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Weekend of 10-11 February 2007

Dogged by a heavy cold, I limited Saturdays search for year ticks to another check on the local Snowies and hoped to pick up a Grey Partridge along the way. As it happened the partridge were again absent but two Short-eared Owls were most welcome. The birds quartered fields west of St-Clet (AFTER 16.30!!!) but did not come very close. I took some distant record shots, results below. To add to the fun we saw four different Snowy Owls all within view of Ste-Julie, THE place to see Snowies west of Montreal.

Sunday was supposed to be bright so we headed north in the snow flurries. Our local Ice Bridge had opened and so, despite every instinct we have saying “don’t go on the ice” something instilled by nagging mothers, we crossed anyway. After a steady cruise, seeing nothing more than a Northern Grey Shrike we arrived at the Secteur de la Pimbina car park at Mont Tremblant. Cross-country skiers and Gods way of telling you not to breed, Ski-Dooers, were everywhere, but the many White-winged Crossbills present seemed oblivious, singing form the tops of the pines and taking grit from the roadsides. They were joined by a few Pine Siskins, also singing when not gritting.

Our next target was, well anything not seen so far, so we took the road to the Secteur de la Diable (route 329) which is an excellent and fairly quiet road for birding from. We saw several groups of gritting crossbills and siskins, one of which had a few Purple Finch in, another year tick. Further on we found first one, then another five Pine Grosbeaks but, as ever with this species (for me at least), they were quick to depart and avoid the camera lens.
Apart from a Northern Goshawk, and lots more White-winged Crossbills, nothing much else showed and we made our way back home nursing a misfiring car along the racetrack routes. Looks like another expensive week ahead.


















Saturdays record shot of Short-eared Owl

















And the original image it came from


















































A few White-winged Crossbill shots.




















Pine Siskin, nothing like a Eurasian eh!


















Side by side 'doing' grit.



















Purple Finch looking a bit off colour.

Who’d be a brass monkey in this weather!

3-4 February 2007, another weekend of rather frustrating birding with strong winds both days, some horizontal snow and interesting roads and the birds were having none of it.

Saturday was clear but bitter and the aforesaid brass monkeys would have been searching deep in the drifting snow for anything that had come adrift. I started by intending to go off east looking for Tufted Titmouse, Wild Turkey and maybe a few other species just bursting to get on my year list. After cruising the lanes of St-Clet, discretion got the better part of valour and I decided to wait until Sandra, who was at home with a heavy cold, was fit to navigate (barely conscious would do, this is a competition!) and the weather had eased. The lanes were ok except for the lack of Snowy Owls, sensibly hiding behind a hummock somewhere. The roads had lots of Lapland Longspurs, certainly more than the routine two or three per winter. Snow Buntings had also arrived in force with around 450 along the Cites des Jeunes alone.

Taking the enforced opportunity to sit and watch the action I managed to snap a couple of Snow Bunts and scared a Rough-legged Hawk by driving within two kilometers of it, why are they so nervous?

Sunday dawned with more of the same but Sandra still had a lively pulse so, wrapped up and comfy we set off. In previous years Tufted Titmice have been regular at the feeders in St-Armand, an area on the US border about 1.5 hours away (Quebec is big). The area also has a few other species and, despite the continued gale and –30 something wind-chill, I was optimistic.

En-route (very French eh!) we passed numerous little flurries of Snow Buntings, as well as more Laps and Horned Larks. As we reached Noyen we could see that the water was not as frozen as we had hoped and so the wildfowl, with possibly Barrow’s Goldeneye amongst them, would be scattered and hard to see. Moving on to Venice en Quebec we found Lake Champlain well frozen and that the cerebrally challenged Ice Fisherpeople were out in force, well at least the Police know where they all are.

In St-Armand we came across a dozen Wild Turkeys moving gracefully through the snow drifts, well actually scrabbling about like panicked cats dropped in a bath (no I’ve never done it) and they quickly scrabbled off. We checked lots of feeders and saw numerous American Tree Sparrows but no Tuftys.

Returning home we saw even more Snow Bunts for about 1700 in total, very spectacular.
After such rambling I only have a couple of shots. My year list is now 76, I reckon about another 47-49 species were available, including the cursed Green-tailed Towhee of east Montreal. Must try harder.















A sprinkling of Longspurs, all Lapland unfortunately.



































A few Snow Bunting shots, taken as they seltered in the gale.





























Cunningly using its cryptic plumage to blend with its habitat, this (roughly family sized) Wild Turkey is virtually invisible to the untrained observer.

Where did January go?

Tuesday 30 January and only eleven months to go! Today was my last vacation day so I ventured out despite -24 overnight and a bone cracking -18 this morning.

My main objective was Carolina Wren with the possibility of a Eastern Towhee. Both birds have been in the vicinity of Rue Higgins in Chateguay for a while but neither showed yesterday and today was more of the same.

Red-bellied Woodpeckers were being very noisy, I counted three calling all at once, they also showed sporadically and I only managed a record shot. I spent about two hours searching and sitting but the cold eventually got to me and I had to get the car warm to try to restore feeling to fingers and feet.

On the way home I passed a hawk (well falcon actually) atop a lamp post and it turned out to be a Peregrine. Using my finely honed Quebec driving skills I reversed back over a bridge and took a few against the light shots of the bird from the rear, then I came back on the other carriageway and took a few frontal shots. Neither are great, I think the cold shakes beat the image stabiliser but you can see what it is.























Record shot of a Red-bellied Woodpecker.





















American Tree Sparrow, small flocks have suddenly appeared and several were feeding in gardens in Chateguay.

This Peregrine was fine while I was in the car but when a cyclist went past it was off pretty quickly, much to the relief of a nervous pigeon on the next but one lamp post, I don't think it dare move!

Back in Blighty

January 20-28 2007

A week back in the UK allowed us to see family and old friends and I managed a little birding in familiar spots. Unfortunately the British Airways proposed strike meant that we had to lop a day off the trip so we squashed into the cattle class seats a day early having missed a few people that we had hoped to drop in on.

That aside the weather was quite pleasant throughout and we saw 101 species. If you are a UK reader of this blog the species illustrated won’t interest you but North American readers might find them interesting.

Our first base was Preston and I visited Leighton Moss for an afternoon, and we decreased the average age of the strollers on Lytham St Anne’s seafront by several years and enjoyed some casual birding there but no cup of tea at the open all year’ tea shop.
On the way south we visited Martin Mere and watched them feed the Whooper Swans, which, under the terms of wildfowl records, are presumably all of unknown origin due to tameness.

Resisting the temptation to detour for an American Robin (a gap in my British list) we spent a few days in Nottinghamshire and birded my old patch Colwick and did a bit at Rufford Park and the wolds around Southwell.


I’m still having problems with captions but I’ll try, lots of common birds but I like them.














Black-headed Gull

















2cy European Herring Gull

Ruddy Turnstone




















Jackdaw



















Red Knot




















Eurasian Oystercatcher



















Common Shelduck















Northern Pintail



















Northern Lapwing
















Whooper Swan






















Mute Swan
























A little bit of glamour, an inscrutable Mandarin


















Tufted Duck


















Male Red-crested Pochard


















Male Common Pheasant



















An old friend, a Lesser Black-backed Gull, (intermedius) ringed in 1999.

















Common Gull of the nominate race.
















Great Cormorant probably sinensis.























Eurasian Treecreeper


















Rook



















Eurasian Robin (a real robin!)




















Great Tit


















Blue Tit



















A black Blackbird



































And a white Blackbird but not an albino, no pink eyes.