Sharp-Shinned Hawk!

I knew there was a small Hawk in the area...Others have seen them and a few times I kinda saw something fly by, early in the morning. Then this morning Kelly woke me up and although I wished I could have stayed in bed a few more minutes, I got up and went to open the blinds in the kids rooms. I stayed in Jeremy's window a few minutes, sadly looking out to where the forest used to be and the new houses are popping up every week.

Then something caught my eye...From the corner of my eye, I thought I saw a Crow fly into the pine tree where the Sparrows usually hang out. I thought that was weird since Crows don't usually come so close to the house. Then I saw a Sparrow fly out and the "Crow" came out and perched on a branch of my lilac tree. That wasn't a Crow! So I ran downstairs saying, "Stay there! Stay there! Please stay there!", grabbed my camera on the kitchen counter and went to the window...it was still there!!! It stayed for a few seconds more, watching the pine, then jumped in and looked around. A Sparrow fly out and the Hawk took off after it! :0(

So, although I was very excited to finally get a picture of it, I was sad to know that it was there to hunt the birdies that I attract to my yard...

Great Horned Owl

I read that there was a Great Horned Owl in a park in Boucherville and when I went to an appointment in Boucherville, I decided to go try to find it. It was so hard! LOL As I was putting on my good winter boots, a man parked beside me, got out his camera with a bigger zoom than mine, and crossed the street to a path I didn't know existed. SO I followed him! :0) After a short walk I found 5 people standing around with their cameras at the ready! They were nice to point out where the Owl was. We then spent about an hour, chatting right beside it, waiting to see it move! LOL

New birds in 2010!

I have heard a lot about Snow Buntings but had never seen any until I went to drive Emily to a birthday party and decided to use the country road instead of the highway. I saw a flock of white birds fly up from the side of the road. So a few days later I went back with my camera. I couldn't get good pictures but good enough to identify them as Snow Buntings!

Birding in numbers...

Ok, I think that's it for the new birds of 2009. So, as of December 31, 2009, I have:

100 birds on my life list!
- 13 of those 100 are from the Dominican Republic
- 87 of those 100 are here in Canada
- 69 of those 87 are on my BIGBY list (in my home town of Contrecoeur and reached on foot!)
- 43 of those 69 visited my backyard!
- 3 of those 69 flew over my house!


I know! I'm weird! :0) Now, on to 2010!

Happy birding everyone!

What the...?

I knew it was a Chickadee but it's very different from the rest of them!!! I did a little reading and the proper term is Leucistic...it's like a partial Albino. Cool, eh?

Bald Eagle!!!

After getting this fuzzy little picture across the river on the island, I added Bald Eagle to my list of birds. I didn't think I would get any better but then in August, this bird circled over my house. At first I couldn't identify the Hawk (I admit, I find Hawks difficult to identify!) and I put the pictures into my "unidentified birds" folder and forgot about it. But when I opened the folder at the end of the year I thought, maybe it's not a Hawk and started looking through other birds of prey. I asked a friend what he thought and he agreed, it's a juvenile Bald Eagle!

Winter Wren

On that same walk in the woods I walked past the sugar shack where I usually never go. I stepped off the path at one point, following the sound of many birds and found Chickadees, Woodpeckers and Juncos but as I climbed onto a fallen tree I heard a sound down below. I looked down to see this little guy hopping around the roots of the fallen tree!

This is a Winter Wren!