The Pond has Melted!

Finally! After 4 months being completely covered in ice, the pond near my house has finally melted completely meaning the ducks and shorebirds are once again using the pond as a rest stop on their trip north.

Waterfowl included a pair of Bufflehead:

Bufflehead pair

Three Blue-winged Teals, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, and a pair of Green-winged Teals.

Blue-winged Teals, female Hooded Merganser, female Green-winged Teal (far left)

Hooded Merganser male with female Green-winged Teal

Blue-winged Teals with female Bufflehead

Song Sparrows are singing from (still) singing from everywhere, but I also heard my first singing Savannah Sparrows and Vesper Sparrows (FOY) this morning. The Savannah Sparrows were doing an interesting dance where one would sing vigorously and chase the other individual from perch to perch. I presume this is a courtship routine, one I have never observed before.

Savannah Sparrows

Here are some shots of some Song Sparrows:

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

Song Sparrow

The Mourning Doves have been back for some time now, but today was my first time hearing that familiar cooing.

Mourning Dove

Numbers of Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Yellow-rumped Warblers are increasing everywhere currently and their calls can be heard from many bush-lines and treetops.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Of course, Northern Flickers!

Female Northern Flicker

This male and female posed nicely for me on this fencepost. Notice the black "mustache" on the male.

Male and Female Northern Flicker

Male Northern Flicker

Another woodpecker that is extremely abundant right now is the Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. They migrate through southern Manitoba in great numbers during this time of year.

Female Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

All these photos were taken on while on a walk this morning (April 27). I also saw 3 Franklin's Gulls, the second FOY I recorded today which has put me at 100 species on the year! In total I recorded 33 species... visit my Bird Log post to access the link to my eBird Checklist.

Have a good one!

Joel G.

Sparrows Galore!

Every day that passes seems to bring with it greater numbers of birds and more life overall. The frogs are croaking now all through the night and day. American Robins are singing everywhere and the bush is full of the songs of Fox Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, Song Sparrows, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The Red-winged Blackbirds and Common Grackles are passing through in great numbers and making a racket everywhere they go. It's neat to see so many songbirds returning all at once, each king belting out their own songs and warming up for courtship as they journey north.

The first bird to greet me was this male Northern Flicker.

Male Northern Flicker

Male Northern Flicker

The mature male Red-winged Blackbirds come back before the females and first-year males to stake out their territories. As such, their songs and calls fill the air all through the morning from the most conspicuous perches they can find as they advertise and defend their territories from rival males.

Displaying Red-winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

Song Sparrows can be heard singing from the tops of trees and shrubs all around the neighborhood.

Song Sparrow

Mallard pairs are easily flushed up from ditches... here is a male. Also I observed a number of Grey Partridges but I only ever saw them in flight. They would be in the ditch about 15 feet away from me, and I wouldn't notice them until they flushed. Their wingbeats are so loud that they likely startled me more than I startled them.

Mallard

I discovered this tiny little bird foraging in a small tree. It is a Ruby-crowned Kinglet; they are hardy little birds, often the first songbirds to migrate in spring and leave in fall.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

I saw these Cormorants flying in a perfect "V" and assumed that they were Canada Geese at first. It took me a second to realize that they were not geese at all, and actually Double-crested Cormorants!

Double-crested Cormorants

The Meadowlarks are singing quite loudly in the farmland and can be heard and seen in nearly every direction.

Western Meadowlark

The Juncos are still around!

Dark-eyed Junco

Here is a pair of American Robins that I saw searching for who-knows-what in a ditch.

Male American Robin

Female American Robin

And a FOY! I almost overlooked this woodpecker, assuming it to be a Downy. Good think I looked twice and discovered that it was in fact a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker!

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

The first wave of migratory sparrows is peaking right now with groups of Fox Sparrows, American Tree Sparrows, and Dark-eyed Juncos filling many yards with activity and song. I never realized how common these sparrows actually are around this time of year and wonder how many I've missed out on seeing or misidentified in past years. This is my first time photographing Fox Sparrows. They have the most beautifully rich song of any sparrow and one of the most entertaining foraging techniques! They throw their whole body into their scratching among the leaves, sometimes using both feet at once to move things around!

