Manitoba - Carman 20 May – 31 May 2011
Rain, rain, rain….it was a pretty dreary week, only had a few days that it didn’t rain. Only got out 3 times, twice to the trail and once to Fort Whyte Center.
Did manage to catch what I am pretty certain is an Alder Flycatcher.
Then one evening looked out window and thought is that a blue sparrow?
Turned out to be an Indigo Bunting. When I reached for my camera it took off and I haven’t seen it since.
Pileated Woodpecker was back at our feeders, this time I got some pretty decent pictures. Unfortunately the two times she has shown up the suet feeder was empty. I put out 2 suet balls around 7 am and they are gone by noon. Darned Grackles seem to get most of the suet.
I thought I finally had an opportunity to get some good pictures of a Great Crested Flycatcher, but it was about 100 feet away and using a 500mm mirror lens it is not always easy finding your subject. I missed the good opportunities and finally got a few pictures of its back and a small portion of its breast.
Not seeing as many juveniles at our feeders this year. Seems there are less birds at our feeders too. Grackles seem to be in abundance though.
Saw 2 Starlings about 12 miles East of town, haven’t seen them this far West before.
Haven’t seen or heard the Belted Kingfishers this past week, but a group of Northern Rough Winged Swallows have taken up residence in the area that I usually see or hear them. Not certain if they would have caused the Kingfishers to relocate. Also with the spring thaw and the rains the river levels have been changing quite dramatically from one week to the next.
We had at least 3 Hummingbirds coming to our feeders for a week. Then they stopped coming, perhaps someone has put out a feeder closer to their nest or don’t have as many other birds coming by. The last 2 years we didn’t get any Hummingbirds until the 2nd or 3rd week in august when all the summer birds had departed.
Carman sightings:
Indigo Bunting
Alder Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Northern Rough Winged Swallow
Bay Breasted Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Eastern Phoebe
Downy Woodpecker
Chickadee
Mourning Dove
Pileated Woodpecker
Yellow Warbler
House Finch
House Sparrow
Belted Kingfisher
Grey Catbird
Common Grackle
Wood Duck
Mallard
Canada Geese
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Pine Siskin
Robin
Crow
Brown Thrasher
Philadelphia Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
White Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Clay Colored Sparrow
Tennessee Warbler
Brown Headed Cowbird
Gold Finch
Starling
Pigeon
Fort Whyte Center, 30 May 2011-05-31
We arrived at Fort Whyte early in the afternoon and were surprised to see so little water fowl. Even the Canada Geese were small in numbers. There were quite a few gulls and over 100 swallows.
There were a great number of Swallows darting over the road as we drove up to the center and even more darting about over the lake.
We were there for about 45 minutes when it started to rain which ended our outing.
We entered bush at one point and were swarmed by hundreds of mosquitoes. We didn’t have any insect repellent with us so we wouldn’t have spent much time in the bush anyways. We recently picked up some mosquito hoods but didn’t have them with us either as we weren’t expecting the swarms for another week or so.
Franklin's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Blue Winged Teal
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Canada Geese
Hooded Merganser
White Pelican
Baltimore Oriole
Red Winged Blackbird
Crow
Mallard
Rain, rain, rain….it was a pretty dreary week, only had a few days that it didn’t rain. Only got out 3 times, twice to the trail and once to Fort Whyte Center.
Did manage to catch what I am pretty certain is an Alder Flycatcher.
Then one evening looked out window and thought is that a blue sparrow?
Turned out to be an Indigo Bunting. When I reached for my camera it took off and I haven’t seen it since.
Pileated Woodpecker was back at our feeders, this time I got some pretty decent pictures. Unfortunately the two times she has shown up the suet feeder was empty. I put out 2 suet balls around 7 am and they are gone by noon. Darned Grackles seem to get most of the suet.
I thought I finally had an opportunity to get some good pictures of a Great Crested Flycatcher, but it was about 100 feet away and using a 500mm mirror lens it is not always easy finding your subject. I missed the good opportunities and finally got a few pictures of its back and a small portion of its breast.
Not seeing as many juveniles at our feeders this year. Seems there are less birds at our feeders too. Grackles seem to be in abundance though.
Saw 2 Starlings about 12 miles East of town, haven’t seen them this far West before.
Haven’t seen or heard the Belted Kingfishers this past week, but a group of Northern Rough Winged Swallows have taken up residence in the area that I usually see or hear them. Not certain if they would have caused the Kingfishers to relocate. Also with the spring thaw and the rains the river levels have been changing quite dramatically from one week to the next.
We had at least 3 Hummingbirds coming to our feeders for a week. Then they stopped coming, perhaps someone has put out a feeder closer to their nest or don’t have as many other birds coming by. The last 2 years we didn’t get any Hummingbirds until the 2nd or 3rd week in august when all the summer birds had departed.
Carman sightings:
Indigo Bunting
Alder Flycatcher
Great Crested Flycatcher
Northern Rough Winged Swallow
Bay Breasted Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Canada Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Eastern Phoebe
Downy Woodpecker
Chickadee
Mourning Dove
Pileated Woodpecker
Yellow Warbler
House Finch
House Sparrow
Belted Kingfisher
Grey Catbird
Common Grackle
Wood Duck
Mallard
Canada Geese
Baltimore Oriole
Ruby Throated Hummingbird
Pine Siskin
Robin
Crow
Brown Thrasher
Philadelphia Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
White Breasted Nuthatch
House Wren
Clay Colored Sparrow
Tennessee Warbler
Brown Headed Cowbird
Gold Finch
Starling
Pigeon
Fort Whyte Center, 30 May 2011-05-31
We arrived at Fort Whyte early in the afternoon and were surprised to see so little water fowl. Even the Canada Geese were small in numbers. There were quite a few gulls and over 100 swallows.
There were a great number of Swallows darting over the road as we drove up to the center and even more darting about over the lake.
We were there for about 45 minutes when it started to rain which ended our outing.
We entered bush at one point and were swarmed by hundreds of mosquitoes. We didn’t have any insect repellent with us so we wouldn’t have spent much time in the bush anyways. We recently picked up some mosquito hoods but didn’t have them with us either as we weren’t expecting the swarms for another week or so.
Franklin's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
Blue Winged Teal
Barn Swallow
Tree Swallow
Canada Geese
Hooded Merganser
White Pelican
Baltimore Oriole
Red Winged Blackbird
Crow
Mallard
