Nervous Nora

Having had to work Saturday, I made sure that on Sunday I would get around the lanes of St-Clet to check the owls. The morning was pretty grey but I managed to locate one female Snowy Owl, who I call nervous Nora, because just does not seem to like being looked at. Today she was right by the road side on a pole, completely ignoring traffic. I used the tactic of following a passing car then easing over and sitting still for a while until she was calm. It only worked for a few minutes but I did manage a few photos and took some video with my new toy, a digital camcorder. When I passed later she was back on the pole so I stopped some distance away, to see how she would respond. Despite continuing to ignore moving traffic she eventually flew anyway, perhaps she's not nervous, just a fidget.

The video is a bit shaky, I didn't have time to use the window clamp, the range was about 70m or so, the squeak is me attracting her attention, something that generally only works once, then they ignore you.

I went back later in the day and Nora was way out in the fields, I also located a male, probably the lightly spotted one, and a female on a distant post. She was 200m plus away, I video'd her but the image is poor, however, she did respond to a squeak, which is pretty impressive at that range.

I also took a few more redpoll shots, you have been warned.

Colder

Temperatures have dipped a little, -16 this morning, and feeder activity has increased accordingly. I also took a short late afternoon sortie around the lanes, two Snowy Owls, one female at the start of Ste-Julie and another immature type on Ste-Marie. Other birders had seen the male I had earlier in the week so still three around.

Back in the garden after a week's absence. and below, very distant snowy but some idea of how close to St-Clet you can find them.


































You need to click on this to make it work, just a few comments on how to identify Hoary Redpolls of the form exilipes, identifying the race hornemanni is not that difficult, what with them being the size of a Mallard and all that.

19 January 2008

Its been fairly quiet of late although I did manage to find a male Snowy Owl out around the St-Clet lanes, my sixth individual of the winter so far. The garden continues to attract redpolls, possibly because I put enough Nyger (PC spelling) seed out to bankrupt an average third World country. The flock has diminished as the weather has warmed and only around 60 are coming down, and with only the occasional Hoary or rostrata amongst them. I have managed a few more photos, see below.

I've also been nipping down to the pits as often as possible, hoping for a snowy there or perhaps a short-eared, no luck so far. I have a regular immature Northern Grey Shrike that likes to sing a bit and regular flock of Bohemian Waxwings, 31 today, but little else, still it will soon be spring.

Perhaps tomorrow I'll muster enough energy to go and look for a King Eider down the road, its in a pretty spacky plumage but as they are usually no nearer than eight hours drive I should make the effort.

Eat quickly little redpolls, you only have to scroll down to see what is waiting a bit of a snack!

Feeder facts & other bits

12 January 2008

Last week we nipped out to bird the Chateguay area and just about the first bird seen was a Tufted Titmouse. Readers of my blogs will know that the species eluded me during 2007 and my Big Year, never mind...

This weekend, well Saturday, I spent an hour at the pits seeing a fine adult Bald Eagle, an immature Northern Grey Shrike and a small movement through of Great Black-backed Gulls, all taking the pits year list to 12! I checked the lanes around St-Clet but the big thaw seems to have moved the Snowy Owls around a bit and none were seen.

At home and the Redpoll flocks continue to visit, this weekend containing two exilipes Hoary Redpolls. They are very nervous though, perhaps the Cooper's Hawk has been browsing again.

For those interested, and because I haven't photographed anything else, I thought I'd show my winter feeder arrangements. The keen eyed amongst you will note that I strapped dead twigs to the feeders, all the better for photography because, seriously, birds at feeders don't look natural. I also adapted the feeders using cable ties to increase the amount of feeders available, useful when 100 redpolls descend at once.

On my feeder by the house I have a washing up bowl with a hole cut in and slotted over the pole, sitting on the squirrel baffle (this is sounding like Blue Peter!). I fill it with Black Sunflower seeds which attract several species and keep the entertainment going all day. The close proximity of the feeder to the house does not seem to deter birds and watching Black-capped Chickadees making endless visits is infinitely more interesting than anything on Canadian TV, Corner Gas and The Simpsons excepted.

Owl time

5 January 2008

A nice bright morning tempted me out along ’the lanes’, an area of farm roads around St-Clet, west of Montreal (you Notts birders think Gringley Carr x 20 in size). But first there was the matter of a visit to my local patch, St-Lazare sand pits, expecting really to only look at the snow. It was deep and crisp and even as usual but a distant blob in one of my hawk trees was clarified by a scope view as a fine Northern Goshawk basking in the sun. I’ve said it before but these North American Goshawks look very different from the European version, they differ structurally and have more of a longer tailed buteo jizz than the very accipiter jizz of a Eurasian Goshawk (for N. American readers, jizz = shape/impression).

This little success, when measured against the fact that our city is allowing the wholesale destruction of the local forests, pleased me no end. I have been seeing Northern Goshawk at the pits since I first started birding there in 2003 and still they hang on.

I then moved on to the lanes and voila, three distant immature Snowy Owls and, after a bit of touring, I turned up a couple of Northern Grey Shrikes (surely another split) and two Merlins as well as the regular Snow Bunts, Horned Larks etc.

The presence of a male Snowy in the earlier inspired a return visit late afternoon and another immature Snowy Owl was found (the other three being still in the general area).
I managed to photograph one of the Merlins and two of the Snowies, enjoy..

Every picture tells a story

New Year's Day 2008 was OK, up until 10.00 when a 'snow event' took place dumping yet more of the white stuff on us. Prior to that I took a look around the fields at St-Clet just west of Montreal, seeing one immature Snowy Owl, 300+ Snow Buntings, two Lapland Longspurs, 30 Horned Larks and 10 Wild Turkeys.

Dropping down onto the Chemin de la Fleuve between Les Cedres and Point-aux-Cascades a few Black Duck, Common Goldeneyes and Mallards were mixed in with 40 or so Common Mergansers and two Red-breasted Mergansers, a Northern Grey Shrike was nearby.

St-Lazare sand pits is a barren, snowy waste at the moment, I expect to improve on Blue Jay, American Crow and the omnipresent Rock Doves when the weather improves.

A bientot