hear their rattle call over the webcam in the past week. 🙂
The Rock Star of the webcam, the Ruffed Grouse, has not visited much this season until late January. There has only been the one Grouse that I know of and its visits have been very sporadic.
Classic pose of the Ruffed Grouse
In this snowstorm, the Grouse was very on edge when a couple of Crows came around
The Grouse wasn’t really upset with the Crow on the ground but there was one on a branch over the Grouse’s head that had it in full display!
The Grouse didn’t like having the Crows around at ALL!
One day a couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to discover a special pair of visitors at my feeders: White Winged Crossbills! They were here for most of one day and that was all. They are being seen in the woods this winter in excellent numbers so I’m hoping to have return visits in the spring.
Male White Winged Crossbill with a rare (this season) visiting male Pine Grosbeak.
Male White Winged Crossbill
Female White Winged Crossbill
I have another wonderful visitor this winter but this one is at night: a Northern Flying Squirrel! In fact, a couple of times, we’ve had 2 of them come in for a nighttime feed. I have one Flying Squirrel here most nights & it is SO entertaining to watch!
Two show up: let the games begin!
A showdown happens ….
… and one is sent packing!
Aside from the two Flying Squirrels, we’ve also had a rabbit & a red fox visit the feeder zone at night.
Red Fox
Rabbit!
On another note, we’ve had some issues with our server this season but I’m really hoping we are on top of things now & the webcam will be stabilized for the rest of the season. Fingers crossed. If you have not visited the Ontario FeederWatch Webcam in my yard, feel free to check it out!
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/cams/ontario-feederwatch/
Guess I had enough to talk about after all. Thanks for viewing & reading …. see you next time. 🙂
It’s nice. Thank you for sharing.
Jannine Pecasales
Executive Vice President
PhamilyPC.ca
Thanks, Tammie. I really enjoy reading your blog and watching your webcam. The blog helps me identify the birds that I see while watching your webcam.
Wish the Best for you & Your Great Family, Same as Usual, you did the Best, Excellent !
I’ve seen every bird that you displayed in your blog on your Web Cam except the Male White Wing Crossbill. I was watching your WebCam when I saw a Pine Grosbeak and a bird I couldn’t ID. So I took a screenshot opened Thayer’s Guide to NA. I ID it!
Tammie,
I have watched your feeder cam for a few years now (my favorite bird feeder cam). I was also wondering why there were so few birds this season, now you explained it!! With all of your snow, I thought your feeders would have been busier. Here in Connecticut, we are having a very mild Winter as well, only 1 inch of snow since the first day of Winter (12-21).
My feeders have been doing very well although I do not get the colorful birds that you do. I have mostly starlings, sparrows, crows, a few Cardinals and Blue Jays. Of course, Squirrels, which I do love—put out peanut butter tray for them!!
Glad to see your feeders getting busy!!
Regards, Peg
Amaizing ,beautiful work! thank you so much for sharing.
thanks Tammie.
Great blog as always. You do have more excitement on your yard than me,
but you put more work to it too, Good for rest of us to see and find out what’s happening
with birds and rest of life in nature.
Looking forward to next blog.
Tammie this was a great blog and fantastic photos! We really enjoy watching your feeders !