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.