Autumn Birding

 We've gained a few lifers this fall, and got better photos of some others.

Among our lifers were

A Pacific Loon at Gardiner Dam

And ten minutes later Hooded Mergansers, a species we should have seen years ago but some how kept missing.

A month or so ago we encountered this American Pipit on a road near Anglin Lake in Great Blue Heron Provincial Park.

And a couple of days later we identified our first Rusty Blackbird in a park near Christopher Lake, Saskatchewan.  

The same week we were in Prince Albert National Park and saw our second and third ever Pileated Woodpeckers.  Considering the first one was just a brief flyover, this was as exciting as a first view.

Another day we met a confiding Spotted Towhee in Pike Lake Provincial Park.

Another exciting find from around the same time were three sightings of Ruffed Grouse, a bird that is usually only seen running across the road in front of our car, never hanging around for photos.  Until this time.

My last exciting fall find was a couple of weeks ago when we were driving down Highway 4.  I was extremely pleased to see a Golden Eagle perched on a power pole. For a first photo this is good, next time I'm hoping for fewer power lines.

Saskatchewan Summer Birding

 Summer is when birds are less noticeable and we do less intentional birding.

That can mean we see fewer birds, which was true this past summer as grandchildren came to visit and birds were sidelined except for the occasional one that forced its way into my line of sight.

We did drive to Gardiner Dam August 9 where I counted 17 Great Blue Herons and Ray counted 23.  (He has better eyes than I do, which is very useful in finding birds while driving.)  No, not all 17 (or 23) are in this photo.

In case you are doubting those herons, here is a closer view of one.  By the time we drove around the spillway to get a better view, they had left.  We learned last year that there is a heronry near the dam, so were not as surprised as we would otherwise have been to see this gathering.
 

On August 16 we drove to Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park where we saw several Common Nighthawks flying overhead.  In the middle of the afternoon.

After searching neighbouring trees we found one resting on a branch.  Great camouflage!

Also in the park were the usual Northern Flickers.

On August 26 we didn't need to go anywhere to see two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.  They were eating (drinking?) at the feeder 

but they also appeared to be dancing in the air.  It made capturing them both in one shot tricky but, what with taking over a hundred shots in four minutes, I did catch them both a couple of times.

These were either adult females or first year birds.  I have never yet seen an adult male at our feeders. Which also means I haven't photographed an adult male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.  

The other summer birds of note were a family of Brown Thrashers.  They frequently nest in trees outside the yard but this year they must have been around my garden for I saw or heard them daily.  Not a lot of photos, but good to know they were there.  Here's one of them on a bad hair day.                                                                  

May to early June: the real springtime in Saskatchewan

Being farmers, spring is one of our busiest times of the year.  We take Sundays off, but go to church in the morning so our big birding trips of the spring are as many Sunday afternoons as we can get away with.  Turns out this year, every Sunday was free of obligations and church came in an email so, guess what?  We could go birding every Sunday morning, prime birding time.  But every rain cloud has a grey exterior, and the sad part about this one was that our favourite parks were all closed.  We were undaunted, however, and visited Gardiner Dam, a good birding place with no gates, and our own land which is obligingly filled with assorted sloughs, native prairie and the occasional tree.

So here are some of my favourite photos from our pandemic birding.

While nonbirders look on all sparrows as the same, I can get pretty excited when they pass through our yard.  And pretty disappointed if they turn out to be all the same.

My favourite singing sparrow stopped by for a few days on the way north.  The White-throated Sparrow.

 The Clay-coloured Sparrow sticks around all summer in varying numbers.

 As does the Savannah Sparrow.

Thrushes are known for being great singers, but I read that they do not sing while migrating, and I have never heard anything to dispute that. The only thrush that nests anywhere near us is the American Robin, but there are three that pass through.

This one I am calling a Hermit Thrush based on its lack of spectacles and the rusty colour in the tail.