Fox Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

This shy bird is a common migratory sight, but disappears in the summer when it is more often heard than seen. He wouldn't sit still or let me get close so here is the best photo of this Hermit Thrush I can offer you.

Hermit Thrush

More American Tree Sparrows! And a lot of them too! There were about 10 of these guys feeding with a flock of Dark-eyed Juncos along one 100 meter stretch of road.

American Tree Sparrow

Oh ya, and a couple Fox Sparrows in the mix too.

Fox Sparrow

American Tree Sparrow

They blend in so well into the dry grass and brush!

American Tree Sparrow with Dark-eyed Junco

Fox Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

American Tree Sparrow

Today was the first time I heard this bird and was lucky enough to glimpse one! The Wilson's Snipes are back and this is my second FOY of the day!

Wilson's Snipe

Found another Kinglet on my way back home. I heard a wack of them singing and calling, but they are so small, fast-moving, and unpredictable that I didn't get many good photos. I had one beauty shot lined up, but my camera didn't focus and so my perfect shot was entirely blurry. This one will have to do.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Thanks for following along today! Feel free to check out my Bird Log post to see what else I saw and the high counts of these birds! This has been my biggest checklist of the year thus far with just shy of 30 species! I love spring!

Joel G.

Flickers Are Back

Well the date is April 23, the second day straight of temperatures above 15 degrees (after a week of everything below 10) and all of a sudden there are birds everywhere. The air is full of Ring-billed Gulls calling, Song Sparrow and Western Meadowlark songs fill the air, and American Robins flit and hop around everywhere. This is the second wave of Robins; the first wave (almost exclusively of males) passes through early to mid-April. The second wave is composed of mostly females but also a fair number of males that are a little behind. You can tell them apart by looking at the color of their breast; a female has a lighter breast with more white while the males have a rich rusty orange breast that uniformly covers their front. A truly beautiful sight on a beautiful day.

Male American Robin

Male American Robin

Male American Robin

Male American Robin with Northern Flicker foraging in the background.

Male American Robin

But the main attraction today was the Northern Flickers. Around this time every year they come in droves for a week or two and are seen everywhere from woodlands, to farms, to golf courses and really anywhere bugs can be found. Unlike other woodpeckers they are just as comfortable foraging on the ground as they are in a tree and can often be found wreaking havoc on ant hills (ants are one of their favorite snacks). Today I saw nine individuals (surely more to come) and they were all females. You can tell them apart by looking at their cheek; males have a black "mustache" mark on their cheek while females just have a tan cheek.

Female Northern Flicker

Female Northern Flicker

Northern Flickers actually appear quite different from east to west. Western populations have red feather shafts and under-wings and thus they are named "red-shafted" flickers. Somewhere between the West Coast and Manitoba they transition from being red-shafted to yellow-shafted (as can be seen in the pictures below). Intermediate color forms are possible and occasionally seen in where populations overlap, but in general a Northern Flicker will be one or the other. Here in Manitoba we get exclusively yellow-shafted individuals. If you see a red-shafted individual let me know as they are not common here at all.

Female Northern Flicker showing off her Yellow-shafts

Female Northern Flicker

I hope you're as excited as I am that spring is back and bringing the birds with it! Hope you enjoyed this post and have a great day!

Joel G.

Lockport

On my way back from birding Clandeboye Road, I stopped in at Lockport because why not. Not much of a story to tell, but a couple of neat shots. Let's get to it.

Prepare to be spammed by a bunch of photos of Ring-billed Gulls. This individual allowed me to get within 6 feet of it! Don't worry we were responsible and practiced physical distancing. Now I know most people don't like gulls, but tell me that this one, in pristine breeding plumage, doesn't look simply stunning.

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Ring-billed Gull pair

You can't do a post on Lockport and not include pelicans.

American White Pelicans

American White Pelican scooping up dinner

American White Pelican

On the other, less turbulent side of the locks I found a group of Hooded Mergansers. These are certainly unique ducks!

Hooded Mergansers

Hooded Mergansers

Hooded Mergansers

Where there's water, there's geese. Lockport is no exception.

Canada Geese

Canada Geese

So concludes my post on my brief visit to Lockport! Thanks for checking in! Feel free to check out my Lockport Bird Log post.

Joel G.