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.)