Driving Around Today

A Holiday Monday here in Saskatchewan.  Also the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count weekend.  I left the house as the sun was rising, which isn't as early as it sounds - sunrise was at 7:52 this morning.

I hoped to get out to the warm water bays at Boundary before the fishermen arrived.  I beat the fishermen but a seismic crew got there before me and scared the birds off the water closest to the road.  Bah.  Oh well, I scoped the birds on the far shore and found a Hooded Merganser diving for its breakfast.

Then I drove into the area where the hot water (from the power plant) runs into the reservoir. 

A little bit of steam rising.  In very cold weather, the fence is covered in ice and the trail extremely treacherous.  

You can see a coal seam at the water line (under small the ice shelf).

A Snowy Owl on a new power pole - Shot #1

Shot #2.  See Ya!

I just love this bridge and its bit of road.  It's near Torquay, SK. 

I added two species to my 2012 List:  Mourning Dove and Gray Partridges.   The Mourning Dove is unusual - every Fall, a few stay around and try to survive the northern Winter, most don't win that game.  But this year has been particularly mild, so this particular little dove has managed to stay alive. 

Canada Geese in the Morning

I have a like/dislike attitude toward our huge coal-fired power generating station.  It is dirty and polluting (although, to be fair, a lot of emission controls have been put in place).  But, happily for a birder....water from the adjacent reservoir is used for cooling, and the returning hot water keeps part of the reservoir ice-free all Winter.  Believe me, it makes birding in the frozen prairies a lot more interesting during the cold, short days from December to April!

My 'usual' birding route takes me down Fisherman's Road and over to the hot water outflow and the bays and channels nearby.

This is the flood channel between Boundary and Rafferty reservoir.

On the other side...more geese, and a couple Mallards flying

There was quite a racket of honking going on.

There are 10,000-15,000 Canadas on Boundary during the winter, along with 5,000 or more Mallards  (low estimates).

Sometimes I see Hooded Mergansers, usually Common Goldeneyes, a Lesser Scaup or two, Ring-necked Ducks and the occasional Redhead.  There's a Ruddy Duck staying the winter this year as well. 

Coots & Ice

I went around my 'usual' birding route yesterday.  As always, there are thousands of geese at Boundary dam reservoir; most are Canadas but a small portion are Cackling.  I saw a few feeding flocks that had a few of these small Canada Goose look-alikes.  (No photos to show today).

A young Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) was patrolling the water and circled around to check out the dirty white vehicle arriving in its territory.  I had time for a quick snap through the windshield. 

This is part of the reservoir.

At the boat launch, wave action and steam rising during the deep freeze last week coated the floating wharf with an attractive layer of ice.  One of the seven or so resident American Coots (Fulica americana) was over having a snoop around.  Usually the coots stay on the opposite side, close to the hot water outflow. But, it was a lovely, +1C day yesterday.

During last week's dive in temperature (-30C) with -41C wind chills for several days, I worried about the Snowy Owls (and everything else having to survive outside).  I drove around a bit on Saturday but didn't see any owls.  Yesterday, however, one of the juvenile Snowy Owls  (Bubo scandiacus) was back on its favourite pole.  Too far away to show clearly, but there is some blood on the bird's right leg...it might be holding down a freshly caught, very unfortunate, rodent of some sort.