Least Flycatcher Nest

One day in late June, I stopped on the side of a road to make some notes about birds I had just seen.  Movement in nearby trees caught my attention.  I noticed a miniscule nest built in the fork of a small tree.  What small bird made this?

I waited a few minutes and a Least Flycatcher flew in and settled down.

All About Birds nest description:  Neat open cup woven of bark strips, grass, caterpillar webs, lichens, hair, feathers, rootlets, mosses, and other bits of vegetation; lined with fine grasses, feathers, hair, down, and plant stems; placed in crotch or fork of small tree.

Fast forward a couple of weeks, I was again in the vicinity.  Madam Flycatcher was not on the nest.  I was about to get out of my car and have a closer peek at the nest when she flew in with some sort of insect...

...and up popped a tiny beak.

All About Birds Cool Fact:  One Least Flycatcher nest was found to have used dragonfly wings as nest lining.

I'd never seen a baby Least Flycatcher before.

An adult is about 5.25 inches/13 cm long.

I watched her make several forays; she was feeding at least two chicks.

 
It was another few weeks before I returned.  The nest was empty.  

I hope the little family thrived and are now making their way to a southern destination.

Another Cool Fact:  Unlike most species of songbird, adult Least Flycatchers migrate to their wintering grounds before molting, while young birds molt before and during autumn migration. Why such a pattern has developed remains unclear, but it may result from strong selection on adults for early arrival and establishment of territories on the wintering grounds.

Range Map of the Least Flycatcher

Information Source:
All About Birds 

Ferruginous Hawk

Most birders have a favourite raptor.  Mine is the Ferruginous Hawk (Buteo regalis).
This is a hawk of my beloved wide-open prairies.  Pete Dunne calls it Russet-backed Prairie Eagle.  

The sexes are similar.  This bird is a 'light morph'.  Notice the rusty shoulder patches, white underparts, light coloured head, pale tail.  The gape (or the lips, if you will) is extended and yellow - gives the bird a smiley look.

 
A couple of Cool Facts from All About Birds:

-  Before the elimination of bison in the West, nests of the Ferruginous Hawk were often partially constructed of bison bones and wool

- The Rough-legged Hawk, the Ferruginous Hawk and the Golden Eagle are the only North American hawks to have legs feathered all the way to the toes.

Ferruginous means rusty-coloured.  Note the rusty markings and also long, pointed wings and the white base of the primaries.

Not long ago, Ferruginous Hawks were considered pests by farmers & ranchers (and honestly, what wasn't?).  So, they were shot and poisoned (again, what wasn't, or isn't?).  But, then it was realized that the hawks primarily fed on ground squirrels and pocket gophers which farmers & ranchers find to be even greater pests.  So nowadays, these lovely great hawks are considered 'friendly'.  It might take a little while for the reactive farmers & ranchers to a) stop poisoning the ground squirrels and b) cultivating the ever dwindling open prairie so necessary for my beautiful hawks to survive.  Note:  I grew up on a farm here on the southern Saskatchewan prairie.

This species is considered threatened in Canada.  

I am lucky to live where there is still a bit of natural prairie left (not much and the community pastures are being sold off, remaining private pastures are being cultivated and seeded to grazing hay). Several pairs of FEHAs return to this area yearly, reusing their nests.

Range Map below.



All About Birds
Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion
Birds of Canada

Common Redpolls - Smart Birds

I have a lack of redpolls!  The past couple of days, the 100+ Common Redpolls (Carduelis flammea) that wintered in my neighbourhood have gone. There are only 2-3 around my yard now.

Actually with this never-ending Winter of 2013, they have lingered here longer than usual, giving us nice looks at the very bright rosy-red breeding plumage.

 
Pete Dunne calls them the Catkin Finch and says this northern finch loves birch catkins - simply loves them.  I don't have birch.  I toss out seeds in the winter.  That works, too.



Quoting P. Dunne once again, he describes the CORE as a "streaky, stubby, effervescent pip-squeak of a finch with a small red beret and a black goatee."

