Christmas Bird Count Highlights

This is Christmas Bird Count time, and upon writing this, I have completed 6 of them, each with their own highlights.
I still have 2, maybe 3 more to go up until the 2nd of January, when the last one will be at Pike Lake.

For most of the counts the weather has been pretty tolerable. I remember, much of last years count-weather was absolutely freezing, with wind chills of minus 50 degrees centigrade or more in some cases.

Some of the best birds I've seen over the last 6 counts done this season have been :

Townsend's Solitaire
Red Crossbill
White-winged Crossbill
Pine Grosbeak
Common Redpoll
Northern Shrike
Northern Goshawk
Pine Siskin
Snowy Owl
Great Horned Owl
Glaucous Gull
Harris's Sparrow
American Robin
Merlin
Cedar Waxwing
Golden Eagle
Bald Eagle
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Gray Partridge


Here are a few new photos from the counts done so far :

Red Crossbill





Red-breasted Nuthatch



Townsend's Solitaire

Merry Christmas

I would like to thank all my blogger, and birding friends and every other single visitor to this webpage during 2009.
Let's hope that 2010 is an even better year for birds and wildlife !
I have already completed 3 Christmas Bird Counts and am almost out the door to begin my 4th.
After that, will leave 3 more counts up until January 2nd finshing up at Pike Lake.
I have 11 more days to see if I can find 2 new species by Dec 31st, and reach my highest ever Saskatchewan Year List of 250 , but its quite a tall order and I might be shooting a little high :-) Watch this space !

Here is a Harris's Sparrow from the fall that I have not posted before that has a Christmas-like quality to it.

All the best for 2010 and thanks again !!

Great Horned Owl

Here's a Great Horned Owl from last Sunday near Martensville, Sk.
I'm lucky there was some blowing snow at the time the photo was taken. A shame we can't get that nice effect in all our Owl photos !

PS. My Saskatchewan Birds 2010 Calendar will be here tomorrow, so folks who live locally can email me to collect theirs in the afternoon. I will priority-ship the calendars to my friends in the US, to hopefully get them their orders before the 25th.
Sorry for the delay, they will be mailed out much earlier next year !

( Click to see full size )

Short-eared Owl

On Saturday I went on a trip to Gardiner Dam to look for waterfowl and see what other treats may be in-store.
I added a few more birds to my winter-list , and on the way home , there really was a treat to behold...
A very co-operative Short-eared Owl (click to see full size):

More Brown Creeper Photos

Seeing as I spent a long time trying to get shots of this species, here are three more from my time at the park :