2025 Lifers

 We saw three new birds in our home province of Saskatchewan in 2025.

Two of them we heard about and went looking.  The first of these I reported earlier in the year.  

In July we saw two Long-eared Owls in a park in Saskatoon after learning about it on the rare bird alert.

Our next bird was less planned.  On a September Sunday, instead of going for a drive to see what was at Gardiner Dam, we accepted an invitation to lunch.  We had no sooner stepped out of our car at their acreage a woodpecker fly across the yard.  We both knew immediately that is was not one we've seen. Turns out it was a young Red-headed Woodpecker. 

No red head.  But maybe next time.

Our final lifer of the year came in October, again as a result of the rare bird alert.  This was a Clark's Grebe.  For many years I've checked every Western Grebe in case one of them had an eye in the white.  When we arrived at the right spot on the river in Saskatoon, no searching was necessary.  The bird was right in front of us.  And so was the eye in the white.

 So there we are.  Three new Saskatchewan birds.

 

Portugal Birding: March 2025

 Portugal?  Who goes to Portugal?

Turns out to be a lot of people.  Though not all of them are looking for birds.

We booked an eight day bird tour for March, but arrived three days earlier so we would have time to do a bit of touristy stuff.  Not surprisingly, we managed to see a few birds in that time as well.

New bird: female Black Redstart.  Day -3

New Bird: Day -1  Crested Myna

New Bird: Day 1 The first of many White Storks

New Bird: Day 2  Common Redshank

New Bird: Day 3  Red Kite

New Bird: Day 4  Dartford Warbler

New Bird: Day 5  Little Owl

New Bird: Day 6  Common Shelduck

New Bird: Day 7  Little Grebe

New Bird: Day 8  Eurasian Spoonbill

All together we saw 148 birds, 99 of which were new life birds.

I don't have photos of them all, of course, and some of the photos I have are really poor.  

Two bonus photos: 

The Black-winged Stilt is as cute as could be.

And Greater Flamingos showing less pink than I was expecting.

 Our tour was through Birds and Nature Tours Portugal with guide Pedro.  He was great, the birds were great, the food was great.  The only thing I found disappointing was that we were too early for the spring migrants from Africa.

Merlin

 Merlin is the new great thing for birders.  Well, not 2025 new, but still new.  It is an app that records the birds I am hearing and then guesses what they are.  It is wonderful, as long as you don't trust it.  Merlin has recorded hundreds of thousands of bird songs and makes suggestions.  My job is to decide how accurate the guesses are.  Right now I can go into my yard and hear tiny peeps everywhere.  Merlin records them.  Sometimes it takes the easy route and calls them Yellow-rumped Warblers.  Often they are.  Other times it stretches itself and says it can hear the Yellow-rumped Warblers, Chipping Sparrows, White-throated Sparrows and White-crowned Sparrows and then it may even throw in an Orange-crowned Warbler, a Song Sparrow and perhaps even a Dark-eyed Junco.  All the while I am hearing these same tiny peeps everywhere.  Merlin and I have to work together.  My favourite moment is when I think I recognize a sound, like a distant Red-breasted Nuthatch and look down at my phone and Merlin is saying Red-breasted Nuthatch.  For someone with a really bad memory for bird songs, that is an exciting moment.  And I trust Merlin. 

Until I look further.  Just above the Red-breasted Nuthatch it says Marsh Wren.  There is about a 1% chance there was actually a Marsh Wren in my garden.  Northern House Wren, extremely possible.  I expect they sound similar. 

After a while Merlin took a giant step forward and said it will identify birds from photos.  Yesterday I took photos of photos (on my computer) and asked Merlin's suggestion.  The first one was a vireo, I knew that much, but which vireo?  A  Warbling Vireo?  I recognize their song but birds are less likely to sing in the fall and this one wasn't.  Or maybe it was a Philadelphia Vireo.  Less likely but still possible.  The first photo I loaded brought up the Warbling Vireo as first suggestion and Philadelphia as second.  

 So I tried a different photo of the same bird.  This time it suggested Philadelphia first, Warbling second.  I was right back where I started.

 

Then I went for a bird I couldn't ID at all.

 

Merlin suggested Blackpoll Warbler.  I was shocked.  This is the Blackpoll warbler I saw in May 2016.

