Yard Bird #72

Yesterday yard bird species #72 stopped into our backyard. It was this Pine Warbler.

I was outside trying to take a photo of a very unique looking yet uncooperative Pigeon when I heard a funny bird call above my head. I quickly forgot about the Pigeon and focused on this other bird. I knew it was a Warbler but not sure what kind. I saw the yellow about the head which could narrow it down a few species but nothing definitive. Finally the bird came down to ground, going for a drink at our bath basin. Positive ID on the species. A couple decent photos. And away it went.

It's Spring migration! I can only wonder what the next species may be (IF we get another new species in the coming weeks).

Raccoons...

I did a nest blog on this rainy morning. If you like Raccoons, please check it out. Cheers!

Spring 2019 Catch Up

Well I am in awe that we are just about halfway through April right now. Where did March go? Where did the first 2 weeks of April go? Time sure flies...

Life got me pretty busy for a while and the weather kept me close to home where there's been little activity. But here's a bit of catching up on life with the animals.

I wasn't going to share this but I feel it is necessary because it really effected me. If you remember the new Pigeon visitor Claire. Well, sadly, she became prey to the winter visitor that is the Cooper's Hawk. While I did not see it happen. I am positive some feathered remains I spotted in a neighbour's backyard are that of her's.

I had seen her on a Monday around her usual time of visit. She quickly flushed from the yard before I even got my boots on to come out and feed her. I figured ed the Hawk came in and I hoped Claire flew off to safety. I did not see her any where. The next day I did not see her but I noticed a pile of Pigeon feathers in another backyard. There was some reddish brown wing feathers in the pile. I've had so few Pigeons coming in and can only think of one other bird with those colors of feathers. I have seen that other bird since but Claire never came back. What would you think?

I adored Claire. She was unique not just in appearance but also her personality. They all are unique but something stood out with her. It devastated me for many days after. I guess I always knew something wasn't exactly right with her. She wasn't like the other Pigeons. I refuse to say she was "slow". Maybe "inexperienced" is a better description? Seeing her sitting in the deep snow that one day during the storm was odd. Her staying in my hand when the Cooper's Hawk showed up was another odd thing. I'd seen her fly out of the yard at times and either hit the phone wires or clip branches, which I've never seen other Pigeons do.

The visits from Pigeons have been few and far between. Charlie and Fitz make random appearances every 2 or 3 weeks. I miss the bonding times with these birds but am okay with them not coming to visit, and hopefully are safe elsewhere. I've not seen a Cooper's Hawk here in a few weeks now. The Pigeons will probably be on alert for quite some time yet.

Note: I do not begrudge the Hawks. It's nature. They play their role. I feel some guilt making friends with these birds although at times they come here and are just that way, obviously being familiar with kind humans elsewhere.

Topper showed up the other night. I hadn't seen her in a few months. I know it was her because of her actions. She came wandering into the backyard near 11 pm on Wednesday. I watched from a distance down back and she made her way down my way. As she neared, I took a side step to make way for her. She stopped, got a tad spooked and started to quickly back up. I said "Topper" and she stopped. She sniffed the air and listened to me say "Hi Topper". She then put it in high gear, running in my direction, almost over my feet and went straight to the shed. I "accidentally" dropped some treats that I know she enjoys, to which she gobbled up. I said "it's so nice to see you again Topper" among other things. Whatever I say, "Topper" is added to the sentence. She may not understand my ramblings but I know she knows my voice and that one word... Topper.

I didn't get a decent photo of Topper to share but here's a great memory from that first summer as a wee little Skunk. She really helped me in those many weeks I was home recovering from my fall off the roof and healing 2 broken ribs. Who wouldn't love to have morning coffee with a baby Skunk?

For a recap, Topper was born in the summer of 2017. At some point I happened to notice an injured Skunk wandering our backyard. I called in to Toronto Wildlife Centre the next day about this sight. They said if I could catch her, to bring her in for assessment. The next night this Skunk showed up again and I was successful in catching her with my live trap. Long story short, she was severely injured and she was a lactating mother. Eek! They could not ethically bring her back her because of how severe the injuries were (most likely a survivor of a car strike). I was asked to keep an eye out for baby Skunks wandering around. I did just that as well as inform some of the better neighbours around here. About a week later 3 small Skunks showed up in our backyard. We monitored them and they seemed to be doing well on their own; of course with a little help from Angie and I leaving helpful bits like dried mealworms in random spots for them to discover. The young Skunks stayed close to our home for the rest of the summer and through the fall, especially Topper. She reappeared in the spring and made many appearances in 2018. How great it is that she is back once again! Perhaps this year she will have young of her own? I suspect Topper is a female as I did encounter her somewhere around December with a larger Skunk, they were walking side by side out back, digging and feeding together.