On the other hand, this is a Swainson's Thrush, the most common thrush migrant in our yard.  It is wearing its spectacles.

Millions of shorebirds pass through Saskatchewan on their way to breeding grounds every year.
It's a fun day when we confidently id a new one.  Most times I'm looking over old photos and removing the tags as I second-guess my original id.

I decided that these are Semipalmated Sandpipers.

 And this a Pectoral Sandpiper.

The Upland Sandpiper is not only one that breeds in our area, but a sandpiper that prefers prairie to water.

Other summer breeders include the Loggerhead Shrike

the Osprey

and the Merlin.

Spring! And the birds are coming back!

It's been a cold, late spring here in Saskatchewan but the birds don't know that as they leave their winter spots in South America, Central America, Mexico or the United States.  Their internal calendars say it is time to fly north, so fly north they do.

The first migrant we are likely to see each year is the Horned Lark.  They arrive as early as January or February. The flocks have mostly moved on so now we are seeing more individuals or pairs.

Next are the Dark-eyed Juncos.  Our yard is alive with their trill.  They flash their white-edged tails in the caragana trees and occasionally come checking out the dropped seeds under our feeders.

Meadowlarks usually show up in late March or early April.  While we lament the decreasing numbers of Western Meadowlarks in some parts of the province, we still have lots in the farming country where we live.  One of my favourite spring sounds is their song, loud enough to hear from a moving vehicle when we pass one on a signpost by the road.

Flocks of American Tree Sparrows joined the juncos in our shelterbelts at the beginning of April this year.  We don't usually see them in such large numbers so I'm assuming they stopped by because of the snow we had that weekend.

The other early migrants are less noticeable here on the farm but very visible elsewhere. Gulls everywhere, mostly the white-headed ones right now.  They seem to like standing around on ice beside the bits of open water.

And overhead, on fields, or in any open water they can find are the huge flocks of geese: Canadas, Cackling, Snow and, in smaller numbers usually mixed in the with the others, Greater White-fronted. 

Also returning are the ducks.  Not in the big flocks like the geese, but in any amount it seems from individuals of one species to groups of 50, 60 or more.  Lots of Mallards, but also some of almost (but not quite) every other species you can name.

Northern Harriers have returned, one day we saw half a dozen along the 4 miles of highway we take to town.  Also present are more Red-tailed Hawks than we will ever see the summer.

Just trickling in are the shorebirds.  The occasional Killdeer showed up a few weeks ago, but little else.  Yesterday we saw (glimpsed?) our first-of-year American Avocets

 and our first Long-billed Curlew.

 There will be more.

Also expected this week are the blackbirds, another family of birds that has had a few scouts going ahead but no big flocks yet.

And then will be the native sparrows, the first of whom usually show up the end of April.  What fun we shall have.  So far birding in Saskatchewan has not been forbidden!

Winter Birding on our Farm

Our farm does not typically attract many species of birds in the winter.

We have House Sparrows,

 Rock Pigeons

  and Black-billed Magpies year round.

This year was no exception.  

Sometimes we get Blue Jays. I saw between 1 and 7 Jays every day this winter.  They are still here.  I counted 5 on April 16.  I have no idea how many actually spend the whole winter in our yard.  Some could just be dropping by for the occasional sunflower seed.  We have a lot of tree rows around the yard so there are many places for them to be.  I typically only notice the ones I can see from the house windows.

Black-capped Chickadees do not normally visit our yard.  This year we had one single chickadee most of the winter. I first saw it on November 4, then it disappeared sometime between February 24 and March 11 when we were away from home.

Other years we've had Red-breasted Nuthatches,

American Goldfinches

or Common Redpolls.

These last three birds were photographed in February 2017.

 but this year it was just the Chickadee and the Blue Jays.

Oh right.  And the House Sparrows, Rock Pigeons and Black-billed Magpies.  Fortunately only the sparrows come near the house.