When we were kayaking last week, we came across some mergansers who didn’t seem to mind getting their pictures taken. In fact they seemed to want to pose for me. I was able to get some photos before they grew tired of me being around them. Mergansers are also known as sawbills, fish ducks, and […]
Today we had a pine warbler in our yard. It was very fascinated with its reflection in the truck and kept coming back to check it out over and over again. Usually Pine Warblers stay up high in pine trees so they can be difficult to see. This obviously isn’t the case with this one. […]
The mergansers have come back to the lake. They are more timid than the mallards and the loons, so I was happy to get some photos of them. The ice was off of the shoreline, so the ducks were staying fairly close to shore. The male and female look very different. Immature males look similar […]
We have had a lot more mourning doves in our backyard this winter. They like to sit in the trees for a long time, especially when it is sunny back there. It’s a perfect opportunity to take their photos. They are very common, which means that we don’t think about them very much, except when […]
We have had a new visitor to our feeders. Apparently, it is a yellow-rumped warbler – Myrtle species. We haven’t seen any of these before, so it was interesting to see it here. The Yellow-rumped Warbler is one of the most common warblers in North America, and can winter farther north than any other warbler. […]
Pine grosbeaks are interesting to see. Today, one of our neighbours let us know that there was a flock eating crab-apples near us. We have seen them before, but not in large numbers the way we saw them today. The males are red and the females are grey and yellow. One of the largest species in […]
As we were out for our walk today , we saw a couple of trumpeter swans come flying in to land on our lake. These may be the Trumpeter Swans we saw in the spring as they were migrating through.
We recently saw a duck we have never seen before on our lake. I was told that this is a female long-tailed duck. It looks very different than the male, which we have not seen. Our neighbour was fortunate enough to see the male. The male has a long tail, but the female does not. […]
Our loons are starting to show their winter plumage. Their heads and bills turn grey, as well as their back feathers. Their necks are white. This looks very different from their black and white colours in the spring and summer when they have their breeding summer plumage. Their shades are varied as they change to […]
Recently we were kayaking in Arrowhead Lake, and saw a double-crested cormorant sunning itself high above us. We have had a couple on our lake, but I haven’t been able to get a photo of them yet. The double-crested cormorant is a large waterbird. It has a small head on a long neck, and a […]