Liz

My first meeting and what sparked my fascination with these elusive birds happened at the age of ten. My Dad called me out to the edge of our farm home lawn. We ever so slowly and quietly peeked through the low branches of a young tree to see a sleepy Saw Whet. Magical moment. Decades later now, in the darkness of night a huge owl stood right on our front deck just 8 feet from our front door. Since I have an admiration of the Great Grey owl I hoped this would be one, even though I live on the edge of their territory. I estimated that he stood about 2 feet tall. My presence scared him off a little but I guess his curiosity caused him to stop to have a good look at me. With the dim light on our deck I could see his black eyes and realized he was a Barred owl. Amazing to be so close to such a beautiful creature. Often I hear the Barred owls and Hawk owls here. Thrilling.

Birds are so beautiful and unique. I have learned so much in these courses and in my observations. They all have such unique characteristics and mannerisms. I get my camera all focused to snap a picture of the rarely seen ring neck ducks and then all I get is a picture of ripples as they all dive down in unison. Watching the wood duck is humorous as it looks like the couple is saying, "Lets go this way, no wait, lets go that way, or maybe another way?"

I do not belong to a birding group but a good friend of mine is teaching and encouraging me in my quest to learn more about our fellow creatures. We try to get out to do the bird count every Feb and May by taking the hiking in Algonquin Park taking trails with a variety of habitats. What a fun day we always have enjoying our friendship, our common interest and our discoveries. 

I live on a river not far from a grassy bay, so I often see shore birds and water birds: yellow leg sandpipers, snipes, nine different kinds of ducks including various divers and dippers, great blue herons, geese, loons. Also my favourite the red winged black bird loves the grassy bay. and well as king fishers and king birds zipping along the shore. Across the road from our rural home is hundreds of acres of forest so I have heard the wood thrush, various warblers, sparrows, finches and occasionally the barred owl and cat bird, broad winged hawk, eagle, hawk owl. Regularly wild turkeys cross our yard from the forest taking their daily walk to the river. I find it so much fun to now be able to identify so many of my feathered neighbours.   Thank-you so much for these courses.

Watching a couple of feeders outside my windows has certainly taught me much. A smaller finch feeder brings lots of chick-a-dees and red breasted nut-hatches. A suet feeder brings these same birds, plus, hairy and downy wood peckers, white breasted nut hatches and blue jays. I even saw a brown creeper today. A bigger open feeder at the back of my house holds mostly sunflower seeds which the same birds (except the wood peckers) visit. Sometimes mourning doves come there as well. They all seem to take turns. Blue jays first, then comes the little red squirrel for  while. When he leaves the smaller birds have their turn. The blue jays hold the sunflower seeds in their toes, whack it open with their beak and then eat, all the while sitting on the edge of the feeder. The smaller birds grab a seed and sit in a nearby tree to eat.

In front of my home is a good sized river where I see a multitude of ducks migrating in the spring. The great blue heron and some Canada geese stay for the summer. I was so excited to hear the american bittern last week. Behind me is forest so I am learning some of the various birds here. So fascinating. But now I am more able to pick out the many songs and realize all the ones I still do not know. What variety. The first bird I hear in the morning is the pine warbler, then the robin, soon followed by the song sparrow and the red eyed vireo. Ravens, crows, mourning doves, red winged black birds, grackles, chipping sparrows, oven birds, ruby throated hummingbirds and phoebes are common also. Others that I hear less common on my bike rides beside the forest are: blue headed vireo, chestnut sided warbler, yellow rumped warbler, cat bird, veery, wood thrush and one of my favourites: common yellow throated warbler. I took a bike ride to some open farm fields and saw a black bird on a wire. I assumed it to be a red winged black bird but when it took off I could see white patches and heard an intricate long pretty song. I had to go hunting in my bird book and asked the Cornell Lab of Ornithology bird song collection to discover it to be a bobolink. The variety of life, or all our fellow creatures astounds me!

My birding friend came for a visit. Her binoculars always accompany her, since my home is surrounded by a variety of bird habitats: river, grassy bay, tall trees and bushes and some small open lawn area. My varied bird bird neighbours have inspired my to take this course. Usually the hairy and downy wood peckers visit the suet feeder here in the winter. But this summer day we noticed a different wood pecker who flitted about in the taller bare tree trunks. It seems most wood peckers are black and white with some red on their heads. How can we tell them apart? She searched with her binoculars and I hunted in my bird book. Although I know there are many hairy woodpeckers in this area all year round, this one had a black bib so we concluded it must be the yellow bellied sap sucker who is my summer visitor. But he left before I could get a picture.