I hope the return of Topper eases any upset some readers may have felt from the tale of Claire.

We've had some issues at home with one of our cats, Merry. Constipation! Of course at first we didn't know that was the issue. Even the vets could not say 100%. Good thing Merry's mommy and daddy are very attentive and intuitive. A lot of monitoring of her behaviour lead us to this diagnosis. We are thankful the newer vets to have seen her, since our usual vet is now semi-retired, were good about looking for the more probable reasons to what was going on before doing more intensive and costly tests. It's a long messy story that I would rather not share.

It's stressful anytime a pet is unwell and a puzzle to determine what is wrong since they cannot just tell us. We almost canceled our vacation plans because of how rough things got and we still were without any improvements. Then just days before we had some turn around "movements" and also having a great cat sitter on board eased our worries.

Cats are an odd animal at times. Having a couple Calico cats amplifies everything by 100. It's like there is a switch inside them and it doesn't take much to set them off. Merry's constipation issues made her fear having a bowel movement and whenever she finally did, she would flee the box, still pooping and leaving a trail throughout the house, or she would go someplace else like on my coat I let her sleep on occasionally, or my pyjama pants another time. It was never intentional with these accidents and we knew that. I hope others in these situations do as well.

She may not be a baby anymore but she will always be that way to me.

So you've had a bad story, a good story, a shitty story. How about a fun story?

As mentioned, we made it Las Vegas. What a town! The strip is a crazy busy place. I am grateful we did get a full day out with a guide to explore the land away from the city. I ended up with 29 lifers. My photos weren't spectacular because I spent more time watching the birds with my own eyes, taking in the moments, and not concerning too hard about the photos. That's just me. Highlights were 3 new species of Hummingbird, a few Phainopeplas (Phaino-what-now?), Clark's Nutcracker and ending the day with 9 Burrowing Owls. Of course all the birds we saw were highlights but I figured I would stop before I got too carried away with a list. I'd highly recommend the guys at Bird Las Vegas if any of you ever want to visit Las Vegas and add some great birding to your trip. Here's a couple photos.

Burrowing Owl

Anna's Hummingbird

Vermillion Flycatcher

Greater Roadrunner

Gambel's Quail

A new species of Pigeon!  Band-tailed Pigeon.  How many can you see?

Clark's Nutcracker

As I key this today on April 12th, I want to acknowledge Meadow. Four years ago today we said "goodbye" or as I prefer "be seeing you". I had an emotional moment last Friday thanks to Facebook memories. It was a picture of Meadow and I at the vet, when she took ill. I was hopeful it was going to be okay. The words in myy post showed that as did the look on my face. Little did I know one week later she would go to sleep forever in my arms. The photo gutted me. One would think today I would feel something similar, but I don't. I celebrate the life we had together, the bond between her and I. She was my best friend, as it can be between a man and his cat. I never had to worry about Meadow. She never got into trouble. She loved her leash and harness while being outside with me all day, every weekend, every summer and pretty much any other sunny day through the seasons. If I was gardening or doing other projects outside, I never had to keep watch over her. She smelled the flowers, rolled around on the lawn and just enjoyed the time. Of course anything I was working on took much longer because of the numerous breaks with Meadow. Ask Angie about how long it took me to wrap Christmas presents with Meadow. I think about her every day, it's difficult not to because of the memories, and a few momentum(s) in the house. I miss her. I know some of you knew of Meadow quite well, almost as if you met her, though most did not, or she wasn't very welcoming to that many people. Everyone respected that and appreciated what we had. Angie was a big part of Meadow's life too. Their thing was a slow heat and years in the making. She can pride herself on being Meadow's favorite second human because there was no third, fourth, fifth, etc.

One of them Meadow breaks...

Another...

I loved to make little memes with her, and since today is Friday, here ya go...

As you can see it's been a bit of an emotional ride lately. I will hopefully get back on track with some regular bloggings soon. Remember I do a nest blog through the warm months.

Cheers from myself and the animals (this guy sat out back with me the other Wednesday)!

Wild Drive Home

A short blog about my drive home last night...

The ramp to the 401 east happened to be closed when I got off work. Normally I either go up the road a bit, do a u-turn and catch it on the south bound side, or make my way over to the 410 and get on the highway there. Last night I decided to take the long way home, driving the back roads for something different.

