Lifers in the Water

 Barrow's Goldeneye on the Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon.

 Yellow-billed Loon at Gardiner Dam

 

Harlequin Duck, on the river in Saskatoon.

 

I've long wanted to see a Harlequin Duck in all its amazing beauty, but this one will have to do till I see that one.

It was amazing to get three lifers all in less than 10 days in November of 2021.  We haven't been able to travel far in the last two years, but have been blessed to see several Saskatchewan birds that we'd previously missed, and a few of the random birds that have ignored all the Covid restrictions and visited us.

So there was this Phainopepla...

I often think of all the rare birds that land in someone's yard and are seen only by people who don't know the difference between a sparrow and a warbler.

A few days ago a bird wandered about 2700 km (by road) out of its way and landed in a farmyard near Zealandia, Saskatchewan.  It was seen by a man who describes himself as an independent birder.  However, this time he knew he could not continue his birding in solitude.  Independent or not, he realized this bird had to be shared.

A report came through on the birder telegraph Friday afternoon.  The farm is only 110 km from our farm (also by road) so we decided to go see it.  Saturday morning.  We were concerned it might not stick around.  A day and a half later it is still there.  (I want to go see it again!)  The weather was cool, windy and overcast. It would be fun to see it in the sun.  If sunshine was to happen any time soon, that is. 

This independent birder has now shared his beautifully treed yard with what is likely more than 50 of Saskatchewan's most exuberant birders, as well as a few from Manitoba and Alberta.  This is an extraordinary bird to see on the prairies.  Our concern is whether it will find a friendly flock with which to travel south or will it stay and likely perish in what is forecast to be an unseasonably cold winter. Phainopeplas are normally found in the desert regions of Mexico and southwest USA.

Here are a couple of photos I took of this female of indeterminate age.  (If I went back maybe I'd get better photos. Who knows? She must be getting used to posing for photos by now.)

Because we went to the see this bird, we also met more than a dozen other birders who had also come to see it.  Most we'd heard of through online connections but only one we'd met before.  (While searching for a Bar-tailed Godwit in 2010.)  It would have been great to see these other birders even without finding the Phainopepla.  Doing both made for a great day.

Birding is a lot of fun.  I am ever grateful for the incredible variety in the bird world.

Spring Migration

 It starts slowly.

Horned Larks come before spring is more than a dream.

Rough-legged Hawks passing through on their way further north are the first hawks to show up in large numbers.

By the third week in March Snow Buntings have mostly departed this area for their breeding grounds near the Arctic.  However on the 24th of March this year we saw something I'd never seen before.

Snow Buntings on power lines, hundreds of them.

It was only afterwards while checking the photos that we realized there were a large number of Lapland Longspurs among the Snow Buntings.  Apparently another early migrant.

Falcons begin showing up in Saskatchewan in March, including this Taiga Merlin.

Also in March we start to see Cackling and Canada Geese.

And the early ducks such as Common Goldeneye.

By the end of the month we also see the gulls: mostly California and Ring-billed but also the occasional Herring Gull and even more occasionally other random gulls as recognized by better birders than us.

I'm really looking forward to the return of sparrows and warblers but the only early representative from these families is the American Tree Sparrow.

Every day there is the possibility of different birds. And one day there might even be warm weather.

Birds in the Snow

We had hoped to visit Vancouver Island to find birds that don't fly over the mountains, but that was not to be in this strange period in which we live.  Prince Albert National Park and Anglin Lake seemed to be the next best thing.We had heard that Grosbeaks could be seen in some more northern parts of our province so last week we decided to look for some.

PANP was short of birds, temperatures in the range of -20 to -30 celcius may have had something to do with it.  We found Common Ravens and Canada Jays

 Hairy and Black-backed Woodpeckers

but the only songbirds we saw were Black-capped Chickadees.  We checked each one carefully hoping for a Boreal but were not rewarded.

Giving up on the national park we headed the next day to the provincial park where Anglin Lake is located.  There we were rewarded by a village with cleared streets and back alleys and bird feeders attracting the Grosbeaks we were looking for.

Pine Grosbeaks

and another lifer for 2021, Evening Grosbeaks.

There were other birds there as well, Blue Jays, Canada Jays, Black-billed Magpies, more Black-capped Chickadees, and most notably a Ruffed Grouse.

From being a bird we rarely saw, we've had nice views of half a dozen in a five month period.

We had hoped for some owls on our trip north, but perhaps another time.  We did look at a lot of trees in search of them.  The area may have been short of owls but there were lots of trees, pretty special for us prairie dwellers.

First Lifer of 2021

There is still a long list of Saskatchewan birds we've never seen, or at least never identified.  Today the list got one bird shorter.

We identified our first White-winged Crossbill.  And second, and third, and fourth....  Ray estimated more than a dozen.  I was too busy trying to get a photo of a handsome male.  Unfortunately they were really, really high in a spruce tree so getting the perfect photo wasn't happening.

I got a pretty good one of a female

And a lot of partial views of the more colourful males.

It was a satisfying event, especially given how many times we've driven around Saskatoon staring up into tall spruce trees hoping for just such a sighting.  

(Crossbills are not interested in coming as far south as our farm, unfortunately, even though we are surrounded by spruce trees.)