But then I looked further and discovered that first year birds look completely different.  Like this photo I stole from ebird.

 

Now that is when Merlin is really helpful. 

Lifer!

 On our way to Saskatoon a few days ago, I checked the Ebird list for the city to see what people had been seeing and saw the mention of a bird I'd long wished for.  Ever since a friend who doesn't like birds, (have you ever heard of such a thing?) sent me a photo of a Long-eared Owl taken on their property, it has been on my target list.  

We showed up at the site about 4:30 pm, not the ideal time to see an owl but the sightings I'd read about were all in the daytime.  No one had said where in the park the owls had been seen (did I mention there were 4 juveniles as well as a parent or two?) so we walked through the part of the park we guessed they might be in and peered into the trees without luck.  Then we met a dog walker who said the three times (!) he'd seen any of the owls they'd been in different parts of the park and high in the trees.  We wandered around some more, peering high into the trees, then took a short path off the main trail and Ray saw a young owl.

Minutes later the granddaughter with us found an adult much lower in a tree than I had been looking.

I tried to get into a position where I could get the twig out of the face, but the owl was not in favour.  Maybe next time.
 

June Birds in Saskatchewan

 The beginning of June found us in Grasslands National Park, in the south west corner of Saskatchewan.  This is a region known for being dry but this year there had been enough rain that it was still green when we visited there.

It is prime breeding ground for Lark Buntings and we saw plenty.  The females are streaky brown and may be confused with the average sparrow to the casual observer, but the males really stand out.

We are always pleased if we see any close to home, but in the Grassland Park they were abundant.

I didn't photograph a single female among the crowds of white winged males.  We have to assume they were all nestled on their eggs in their hidden nests.

We saw (briefly) one life bird during our couple of days in the park.  It was a Rock Wren.  This one peeked over the tops of the rocks for a minute or less.  Ray glimpsed the whole bird, but alas, my camera did not.

There were also several Bobolinks, another bird we don't see often enough.

On our list of seldom seen birds was this Cinnamon Teal, a beautiful, and to us, rare duck.

Later in the month I photographed this hawk.  Given the amount of white, I am calling it a Ferruginous Hawk till someone tells me otherwise. One of my favourite things about these hawks is that their preferred lunch is a plump Richardson's Ground Squirrel, aka a gopher.  They do munch on the occasional meadowlark unfortunately, but birds are not their primary diet choice.

Every summer the Purple Martins inspect our yard.  They always reject our martin house, not surprising as you can see.  Not being a carpenter, I need to find a place to buy a new house. I like hearing their calls as they fly over and would welcome them as tenants.

The flycatcher family has the most species of any bird family in the world.  The Least Flycatcher is one that occasionally nests in our yard.

As farmers we are blessed with grassland as well as cropland.  This gives us the opportunity to see sparrows.  Native ones, not the House Sparrows that call our yard home.  This one is a Clay-coloured Sparrow.  Its song is an interesting buzzing sound.

I love warblers.  They are small and cute and don't sit still. Most of them nest in the forests three or more hours north of us but a few species are willing to spend the summers in southern Saskatchewan.  American Redstarts like this one will nest in the wooded areas, particularly provincial parks.

Some of these flycatchers are impossible to identify by sight, but by song this one identified himself as an Alder Flycatcher.  We met this guy in Spruce Woods Park in Manitoba.

Our last June bird is a Great Blue Heron.  I love herons.  (Okay, along with owls, warblers, tanagers, woodpeckers....) 

A House Finch Story

 There seemed to be a conversation.

With both of them having lots to say.

 

But then something goes wrong.

He tries to mend his fences.

She wasn't ready for that.

He moves to another arm.

She follows him...

And peace returns.

Last few seconds in the life of ...

 I don't know what this insect is.  It's possible the warbler didn't know, either. 

It is also possible that neither of us cares.

It was caught.

The bird was content.  The insect was soon gone.

And the warbler was off to find another.

By the way, this bird is a bit of a tricky ID.  I think it is a female Yellow Warbler, but the eye ring and faint eyebrow could suggest another species, though probably still a female.  Whatever, she is still cute and was in our trees here by Lucky Lake during fall migration.  Though if she is a Yellow Warbler, she could have been here all summer.