Now I’ve Got You. Oops.

We’re into the dull birding month in my yard – I have house sparrows and more house sparrows, as the hatch year juveniles are now flying with the adults. House finches, mourning doves and black-capped chickadees make the occasional appearance, but it’s basically sparrow-world out there. A couple of days …

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Wednesday Wings: Noisy Neighbors

For the past few weeks, several times a day, I have been forced to quickly abandon whatever I’m doing in the house and run outside. No, it’s not an earthquake. We have (at least) four merlins playing in the sky above my house, all calling me with their continual ‘kee kee kee.’  …

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Wednesday Wings: Confused Hairy Woodpecker

It took this young hairy woodpecker a while to figure out how to get any food from this busy feeder, but he managed it eventually. I resisted the urge to put captions on these photos, but it was hard!

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Wednesday Wings: Ferruginous Five

Have you ever been so astonished by a bird sighting that your brain shuts down? No synapses firing, just a blank white void where your bird identification skills should be? It’s most disconcerting, I can tell you. One blisteringly hot prairie day earlier this month, my husband and I took …

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Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas Needs Photos

Update from Bird Studies Canada After five years of field work (2006-2010) by dedicated volunteers, the Maritimes Breeding Bird Atlas (MBBA) is now in the data analysis and publication phase. The species accounts have volunteer writers assigned but we still need species photos to include in the book. For a full …

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Boreal Forest Protected

Birds and wildlife of the boreal forest are breathing a little easier today. The Boreal Songbird Initiative has reported the wonderful news that 8,000 square kilometers of boreal forest and wetlands have been protected in Manitoba. “A vast stretch of pristine boreal forest and shoreline adjacent to Lake Winnipeg—a place …

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Boreal Birds #2

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, …

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