These birds are smaller than House Finches.  They are a little bigger than a Pine Siskin, with which the less showy female redpoll can be confused (until one sees the jaunty red cap).
 
 
These personable little birds are arctic and subarctic breeders.  All About Birds provides us with this little cool fact:

Common Redpolls can survive temperatures of –65 degrees Fahrenheit. A study in Alaska found redpolls put on about 31% more plumage by weight in November than they did in July.   During winter, some Common Redpolls tunnel into the snow to stay warm during the night. Tunnels may be more than a foot long and 4 inches under the insulating snow.

I’ve never seen evidence of this, but then we don’t get quite as cold as –65F....close but not quite....at that temp, I’d probably be a little busy tunnelling into the snow myself to notice what birds are digging along side of me. 



Another fun fact:   Animals behaviourists commonly test an animal’s intelligence by seeing if it can pull in a string to get at a hanging piece of food. (I’m not making this up). Common Redpolls pass this test with no trouble. They’ve also been seen shaking the seeds out of birch catkins, then dropping to the ground to pick them up from the snow surface.

And: Redpolls have throat pouches for temporarily storing seeds. They may fill their pouches with seeds quickly then fly away to swallow the seeds in a more protected, warmer spot.

 
The fun facts with these birds never end.....here's yet another one:

Redpolls breed in all the the lands that ring the Arctic Ocean. A few banding records have shown that some Common Redpolls are incredibly wide ranging. Among them, a bird banded in Michigan was recovered in Siberia; others in Alaska have been recovered in the eastern US, and a redpoll banded in Belgium was found two years later in China.

Info sources:

All About Birds
Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion 

Impatiently Waiting for Spring

I went for a drive yesterday afternoon - the first drive-about I've done in a long time.  There's too much snow, plain and simple.  The roads are icy, the ditches are level-full of snow and it is still very, very cold here.  No, I can't seem to stop grumbling about this never-ending Winter.

Anyway...in spite of the vast snow cover, it IS the time of year when the first migrants start showing up.   As well, I wanted to check on the Souris River.  Water has been released from Rafferty and Boundary all winter.

This is the river south of Shand Power Plant.  The water level is very high - this area was all under-water two Springs ago.

 
First of all, there are small herds of deer grazing for whatever poor quality grass is left to nibble.  These are White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

 
And their sentinel.

What is this big ol' woolly-looking bundle trundling along the rim of Boundary reservoir?

Mr. or Mrs. Yellowquill, I believe.  The North American Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) My trusty Kaufman Field Guide to Mammals of North America informs that this is our second-largest rodent and that it's sharp quills are actually modified hairs.

And then there were the tree-top grouse.  To me, there are some birds which just do not suit being at the top of a very tall tree among the more spindly branches.  (Cormorants are undoubtedly the silliest.)  A plump Sharp-tailed Grouse (Tympanuchus phasianellus) at the top of a poplar looks rather awkward, or something. 

  

I guess the view is better; the buds probably taste about the same as the lower ones.

When I was driving back out of the little park at Boundary, I saw something sort of moving up ahead on the road.  I slowed...really?  Is that a...???

Yes, a young Richardson's Ground Squirrel (Spermophilus richardsonii), most affectionately known simply as 'gopher'.  It was only partly alert to its surroundings, probably not entirely awake from hibernation...and I could have picked it up easily enough.  (I didn't).  

 
I have no idea where it came from, as there were no bare spots of ground showing along the road or ditches for some distance.  Poor little buddy; I hope it found its way back to its home.

This is the Souris River at Woodlawn bridge.  The resident Canada Geese (Branta canadensis)  have been enjoying the open water on the river; some appear to be pairing off.  Also in the picture are three pairs of Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata).  They are Spring arrivals.

Many signs of Spring out there.  Now, if this snow would melt....except that's bound to bring a lot of flooding.  It's going to be one of those years.

