Monday, Jan. 25
was a red letter day at our feeders!
A pair of pine
siskins came to dine! Wow! None were on any of our Christmas Bird Counts, and
they have been absent from many other bird counts as well.
To add to our
pleasure, a male purple finch joined them. From an article in Ontario Birds,
December 2009, the pine siskin is a common bird with a very wide North American
distribution.
In the winter of
2009, a great invasion took place into southern Ontario of pine siskins. We were not as
lucky this winter.
As well, there
are relatively few nesting records for Ontario,
but they mainly nest after mid April.
Snow outside does
not make one think of spring yet.
In mid January,
Doug Caldwell, Almonte, has had a gray catbird around his garden for two weeks.
The bird survived, and has gone now.
On Jan. 18, as
Bev Relfe was driving past our lane, a barred owl swooped down onto the road to
pick up something.
Two reports from Carleton Place
mention water birds. Jill Martin has seen three Canada geese and a mallard on the
river by her property. Jill has put out food for the geese.
In the last three
weeks three river otters have had fun sliding on the ice into the river. What
fun to watch!
Two weeks ago, a
sharp-shinned hawk sat in a tree above her feeders, but it flew off. The other
report came on Jan. 27.
Three large white
trumpeter swans were in the Mississippi River
behind the high school. Malcolm Blaedow, a driver for the Canadian-Gazette,
told Peggy McPhail in the newspaper office.
Please call Lynda
with bird reports at: 613-256-5013, or e-mail bennett@magma.ca.