I know some roads to drive where I could possibly run into an Owl (Snowy). It's been quiet this winter for them overall but I still very randomly pass the occasional one.

So I am driving down one of the dark roads. One eye on the road. One eye looking for white blobs on top of lamp posts, fences, etc. Suddenly a dark shadow flies right in front of the car. I hit the brakes and narrowly missed something. Now what would be flying around at 10:30 at night? An Owl, right? Only this was smaller than a Snowy and it was not white. Hmmmm.

I pull the car over and scan the area. The Owl appears on a lamp post near me. Holy s**t, it's a Long-eared Owl! The Owl leaves that post and once again flies across the road, diving into the field. It comes back up and lands on some sort of metal piping system sticking out of the ground. I drive the car to a better spot for parking, which happens to be about 20 ft from where the Owl was. The bird did not flush. I sit for a minute, just watching it. Then I step out of the car for a better view with my own eyes, and not through a dirty windshield. NOTE: I remained on the pavement. The Owl observed me momentarily and then went back to scanning the field. I watched it fly out and dive down three more times. I was in awe. I wished I had my camera with me. This was epic!

I got back into the car after trying to get a capture with my cell phone. This here is the best I could get.

As I continued home, I did pass a Snowy Owl. A big beautiful near all white specimen who also took flight into the nearby field. Traffic was busy in this stretch so I didn't pull over for another craptastic capture.

Being involved with wildlife rescue centres and transporting animals, I hear stories of Owls that clip cars when hunting road side. I could never imagine experiencing that. The heartbreak in the moment. I had my own close call here and with a much better ending. I did wish that Owl to be safe and stay away from the road as I drove away.

Happy (belated) Anniversary Charlie!

On February 27, 2018 I met this thin Pigeon. She (assuming it's a female but I honestly do not know) came to me at a good time, much like Fitz, showing up not too long after my old flock flew away for the very last time. I was missing my friends and happy to make some new ones.

I suppose it was a good time for her to come in and find me too. She was very thin. I could feel her bones through her feathers as she sat on my finger tips. No weight to this bird unlike Fitz, or my old boy Pierre. What I also noticed is how easily she got knocked around by the other birds in her flock. Survival of the fittest, right?

I named her Charlie, as in Charlie Brown, only because of the song and not the actual character. That one line stood out. "Why is everybody always picking on me?"

Over time Charlie grew. She's still a light weight compared to some of the others but not a thin bird on the verge of starvation like it seems when I meet some of these new skinny birds. What has also changed with her is her attitude. She stands her ground now. She pushes her way around the flock. She has also has that one edge over most of them; she knows she can come to me and get a good uninterrupted feed.

Acknowledging her day is delayed not because of me. I had last seen her on February 16. The 27th came and went without a visit from Charlie. There was no point in celebrating her one year coming around here if she did not come back.

Finally she did on March 6th. A small flock of birds came in and I could pick her out from them. Charlie is your standard blue gray Pigeon with a couple dark wing bars. What makes her stand out is the appearance that she is dirty about the shoulders. There's some discoloring to those feathers as you can see here.

I quickly grabbed my jacket, boots and some seed, then dashed out to see her. She was flying towards me as soon as she saw me. A feed for her. A couple photos for me.

"Nice to see you again little one!" and "Happy (belated) anniversary!"

Rob and Claire's Adventure

As some of you are aware, I've made friends with a new Pigeon. Angie named her "Claire" and you can read her introduction here. She's a funny one, still coming around most days near 1 pm. Friday March 1st was no exception.

Claire had flown in with some others. She came right to me and the other two scrounged around my feet. They were here for about 5 minutes when in rocketed a Cooper's Hawk. The Hawk landed down back, well away from us. Claire's two friends raced off in the blink of an eye. Claire meanwhile just froze up in the palm of my hand. She stretched her neck out, looking around, eyes bulging, but she had no intentions of leaving me. Was she that afraid to move? Or did she know she was safe with me? The Hawk never gave chase to her friends as I am sure it knew they got a good head start.

It's too bad because we were having a lovely visit. A beautiful sunny first day of March; we weren't bothered by the below normal temperatures.

So I am standing in the yard with a Pigeon on my hand and a Cooper's Hawk in the tree about 40 ft away. Normally I don't interfere with the Hawks being here but in a time like this, that's the exception. I want to spook the Hawk away yet not frighten Claire. The last thing I want is for her to leave my hand and the Hawk goes after her.

