birds – Page 2 – Rainwater Rambling

Enjoying the Hot Weather?

July 7, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

I’m off for a couple of days this week, Susan is off the entire week, she’s been busy getting the girls ready for their trip. In the mornings it still bearable to sit out on the back deck and watch the birds. Here are some pictures of the new bird feeder I got for Father’s Day. There have been more House Sparrows (Passer domesticus) around the feeder recently.

A female House Sparrow.

A neighbourhood squirrel making his way along the fence before Chloe can spot it.

A bumblebee visiting the flowers.

Chloe does a good job of keeping order in the backyard, she chases the squirrels and larger birds, but is getting better letting the smaller birds feed at the feeder. She has figured out that the birds drop pieces from the suet feeder which she likes.

Downy Woodpecker

July 2, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds tamzooka

It was a relaxing afternoon, sitting in the backyard watching the bird feeders. Today we had a female Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) feeding from our suet feeder.

The girls bought me a new feeder for Father’s Day, it is made of metal (i.e. squirrels can’t chew it) and it contains the seeds better (when the squirrels hang off of it) and therefore the seeds last longer and not as much growing in the garden. I don’t think I have taken a photo of the new feeder yet.

The downy woodpecker is the smallest North American woodpecker.

Happy Father’s Day

June 19, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds tamzooka

Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s. I had a nice relaxing day with Susan and the girls. Showed Gillian how to replace a burnt out brake light. Here is Chloe trying to get at whatever is living under the neighbour’s deck, hopefully it isn’t a skunk. I put rocks down to stop her from digging.

Let me know when you’re tired of the bird photos, eventually the novelty will wear off. This was early this morning when a pair of Cardinals came by.

A Goldfinch having a drink.

The male cardinal.

Noticed that he has a Josh Donaldson haircut.

Gillian set her camera up on a tripod attached to a branch, she is able to control it from her phone. I added the leaves to camouflage the camera.

Rain Poncho Test

June 12, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds video

We went to Ikea after church this morning and one of the things we picked up were rain ponchos for Angela and Claudia. They need one for their trip to Germany, something to keep their knapsacks dry. When we got home we tested them out and they passed the test.

An update on the backyard bird feeder, one night this past week a couple of racoons were fighting over it and knocked it to the ground. After refilling it and hanging it up again, it lasted a day until some squirrels decided they would take their turn at it. They broke the handle off and chewed the cap to get the lid off. Undeterred, I fixed it up with some new wire, tape and a hashi.

The birds are back, we even had a Blue Jay munching away at the seeds that were on the ground.

New Neighbourhood Feeder

June 8, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds tamzooka

This past weekend I put up a new bird feeder in the back maple tree. It has been slow trying to attract the birds away from the neighbours many feeders. We didn’t see a single bird on the weekend, even the squirrels were ignoring it. Finally on Monday while I was bbq’ing a cardinal stopped by, yesterday were some finches and today I had my camera out.

Look over here.

It was so good she brought her mate back with her.

Bear Country

May 20, 2016 richardt

Work Posts

birds nwt tamzooka wildlife

After arriving home at 3:30am on Sunday morning from Jamaica, I was back at the airport on Monday morning heading to Fort Smith, NWT, spending the week at Wood Buffalo National Park. The first day on the way to the site we saw 12 black bears (Ursus americanus).

The one bear was grazing at the side of the road and when the truck stopped it came a little closer and sat down and watched us.

We only saw one bison the whole day.

When we arrived at the site a bear came wandering into the clearing.

It spent a couple of hours grazing around the site.

We saw about 4 bears on the way back to town.

One evening we headed down to the Rapids of the Drown to see the American White Pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos).

I had brought my big zoom lens.

They have the second largest average wingspan of any North American bird, after the California condor.

One of the air quality techs from from the Government of the Northwest Territories Environment was down from Yellowknife for the week. He is an avid bird and wildlife photographer.

Sunset over the Slave River. The weather the first two days were sunny and hot, the temperature in Fort Smith when we landed on Monday was 24 degrees C. By Wednesday morning it dropped to 5 degrees C.

