Another Week, I Guess

It is a busy time of year for a student! Outings have been far and few between this week, but I got out for a short while a couple times. Yesterday I popped into Fanshawe Conservation Area briefly to see what was hanging out at the seed pile. Always seems to be something! Yesterday it was a White-crowned Sparrow, an uncommon bird in this parts during winter. I actually don't think I have seen a White-crowned during the winter months since 2016!

Of course there were the usual suspects, including decent numbers of White-throated Sparrows. They seem to be fairly numerous this winter.

Dark-eyed Junco

White-breasted Nuthatch

Black-capped Chickadee

White-throated Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

A couple plants...

Scots Pine

European Swallow-Wort

Some Snow Birds

Today was (another) snow day, so I decided to take advantage of my time off school, and go for a little hike on one of my favourite trails in the area.

Although they had forecasted 5-10 cm of snow, we got a dumping of at least 30 cm. It made for slow walking. I was hoping that we wouldn't get this much snow...I have CBC routes this weekend of about 6.5 and 10 km!

It was a bit slow at first, but it soon picked up. Northern Cardinals, Black-capped Chickadees, American Goldfinches, and House Sparrows were most numerous.

Northern Cardinal (male)

Northern Cardinal (female)

House Sparrow

American Goldfinch

Also present were a couple of White-breasted and Red-breasted Nuthatches, a House Finch, and an American Tree Sparrow.

White-breasted Nuthatch

American Tree Sparrow

House Finch

All in all, a nice little outing...can't wait till the weekend!

Christmas Bird Count Season starts in a couple hours!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

Over the past couple days it has gotten quite cooler, and on Saturday night it started to snow. By yesterday morning, the ground was covered in a carpet of white.

Photo from last year

I'm amazed that just three days ago it was a record high setting temperature and I was observing Cattle Egrets and Monarchs. I'm sure the Cattle Egret is regretting it's choice to come back to the lagoons.

Yesterday there was a Nature London outing at Weldon Park in Arva, so that's where I went for an hour and a half. The leader wasn't expecting many bird species to be around due to the wind, but we managed to spot an impressive 20 species, such as Black-capped Chickadee, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Dark-eyed Junco, Mallard, and House Finch. Other birds included the following:

Downy Woodpecker

White-breasted Nuthatch

Red-bellied Woodpecker

See the Red Belly?

Hairy Woodpecker

Cedar Waxwing

Canada Geese

American Goldfinch

This tree has been used by a White-tailed Deer to rub the velvet off it's antlers.

Trees were covered with snow, creating a very pretty woodland sight.

I wonder how much longer the snow will stick around?

(Update November 22) On a side note, the "Semipalmated Sandpiper" I saw in Blenheim on Friday turned out to be in fact a first winter Western Sandpiper.  This sighting is exciting as this bird is quite rare in Ontario, and only a few, if any, show up each year. I didn't take any photos, but you can view some nice shots here and here (note: on this page you can find photos of the WESA, however they are listed as a Semi. These photos will likely soon go over to the WESA page).