Saturday, November 28, 2009

November Tanager - part 4

The Tanager was back again today (Friday)!  A very quick sighting, from the tall tree in the west-side neighbors yard, to the fence, then along the creeper vine for a minute or two.  No good photos, settle for one bad one?



Other birds:  Black Capped Chickadees (at least three), a White-Breasted Nuthatch, female Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers.  

Friday, November 27, 2009

Brief interruption...

The following is from another blog I had, that I plan to delete.  Didn't put much info on it, but don't want the info to disappear!  A few sightings from earlier in the year.  Purpose was so that I could record my sightings from work or from home!

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Tuesday, April 14, 2009

090414

When: 14 Apr 2009 (755 am)
What: Gray Partridge (1), Church Ave, btw McPhilips & Fife (at front yard feeder)

090403

When: 3 Apr 2009 (750 am)
What: Gray Partridge (1), Church Ave, btw McPhillips & Fife

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

090324

When: 24 Mar 2009 (745 am)
What: Common Raven (heard) answered by American Crow (heard)

When: 24 Mar 2009 (100 pm)
What: Seven Canada Geese flying overhead (at Inkster&McPhillips intersection)

090323

When: 23 Mar 2009 (800 am)
What: Two Gray Partridges, along Church Ave (btw McPhillips and Fife) running lawn-to-lawn.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

090312

When: March 12, 2009 (740 am)
What: One Common Raven, in front of house. Heard croak, then saw bird flying off

090311

When: March 11, 2009 (800 am)
What: One Gray Partridge on Church Ave, btw McPhillips and Fife, boulevard, south side of the street. Standing lookout? First sighting on the south side of the street.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

090310

When: March 10, 2009 (755 am)
What: About five Gray Partridges on the boulevard on Church Ave (sheltering in a depression in the snow around a tree trunk)

Thursday, November 26, 2009

November Tanager - part 3

No picture, but our Tanager was around yesterday, and today as well.  The berries in the yard are getting near to gone, not sure what s/he is going to do next.  Put out oranges in case it helps.  Hope the call of the south gets through soon!  It was a good birdy day in general - had four (possibly five) chickadees in the yard at once, a pair of White-Breasted Nuthatches, and female Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers.  And a Raven, gronking his way over the houses.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

November Tanager, day two!

Our Tanager came back! "Our". How funny, to be so possessive over a teeny wild animal! I'll blame E. - he's the one who saw it first. "Your bird's back!"

He went to the grapes first, then the Chokeberry. Spent a fair bit of time on top of the fence (scoping the area?) then climbed down for some Virginia Creeper berries. Then checked out the pond, sat in the elder for another minute, then took off to the top of the big tree at the back of the neighbors house.


November Tanager!

This has probably been the best birding year yet!  Today we added a new yard bird.  It's the *ninth* new yard bird this year - haven't had that many new ones since the first year we had feeders up!  A very exciting bird, a Summer Tanager.  It was a funny moment, all four of us were sitting at the kitchen table (a rare event).  E. noticed it first.  "What's that?"  The two words guaranteed to get a reaction out of me when sitting next to the watching window!  "Never mind, it was a leaf."  Uh, ok..  Then I. chimed in.  He'd seen it to, and went to the back door to check.  "It's on the grapes!"  Then we all saw it fly from the grapes onto the cherry tree.  Grabbed for the binocs, but it was behind branches!  Agh!  Get the camera, get the camera, GET the CAMERA!  Managed to get a couple of bad photographs.



But what *is* it?  Looks like a tanager...  Can't be!  Maybe an oriole?  Or an Indigo Bunting?  It then flew onto the top of the fence on the other side of the yard, but still couldn't manage a good photo!



It then climbed down for some virginia creeper berries.  Got a couple of other photographs.  Not an oriole, that's for sure!



What an accommodating bird, it then flew onto one of the branches on the now-leafless elderberry, and stayed for a good five minutes or so.  Lots of pictures!  Quite sure it's a tanager, but which one?  None of us have ever seen any tanagers.  Took pictures of it until it flew away.  Figures that today is cloudy, after being sunny the whole week!  So photos aren't the greatest.  NOT that I'm complaining!



Photos online helped out, after a bit of dithering, I was pretty sure ours was a Summer (rather than Scarlet) Tanager.  I'd already eliminated Western Tanager - no white on the wings.  Summer Tanagers seemed to be a brighter color, and more of the same color overall (Scarlets seem to tend to having darker wings) and a bigger BEAK!  An email to the ManitobaBirds email list confirmed our Summer Tanager - probably a first year.  

 

A great day!  A new yard bird, a rarity, and PHOTOS of it!  And so late in the year! Still riding high...