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!

Green-Winged Teal

On a beautiful day in October, I set out for a walk in the woods. I wanted to look for the shore bird that I saw one day while I was in the woods with Serge but didn't have time to focus on before it saw us and flew away! I didn't find that bird but did find a flock of ducks! They were Green-Winged Teals!

I am amazed at how many birds we have here in Contrecoeur!

(Pictures tomorrow!)

Turkey Vulture

One morning in June, I went to bring Emily and 3 of her classmates to Ottoburn Park for the second day of their canoe trip down the Richelieu River. As we waited for everyone else to get there I saw a bunch of birds soaring above. They were just turning around and around like Hawks but I had never seen so many together, in one picture I count 16! So I took a few pictures and once I got home I blew them up on the computer screen to try to identify them. They weren't Hawks...they were Turkey Vultures! This is shown by their red heads.

Barn Swallow

I have seen some every now and then but usually on a fence along the road and have never had the time to stop. This one was flying around Juliette's barn and perched up high so the picture isn't great, but I could clearly see it's orange tummy.

Finally!

A few days later I went to visit Mommy, like I do every year in May, close to her birthday. As I watched the kids feeding the ducks or fishing in the small lake, I could hear a bird singing a pretty song that I had never heard before. SO I looked around and finally found it. It was a Baltimore Oriole singing high in a tree!





Then, one morning in June, I woke up and as soon as I logged onto the computer, Serge, who was at work, messaged me to check my camera! He said that there was an orange bird that kept attacking the window in the dining-room and he tried to get a picture of it but he doesn't really know how to use my camera. So I finally got to see a Baltimore Oriole at Mommy's house, and I finally have proof that there are some in my neighbourhood!

Veery

On the same walk in May, once I was in the woods, I found what I thought was a Hermit Thrush at first. It acted the same way but as I watched it, they tend to freeze up in an effort to disappear, I noticed that it didn't have as many spots on it's breast. That's because it's a Veery!

Eastern Bluebird

I went for a little walk by the baseball field in May, heading toward the woods and saw a bunch of Robins but one bird was different. It was hard to get a picture of, it kept flying away from me! The pictures are a little fuzzy but they were clear enough for me to identify them as a female Eastern Bluebird....I didn;t know we had those around here!

Ring-Necked Ducks

Ok, first, I have to make a correction. The Scaups that I thought I saw are actually Ring-Necked Ducks. I showed my fuzzy pictures to a birding friend and he pointed out that they have black backs, not grey.

Bad blogger!

Oopsie! I haven't updated this in 6 months! I have several new pictures to add! Plus I want to write out my full list of birds for 2009. Then I will start my 2010 list, nothing new for now, just the winter regulars but I am going in search of some SNow Buntings and a Carolina Wren today! :0)