Just dropping by.

Female Baltimore Oriole.

July Birds

July was not a good birding month for me. Too much else happening, I guess.  And when I went looking for my best July birds, my favourite photo was the Vesper Sparrow I already posted at the beginning of the month. However, This Cedar Waxwing came in second so here it is.

This Purple Finch didn't make a great photo, but is notable for being slightly more unusual than the Goldfinches, Robins and Catbirds that I generally see around the yard in July.

 And speaking of not-great photos. I snapped this Lark Bunting through the blur of the windshield, but I chose it as a reminder of the summer I saw more Lark Buntings than in all the rest of my life combined. Actually I managed that with the first 5 or 6 I saw in May. This one was in a gathering of half a dozen males three or four miles north of our farm shortly before sunset on July 2.

 Clay-coloured Sparrows are a bird I normally ID by ear. It was kind of funny the first time I realized that the small brown sparrow I was stalking was the same bird that had long been appearing on our bird lists.

This Purple Martin is here just because we don`t have them at home and anything we don`t have seems exotic when I see them.  I assume this is a young bird, but as I`m not very familiar with them, it might be a female.

Brown Thrasher

This is one of the first birds I was able to ID from a glimpse. Bright copper colour and a flash of long tail and even at 100 kmh I know it is a Brown Thrasher. When I took these photos, the Thrasher was in a tree on our farm.

It took me quite a bit longer to recognize its call. I posted its song last year here. 

Mystery Singers

Two birds that have stumped me.

 I assume this is a sparrow, though I never see it, at least not while it is singing. It is in the grass across the road from the field of saskatoons. Whatever this bird is, there are several that sing almost constantly throughout the day.

 

Thanks to the knowledgeable guys at the SaskBirds group, this bird has now been identified as a Sprague's Pipit. They sing from the air, not the grass, though to me this really sounded like the grass, but given I was across the road, perhaps the direction of sound was deceptive.

This next bird, on the other hand, was right in the berries. I thought it was a Clay-coloured until it started to sing, and then I had no idea. However, Stan Shadick said it is a Clay-coloured Sparrow, just with a different song. Highly interesting. I always have this idea that birds don't have many options on how they sing, but every now and then, apparently one does.

This is a sparrow I took when the camera was accidentally set to take a smaller resolution photo. I think it is a Baird's, which would make it a new bird for me. However, here again I have been corrected. It appears it is a Vesper Sparrow, which is a disappointment as I have a much better photo of a Vesper on my Seeing Yellow post a few days ago.

June birds

Given it is the middle of July, it seems time to post some of my favourite bird shots from June.

 Lesser Scaups on slough east of Lucky Lake

 Marbled Godwit on same slough as above

 Tree Swallow at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park

Eared Grebe with young, on Luck Lake

 

Purple Finch, female. At our feeder.

Willet on slough east of Lucky Lake

 Red-winged Blackbird by slough east of Demaine.

American Coot in a slough near our farm

 Yellow-headed Blackbird on Francis Lake near Herbert

And lastly, a hawk I assume is the Swainson's, but given my track record at identifying hawks, it could as easily be something else. North and east of Swift Current.

Seeing yellow

Yesterday I found myself in the middle of a field of canola.

The only bird I heard or saw there was a Clay-coloured Sparrow hidden in the canola. Below is a Vesper Sparrow that was sitting on a fence post when I stopped to take the fourth yellow photo.

Mystery Bird

This fuzzy little bird was playing some kind of chicken on the road by Francis Lake. It escaped three vehicles while we watched, but if it doesn't find what it's looking for, I am concerned for the future.  I've checked my bird books but couldn't find a picture that resembled him.  Any ideas?

I deeply regret the quality of these pictures.