Friday, March 09, 2012

Spring arrivals continue

Despite the snow squall that was going through the area at the time, a male red-winged blackbird was singing his heart out in our front yard this morning. Definitely a sign that spring is here. We also had a pair of House Finches in our hopper feeder, and they only tend to show up once the worst of winter is over. There were also more than 50 American Goldfinches swarming the feeders in the backyard today, and some of the males are starting to brighten up as their breeding plumage slowly starts to come in.

Last night we saw something we'd never seen before. A flock of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Tundra Swans flew over the farm behind ours. They were too far away for pictures, but close enough that we could ID them through binoculars, fortunately. But my god. It was an endless cloud of huge, snow-white birds. It was pretty spectacular. It's too bad they didn't fly right over the house, or I could've added them to our Yard Birds list. ;-)

5 comments:

  1. Go to Aylmer out near the Police College. That is a place where thousands of the Tundra swans will congregate in the next couple weeks....the stop off there for about a week or 2 before continuing on their journey. There is an actual Tundra Swan hotline that you can call to see how many are there on given days....519-773-7926

    Swan feeding time at 9am offers an excellent opportunity for viewing.

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  2. Just called the hotline....apparently over 3000 swans there today!!!!! Going on Sunday methinks...

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    1. Oh maaaaaaaaan... I'm on call this weekend, so I can't go that far afield, but maybe I'll get down there next weekend. I assume the swans stick around for a few weeks?

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  3. indeed they do...8) Going tommorrow.....you might see one or two pics on Flickr.....

    Just made contact with the guy that owns Predator Birds here in London, I think I'm getting the opportunity to get together with him and take shots of his Bald Eagles, Falcons and Hawks in the very near future!!! Sweeeeeeeeet

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    1. Any luck with the swans?

      And yes, very sweet! Can't wait to see your shots from that. :)

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