Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays

Season's Greetings

 

Rose-breasted Nuthatches are busy feeding at the feeders around my house this Winter. 

Snow Makes Everything Beautiful

I went out birding the other day.  It was the first clear sky, sunny day in a long time.  It was also very cold.  That is the trade-off around here in Winter.

First I went to this pretty place.  It is the city sewer lagoons.  Looks nice doesn't it.  Doesn't even smell too bad at this time of year.  There were no special ducks in the bit of open water - about 25 Mallards.

Then I went down RM5 35 to Fisherman's Road.  I stopped at my favourite little pretty place along the way.  What is that in the ice?

There must be a spring keeping that little hole open.  There were no human tracks around it or to it - ruling out an attempt at a bit of ice-fishing.  This isn't a place where anyone does ice fishing anyway.  I've been driving around here in the winter for 12 years, never saw a hole or anything else like this on this pond.  I expect aliens are below.  There's a sign over at the library that shouts ALIENS EXIST!  (If I were a really good blogger, I would zip over there to take a photo of the sign...but, alas...)

On down Fisherman's Road - there is Boundary Power Station in the distance, spewing and puffing

and on to the bays near the hot-water outflow at Boundary.

The mist was rising, but not too badly.  On really cold days, you can't see the banks.  Tens of thousands of Canada Geese spend the Winter here, feeding in the nearby stubble fields.  Also, many Cackling Geese & Mallards with American Coots, Common Goldeneye, Hooded Mergansers, Ring-necked Ducks, Gadwall, a few Lesser Scaups maybe, you name it....almost every species of waterfowl is apt to be found here.

Then over to the east side of the reservoir, to the boat launch at Woodlawn Boundary park. 

Quite often there are a couple of coots pecking at debris around the docks.  

All this open water makes Winter birding around Estevan very interesting.

A Leonard Cohen Sunrise

This past Tuesday, I was on the road to Saskatoon very early in the morning.  The purpose of this five-hour winter drive was to see the great, the incomparable, the most wonderful Leonard Cohen in concert that night.

Here is that morning's sunrise.

Hallelujah!

 (Click on link below to see video of LC singing 'So Long Marianne' in Zagreb in 2010 - the entire audience is singing along - as did all of us in Saskatoon the other day)


"So Long Marianne"

Come over to the window, my little darling,
I'd like to try to read your palm.
I used to think I was some kind of Gypsy boy
before I let you take me home.
Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began
to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

Well you know that I love to live with you,
but you make me forget so very much.
I forget to pray for the angels
and then the angels forget to pray for us.

Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...

We met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
You held on to me like I was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.

Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...

Your letters they all say that you're beside me now.
Then why do I feel alone?
I'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web
is fastening my ankle to a stone.

Now so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...

For now I need your hidden love.
I'm cold as a new razor blade.
You left when I told you I was curious,
I never said that I was brave.

Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...

Oh, you are really such a pretty one.
I see you've gone and changed your name again.
And just when I climbed this whole mountainside,
to wash my eyelids in the rain!

Oh so long, Marianne, it's time that we began ...

Go to Leonard's site for videos, including Hallelujah,

Hepatic Tanager in Saskatchewan

A week or so ago, a strange bird was noticed at a feeder in Wadena, SK.  The residents took a photo and emailed it to a more nature-oriented friend, who passed it along to some other people and so on and so on.

Yes, it was a tanager, but definitely not a Scarlet Tanager.  A Summer Tanager, quite late in leaving the Northern Prairies, where a few are seen each year?  Well, no, it looked more like, well, er, dare one say it...a Hepatic Tanager...

A couple of my birder friends from Saskatoon dashed off to Wadena to have a personal look.  And, after confirmation from expert birders.....

Hepatic Tanager  (Piranga flava)!  

And I was on the road to Wadena by 5:00 a.m. the next morning.  

This is a First for Saskatchewan and only the second one sighted in Canada.

You see, this bird simply should not be anywhere north of say, Northern Arizona, Northern New Mexico. (See the range map below). This young fellow is a long way from home territory.  

Cool Facts from All About Birds

• Although the Hepatic Tanager has the most restricted range of the four tanagers in the United States, in fact it is the most widespread member of its genus. It breeds from the southwestern United States southward all the way to Argentina.  
• The Hepatic Tanager may include three different species: the Hepatic Tanager, found from the United States southward to Nicaragua; the Tooth-billed Tanager, found from Costa Rica to northern South America; and the Red Tanager of          eastern and southeastern South America. The two southern forms lack the       dusky ear coverts of the  northern form.                                                                      
• The Hepatic Tanager has been little studied. As of 2002, only 106 had been banded in the United States, and only one banded bird had ever been recovered.

 Range Map (from All About Birds

Unfortunately, a snowy, cold winter storm system is passing through the area.  I haven't heard today whether the bird has survived.  Bottom line is that there is no way this little fellow will stay alive throughout our winter, which has only begun. 

Yesterday's Drive-About

I had cabin-fever pretty badly yesterday, so in spite of the intermittent freezing rain and slushy, slippery roads, I went out to do some birding.  It is time to resume my frequent patrol of my 'usual route' which takes me out to Rafferty Dam/lake, and to the lake at Boundary Dam.

The sky was the same grey-white as the snow on the ground.  Difficult for photography (at least, for me it is).  

But here are a couple of shots from the day.

A young Eared Grebe

A large (probably female) Great Horned Owl

There are still huge flocks of Snow Geese around.

More Snow Geese

There are hundreds of thousands of Snow Geese around here ... or there was as of this past Friday.  We've since got some snow, and Snow Geese really don't care for snow.

That same day, huge flocks of Snows were heading south-east all day long.  I've mentioned before that our vehicle license plates say "Land of Living Skies".  It was one of those days.
 

Spectacular sight.

 

Fiery Sunrise

The Autumn is absolutely the best time for beautiful, colourful sunrises and sunsets.

Last night I was too lazy (and too late) to walk down to the valley to catch the sunset.  This morning, however, the sunrise was just as splendid....as seen from my house.

And
 

 

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.

Sandhill Cranes at Last Mountain Lake

About a week ago I went to Last Mountain Lake in South-Central Saskatchewan.  

The land surrounding the shallow north end of this long, glacial lake is a bird/wildlife sanctuary.  In fact, it is Canada's first federal wildlife reserve, created in 1887. 

Thousands and thousands of Sandhill Cranes congregate here in the Fall (sometimes Whooping Cranes as well).