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.

Snowy Owls on Christmas Day

Three more Snowy Owls (Nictea scandiaca) yesterday.  I hope they are finding enough food.   We always have a few Snowys down here in the Winter.  Delightful to see always, but not uncommon.  This year, there are so many and many reports of Snowys far South of the normal range.  Unfortunately, many are likely verging on starvation.   
 

Too bad it isn't quite warm enough to bring the gophers (Richardson's Ground Squirrels, Urocitellus richardsonii) out of hibernation - we have a lot of them...
 

Nice day, for December 25th, with +4C air temperature, high thick cloud and a fairly stiff breeze.

All these photos are the same individual.  It fence-post hopped as I tagged along behind in my car, hoping to get a decent shot of two....everything is a little fuzzy.  2012 Resolution #2, work on my photography skills.

Now, then, is this a female or is it a 1st year male?  The males become whiter as they age, with the very whitest being older males.

It was quite a large bird.  I'm tending to think Adult Female.  The females are larger than the males - as is the case with other owl species.
 

Other birds found during my drive around yesterday include:
1 male Gadwall at the city sewer lagoons.  Also at the lagoons, a Northern Pintail drake and a Green-winged Teal (either a female or a juvenile).  

At Boundary reservoir, 5 Ring-necked Ducks, several American Coots, a pair of Hooded Mergansers (male displaying), thousands of Mallards and Canada Geese.  

I saw a few Cackling Geese mixed with the larger Canadas  when scanning flocks feeding. 

It's A Snowy (Owl) Christmas

This is a very common sight in my part of the world (Saskatchewan, Canada,  very near the US border) right now.  Snowy Owls everywhere.  We normally have these owls around in Winter but this year seems to be an irruption year. 

and closer (looks like a juvenile - most of the birds I saw this past week have been heavily barred).

Look this way, please & thanks

Some Owl Facts from somewhere in Oregon  http://home.pacifier.com/~neawanna/SNOW/SNOW_FAQ.html

GBBC Interruption - Hedwig

This weekend is The Great Backyard Bird Count - another entertaining but rather mis-named birding event in that one's counts aren't limited at all to 'the backyard'.  (Note:  the photo of the robin on the GBBC link above was taken my friend Nick Saunders, Saskatoon, SK). 

Yesterday it was cold and snowy so I stayed home to watch and record the progression of bird species around my yard.  Today I decided to go for a drive around my usual country birding route.  That didn't produce as much as I hoped.  I was really wanting to find some owls - specifically Snowy and Great Horned.  

I dipped on the GHOWs but finally found this Snowy Owl  Bubo scandiacus, an adult female, I think, some 50-60 kms away along #18 Hwy near the farm where I grew up.  Always fun to drive around the old stomping grounds.

Harry Potter's owl, Hedwig, was a Snowy Owl

The Snowy Owl is the provincial bird of Quebec.

Beautiful bird.