Morgan Arboretum, Montreal, January 17, 2015

Welcome to Hoth

Black-capped Chickadee Poecile atricapillus

Mourning Dove Zenaida macroura

female Pileated Woodpecker Dryocopus pileatus

female Red-bellied Woodpecker Melanerpes carolinus

Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea

  It was COLD at the Arbo. We're talking eyelashes and beards icing up Shackleton-style cold. In spite of an overabundance of layers, our fingers and toes kept alternately dying and reviving, in a painful, tingling hell-in-boots. But that's what gives us Canadians character, innit! I'll just keep grimly telling myself that.
  It was great to see four species of woodpecker, and the birds of the day definitely had to be the pair of Red-bellied Woodpeckers we spotted several times high in the treetops. Gorgeous bird! We weren't lucky enough to stumble onto a Great Grey Owl like we did two years ago (Jan 16, 2013 Arbo Report), but there were some nice birds about. Some spots were dead, while others were uber-birdy. We had to cross a Hoth-like field to confirm a group of Common Redpolls feeding in some reeds, and were rewarded with ridiculously close views of a nearby Pileated Woodpecker, thundering away at a low tree.

Mourning Dove – 5

Red-bellied Woodpecker – 2

Downy Woodpecker – 5

Hairy Woodpecker – 1

Pileated Woodpecker – 2

American Crow – 2

Black-capped Chickadee – 40 ish

White-breasted Nuthatch – 5

Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1

American Robin – 3

European Starling – 35+ in NDG

House Sparrow – 30 in NDG

American Goldfinch – 1

Pine Siskin – 1

Common Redpoll -10