SPARROWORKING in Québec

Sharp start to Feederwatch

sparroworking — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 18:40:05 +0000

Today is day one of the new season of “Feederwatch” and got off to a good start with the early morning appearance of a Sharp-shinned Hawk - always a nice bird to have visiting were it not for the fact that since it put in an appearance we have seen little else in the garden. The photo had to be snatched at a distance, cropped and tweaked for publication ….. but it’s easy enough to ID the bird from this even if I wouldn’t hang it on the gallery wall.

It’s actually another damp and gloomy day. This really is a wet year – the trees will benefit next year from all this water before going into the big freeze but I’m not sure about the rest of us.

Other feeder eaters we managed to capture images of have been a pair of Blue Jays …..

……. and the inevitable Squirrel and gang of MODOs.

Missed opportunities

sparroworking — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 22:55:29 +0000

Close by on Ile-St-Helene this week a Black-throated gray warbler and a Worm-eating Warbler have been showing to the great delight of those able to take time off from work to go looking for them. real wanderes and far from home ….. we got the BTGW as a lifer in Arizona which is where this one ought to be right now. Took a wrong turning somewhere!

The Big Year Competition

sparroworking — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:53:13 +0000

Next year is the 90th anniversary of Bird Protection Quebec …. one of the ways in which it is to be commemorated is the running of a major year-long birding competition, and guess who one of the organisers is?

Rather than explain it all here, I suggest that you check out the details at the BPQ website ….. click here.

It’s going to be a busy year. meanwhile, the garden has today seen three Blue Jays, a large number of BC Chickadees, HOSPs and Dopes plus House Finch, Cardinals, Crows and the like. The regular winter faithfuls are starting to gather.

Leaves

sparroworking — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 22:47:37 +0000

The majority of the leaves from the deciduous trees are now down and those on the Larch are well coloured and will be falling shortly. We are fortunate in that, for some reason, leaves tend not to lie too long on the ground but blow away to our neighbours while thjose that do remain we gather up for composting.

The pond pump is still working – we reckoned that it’s going to be cold taking it out whenever we do so and it might as well remain in place for a couple more weeks to keep the water ice-free (we are now having night frosts) and oxygenated.

Most of the tender plants have been dug up and moved into the basement where we over-winter them under grow-lights while the lily pots have been dried out and placed into the outside storage chests where they will be wuite happy until spring returns and they can start growing again.

Feederwatch

sparroworking — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:24:27 +0000

The annual “Feederwatch” season starts in a couple of weeks time …… every weekend from mid November to next spring we shall be counting the birds in our garden as part of one of our contributions to Citizen Science.

Find out more at http://www.bsc-eoc.org/national/pfw.html and then sign up as a feederwatcher yourself.

Taxing matters

sparroworking — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 01:15:55 +0000

This is not a rant – I shall abjure rants – but yesterday I received a missive from Revenu Québec informing me that I had underpaid my taxes by almost $9000 in 2003. Needless to say, they were wrong and I have the documents to prove it but it added years to my age and my hair is now totally white. I know the government is a bit strapped for cash at the moment, but …. !! Thank goodness for malt whisky.

Garden jobs

sparroworking — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:18:43 +0000

The Katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) tree which is still quite young has really started to show its fall colour potential this year after several seasons of more lacklustre performance ……. the books say it needs considerable moisture so doubtless this wetter than usual summer has been a big help to it :

Mid-October is always the time to store the deck furniture away under plastic sheeting and to get out the fishing waders, warm socks and the long pink “mucking” gloves and wade into the rather cold pond to sort out the bully plants that have taken over during the summer and sink the planters containing the choicer specimens into the deeper parts of the pond where they will survive the cold. It has to be done but it isn’t fun and the blood coming back to my finger tips when I had finished showed I had not stopped a moment too soon – quite painful.

The final seasonal job was installing the heated bird-bath on the deck rail where we can watch it from the kitchen window. There is plenty of open water at the pond for now so the heating is not switched on and I doubt any bird has even noticed it but it is already being used by the squirrels – wouldn’t you know it?

Residents

sparroworking — Sat, 21 Oct 2006 20:04:02 +0000

The cold weather residents are beginning to make more frequent appearances at the feeders. Llast night was very wet and it wouldn’t have taken much for the rain to turn to snow so although today has been dry and reasonably bright it is still quite cold and the birds need to fuel up.

Today we had one of the still-too-young-to-manage-alone late litter Northern Cardinals with mum along to point out the seeds as well as some of the early arrival (Slate coloured) Dark-eyed Juncos, Mourning Doves, a couple of Blue Jays, BC Chickadees, Grackles and House Sparrows. On a neighbourhood walk after lunch we spotted a late Song Sparrow and were pleased to be buzzed by a Cooper’s Hawk zooming low over the road and into some trees.

Mother NOCA and her tardy youngster

Dark-eyed Junco

Male House Sparrow

(for some coments on the gardening and the garden at this time of year check the posts in the gardening category – link in the sidebar)

Stuff follows …..

sparroworking — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:48:41 +0000

This is merely a placeholder to open this new category …… apart from the fact that it is raining cats and dogs and the government is getting dangerously close in some of its ideology this week to Mrs. Thatcher at her most rabid life is going well, it’s Friday and an evening in a local restaurant with friends awaits. What else do you need (except more life birds)?

Maple leaves

sparroworking — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 22:13:06 +0000

Last year we grubbed out a batch of self-set maple seedlings that had established themselves in a gully. One of them was a glorious golden colour, unlike the lacklustre yellows of the rest, so it was carefully re-established in a site that could use some glorious gold. At the moment, last year seems to have been its one attempt at being a ‘nice’ tree as so far its leaves are a grubby blotchy green and yellow …… but colours in general are not as good this fall as last year so it can another season to prove itself - but it had better shape up or out it comes.