Just A Few Snow Geese

Just a few...thousand...Snow Geese 

Whooping Cranes

This past Sunday, I met my birding buddy & friend, Guy Wapple at Muskiki Lake for some Whooping Crane (Grus americana) viewing.

We were fortunate in that 4 of the reported 16-17 Whoopers were relatively close to the road into the area.  This is all private land; the farmers are indulgent of birders coming to look.  We stay on the road and try not to bother these fantastically beautiful and very endangered birds.

 
In total, we counted 16 adults and 1 juvenile.  The rest of the flock were farther away grazing around a small slough - good viewing with scope or bins, but too far for my camera lens.  Sad that there was only one young bird in this group.

These Whoopers are part of the only wild, self-sustaining flock that summers & breeds in Wood Buffalo National Park, which spans the Northern Alberta and North West Territories border.  Muskiki Lake is in South-Central Saskatchewan, about an hour's drive east of Saskatoon.  Depending on the weather, these birds might stay around the area for another week or so.  They will winter at Aransas NWR in Texas.

 
This day we were thrilled to watch the big white birds walk and graze; a few hopped and danced a little bit.  We also heard the 'whoops' and watched them in flight.  

Saskatchewan Birding at its Finest.

More Trees Down in Estevan

Awww, two more neighbouring spruce trees came down - smaller ones.  Across the side alley from me (my garage).  I truly loved these two trees.  If Ruby-crowned Kinglets came around, these are the trees they liked to be in. 

Even more amazing that my tall tree is still standing!  Larry's too.

Bill said there's a lot of trees down in Carlyle; that they had more snow than we did.  It's all about the wet and heavy snow at this time of year. 

Return To Winter

A nasty, nasty storm invaded our space for the past 24 hours and counting.  A lot of wet, heavy snow and very high wind.  Power has been out some places.  I just got my cable & internet back on (6:00 p.m.)

At my neighbour Marian's place across the street, two huge old spruce trees came down on her house early this morning.  Thankfully, she (an elderly lady) was not hurt.  The yard next to her also had a spruce come down. 

View from my front door late this afternoon.  Snow drift.  I can barely get out my back door.  

The lower branches of my spruce tree

An early morning foray to my garage to get some seeds out for the poor, cold, wet and bewildered birds

And some of the birds feeding outside my windows during the day - Pine Siskins

A brightly coloured male American Goldfinch against the dull whiteness of Winter...

A male House Finch

A somewhat philosophical looking Chipping Sparrow

A Yellow-headed Blackbird popped into town for a feed

And, I guarantee the Eurasian Collared Doves are even more tired of crappy Winter than I am.  I'm sure a lot of them died when the spruce trees came down in the night. 

I'm so upset, but it isn't as bad as a tsunami or tornados....

Happy Earth Day!

Two days ago I was driving around looking at the Souris River levels and the various bits of flooding going on in the Estevan area.

Just south of the city, along Hwy #47, there's a vast desert wasteland created by systematic strip-mining for coal

A typical prairie whirlwind was twisting its way across and picking up particles of clay.

This bit of wasteland is part of the first attempts at land reclamation after taking out all possible, profitable coal.  The reclaiming company either had zero know-how (likely) or little inclination other than to collect some good money for a job poorly done (probably).

The only things that grow out there are the most tenacious weeds that can grow on pure clay.  When the mining pits were filled in, the topsoil was pushed in first.  

WaterWorld at Oungre Park

Oungre Park.  You know, The Park, as it was referred to when I was growing up in the area...well, it's sort of under water at the moment.  (By the way, click on the pix to enlarge, if you want to.)

There's no space between the water and the bottom of the bridge

The ball diamond is under water - happens most years - just not this much water

A bunch of trailers and RVs were parked over there

Most have been relocated to the parking lot.

The park has a different name now, something like Souris Valley Community Complex (I should have taken a photo of the sign....).  It is located about a mile north of Oungre, SK on Hwy #35.  Quite a nice little spot.