There were just as many bears each day we headed out to the site.

We saw a few “brown” black bears or cinnamon bears. That was something to see, it was the first time seeing one.

This one was a darker brown colour.

We even saw a bear up in a tree.

WE stopped at Little Buffalo Falls on the Thursday.

In the spring it is always an impressive waterfall.

It was a good week in Fort Smith, even got some work done. My colleague and I both had our luggage bumped on the flight from Edmonton to Fort Smith on the Monday. The plane was 200 lb over its weight. After they took our names and numbers, I asked if there was any compensation for us, since we didn’t have our bags. The girl came back out with $40 cash each. It bought our beer. Our bags didn’t end up coming until Tuesday afternoon. Looking into the cockpit on the return flight to Edmonton.

Last Day in Jamaica

May 14, 2016 richardt

Jamaica2016

birds jamaica ocho rios riu

This is a Black Crowned Night Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax).

The pond near our building had turtles.

Where’s Susan?

This was the view from the hallway outside Mom and Dad’s room.

The last pictures of the beach.

This time the dark clouds eventually brought some rain with them. As our bus pulled out to head back to the airport, it rained almost the whole way.

This was the view from Mom and Dad’s room balcony.

The Deluxe pool.

Chaos ensued at the lobby as they told us to go on the wrong bus initially.

All of our luggage that was already loaded had to be off-loaded until our bus came.

The taxi stand in the lobby.

Checking luggage weight with Grandma’s scale.

Brad’s expression says it all.

Finally on the right bus, Mom and Dad, Lori and Dale and Brad and Chelsea stayed for a few more days.

Arriving at the Sangster International Airport (MBJ) in Montego Bay.

Our flight was delayed leaving Jamaica and we landed in Toronto at 2:15 am, due to our delay there was another flight in the customs line so it took longer. By the time we gathered our bags and got a taxi home it was 3:30am. After leaving the 30 degree weather behind in Jamaica, we stepped out of the airport into 3 degree weather, followed by some flurries on Sunday afternoon.

We Need a Bird Feeder

April 17, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds tamzooka

Chloe keeping watch in the backyard from intruding birds and squirrels.

Despite Chloe’s patrols the neighbours tree still gets Cardinals. I was out with my big zoom lens.

And American Red Squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus).

He was in the tree after Chloe chased it from the fence.

The Cardinal’s mate.

The squirrel back on the fence post.

An American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis).

Backyard Birding

April 10, 2016 richardt

Rainwater

backyard birds

A couple of the birds that were in the backyard this morning. A Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals) in our tree.

A Slate Coloured Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) taking off from the fence post.

Day 14: Points East Lighthouses

September 4, 2015 richardt

PEI2015

beach big things birds lighthouse pei tamzooka

On our penultimate day on Prince Edward Island, we wanted to see two more lighthouses to fill in our map. I’ll post that later. We stopped at The General Store in Murray River, the lady at the store told us about a beach and lighthouse close to where we were headed.

We arrived at Cape Bear, it is in the southeast part of the island. This lighthouse was built in 1881. It went electric and was de-staffed in 1960. It was decommissioned in 2011.

Cape Bear is open to the public. Unfortunately the Marconi museum wasn’t open. The first distress signal from the Titanic was received at Cape Bear.

The girls in the glow of the light.

A view from the top, the clouds look a little ominous here, but it turned out to be a great day.

Coming back down the hatch.

Even though all the lighthouses could use a coat of paint, the weathered look gives them character.

At the end of the cape.

Avoiding the edge of cliffs with our car.

This the Beach Point beach.

Sisters on a stump.

The Beach Point Front Range Light. It was built in 1878.

Claudia holding the lighthouse in Gillian’s photo.

The next stop on our list was Panmure Head Lighthouse.

This one was open to the public as well.

The light a top the lighthouse.

Everytime we went up a lighthouse, we said afterwards that I should have run down and taken a picture of them at the top. Finally on our last lighthouse I remembered.