Where Are The Posts?

You may have noticed Bird Canada has been sadly lacking in posts lately. If someone would just give me 48 hours in each day…

We have been working our tail-feathers off around here for the last two months. No time for birding drives, scarcely any time to look out the window and see what’s in the yard.

Four weekends in a row we arranged things so we could go for a weekend drive look for snowy owls. Three of those days produced a snow storm, the fourth brought near hurricane force winds.

On the rare occasions I managed to look up from my computer, my yard didn’t seem to contain any exciting birds. Except for last week…

While waiting for the kettle to boil so I could make a cup of mid-afternoon tea, I glanced out the window and was astonished to see a male common grackle chowing down at my deck feeder. When he had eaten his fill, he flew to the spruce trees at the back of the yard.

Peering intently into the trees to see if he was alone, I was absolutely, totally gobsmacked when a SNOWY OWL flew through the yard.  He entered from the north east corner, and flew diagonally across the yard. I was so excited I loudly exclaimed “did you SEE that?!” before realizing the only other creature in the room was the dog. She didn’t see it.

I ran to the front window just in time to see him fly up the street and out of sight. This was the fifth owl species to visit my yard (great-horned, boreal, long-eared & northern saw-whet) but I don’t think I have ever been more flabbergasted at a yard bird.

I owe that grackle – big time! And yes he’s still hanging around the neighborhood, and hopefully will remain here until the Christmas bird count on Sunday.

Things will get back to normal on Bird Canada early in the new year. Or with some extraordinary luck, I’ll even manage to get a post up next week. Maybe.