White-winged backyard visitor

I probably mentioned our little white-winged sparrow before, but today I finally got some good pictures of him. I sent one via email to the Tom Hayman, writer of a birding column for the London Free Press. His initial response is that this is some sort of part albino and from my description it is likely a type of sparrow although he thought the eye band was more like a finch. I have sent more pictures for better identification of this little guy, whom we first noticed last summer. He spent the winter feeding here too, but has been missing for a few weeks since the day I saw a number of other sparrows chasing him which made me wonder if he is a she? or if the others were trying to get rid of this oddity in their midst? We were happy to see him back at the feeder today looking no worse for wear except the white doesn't seem as startlingly white as it used to...maybe too many dirt baths? Hopefully the bird column guy will be able to give us more info on our backyard regular visitor.

Birds of Pelee

They are rather hard to see but these are actually bird pictures. The top is some sort of Warbler and the lower picture has a well hidden brown, stripped, bug eating bird which we think is a Pipit. They were two of the only "different" birdss we saw at the park amongst the numerous blackbirds and ravens.

Our escape to Point Pelee

This morning we dropped Chris off at school and immediately headed for Point Pelee. It was a beautiful spring day, light jacket weather and we enjoyed the quiet park even if there weren't many species of birds around yet. The top picture is a shot of birds resting on the lake as they were scared into flight by a boat dropping fishing nets. There looks to be a variety of ducks and Cormorants in that crowd but you can check by clicking on picture to zoom in. Next shot was a raccoon sleeping in a tree..if you zoom in you can see the tip of his nose on the left lower side of the large tree branch. next was a chilly Robin sitting calmly on the nest as we strolled within a few feet. Many red winged blackbirds were around the park loudly calling out for mates. The last picture was a couple of turtles underwater. We saw lots of them along the boardwalk as well as some REALLY big fish who were likely black carp.

Fingal Air Field

This top picture is a Downy Woodpecker(look at center of tree truck) and the other two pictures are shots of little red squirrels. All of these were taken by Deb while we were out walking at the old Fingal Air Field. There is an area with many bird feeders where all the critters hang out and eat. The squirrel was a surprise to us because we really weren't sure what they were. They seemed too small to be squirrels and a bit bigger than the chipmonks wandering around. A search of the internet confirms that they are most likely red squirrels. Very cute little chipmonk-like critters with pretty red strip down their backs ending with their red tail. They also have red colored front feet.

American Kestrel

A few weeks ago we saw a beautiful little bird on a wire along the road near Dutton. We turned around and got a better look but he took off before we could get a picture. From our bird book we realized this was an American Kestrel likely in full color for mating purposes....beautiful. Today we passed by a female Kestrel and managed to get this picture because she was distracted by her mouse? or mole? lunch which she was eating while balancing on the wire. For a closer look at her menu just click on the picture and it will enlarge.

Grandkids

Here's the latest picture of Deb's grandkids, Zoe and little Sam, playing together. They sure are growing fast! Natalie reports that Zoe is enjoying her daycare classes in French (at the same school she will be attending when the time comes for that) and is speaking more in French as a result. Nat and Ron are doing well with their personal fitness programs and they are currently in search of a sitter for Sam for when Nat returns to work in a few months.

Spring birds

This is a picture I found of a "Common Flicker" . We have been seeing LOTS of these pretty birds while out on our road tours lately, especially on roads near the lake. We have also seen our local bald Eagles a number of times perched near the nest on Fingal line. We found another bald Eagle while coming home from St. Thomas along John Wise line too. Obviously the population in Elgin county is increasing. Of course the birds know when we do and don't have our camera with us because we only spot them when there is no camera available. Even our beautiful little backyard sparrow with the very special white wingtips is extremly camera shy. Although he has been with us feeding for over a year now we have no good pictures of him. Every one is blurry or so distant that his features are not identifiable. We will keep trying because we want some good ones to be able to show the real birding people our special little guy.