Discussions

Lots of birds have shown up in the past 2 weeks. What have you seen?  
 
Besides the usual suspects (common sparrow, chickadees and nuthatches), we've gotten an influx of juncos this part week. There's a couple of purple finches too, and chipping sparrows today.  
 
We also have a group of 5 male red wing black birds at our feeder, which is different. I don't recall ever having them before.  
 
The crows have been around all winter, but the merlins are also back. We also had a bald eagle fly past about 2 weeks ago.  
 
My husband and I thought we heard robins and red-eyed vireos, but haven't spotted either of them. It's a bit early for them I think? We saw a butterfly though yesterday!  
 
We're in Riverheights.  
 
Edited by Abbysmum, 2021-04-11 14:34:13

have had a flock of about 20 red wing blackbirds this past week or so, Redpolls moved on northwards. Lots of Juncos, Sparrows, Chickadees and 4 Robins. Magpies have been building nests for at least the last 4-5 weeks, have had a couple of Grackles and the occasional Starling. No birds of prey that we have seen.  
The slough on the edge of our yard is almost dry, hopefully the wet stuff coming in the next few days will replenish it in time for the frogs/toads to spawn.

Lots of robins. Kill-deer. West of town

Yes, flocks of juncos. Robins since last week I think. Blackbirds - lots - again. Love the chickadees, nuthatches, killdeers. Heard Meadowlarks but haven't seen. Love the frog sounds too. Thinking noticing few different sparrows - when use binoculars.This morning, just at dawn, when husb took doggy out, Golden Eagle flying just about 5 feet above the ground. Call him Clem & mate Clarabell. Here lots in 2018/19 but not so much last year: maybe social distancing then? Sit in tree on dugout bank near us. Only big tree left after winds took out others last year (think last year). Hope they move in for gopher control again. Six miles SW of Brandon.

yeah....birds are back...  
robins, purple finch (1 male, 1 female) and 2 butterflies  
 
put out finch feeders with new finch feed.  
also filled bird baths, and the robins immediately bathed in it, so have to keep changing the water...  
 
hope the upcoming bad weather doesn't hurt them...

Bluebirds, chickadees

Ive got a little black and white bird that's settled in one of my cedar birdhouses, it just hammers away in there like a tiny wood pecker, any idea what it might be, do wood peckers come in tiny size black and white ?

Maybe a downy woodpecker?

I saw a few robins back at the end of March already!  
Otherwise, I have seen juncos and the starlings that nest here have been checking out their usual spot.  
I have seen a couple of birds of prey, but am not good enough at my raptor identification to know who they were.

Glad to see this thread, I've been thinking about starting it myself for the last week or two but never got to it.  
Our redpolls moved on a few weeks ago, replaced by a good-sized flock of juncos. We've seen two red tailed hawks in the past week. My daughter has seen a bald eagle and heard a red-winged blackbird but we haven't seen them yet. I've seen one robin in our yard so far and my husband saw a pair of swans fly over the yard last week.  
 
For those of you that put out oriole feeders, I'm wondering when i should put one out? I was thinking around the beginning of May maybe? I've read that the feeder should be out already before they get here to increase the chance they'll establish in the area.

Would also be my guess but hard to know without a pic. In my opinion, this is the best website for bird identification. This is a link to the downy woodpecker, and the yellow bellied sapsucker. Might help you identify it.  
 
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Downy_Woodpecker/id  
 
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-bellied_Sapsucker/id  
 
Oops. quoted the wrong person, meant to quote Hutchster.  
 
Edited by Emracoad, 2021-04-11 18:13:07

I never got a chance to see it very long, only looking up at it on the power lines, I would say it looks just like the downy woodpecker as i never saw its head.  
 
Looks like the eastern one in pic  
 
Wonder why it would be hammering away in a cedar birdhouse, I was hammering around garage, maybe it was imitating me lol  
 
Edited by hutchster, 2021-04-11 20:51:16

I am thinking beginning of May, just because it has been milder (early spring). If you cut oranges in half, put them on a nail on your fence (or somewhere) they LOVE it!!!! They will clean them out. They like the orange more than the syrup (in my area), which is not a nesting area but they will feed here (south end by cemetery). We have construction behind us right now so not sure how it will end this spring for the birds.

We had a cardinal but sadly have not seen him since the cold snap in February. No juncos yet but watching and waiting patiently.

Three in our linden lanes area yard all winter, went through a lot of peanuts!

"Flock of crows, then three more snows."  
 
The snow out there right now is number two since I saw a flock of crows. In case anyone else is keeping track.

First one appeared Monday. Please remember to clear snow from under your feeders for the birds that feed on the ground.

This is the third snow on the crows back that I’ve seen, and had another fellow say “two snows on the robins back” and this would fill that bill too so it’s 100% safe to burn your snow shovels by the weekend. Maybe.

I just saw a morning dove on my driveway. Great photos Adam!

but has anyone ever saw a fox on their street? Witnessed that for the first time yesterday, high tailing it down the street!

Love this discussion on our local birds!  
 
I have a a question on a large bird who landed right next to my bird feeder a few weeks back in an attempt (fortunately unsuccessfully! ) to grab a sparrow who was sitting and eating in the bird feeder.  
 
I think it was a hawk - it was quite large and just swooped down and went straight onto my bird feeder where the sparrows were and he wasn't looking for bird seed!  
 
I have a photo not the best quality but it happened fast. Would anyone have an idea of what bird it might have been?  
 
Also since the feeder incident - none of my regular birds have been back on my feeder? Been a couple of weeks now and none of the others have been back.  
 
Just a coincidence or are my regulars giving my place a wide berth for awhile?  
 
Any ideas? Thanks!

Looks like a merlin to me. It's actually a type of falcon and are very common around here. They prey on song birds and small rodents. They often dive to catch their prey.  
 
We have merlins that nest in our neighbour's tree every year. They're interesting to watch, but they make the song birds wary.

have 2 geese nesting in a slew west of us in a farmers field  
for past 3 weeks now and few more to the north of us  
 
Edited by Brian, 2021-04-14 16:12:23

We saw this bird today in Justice.. My husband (who is a bird “expert”);says it is definitely a robin .

Probably a leucistic robin, Ive had one in my yard before (with a little less white but I think it can vary quite a bit).  
 
https://www.audubon.org/news/why-bird-half-white  
 
Edit: added link that explains the condition  
 
Edited by Emracoad, 2021-04-17 22:59:41

I also saw a fox when walking on the walk/ bike way on Maryland Ave. It was about 2 months,ago though.  
He got very close and then turn around. Are they harmful? I was not sure what should I supposed to do on that moment.

saw fox on Clare Ave yesterday.

You are lucky and fortunate to site a cardinal in this area (Manitoba). I have never seen one in this area. I remember one time visiting my mom in Dunnville Ontario (I'm in Brandon) and she feeds the birds. She had a cardinal and bluejay in her freezer (ya freezer), they struck her window (on 2 different occasions, while feeding, and died of course), so she wrapped them in newspaper and froze them because she wanted to have them mounted. Anyway I said that I would bring them back to Manitoba and have them mounted for her by a taxidermist. When I took them to the taxidermist, he said I needed a permit for him to mount them, as they are protected birds. So I contacted Natural Resources and they said to bring them to their office (so I did), they confiscated them. They said they are protected species and a migratory bird. I had no idea what was involved in mounting anything. I'm not sure if this story belongs here, but I thought I would tell it anyway.