Discussions

I saw someone post that Robins were seen in Minnedosa. Oak Hammock Marsh posted that the first geese returned a couple of weeks ago.  
I'm outside Boissevain, and have only had Starlings return so far.  
Thought I'd start the annual 'what birds are back?' thread!

Geese, robins, crows, magpies  
Other birds observed are grey partridge,  
Ruffed grouse , great eared owls. Chickadees, white breasted nuthatch, red breasted nuthatch, downy woodpecker.  
 
Edited by Farmergeorge, 2023-04-06 23:19:20

Oh yeah, I forgot about the crows! Are we past the 'flock of crows then three more snows'? Or do we still have one more snow coming, according to that old saying?  
Still no robins at my place, LOL.

This morning

A bald eagle flew over the yard today when we were crushing barley.

Caught site of any of the usual here, but our woodpecker has returned from wherever it was hifungbout lately, and we saw geese here just before the snow fell.  
Honestly, just looking forward to hummingbirds again.

Dark eyed juncos

Yes, we have a bunch of those in the yard now too. I have to admit that when I saw 'dark eyed junco', I thought, "no, those are slate colored". Which led me to get out my bird book to read, and discover that the slate colored is one race of the Dark Eyed! Thanks for expanding my knowledge on that one!  
I saw a Robin at my sister's on Sunday (still none in my yard), and a Meadow Lark along the side of the road yesterday.

Ducks were on the dugout today.

Saw a heron this morning! was very surprised!

I heard, but did not see, a Robin this morning.

In our yard northwest of Brandon, still not too much. Lots of dark eyed juncos, a few crows. Still no robins here that I've seen.  
On Easter weekend driving through the narrows, we saw lots of ducks (from a distance, couldn't identify which) and geese, a good size group of pelicans and flying overhead, a few swans which really surprised me!

Dozens of Robins yesterday picking through what’s left of last years windfall crab apples and black currants, I’ve never seen or heard so many at once.  
And tree swallows have arrived.

Yellow headed blackbirds and hawks are back

Lots of red winged blackbirds in the pasture and snow geese flying overhead.

We saw a quite a few Meadowlarks on Lori Rd.

Have heard some Sandhill cranes but flying high so couldn’t see them.

Feel like the birds are definitely NOT enjoying the wild weather this month. We are nowhere near seeing the same amount that we usually do this time of year.

Earlier this morning a pair of purple finch and one robin appeared in the front yard. And just a few minutes ago five male purple finch and one female arrived.  
A flock of about 30 juncos showed up this morning and started feeding on the ground under a birch tree. The first junco of the year showed up on Apr 4, then eight on Apr. 10 and 11. More have been showing up each day.  
One bald eagle showed up around the middle of March, but has only been appearing every few days.  
A sharp shinned hawk flew through on Apr 13 and scared away the smaller birds for a few days.  
There seems to have been far fewer birds and fewer species over the winter.

I have seen a few Robins in my yard now!  
Also a couple of sea gulls.  
I am not good at ID'ing hawks, but some of those.  
And I had to get out my bird book - but I think it was a Thrush of some sort eating seed that had fallen from my feeder.

Had a robin on my back step yesterday. They are probably reconsidering their life choices about now lol

I’ve got some sparrows and juncos, couple robins, a woodpecker, but also a purple finch that has been at the feeder a few days in a row now. Oh, and a squirrel lol

Yesterday afternoon a flock of 30-40 robins flew in and cleaned up the last few ornamental crab apples left.  
This morning I think it was a small flock of fox sparrows that joined in with the flock of juncos. Then later what I think were song sparrows joined the juncos and fox sparrows. The large flock of robins came in for a quick visit also.

Flock of 10 white pelicans flew over the calving pasture this morning.

Pelican flew over downtown around 5pm today. Plus there were hundreds of Robins out at the Brandon Generating Station. The west grassy area was just covered and around the dyke also.

Brandon Generating Station

At Dinsdale Park

Thank you for correcting me! What I thought was a thrush is actually a Fox Sparrow!

For anyone wanting a great bird identification site, try Cornell All About Birds.  
You can research known birds (E.g. Cornell junco), and also birds that you are not familiar with (use the identification option according to location and date seen, approximate size, and three main colours).

This is also a neat resource specific to Manitoba.  
 
https://www.birdatlas.mb.ca/index_en.jsp  
 
Finally have seen a robin in our yard and we have some purple finches now. Also a fairly large flock of northern flickers have been hanging around for a few days now.