Month: January 2014

 

On the Twelth Day of Christmas, Birds and Birders gave to me:

5 years of friendship!

Over the years I have gone from knowing almost no one who is interested in birds, to finding whole communities of people who care about birds. They have been very generous giving me all sorts of useful stuff, e.g. this blog, friendship, my binoculars, etc.

From the day my interest in birds was established, to today, people have supported me in all sorts of ways. They have taken me to places, taught me about the natural world  and helped me ID unknown birds. People who I hadn’t even met before have invited me in to their homes and yards to watch their backyard birds with them. I have even received emails asking for the identification of birds, world wide!

Many of these people have become good friends and I am looking forward to meeting more people during my birding life.

Thanks to all of you who have been part of my birding life – have a great year in 2014!

On the eleventh Day of Christmas, Paul gave to me:

1 Bird Blog!

Two years ago, for christmas, my honorary uncle gave me this blog. Having a blog is a wonderful thing and most bloggers out there will agree it is a very useful tool for expressing your feelings about things that you really care about. If you look at my first couple posts, you will see that they are not as good as some of the writing I am doing now. In fact my first post, Please sponsor me for the Baillie Birdathon! is not very long, only two short paragraphs long! This blog has even become a kind of friend to me. I now am spending half my life posting and birding and thats nothing bad! Thank you to all the people that have supported me up to this point and hopefully a little longer!

On the Tenth day of Christmas, Cliff gave to me:

10 Birdcounts (and counting…) !

The reason that I didn’t post earlier, is that I have done two birdcounts this year.

The first was the Banff-Canmore Birdcount on the fourteenth of December. This one I did with my dad and our friends Donna and Doug. We covered the Cascade Ponds to Lower Bankhead – a large territory. But even such a large area didn’t provide much. We got a lot of squirrels though! Here’s a full list – with numbers – of what we saw:

• Common Raven – 6
• Boreal Chickadee – 11
• Gray Jay – 3
• Mountain Chickadee – 17
• Brown Creeper – 2
• Townsend’s Solitare – 1
• Red-breasted Nuthatch – 3
• Black-billed Magpie – 2

Afterwards, there was the count potluck, a large meal where we talk, eat and report our counts to the count organisers. Every year, one of the members (who is a brilliant photographer) gives out two of his photos to two lucky counters. This year, we got first pick! A photo of the photo we got is shown below.

Chickadee Photo

And the second – the Bowkan Birdcount – was yesterday. It was much colder than the first, but we saw more species! This one I have done for five years now and am quite familiar with the places and people who do it. There was however a new counter who had just heard of the count. He turned out to be a really good spotter, catching quite a few birds we missed. You will probably notice that the type of birds is not so different from the Banff Birdcount, chickadees, nuthatches and corvidae – the only thing that’s really different is the Woodpeckers and the pair of Mallards we saw with the Bowkan group. Here’s the second list – again with numbers.

• Common Raven – 11
• Boreal Chickadee – 3
• Blue Jay – 1
• Mountain Chickadee – 5
• Downy Woodpecker – 1
• Hairy Woodpecker – 1
• Red-breasted Nuthatch – 2
• White-breasted Nuthatch – 1
• Black-billed Magpie – 7
• Mallard – 2
• Dark-eyed Junco – 2
• Black-capped Chickadee – 3

The difference between the Banff potluck and the Bowkan potluck is that Banff’s is held at the seniors’ center and the Bowkan birders’ is hosted by a different person each time. This year, it was held at Mary’s house, which is pretty close to mine! I’m hoping to add a photo of our group soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the ninth Day of Christmas, Prairie Birder gave to me:

2000 Snow Geese!

A trip to Edmonton is great for birding, even if it’s not specifically for birding. Living closer to the Rocky Mountains, this opportunity doesn’t come that often. So when I got the chance, I agreed with gusto! The opportunity came when we first found out about the Snow Goose Chase. The Snow Goose Chase is organised in the town of Tofield, with some very good lakes for geese quite nearby.

At the Community Hall, they have some booths set up for things like The Young Naturalists’ Corner. Even with the raptor display, it’s not just birds – they have bugs, rocks, animals and even planets at the Snow Goose Chase!

I found out about this thanks to Prairie Birder (Charlotte) who is a young blogger who I was excited to discover online, and to meet briefly at the Young Naturalists’ table in Tofield.  Her blog and activities and support have encouraged me in my own birding and blogging.  Thanks, Charlotte.

On the eighth Day of Christmas, Mary gave to me:

8×40 Minolta Activa binoculars!

A most generous gift, which I received from a Bird Count friend after she saw me sharing a pair with my Dad.  A few days later she gave me a very nice pair of binoculars which I now use all the time, and love.

To have a pair of binos that have such clear lenses and great light-gathering power is wonderful.  And my Dad is slightly jealous!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!