SOME BIRDING DAYS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS

    On Dec. 3, 10 Red Deer birders spent a couple of hours at Mackenzie Trails in Red Deer.  At this time of year it's pretty predictable what you are going to see in natural areas in town. You can expect to see black capped chickadees. red breasted nuthatch, magpie , blue jay, raven, and maybe a boreal chickadee or downy woodpecker. Anything else is a bonus.

     We hit the bonus yesterday. All was quiet until we got to the south side of Mackenzie trails. We had seen a hairy woodpecker on the north side. We've been looking for a black backed woodpecker all fall. Yesterday we saw  black backed woodpecker. She was quietly doing what black backs do, sitting still and quietly pecking away the spruce bark to find the larva. We had a good look at her and got some photos. It's hard to get a good photo in the gloomy forest so thanks to Bonnie Mullin.



    We also saw a pileated woodpecker nearby. We stopped at a feeder. There were several downys at the feeder. All of a sudden a pileated was in a tree right beside us. Before people got their cameras lined up the woodpecker took off into the dense bush. a minute later we had another pileated beside us. This happened 4 times. Now was it the  same woodpecker going back and forth or were there several woodpeckers in the area.

Bonnie Mullin caught this guy looking for lunch.

    Most days we don't see a woodpecker but yesterday we saw all 4 species.

Don't Bet on the Birds

      I lead a birding group on Saturday afternoons in Red Deer. I like to get the group focused on something so I quite often mention what we might see in an area.

      Saturday we were at Heritage Ranch in Red Deer .Before we started I suggested we might see the usual suspects like chickadees, nuthatches and magpies. I also suggested that there could be possible sightings of kinglets and brown creepers. Kinglets would be in the top of spruce trees so would be almost impossible to see. You might hear a soft tinkly sound. Creepers are well camouflaged and you could miss them if they were right beside you. So off we go with our eyes and ears ready to make sightings.

     We did have a good afternoon but we didn't see any of the birds I suggested we watch.

     We did see a chickadee on the way down to the river. On the river we saw mergansers and I didn't expect them. We also found a few mallards which were no surprise. A km down the river there was a sandbar covered with gulls. Then, there's a hawk like bird sitting high up in an old spruce spar. We had a good look and then it flew off. It turned out to be a sharp shinned hawk.

     Half way up the trail we found a male and female downy and then out of nowhere a piloted woodpecker crashed the party.

    After that one lonely raven flew over.

    So you see my predictions were not even close.

    It would have been a bonus if we'd seen a kinglet or creeper.

    How are your predictions?

    The pileated woodpecker was very close and Jurgen got a great photo.