Favourites from May

 American Avocet near Birsay, Sask.

American White Pelican at the weir in Saskatoon,.

 Dowitcher on a slough near Birsay, Sask. (I'm guessing Short-billed but your guess is as good as mine.)

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Harris's Sparrow on my stone patio west of Lucky Lake.

 Horned Grebe on a slough east of the hamlet of Demaine, Sask.

 Western Kingbird at the Pavillion on Diefenbaker Lake, part of Danielson Provincial Park.

By the side of the road

Green-winged Teal

 

An unidentified shorebird.  May be a male Wilson's Phalarope, but he looks too plump and his neck is so short. His bill and markings don't seem to match any of the small sandpipers or other shorebirds. I am at a loss. Actually a fairly typical state for me when I am dealing with shorebirds.

Blue-winged Teal pair

Northern Pintail pair with phalaropes coming in for a landing behind them.

Female Wilson's Phalarope

A couple of surprises

Lark Buntings!  I only remember seeing one before on two different occasions. Today Ray and I saw 6, 5 males and 1 female which I never would have identified if it hadn't been with 4 of the males.

 

After driving out to the field partly to deliver chemical and partly to see the Lark Buntings I returned home to move the garden hose and snap shots of the Cedar Waxwings which have returned just in time to eat the apple blossoms.

And that's when I looked into a birch tree and saw a Common Nighthawk. Just relaxing and waiting for evening to go bug hunting.

Pretty good for a seeding day when I didn't have time to go birding.

Just day visitors

Friday was memorable as the day the Orioles dropped by.

First we had this brightly coloured male.

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 And then, later in the day, this lighter coloured male showed up.

They were not there together because they were friends. The brighter coloured Oriole was definitely the Alpha male. If the term is appropriate for birds? 

We saw neither of them for the next two days. This morning an Oriole visited the yard very briefly, I  believe it was a different bird altogether.  It passed on our oranges and hasn't been seen or heard for hours.  Oh, well. Spring is not over.

From my kitchen window: the Second Week of May 2012

 A thrush. Sorry, I can't tell you which one, but I don't think it is a Swainson's. No spectacles.

We're still seeing the occasional Pine Siskin.

 The Mourning Doves are advertising their presence everywhere.  They usually eat the spilled grain in the granary yard but now and then one pops by the patio.

 Several cheery little Chipping Sparrows check out the patio periodically.

There are dozens of Goldfinches around. I've counted twenty at a time beneath the feeder, though didn't managed to get that many into this shot.

  I've had a couple of glimpses of a Brown Thrasher, and occasionally hear him from the garden.

And, most surprising of all, our Blue Jay still drops by for the occasional visit. He is very shy, however, and usually flies away as soon as I appear at the window. This morning I caught him on camera, but through a clouded part of the window. Proof none-the-less.

First of Year Bright Yellow

Along the road

Seeding has begun. Though I don't operate any machinery, I am required to drive everyone anywhere they need to go. Today I was following a slow moving truck, so stopped every now and then and pointed my camera at a slough.

  Above, a Canvasback Duck with its bright white back, and below, an American Avocet. 

These two Long-billed Curlews were in a field where my daughter was seeding canola.

The Ring-billed Gull and the Marbled Godwit below it were both right beside the road. Unlike the ducks with them, these two did not fly away when I backed up. 

This Western Meadowlark was singing his spring song a lot higher in the air than I usually see them. No fence posts for this bird.

First week of May: cool, cloudy, damp

 But the birds are here anyway.




Several Pine Siskins arrived early in the week.

 There are at least two Harris's Sparrows, at least that's all I've seen at one time.

 A Lincoln's Sparrow

 A musical gathering of White-throated Sparrows:

 I could almost say a musical gathering of Common Grackles, too, but somehow their songs are just short of musical, making it more into the noisy category, along with my other most common visitor, the House Sparrow. There is sometimes a Red-winged Blackbird with the Grackles, though, which definitely raises the tone.

A small flock of White-crowned Sparrows. They've been scratching in the lawn so much, I can't help wondering if they are eating the grass seed I spread in an attempt to fill in some of the dead patches.

 

 And always a cheerful American Robin. My favourite this week was hopping busily around the lawn, apparently oblivious to a cat creeping up on him, but always several feet away. Eventually he just lifted his wings and flew and the cat gave up and wandered away.

Common Loons

 The loons can be seen spring and fall on Diefenbaker Lake.

Unfortunately, we never get to hear their mournful call during the few minutes across the bridge in the vehicle.

 

 When I looked at my photos afterward, I was pleased to find these mergansers. (I could only stop the van on the bridge so long, and hadn't taken time to use the binoculars.) They were far away. I never seem to see Mergansers close up.