Monday, January 29, 2007

Pre trip birding

We had a trip to the UK planned so I took Friday 19th January off to prepare and to try to see a few more birds! I had details for a Green-tailed Towhee in east Montreal, a lifer, but the weather was pretty snowy and the bird can only be seen at feeders. The owner of the feeders is paranoid about birders and the Police have been called. Personally I feel that the feeder owner is a little dim in not discontinuing the feeding until the bird has left (its been there several weeks, suppressed) but if it stays, more birders will find out the location of the site and the woman’s paranoia will grow. I’ve not heard whether it survived the –23 temps of January 17th and I’m posting this after our UK trip as I stayed out too long and had to rush to get to the airport on time, birders eh!

Back to the 19th, I started around St-Clet and was not disappointed, additions to the year list were Lapland Longspur (with apologies to European birders but that is what they are called here) and Horned Lark (with no apologies it should be split). My regular female Snowy Owl greeted me from its pole and the improving weather convinced me to try out St-Lazare Pinade.

The pinade was planted to reduce erosion in the farmlands around St-Clet, it is a fine piece of woodland, I just hope the administrators prevent any further building in it. Access is always tricky as they want you to park miles away and then travel with planks strapped to your feet in winter, stuff that, I walk up the bisecting road having parked inches outside the no parking zone.

As I approached the cross-country ski trails I heard singing White-winged Crossbills straight away, I eventually tracked down the sources for good views but they were flighty. I counted around 70 birds in total but of course there could have been Red Crossbill amongst them, didn’t hear any different calls though. I then trod the trails (why no hiking trails eh!) looking for northern woodpeckers. After an hour none were forthcoming until I actually returned to the road and there, by the road, was black-backed Woodpecker, intent on the destruction of a tree and ignoring me.

With this success I decided to try for a Yellow-headed Blackbird near Ormstown. My directions were sketchy but I found about 70 Brown-headed Cowbirds around a couple of feeders. They were very active, disappearing behind the houses but fortunately the Yellow-headed Blackbird put in a brief appearance and I sped home to catch to pack and catch the plane.

This spurt put me on 73 for the year.

The photos: I’ll try to add captions this time.



You might get bored with seeing Snowy Owls but I don't so here is the latest shotof the regular female.



















After an absence due to lack of snow, the Horned Larks were back along the roads around St-Clet.

















Lapland Longpurs have been a bit elusive this winter but the Snow Bunting flock that has built up around St-Clet now has ten or so in it.


























Black-backed Woodpeckers are annual in the pinade at St-Lazare, they just take a bit of finding sometimes.























The sweet trill of the White-winged Crossbills seemed to be everywhere.



A roadside Rough-legged Hawk abolutely terrified by the sight of a birders car. I keep trying to move this text but it won't go, poot!




A blizzard of Snow Buntings, can you pick out the Lapland Longspurs?

This makes a great desktop, if anyone wants one, email me and I'll send a higer resolution image.

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