Notes From a Northwestern Ontario Backyard – January 2019

Happy New Year!

 

I’m afraid I don’t have much to talk about right now. I haven’t been watching the feeders or yard too closely this past month. I’ve been heavily distracted by illness in the family until just recently. Fingers crossed, that will now change! In the meantime, here are some photos of the lovely visitors that I have been able to capture with Bertha (my Nikon 150-600 mm set-up) and the webcam, as in the photo above.

 

 

 

Grosbeaks are visiting the feeders daily but their numbers are definitely down for this region this winter. Larger numbers of them have gone further south in an irruption due to natural food shortages up here. Instead of seeing flocks of 30+ Pine Grosbeaks, I’m seeing maybe 15.

 

 

Instead of seeing flocks of 50+ Evening Grosbeaks, I’m LUCKY to see 10 & some weeks, I don’t see any at all! I’ve had irruption years here with this species where I’ve had over 200 at my feeders. This year is quite the drop.

 

The immature White Crowned Sparrow is still holding its own during this bitterly cold spell we’re having. Base temperatures have been in the mid to high -30’s with wind chills near -50 or colder the past couple of days but this little Sparrow was out in the yard yesterday.

 

 

It sometimes hangs out with the lone Junco that is also spending the winter in the area.

 

Surprisingly this winter, I have a flock of Pine Siskins visiting my feeders. I’ve seen about 15 of them together. I don’t normally get flocks of them in the winter although other towns in the region do. I can have huge numbers of them in the summer though. They are a nice little addition for me.

 

Common Redpoll numbers are also WAY down for this region this winter. I normally have 100+ Common Redpolls at a time visiting my feeders by January. This season, however, my best count to date has been a whopping 27! I sure love ’em tho. They are sooooo cute!!

 

So far this FeederWatch count season, I’ve only spotted one Hoary Redpoll in my yard. In 2014, during a major irruption of Redpolls & Evening Grosbeaks, I had a record breaking *20* Hoary Redpolls at one time in my yard!!

 

On to the Corvids now. Blue Jays are around every day. Sometimes I only see one, other days I’ll have seven or more. This particular day, they were a little scrappy!

 

 

The one nearest to my heart is the handsome Canada Jay. I love these friendly birds! I’ve had 3 visiting my feeders this winter but yesterday, only 2 showed up. We had put some bologna out on the platform to give them a little added fat in these brutally cold temperatures ….. and they LOVED it. How can you ever resist that face??

 

The pair of them on the platform feeder yesterday, with a piece of bologna showing between them. They each flew away with a chunk!

 

The other one who gets catered to with meat offerings is the handsome Raven. On this day, he/she was enjoying meatloaf that had been in the freezer a little too long. See its puff of breath floating off to the right?

 

And my most recent special visitor: a super-cute Snow Bunting! It’s all alone and has been feeding in my yard for nearly a week now. It won’t go up onto the platform feeder so I keep spots of seed & cracked corn in certain areas on the ground for it. The transformation of these birds in spring is pretty incredible. They go from these mostly white & brown birds with orange beaks to being solid black & white with black beaks by the end of spring! I’ve never seen one at that stage, I only ever see them in this winter plumage.

 

She’s exceptionally timid & spends all of her time alone when she’s in the yard. She will feed with the Pine Grosbeaks but she stays off to the side, a few feet away from them. She’ll also spend time just sitting on my fence. She’s soooo cute!

 

Project FeederWatch is still running, until April 5th. You can still sign up & join until sometime in February! Don’t forget to check out the webcam in my yard during the FeederWatch season. The cam will be online until about mid April.

Also in February is the Great Backyard Bird Count. This year, it runs from February 15th to 18th. You need only count the birds at your feeders or around your yard or neighbourhood. Unlike FeederWatch, you don’t have to count ONLY at your feeders. You can spend all the time you like counting over the 4 days but the minimum is 15 minutes at a time. It creates a great snapshot of where the birds are in mid winter and this year, with the southern irruptions of Redpolls, Grosbeaks & others, the counts should be quite interesting. Please consider signing up!

And that’s it for this month. I hope everyone is staying warm and I wish safety for anyone in Ontario affected by yesterday’s blizzard. See you in February!