2013 SPRING: Four Western Tanagers have been here for a week. Surprisingly tame and making themselves at home.
And, soon after, a few Evening Grosbeaks.

I'd sooner be a small bird in a hawk-filled wood than a caged chicken on a factory farm.- Simon Barnes in How to be a Bad Birdwatcher

American Crow
American Goldfinch
American Robin Actually a thrush. Juvenile Robin
Bald Eagle.
Black-capped Chickadee CALL
Bohemian Waxwing.
Brewer's Blackbird
Brown Creeper Walks up tree trunks
Brown-headed cowbird (juvenile)
Calliope Hummingbird
Canada Goose We see and hear them, flying above.
Cedar Waxwing This one's a juvenile.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee The rarest of our visitors.
Chipping Sparrow
Common Loon Flying overhead with its characteristic call.
Common Nighthawk A large flock spent an hour over our trees catching insects
Common Raven The big, black trickster.
Common Redpoll with a striking little red "helmet"
Coopers Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco Said to look like a little hangman
Downy Woodpecker PECKING/CALL
Evening Grosbeak They really do have a gros, i.e. large, beak.
Fox Sparrow No, it doesn't hunt foxes; just looks a bit like one.
Gray Catbird
Grey Jay Also known as "Camp Robber" and "Whiskey Jack"
Hairy Woodpecker
Hermit Thrush Famed for its call. House Finch CALL
House Sparrow

Woodpecker and squirrel take turns at the drinking bowl.

Mountain Chickadee
Northern Flicker Another woodpecker. This one likes ants.
Northern Goshawk An impressive presence - on the edge of our woods.
Orange-crowned Warbler The crown is almost invisible
Osprey Usually found nearer the lake
Pileated Woodpecker The big one
Pine Grosbeak.
Pine Siskin MATING CALL Eat the seeds out of dandelions
Purple Finch So pretty
Red-breasted Nuthatch CALL They walk down tree trunks
Red-naped Sapsucker Five years before I saw one of these.
Red-winged Blackbird CALL
Ruby-crowned Kinglet Not much bigger than a hummingbird.
Ruffed Grouse Known for their wing-drumming
Rufous Hummingbird CALL
Sandhill Crane
Sharp-shinned Hawk North America's smallest raptor

Northern Flicker

Song Sparrow
Steller's Jay Info. CALL British Columbia's bird.
Swainson's Thrush CALL
Tree Swallow
Trumpeter Swan
Varied Thrush Regular visitors in the spring and autumn
Western Tanager Migration map
White-crowned Sparrow Juvenile
Wilson's Warbler CALL
Yellow-headed Blackbird Usually stays amidst reeds on the lake
Yellow-rumped warbler. If you're not sure, wait until it flies away from you.

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulette I could have worn. - Henry David Thoreau, in Walden

     HOME-MADE BIRD FEEDERS

The picture (on the left) largely speaks for itself. The feeder is made from an old tennis ball container, a frisbee and a couple of wooden kebab skewers, which protrude equally on each side. The size of the feed holes is important: big enough to let the seeds out but not so big that they fall out. I made these and the skewer holes with a red-hot piece of heavy wire (heated with a propane torch). I also drilled small holes in the frisbee (base) to allow for drainage of water/snow. Be sure to use good glue. I bought the cheapest frisbee I could find ($1). Total cost: of feeder: $1 plus a few pennies for the skewers and glue. This feeder lasted eight years - until an injured and hungry bear took it down. If you make one, send me a picture.

Jennifer in Pennsylvania: I just recently bought a house and there were boxes of old pots and pans . . . instant feeder. The aluminum colander works great for drainage and to hold seed. I used an old coffee pot, a lid from a big pot to keep squirrels away and a thick wire hanger to hold it all together…after some holes were drilled. Thank you for the inspiration.

Or, if you prefer, make a papier mache feeder.

CHICKADEE SURVIVAL       from Tracker by Tom Brown Jr. Of all the birds, Stalking Wolf respected the chickadee the most, even more than the hawk or the owl. . . . above all of them ranked the chickadee because of its indomitable spirit. The exuberance of the chickadee made him our idol. In the coldest weather, when other birds have gone into the brush to wait behind a dome of driven snow, for the weather to clear, the chickadee is always out, his chickadee-dee-dee ringing off the snow. When the fox has curled himself up under a small tree and let the snow drift him a blanket of insulation, the chickadee is out doing the loop-the-loops over the seedless snow. Calling louder than playing children that he is there and alive and happy about it! A chickadee doesn't look like a good bet for survival; you could close your hand with one in the palm almost without hurting him. There are better fliers . . . But nobody flies with more reckless abandon than the chickadee, and nobody flies with more delight. The chickadee lives by joyous faith in living. Whenever anything else curls up and prepares to wait, or die, the chickadee is out in the middle of it. I have heard them even in the middle of a blizzard, chirping with that dancing tone over and over into the cold air, as if it thinks that hiding from a storm is the craziest form of self denial. His voice comes out of the cold silence like the last voice in the world, singing that everything which has gone under the snow is neither lost nor dead and that life survives beautifully somewhere else and will return. There is a joy in its song which says that everybody who is hiding from the storm is missing the best part.

 

Local Connections Tom Godin - Bird artist in the South Cariboo. Checklist of Cariboo Chilcotin Birds - Compiled by Anna Roberts, Phil Ranson and Jim Sims [PDF, 700k]. Cariboo-Chilcotin Conservation Society - preserving the wild British Columbia Birding Hotspots BC Interior Bird list - stay in touch with information and sitings Resources Building Bird Photography Skills - Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Great Backyard Bird Count - Cornell Lab of Ornithology The Gardener's Feathered Friends - From Gaia's Garden Feeding Birds - From Cornell Lab of Ornithology Attracting and Feeding Songbirds - backyard songbird conservation Birdwatching books and tools - A broad selection BC Breeding Bird Atlas - You can help Cornell Searchable Bird Guide - or browse by name and shape or taxonomy Hummingbird Nest - A remarkable series of photographs Fir Snags and Hummingbirds - article by Dave Neads Bird Map Canada - Interactive bird map of Canada Important Bird Areas in Canada - Connecting birds and people How to make your windows bird-safe Project Feeder Watch - Annual survey of birds that visit feeders in winter. News Proposed Pipeline Threatens Important Bird Areas in Canada; Public Review Enters Final Stages - Birdlife International Urban trees 'help migrating birds' - BBC News Hummingbirds shake their heads to deal with rain - BBC News New study says birds learn how to build nests - Reuters video Hummingbirds reveal secrets of sipping - Reuters video Millions of birds at risk as fall migration to oil-fouled Gulf Coast nears, conservationists worry - National Geographic Songbird decline shows need to protect boreal forest, environmentalists say - CBC News World's common birds 'declining' - BBC News Worries for at-risk bird species - BBC News Hummingbirds in trouble, biologist warns - CBC News Robot watches out for ivory-billed woodpecker - Research Why the pileated woodpecker doesn't get a headache - Research Light from buildings lures many birds to their death - Provocations blog Crows and jays top bird IQ scale - BBC News Crows as clever as great apes, study says - National Geographic News North American birds on the decline - Christian Science Monitor Parasitic birds 'happy to share' - BBC News Climate changes disrupt birds - BBC News Ospreys nesting More info. Flooding Farms on Purpose — For the Birds Joshua Klein on the intelligence of crows Bird-friendly coffee:

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