I turn sideways which basically makes me a wall between the two birds. I make some hissy kind of noises towards the Hawk and I am waving my free hand at it. 95% of the time this species of Hawk is intolerant to my presence. First sight of me outside and they fly off. Of course this one is part of the 5%. He's looking at me and I swear I could see it in his eyes, he's like "what?" I even took some steps closer towards the Hawk, pulling Claire closer to my body. She stayed still. Now being approximately 30 ft from the Hawk, it still wasn't flying off. Seriously?

Okay, plan B. Time to move Claire out of the hunting ground. I take her out to the front. To do this, we have to go up between the houses. Our home is in a very old part of Toronto. The houses are close together. The walkway is maybe 4 ft wide and that's being generous. I still have Claire close to my body and away we go.

First challenge is walking across this icy area, which I had cleared up earlier in the week, and then we got another good blast of winter. Oh, plus getting over or under the extension cord to the heated bird bath without falling down. After the fact, I realize I could have just unplugged it. Derp!

I wondered if this long narrow walk between the houses would freak her out. Even with the neighbour's furnace vent pipes blowing steam out. She stayed with me.

Now we are out front. Will she fly away now? Nope.

I'm talking to her. I tell her it's okay to go. She wants no part of that idea. I tell her it's almost time for me to go to work and I've still not had my lunch. I know she doesn't understand. I'm betting some of you probably would have said similar things.

I decide to set her on one of the pillars at the corner of our porch. Up she goes and there she sits.

I now return to the backyard and no apologies as I flushed that Hawk outta here. I'm not losing a friend today. I'm confident the Hawk will not fly in my direction, being towards the house. If it did, and Claire has stayed put, she's out of sight.

I go back to the front and check to check on her. Yes she's still there. I grab my camera from inside the front door, and snap a few photos of her since I felt this definitely was blog worthy.

I do wonder what she's thinking.

I go back inside. I've quickly heated up my lunch and I am going back and forth from the kitchen to the front window with my plate, checking on her every few minutes.

I finish getting myself ready. I am almost running late. I am willing to accept that my coffee fix may not happen once again because of her.

I bring my jug of sunflower out, pouring some into my hand. I hold my palm to her chest. She eats. I give her a second helping as I mutter under my breath what a fool I am. She gobbles that up.

Ever since losing Dorothy, I stay with my buds until they leave the property. She doesn't seem ready. I figure I might as well scoop her up in the palm of my hand and coerce her to fly with a little lift. Finally she does, but only a few feet over to the neighbours roof over his porch. UGH!

I silently wished her to fly away. I cannot protect her all day. Seconds later, she's gone.

I tell ya, this has never happened with any of my other Pigeon pals. Sure I had some protecting moments with Pierre and the Jerseys but nothing remotely like this. I wonder if she realizes how much care I have for her?

Hashtag #slavetoApigeon

Dusk Walk

Winter started off rather slow but has February ever made up for it in southern Ontario. After weeks of bitter temps, high winds, snow and ice; Angie and I finally put our foot down last weekend and didn't allow old man winter to keep us locked up for a long overdue dusk walk.

We have a few areas we like to go and normally we don't share our "secret spots". They may not be highly productive like going to some of the more popular areas, but for us, one or two nice sightings and no people is far better than numerous species sightings and being around a lot of people. We aren't truly anti-social but a nature walk is like yoga for us and sometimes we need to turn off much of the world, tune into nature and enjoy some quality time since we don't see each other all through the work week. Plus, more importantly, having undisturbed areas is better for the local wildlife.

It was a short outing, more time spent in one small area watching mammals before dark than a big hike down the trails. It was a mild late afternoon, just before the brutal wind storm came in the next morning.

First up, I saw a Deer. Then another. Then another. They were way out across the field on the side of a hill, but still nice to spot. Can you find all three of them?

Then Angie spotted a Coyote atop the hill to the east. The Coyote watched us, then tuned into another yelping somewhere out in the field west of us (where the Deer were).

Next Angie spotted 4 Deer running through the field. We assumed it was the Deer I saw, plus another, since they were no longer on the hillside. Their white behinds stood out in the last light. Can you find all four of them?

As we made our way back to the truck, I spotted the second Coyote way out there. It was hunting, sniffing the ground, probably looking for rodents.

The other stayed up the hill, still watching us, and it's mate.

A couple Song Sparrows quickly flew by with that last light, tucking themselves in somewhere for the night.

We both cannot wait for milder weather and more of these walks.

I recently did my first entry of 2019 for my Toronto Nest Blog if anyone feels like some more reading.