Birding with an Apprentice

I went for a walk with my almost five-year-old granddaughter the other day. I'd been told she recognized crows and robins and thought it was time to stretch her birding abilities. I pointed to a little bird on a wire and asked if she saw the bird.

Sure, she said, it's a robin.

Our first lesson involved discussion of the colour of a Robin's chest and the points on a Barn Swallow's tail.
Fortunately a real Robin stopped to search for worms nearby, allowing her to marvel at how much bigger he was than the Swallow.


Then I pried her away from the trampoline and we went in search of more birds. There were Goldfinches and Yellow Warblers darting around, but none obligingly settled down where we could get a good look.


The Cedar Waxwings were more accomodating. Rebecca with her five-year-old ears was able to imitate their whistle quite well. I was impressed.


(This photo came from last week, as did the Barn Swallow. Photography and granddaughters mix rather poorly, but she did take some rather nice shots of me, a chain and some leaves.)

Then we saw this juvenile Robin just feet away from us. An exciting moment. After that she really wanted to go back to the trampoline, but I'll turn her into a birder yet. I have a nice pair of miniature binoculars that should help.

A day in the life of a Killdeer

There was a crowd of people standing around the parking lot when we showed up at a picnic today. All being scolded by an irate Killdeer. We learned the reason very soon.She had a nest in the middle of the parking lot, which in this case is pretty much the same as the middle of the prairie.


Later in the day the report circulated that one of the eggs had hatched and another was in the process. I climbed into the box of a nearby truck in an attempt to take a photo without disturbing the mother too much.The mother stood on guard, handling the invasion fairly well as long as people stayed at least ten feet away. The grass interferes a bit with the view, but I believe we have one dry baby and one freshly hatched in this photo, with two eggs to go. Later when I blew up one of the photos I found a more recognizable photo of the baby, looking a bit fluffier now.

Transitions

I like to go for walks before church on Sunday mornings. On May 22 I saw this robin trying to appear invisible in her nest in a very scraggly spruce tree 6 feet above the ground. The next Sunday the nest appeared empty, but there was a Robin complaining gently from a nearby poplar so I assumed there might be eggs.

On June 3 I saw babies. Well trained, like their mother, they didn't move as they tried to appear invisible. It wasn't their fault the nest was in a scraggly spruce 6 feet above the ground.

Invasion of the Blossom-Eating Waxwings

The Cedar Waxwings show up in our yard each year just as the Saskatoon berries reach the perfect stage. They descend in large numbers and eat all the green berries they can hold, and if there are enough berries, they keep eating as they turn red, and if there are any they missed because they were hiding behind leaves, they get up early in the morning and eat them when they are purple. This, as you are no doubt aware, means there are never enough purple berries left for me to sprinkle on my cereal in the morning. This weekend, however, I found them in our yard a month early. So early that I wasn`t the only cold being. Note the round waxwing above, fluffings its feathers and trying to stay warm. No interest in eating, not till he warmed up, anyway. His friends were not so cold. And they were hungry. It takes a lot of flowers to fill the tummy of a migrating Cedar Waxwing.

Unwilling to compromise their plans to return later and eat my Saskatoons, however, this flock of 60+ Waxwings were all in my apple trees steadily eating blossoms.

Could be they`ve descended every year to eat our flowers, and I just missed them. Or maybe they only just learned how good apple blossoms taste.

The next day they were gone. I expect to see them back in two or three weeks. There should be green Saskatoons by then.

Who's been here this week?

The Harris's Sparrows appear to migrate one bird at a time, as we've had one or two every few days for the last 2 or 3 weeks. This one was here for about a day and then it was gone.

A surprise visitor to our patio on Thursday was this Tree Swallow. Presumably he flew up from the dam to check out the neighbourhood, as we've never seen any in our yard before.I've seen a male Yellow Warbler around a few times, but he never stays in one spot long enough for more than one photo. The first photo, as you can see here, is always fuzzy. The blooms on the Thunderchild Crabapple are looking good, however.We have a lot of Mourning Doves. Their sad song is the first birdsong I remember noticing when I moved to this yard back in the 70's. At that time, there were a few apple trees in the yard, with caraganas on the south, west and north, and a couple of maples on the north. Since then we have surrounded the yard with spruces and have planted hundreds of other trees including fruit trees, lilacs, and poplars. As the trees grow, the number of birds in the yard has multiplied.The main group of Goldfinches appears to have moved on, but there are at least six still here. I hope they've decided our yard suits them for the summer. They can make me happy just by swooping across the lawn. For other welcome visitors to our yard, check out the post below.

Not all our visitors are welcome, however. The most persistent of the unwelcome visitors are the Common Grackles and the Brown-headed Cowbirds. We probably have 25 or 30 of each of them, just hanging around the edge of the yard. A few have discovered my feeders and have appropriated the patio. I am reluctant to refill the feeders if they are going to be the main diners. One of my daughters only buys sunflower seeds for her feeders. Not sure if that would detract these two birds, but its worth a try. The mix I have now is about 3/4 sunflower seeds, 1/4 small seeds, with nijer in the finch feeders. Haven't seen either the grackles or cowbirds at them.

The Grackles are noisy, pesky and far too numerous.

I particularly resent the female Cowbirds who, I feel sure, are scoping out possible places to lay their eggs.

And the males are helping.

Stand up straight now. No slouching!

American Robin. Listening for a worm?

American Goldfinch. Checking for rain?

Grey Catbird looking for its friend? I saw it in the hazelnut tree.

An Unusual Goldfinch

Looks like a Goldfinch. Acts like a Goldfinch. Has too much black for a Goldfinch.

Now check out this light-coloured Goldfinch.
http://www.mostlysaskatchewanbirds.blogspot.ca/2014/05/unusual-goldfinch.html